FIC: The Chuck Writes Story - Afterword 5
Title: The Chuck Writes Story: Afterword 5
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: gen. Chuck, Becky
Rating: PG-13 for themes
Length: Total fic: 30,000. This part: 2,000
Summary: Castiel is the new BNF in town. Lettered is amused.
A/N: Please see notes here.
Previous parts: The Chuck Writes Story part 1 and part 2 | Afterword | Afterword 2 | Afterword 3 ( Read more... )
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: gen. Chuck, Becky
Rating: PG-13 for themes
Length: Total fic: 30,000. This part: 2,000
Summary: Castiel is the new BNF in town. Lettered is amused.
A/N: Please see notes here.
Previous parts: The Chuck Writes Story part 1 and part 2 | Afterword | Afterword 2 | Afterword 3 ( Read more... )
I got all teary
I'm glad you said this. Not that I'm glad you're sad. But some parts made me feel teary too, which I know is just so douchey if you're the one writing it, and I'm not even sure why it worked me up so much. Not like I was sad. Just fandom.
the little pang I first felt when I thought they were mocking us a little.
I was surprised to find, while doing research for this fic, that many people hated the meta eps or thought they were making fun of us. I can understand that, but I don't think that's what they were doing at all. I do think you're right; that the creators of SPN don't necessarily know what this kind of fandom is all about, but . . . neither is fandom a whole, united as one. There are those who are ridiculous and those who are not ridiculous and those who laugh at those who are ridiculous and those who laugh at everything. I felt like the show approached fandom from the latter standpoint; i.e., they basically just pointed and said, "HOLY SHIT; IT'S FANDOM! ISN'T THAT JOY-MAKING?!?!" And whether it's joy-making because you laughed at fandom or with fandom was entirely up to the viewer. But that's me, anyway. I'm totally a fan of incest fic all over, and have been before it was appropriate for me to read such fic, and yet the whole nod to Wincest on the show just had me going, "OMG THIS SHOW IS AWESOME." But that's my opinion, obviously.
I could read Kripke and his TELSOSAD as another prophet, who simply had a livejournal instead of a publisher. Or all of the fandom as having been prophets of some sort, writing small flashes of a gigantic, multi-faceted truth.
That's what I was going for. There is no One True Text, imo. Yes, there is the text the author created, and that belongs to them, and can never be changed. And there is that author's perception of the text, which also also belongs to them, and shouldn't be challenged. But what a show/book/movie/videogame/whatever/song is for me might be entirely different, and for me it is just as real.
I don't even care if Becky shows up again and Josses it I DON'T.
It's already an AU. If Chuck posted his fanfics online more than just Sam and Dean could guess that "Winchester" is the surname for Chuck's characters. However, I do hope Becky shows up again. They could do so much with it. I was going to make her the "next" prophet; my friend my_daroga came up with the idea that when speaking of the meta!SPN, all of us are "prophets".
I would not be the same person today without it
8 years is quite a bit of experience! But yes. I started writing fanfiction when I was in the second grade--I didn't know other people did it. I didn't know other people didn't do it. I didn't know what it was called; I just knew I had THOUGHTS I wanted to write. Fandom is very important to me.
Only SPN fandom, I swear.
I'm not sure about that, actually. I mean, obviously the canon lends itself to this sort of exploration, but I think it's often possible to draw ourselves into fics or ask questions about canon and fandom through the text. The Pairing: Pendragon/Merlin fic comes to mind.
Thanks so much for your big long comment! I'm new to this fandom. I don't really know anyone and I've found it . . . rather weird. I actually started writing this because I was feeling a little bit how Chuck was feeling, though I'm (hopefully obviously) not half so attention-starved. But I don't need a lot of comments on my fanfic (it's always nice), but I do really really like getting comments like this that make me feel like people share some of the feelings I have. I think that's why I love to write in the first place: that feeling of recognition you have when you read something you've felt that you thought no one else had ever felt before. It feels like finding a friend.
Thanks again!
