FIC: The Chuck Writes Story - Afterword 5

[lettered]

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

Comments

[bulletcourier]

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.

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?).

[lettered]

I was still feeling a lot of guilt and doubt myself over whether it was okay to ship it.

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.