The Magic Healing Collective Unconscious
Since beginning my discovery of internet tropes and their use in fanfiction in particular, I've started to think more analytically about my own fantasies. In particular, I've been looking at some of the material out there on the hurt/comfort trope, having recently written a piece of fanfiction for "The Walking Dead" that delves into that territory.
It seems hurt/comfort is not appreciated by everyone. I would agree that it is often used in slash fiction as an excuse for ostensibly heterosexual same-sex characters to get jiggy with each other, suggesting gay sexual contact is still not accepted as a logical norm. That it's something that has to be apologised for. It's also argued that hurt/comfort is highly unrealistic, bearing little resemblance to the experiences most of us have had. True - how often have you been tortured then rescued by the most beautiful, potent human animal you've ever met and had all your hurts comforted by their magic healing cock or pussy? * Here's another question, though - how often have you fantasized about it? And I'm not even talking fanfiction now - how often have you fantasized hurt/comfort scenarios about people in your real life? I just know Alex and I would fall in love if only we could get trapped in a lift together and if I had a broken leg. Truth be told, if you do hook up, the first time scenario is likely to be far more mundane. Doesn't all this tell us something, though, about the way we think?
What strikes me most about hurt/comfort is how universal it seems to be. Like thousands before me, I have written a hurt/comfort story without even having heard of the trope. Or of tropes in general! This scenario also litters established fictions, both literary and visual. How can we argue against its use altogether when it seems so embedded in our psyche?
As a newbie when it comes to maximising my use of the internet (I haven't got my head round even a quarter of what I could be doing here on LiveJournal yet!), I've decided my approach to the use of hurt/comfort in my fanfiction is going to involve asking myself honestly whether I'm going for that trope out of timidity or guilt, or am I writing as if the pen's held in the sublime grip of my quim? If the answer's the latter, I'll go with it. After all, who am I to argue with the collective unconscious?
*By the way, if your answer is "more than once" or even "once", I hate you forever!
It seems hurt/comfort is not appreciated by everyone. I would agree that it is often used in slash fiction as an excuse for ostensibly heterosexual same-sex characters to get jiggy with each other, suggesting gay sexual contact is still not accepted as a logical norm. That it's something that has to be apologised for. It's also argued that hurt/comfort is highly unrealistic, bearing little resemblance to the experiences most of us have had. True - how often have you been tortured then rescued by the most beautiful, potent human animal you've ever met and had all your hurts comforted by their magic healing cock or pussy? * Here's another question, though - how often have you fantasized about it? And I'm not even talking fanfiction now - how often have you fantasized hurt/comfort scenarios about people in your real life? I just know Alex and I would fall in love if only we could get trapped in a lift together and if I had a broken leg. Truth be told, if you do hook up, the first time scenario is likely to be far more mundane. Doesn't all this tell us something, though, about the way we think?
What strikes me most about hurt/comfort is how universal it seems to be. Like thousands before me, I have written a hurt/comfort story without even having heard of the trope. Or of tropes in general! This scenario also litters established fictions, both literary and visual. How can we argue against its use altogether when it seems so embedded in our psyche?
As a newbie when it comes to maximising my use of the internet (I haven't got my head round even a quarter of what I could be doing here on LiveJournal yet!), I've decided my approach to the use of hurt/comfort in my fanfiction is going to involve asking myself honestly whether I'm going for that trope out of timidity or guilt, or am I writing as if the pen's held in the sublime grip of my quim? If the answer's the latter, I'll go with it. After all, who am I to argue with the collective unconscious?
*By the way, if your answer is "more than once" or even "once", I hate you forever!