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That's it! I don't think I was sad either! Just very moved, on an intimate level. So feel as proud as you like :3
I was surprised to find, while doing research for this fic, that many people hated the meta eps or thought they were making fun of us.
Aw, I don't hate the meta episodes at all. In fact I love them to pieces. I'm amazed the show went there, for all the reasons you said, and very glad they did. Now I realise it isn't 'them' and 'us' (aside from how they seem to mock the show and fanbase as one entity in that episode, as you said, there's no clear 'us' in the first place), and that it is all in love.
But the first time I saw the episode where they mentioned wincest, I was still feeling a lot of guilt and doubt myself over whether it was okay to ship it. I was introduced to the show by, and always watched with, one of my own little brothers. Add the personal context of having constantly had 'incest' used as a slur against me due to my brother being basically my best friend and ALSO having originally come from that one state (there's one in every country, I bet) where everyone is mocked for being inbred... I had issues. Hearing canon itself bring it up right in front of me (with my brothers sitting there) made me feel really awkward and kind of ashamed.
I don't feel that way any more, and my brothers and I even stage fake shipping wars now. But, your fic helped me see another dimension to the whole situation and I can always do with more c:
That's what I was going for. There is no One True Text, imo.
This kind of thing is really interesting to me, because in my previous fandom I was (still mostly am) a fan translator. When the author of a work made it in a different language to your own, and you are accessing the canon via localisations and other-tiered canon (such as novels, special editions with extra scenes, comics, interviews etc) through the work of fans, I think there's a whole other set of texts and readings that exist because of that group of foreign fans. And, trying to understand and convey the perceived intention of the author is a difficult responsibility fan translators can attempt to take on, but you can never be sure how close you really are, or how much you should care. Even as a non-North American accessing a North American text like SPN... I constantly wonder whether I am 'getting it' as deeply and legitimately as someone born in the US would.
But, I think the feelings your fic stirred in me made me feel connected and valid in this fandom, in a sense, which I'm still not sure I should, but really appreciate getting to feel.
However, I do hope Becky shows up again. They could do so much with it. I was going to make her the "next" prophet; my friend my_daroga came up with the idea that when speaking of the meta!SPN, all of us are "prophets".
I have mixed feelings about her showing up again, not because of her personality or her meta-ness, but because of her connection to the apocalypse story. I liked where they went with that in S6 (especially the questions about Fate and free will), but I felt like the handling of the civil war in heaven and the angel weapons thing dragged on and on and I'm kind of liking the refreshing relative randomness of the Leviathans. OR ARE THEY. And the longer they have angels and don't mention Crowley's friend Aziraphale the sadder I become but that's quite irrelevant Have to wait til the end of the season before I judge, I think. And, at the same time, I have a massive love for meta and for universe-mythology in general, and I would love to know what happened to meta!fandom and I would love to meet God (which have kind of gone together all along, like you mention in your fic, haven't they?).
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Don't worry. Incest is a game the whole family can play.
LOLOLOL my family always made jokes about it. When I first realized I liked daddy kink I was probably 16. I quickly went from there to realizing I liked ACTUAL DADDIES, which um, not like I feel that way about my dad, of course not. But I have a bunch of terrible crazy awful thoughts, and I think if I felt guilty about all of them I'd go stark raving. So I decided I can really only feel guilty about the way I act (which is plenty fuel enough!)
That said, I can totally understand the guilt and how the wincest bit might've felt like a dig. I'm sorry you get accused of that; that's awful. But I think the show did it as a loving poke.
And, trying to understand and convey the perceived intention of the author is a difficult responsibility fan translators can attempt to take on, but you can never be sure how close you really are, or how much you should care.
I would think that would be about what you're going for? If you're making translations in order that others may consume the thing you love, I'd think you'd want to go for the author's version of the text. If you want to do something transformative, you go for your own. And it's weird, because to me, there is such a distinction, and yet not the distinction that some authors, or some of those who are anti-fanfic, like to draw. The author's story is theirs and people shouldn't try to change it or make money off of it or say they know the one true meaning. But your reading is yours, and that's very precious.
