Kink, Canon, Fanfic, and Double Standards
For anyone on my f-list who may have wondered what the heck I was on about in this comment on liviapenn's recent post about the egregiously-inappropriately-rated "Heroes for Hire" comic cover, I've clarified further in these two comments to hth_the_first's thoughtful response:
Kink, Canon, Fanfic, and Roller-Coasters [Hornblower fans will no doubt be utterly mystified ( Read more... )
Kink, Canon, Fanfic, and Roller-Coasters [Hornblower fans will no doubt be utterly mystified ( Read more... )
I read that post, but didn't quite feel comfortable replying.
Believe me, I didn't feel quite comfortable replying either. ;-)
I suspect I muddied the waters a bit by asking the question in the context of that particular cover, because there were two levels on which people were finding its subject matter offensive: on the one hand, they were condemning it as inappropriate for its stated target market (which it certainly is); and on the other, they were expressing disgust with the subject matter itself--the way it took these apparently skilled, kick-ass hero(in)es and depicted them as weak, sobbing, and hyper-sexualized in the face of an overtly sexualized threat...and that's the level on which, though my gut agreed, my brain responded with, "But...but..."
Because I've encountered fanfic that takes multiple-PhD, multiple-tragedy-surviving Daniel Jackson, and reduces him to a baby-talking victim who only feels safe when held by Jack; and fanfic in which Kirk (Kirk! The guy who rewrote the Kobayashi Maru! The one who regularly overthrows long-established civilizations if he doesn't agree with them!) can't scheme his way out of a Vulcan slave camp, perhaps because he's too busy being overwhelmed by sexual desire for his master Spock; and fanfic in which the solemn central temple of the Jedi order is depicted as a hive of hormones and gossip barely distinguishable from The O.C....
And, while I personally may dismiss such stories as OOC, they're there, and they have their fans...and there was a fascinating post on metafandom recently (which I would look for and link to if LJ weren't so slow for me today) that suggested that "badfic" may be more representative of the deep structures of fannish desire than those stories which we perceive as more polished and more successful in their sublimations of such desire.
And then I recalled recent posts advocating more commercialization of fanfic, and while I don't think that that's feasible for fanfic of works that are currently under copyright, there is always the option of fanficcing out-of-copyright works for the marketplace, and there's also the oft-given advice of "filing the serial numbers off" enough to come up with a new work that offers pleasures similar to those of the inspiring work. So, if works like that (e.g., slashy Hamlet/Horatio graphic novels, or illustrated zine-like stories about strong, snarky warriors paired up with intellectuals who talk too much) were to enter the marketplace, then how and where would they be sold? It seems to me that there's at least a possibility that female fans might find themselves in the adult sections of comics shops, purchasing works with covers that might appear weirdly kinky to outside observers.
That is, of course, if there is enough of a market to sustain more commercialization of fanfic. I do wonder about that, given that even the few stories that have "eaten fandom" have attracted a relatively small audience, judging by commercial standards.
I'm also intrigued by hth_the_first's contention that one of the attractions of fanfic may be its very non-canonicity--that there's a feeling of safety in playing with the action figures, knowing that they'll always be there in the box again for us when we're done, untouched by whatever we've written. Fans so often mock and express frustration with the "magic reset button" in canonical source texts that it's interesting to consider that in fanfic, by contrast, it may be a desirable feature.
On that point, however, I would counter with something like SPN. (I realize it's not one of your favourites, but I think it offers a good current example of many of the pleasures of fanfic--including some of the more dangerous ones--being successfully incorporated into a canonical source.)
~
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