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Meta: Teeny Tiny Fandoms

Mar 30, 2007 18:00

Teeny Tiny Fandoms: The Hows, Whys and Wherefores of Promoting and Enjoying Your Obscure Obsession
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Real Genius! ana_grrl April 1 2007, 01:37:03 UTC

I'm going to talk briefly about Real Genius, because I feel in love with the movie and its hilarious 80s stylings and slashy vibes.

Real Genius is a movie from 1985 about some genius kids at a technical university (I think - it's a bit unclear to me what kind of school it is). The main characters are Mitch Taylor (Gabriel Jarret), Chris Knight (Val Kilmer - adorably snarky and young), and Jordan Cochran (Michelle Meyrink).

Mitch is young and awkward, Chris is older and cavalier and all about having (genius) fun, and Jordan is hyper and enthusiastic. There are several other characters too. Mitch has been brought to the school to work on a dastardly!secret!government!killer!laser project (because it is stalled, and he's a laser genius - he doesn't know what the project is about at first, though). He works in the lab with Chris, who is more interested in having a good time in his last year of school), and hangs out with Jordan (who is fun and hyper and great at building/making things).

The movie is awesome - it has humour, capers, and nerds. What more could I possibly want? (Maybe spaceships or aliens or something, but I'l get to that later).

I got introduced to Real Genius by an online friend who said, "You must watch this movie. You will not regret it." She was right! I don't know how I missed it in the 80s - I suppose I was just a little bit too young when it came out.

I watched it.

I loved it.

I almost instantly wrote some slash (although it is futurefic when Mitch and Chris are both older, because in the movie Mitch is 15, and I just can't go there).

And then I went searching for fic. To date, I think I've found two other fics, and I'm a little baffled why there isn't more (although, perhaps I'm biased *g*). The movie is older, but it has really held up well - it isn't really cheesy, it's good fun, and the main characters - Mitch, Chris, and Jordan - are adorable and endearing. It's also slashy as hell (Mitch/Chris).

Luckily, my friend who initially pimped the movie to me was happy to gush with me about it - and she aided and abetted my Real Genius slash writing freak out (a freak out along the lines of 'My god, I have to write fic now!'). And then it turned out that a handful of other people on my flist remembered and loved the movie, so that was exciting.

I also posted to rareslash (and checked out the backposts for RG fic), which was great, because I got to interact with a couple of other fans.

Recently, I pimped the movie out to another online friend (who also loved it), thereby trying to build the RG squee!

Spaceships and aliens - I said I would come back to this. Real Genius has a lot of possibility for crossover fic - Mitch and Chris are supersmart nerds, and it makes me think about SG-1 and SGA crossovers - they seem like the kind of people who would get recruited to work for the SGC, or Area 51, or something, once the program gets started.

In particular, I love the idea of a Real Genius/SGA crossover, because I think the timeline is right for Mitch and/or Chris to have had a teenage rivalry (or possibly collaboration) with Rodney McKay - who perhaps was at a rival school or something.

And I can imagine that, years later, Mitch gets transferred to Atlantis - much to Rodney's chagrin (he was overruled with this decision, perhaps?) because maybe while Mitch isn't so bad, he always travels with Chris, that's part of his contract stipulation and Rodney can just imagine the chaos that Chris Knight is going to cause in the city/the galaxy.

Yeah, I secretly (or perhaps not so secretly) nurture hope for an SGA/Real Genius crossover. The capers! The implications for Atlantis weaponry! The humour! The slash!

In conclusion: Real Genius is fantastic. I highly recommend it, both for the movie itself, and for the many and varied fic writing possibilities.

Re: Real Genius! ana_grrl April 1 2007, 02:12:20 UTC

Update!

valiant just wrote a Real Genius future ficlet, here: http://ana-grrl.livejournal.com/159032.html?thread=3153208#t3153208

Re: Real Genius! ana_grrl April 1 2007, 02:20:42 UTC

And one more link - sorry, I forgot to include this. There is an LJ community for RG fic, real_genius_fic and there are a couple of stories up there. If anyone has ever seen any other stories anywhere, I'd love to know about them!

Re: Real Genius! executrix April 2 2007, 05:26:03 UTC

It's a very high-end engineering school--I forget if it's supposed to be the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) or CalTech.

BTW they say that at the Star Market (the supermarket chain in the Harvard and MIT area) when the customers bring more than 10 items to the express line, the checkout clerk says, "Which is it--are you from MIT and can't read or Harvard and can't add?"

I don't think it's particularly unusual for 15-year-olds to have sex, but Mitch is indeed a nerd's nerd and in no shape to be having sex during the movie timeline. He and River might make a nice couple at some point when she isn't completely squirrelly.

Re: Real Genius! ana_grrl April 2 2007, 12:30:13 UTC

It just seems slightly unclear to me in the movie whether they're in a high school or a university. I know that it's supposed to be this CalTech-esque thing, but the movie itself seems a little unclear with the presentation, you know what I mean?

I don't think it's particularly unusual for 15-year-olds to have sex, but Mitch is indeed a nerd's nerd and in no shape to be having sex during the movie timeline.

*g* Not to mention that there's just no way I would write 15-year-old sex. Just can't do it! Even writing him (once) as 17 made me feel uncomfortable.

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