I constantly wonder whether I am 'getting it' as deeply and legitimately as someone born in the US would.
I can understand why you feel that way. I've definitely felt that about foreign works, and more so the farther east I go. But you know, it's not really about depth and legitimacy, or about getting it, imo. What the author intended or what other people get from it aren't nearly as important as what the text means to you. I just think that the narrative has such an impact on humanity. It can so deeply inspire us, even change our ways of thinking; in some ways it has shaped our collective history. In some ways it has shaped our world because people thought it has to be this way, or I know what this means because I was there, and that's not what's important at all. To quote Anne of Green Gables, it's not what it holds for you; it's what you bring to it. (She wasn't talking about a text, but whatever.)
I felt like the handling of the civil war in heaven and the angel weapons thing dragged on and on
Yeah. I watched it so fast that I didn't feel that way, but I can understand why someone would.
which have kind of gone together all along
Yes. Dude, this is why the meta episodes are so awesome. They're about fandom, but their also about religion. And when you think about it . . . well, there are a lot of similarities between the two, in my humble opinion.
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My first experience was looking for episode summaries of anime online because I couldn't readily watch them, and getting confused by fanfiction. I wish urban dictionary existed back then. I regularly ended up in the middle of fic that disturbed kiddo!me because I couldn't read the summary discourse. Do you remember the citrus code? Or was that a Japanese-fandom thing? Oh man...
I mean, obviously the canon lends itself to this sort of exploration, but I think it's often possible to draw ourselves into fics or ask questions about canon and fandom through the text.
Oh, of course! There are so many really clever and imaginative people out there. But, a little part of my glee in reading this was that this whole fic was technically in-universe and canon-based to a degree that to my knowledge is pretty rare.
I'm new to this fandom. I don't really know anyone and I've found it . . . rather weird.
I bet, like Chuck, you will make a bunch of friends really soon now ;D
I'm sort of in a similar boat, because I'm new to this fandom too. I've come from a place where (incredibly luckily, not being a writer or artist) I got to know the people I admired most. Now I'm admiring people from afar all over again, and to top it off, I have nothing to give back to this fandom, having no skill in anything relevant.
But if reading comments is something that makes you feel happy and motivated to write, then I guess that's something I can do! Hahaha forever dean_lives
♥
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this whole fic was technically in-universe
Oh yeah, definitely; I don't know any other fandom you could do that with.
I bet, like Chuck, you will make a bunch of friends really soon now ;D
hhahaha. Well. Chuck only got one friend. He did get a lot of attention by being epically wanky, though. The idea for this actually started out with Chuck wondering why he didn't get very many reviews, and then starting to write porn just so he could get comments.
I have nothing to give back to this fandom
That's not true! I think that discussion is just as important to fandom as fanworks. Also, I think dean_lives might've been my favorite character to create, and you're a lot more articulate than she usually was.
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*pratfall*
I think if I felt guilty about all of them I'd go stark raving. So I decided I can really only feel guilty about the way I act (which is plenty fuel enough!)
I aspire to get to the place you're at someday ;A;/
Seriously. It's hard for me to reconicle the sexual element with the fact that Supernatural's be-all-end-all value placed on family fulfils some fandom need, some kind of resonance or cuttingly deep relatability I didn't realise I was missing in series more based on friendship or romance or comrades or what have you. I used to think this one particular fic in another fandom was amazing because it actually made me cry. Now, I can't even count how many Supernatural fics have made me cry, they hit me in such a way.
I know theoretically it's fine to ship Sam and Dean, you know, the specific characters with their specific story... but it's hard to forget how many parallels there are to my whole life which my brothers themselves gleefully point out all the time, and how am I supposed to feel about us cosplaying them for halloween... and there's the guilt and shame creeping back :P
I'm so stupidly in love with this show and this fandom, though, so I think I'll have time to work through it. And besides, it's probably good for me, helping me understand myself a bit better. So maybe in that light... the wincest-poking meta stuff was good for my personal growth?? Ahahaha
If you're making translations in order that others may consume the thing you love, I'd think you'd want to go for the author's version of the text. If you want to do something transformative, you go for your own.
