Ghost of Summers Past

[kalliel]

We got a comment on the summergen mod account a few days ago about some broken links, and I finally got around to fixing them today (after sitting around for a while thinking what... is the password to this account... THAT'S SUMMER KNOWLEDGE). I assumed they were for 2019 without looking too closely, but they were for 2015! I think my mouth

Comments

[amberdreams]

I was reading some old summergens just the other day! Got to say 99% of even the oldest fics I've read stand the test of time, even when totally Jossed, such is the quality of our fandom. We've been blessed with some very insightful writers over the years.

[kalliel]

Yeah, I don't think it'd be a question of whether the fics hold up well or not! As far as Jossing goes I'm not sure as a reader I'd even make that distinction, because I'd just be like, ope, divergent timeline. I guess I mean more in terms of fandom's trends and preoccupations. Certain things have seemingly infinite replay value and other things are more like, oh man, as a fandom we definitely went all-in on this concept and I'm glad that all but played itself out in that span of one very intense and prolific year. XD Or like being able to chart how S5 series fic was written during S5 vs. how S5 gets written when, say, someone decides to write an S5 fic next Tuesday. Obviously "S5 fic" is already a huge umbrella with a lot of variety, but I bet the flavor would be a little different!

[amberdreams]

True nuff - I mean I just re-watched Monster at the End of the Book and there's no way I can watch that now without wondering exactly how duplicitous Chuck was being here. I mean - was Chuck already God then, or merely part of God's story? How much irony is there is that dialogue now, about being a cruel and capricious God, in his speech to Sam where he's *apologising* for burning Jessica on the ceiling...

[kalliel]

Oh man, yeah. If Chuck was always God, I'm sure he was having A LOT OF FUN THAT YEAR, with all those layers of acting to enjoy. And then his disavowal of ghost ships vs. his defense of Leviathan, haha. But I'm probably more interested in what you're proposing here. That like, at some point Chuck really was a prophet and a separate entity, but God took a special liking to the character and decided to use him as his cameo body, so to speak. Not as a vessel, per se, but as an image and a persona that he kind of wants to play around in.

[kazluvsbooks]

AMAZING JOB!!!!! i love summergen <3

[dustbunny105]

One of the joys of reading older fics is the unexpected slap of nostalgia when coming across something that was everywhere for like maybe a year and then forgotten about. For good or ill, they're a fascinating display of time on the march.

[kalliel]

Yes!!!!!! I wholeheartedly agree!

[missyjack]

Oh yes to this idea! It would be fascinating to look at how what themes have been prominent in different years!

[kalliel]

Yess, for sure!!! Now I wanna make infographics XDD

[metallidean_grl]

I have thousands of fics on my computer that I have read, or have yet to read. I'm not sure, though, if any of those are from the Summergen, or any of the other such collections of fics during a period. Once I get everything sorted I hope/plan to go to those collections and weed out the ones I would like to read and don't already have. I think I already have like 4000-5000 fics on my computer - going through those lists will probably give me at least a 1000 more? Maybe? I'll be happy reading SPN fanfics long after the show has stopped airing, and probably loving it all the same.