SEX RULES - the rest is immaterial (apparently)
SEX, the whole SEX and nothing but the SEX
Have you ever been reading a fanfic, totally caught up in it and savoring every word, when suddenly the entire narrative seems to shift, like someone just turned the wheel on a kaleidoscope and tumbled everything about leaving you with that unsatisfied WTF feeling? I find this happens a great deal in fanfic that involves sex - either slash or some sexual kink. It is almost as though the authors don’t quite know how to fit the sex or rimming or BDSM or butt plugs or whatever into a story, so they just sort of toss it in and hope it will curl up in front of the fire and make itself at home. But it doesn’t. Instead, it just sort of bumbles about, knocking things over, breaking the china and generally making a nuisance of itself. I am not sure why this happens, other than my impression that authors occasionally fail to realize that some stories would be better off without actual sex, no matter how much the author wants their characters to “get it on”. It is almost as though the authors get to a certain point in the story, and suddenly say, “Okay, this plot thing has gone on long enough! Now they need to fuck!”
I have no problems with the PWP genre of fanfic, because it makes no pretensions about being anything but soft porn. However, when a story, carefully crafted around an actually storyline, suddenly devolves into nothing more than pages and pages of graphic body bumping, there is a problem. The SEX goes all prima donna and takes center stage becoming the most important aspect of the whole story - not the characters or the plot or even realism - and this can lead to some major head scratching moments.
I mean, maybe its just me, but I can’t image that following a brutal rape, that the first thing one is going to want to do is have hot, sweaty sex with your up-till-then, purely platonic best friend. And when one is being chased by monsters/evil sorcerers/ pissed-off drug lords/zombies/ assassins/brain-sucking aliens/ or any one of countless interchangeable bad guys, suddenly stopping to exchange bodily fluids is really a lame idea, no matter how “hawt” it is. And when one’s back has been flayed open by yet another evil minion with a whip, I really doubt the sight of your up-till-then platonic best friend picking up the still bloody cat-o-nine tails is going to get you all hot and bothered and begging for even more whipping while you get off on it. And people who have broken ribs, shattered knee caps, and possible internal injuries are generally NOT interested in sex… they really would prefer a hospital.
Really.
Trust me.
I suspect that this sometimes happens when people have a great idea for a plot, but are afraid to write it in a gen genre, because they worry no one will read it. I love gen… or more specifically, I love “emotionally intimate” gen, which is really what most slash pairings are in canon - two people who love each other, even if they never actually have sex. However, gen fan fiction tends to be the redheaded step-child of many fandoms - especially m/m fandoms. Writers in m/m fandoms trend heavily towards slash. If there is no sex, they don’t seem to see any point, even though the canon shows which lead to all the fanlove, are generally non-slash. I enjoy slash. I read a lot of slash, but sometimes I really wish there were more stories written from a ‘gen’ perspective, especially ones in which the sex comes across as shoehorned in to satisfy the audience rather than serve the story.