It's interesting, though. Like, I try really hard to make it as close to the author's version as possible... but at the same time, I can only guess at their intentions from the text they produced using the limited cutlural and metalinguistic knowledge I have. It's not like they're sitting there with me explaining their thought processes to me, so how close can I be? The comics and novelisations of the game are the trickiest. Some fans translate more like localisation, adding details of their own and changing the flow of the story to match a Western expectation of what a novel scene should be like. Whereas my versions are almost to-the-letter, and look so much bonier and stilted in English than they really would come off in the original cultural context. I used to worry so much about whether that was important. Does atmosphere count as author intention too? With time I guess I found a standard I felt comfortable holding myself to and I just strive for that.
And it's weird, because to me, there is such a distinction, and yet not the distinction that some authors, or some of those who are anti-fanfic, like to draw. The author's story is theirs and people shouldn't try to change it or make money off of it or say they know the one true meaning. But your reading is yours, and that's very precious.
Absolutely! Figuring that out is how I grew up and learned not to be so annoyed with people I thought were 'misreading' the text. For example, there are a lot of fangirls who seem to have a very different image of the characters than I do, and the me from only a while ago would be compiling wanky essays at them full of episode script quoting and what have you. I still get those twinges, especially when I see fans like that calling the version onscreen OOC when things happen that they don't like. But, now I think I understand that the version of the character that lives in their heart means a lot to them, has likely helped them make friends and learn things and create things and grow just like I know some characters have for me, and they have every right to feel that and love that version of them, even if I don't see them on my television. And, in the end, the version I 'see on my television' is really just the version in my own heart, too...
Which is why I just do not understand anti-fanfic mentality. Where do you draw the line between anti-transformative and anti-imagination? Whether you post it online or not? Doesn't seem like that really cuts it, to me.
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What the author intended or what other people get from it aren't nearly as important as what the text means to you.
I'm still deeply grateful to the people at the SPN wikia who painstakingly compile notes on all the intertextual and cultural references :P
They're about fandom, but their also about religion. And when you think about it . . . well, there are a lot of similarities between the two, in my humble opinion.
Oh my god! So so so true!! You know, I didn't join the dots until you said that, but I remember my mum telling me something similar a long time ago. I remember being fourteen and complaining to her about a friend of mine who was a born again Christian, who talked about nothing else. My mum said to me, what about you and your Japanese cartoons, don't you shove those down your friends throats because you want to share with them how great it is? Doesn't everyone want to be connected to something bigger than themselves? Isn't that why you're always on the internet? Don't judge her way of fulfilling the same need you have. It made me feel like a dick at the time. I don't know why I didn't think of that when SPN was making all those religion/fandom parallels.
I do remember the citrus code; they used it a lot on HP fics. But I really have no idea what it meant.
The way I understood it, a 'lemon' usually meant NC-17 sex, a 'lime' meant a sexual scene but perhaps fade-to-black or without penetration/orgasm, and 'citrusy' meant light sexual behaviour. But I have no idea why use sour fruit to rank it!
That's not true! I think that discussion is just as important to fandom as fanworks. Also, I think dean_lives might've been my favorite character to create, and you're a lot more articulate than she usually was.
Ahaha, well I'm a lazy student, not a busy lawyer with cats to play with, which might mean something! Speaking of dean_lives, I did really love the way you developed her. If this fic had a tv tropes page, her post would have been a Crowning Moment of Awesome right there, I was flailing and grinning so much.
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You're so well versed in fandom and stuff, so I'd be surprised if you hadn't, but I read this meta fic yesterday and thought of you.
Also, zimshan's journal is full of really cool meta on cinematography, the use of colour, music. And they have a meta rec tag on their delicious as well!
There's also a woman named Amanda on tumblr, who posts both essay-like meta and fic-like meta on lots of different topics, that I really love. If you look at the links on the sidebar of her blog 9091 there's a lot to see.
I hope you find at least one interesting or new thing in any of that!
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