Total addiction
I'm in love. I don't know whether it is actually possible to fall in love with something so simple as words strung together, but it seems that I definitely have. It's not the first time. My on-going love affair with fanfiction is now well into its fifth or sixth year, but until a few months ago, I figured I had it pretty much under control. Even started to write on my long-abandoned original projects again.
And then came slash!fic.
And then my brain just checked out of my head on permanent basis.
I came into fanfic on the good-ol' SS/HG ship--you know, like most young women who read way too many romance novels in their teens. Because that's what SS/HG is--the fanfic version of romance novels. (I mean, just the age-difference-thing alone. Not to mention the total imbalance of power and the Dark, Tall, Mysterious Man with a Past meets Young, Spirited, Naive Heroine aspects of it.) I still like the pairing, though I tend to see it a lot differently than I did at 18. Before I went on hiatus, the stories always ended up with the characters together (if not necessarily happy). Somehow, that doesn't happen anymore. Somehow, I can't wrap my brain around how it could all work, how I could get the characters there without twisting them into something else alltogether. The SS/HG I do now is dark, and it doesn't usually end well for Hermione, whose fictional heart I've broken several times now, without even meaning to.
And just like in Sex and the City, all the romance seems to have moved into the gay community. I don't know why, but there's such an element of joy to it, as well as freedom (which is slightly ironic considering how trapped by society the characters often are). I love the symmetry about it, the way you can leave out the romance novel storytelling tools I no longer have any patience with (like bickering, I loathe bickering--that and male/female misunderstandings). Slash is somehow easier to make real, to transform into real relationships with all their twists and turns. It's rather strange to me, but that's how it is.
And I don't get why some writers try to twist their slash pairings into a traditional male/female one (using e.g. Girl!Draco or Girl!Harry). In my head, the male/male symmetry is the whole point, though I suppose some just write slash because they find the so-called taboo of writing gay love exciting. :-)
So, yes, I'm in love. Totally and completely.
What can I say? The boys are just so very pretty...
And then came slash!fic.
And then my brain just checked out of my head on permanent basis.
I came into fanfic on the good-ol' SS/HG ship--you know, like most young women who read way too many romance novels in their teens. Because that's what SS/HG is--the fanfic version of romance novels. (I mean, just the age-difference-thing alone. Not to mention the total imbalance of power and the Dark, Tall, Mysterious Man with a Past meets Young, Spirited, Naive Heroine aspects of it.) I still like the pairing, though I tend to see it a lot differently than I did at 18. Before I went on hiatus, the stories always ended up with the characters together (if not necessarily happy). Somehow, that doesn't happen anymore. Somehow, I can't wrap my brain around how it could all work, how I could get the characters there without twisting them into something else alltogether. The SS/HG I do now is dark, and it doesn't usually end well for Hermione, whose fictional heart I've broken several times now, without even meaning to.
And just like in Sex and the City, all the romance seems to have moved into the gay community. I don't know why, but there's such an element of joy to it, as well as freedom (which is slightly ironic considering how trapped by society the characters often are). I love the symmetry about it, the way you can leave out the romance novel storytelling tools I no longer have any patience with (like bickering, I loathe bickering--that and male/female misunderstandings). Slash is somehow easier to make real, to transform into real relationships with all their twists and turns. It's rather strange to me, but that's how it is.
And I don't get why some writers try to twist their slash pairings into a traditional male/female one (using e.g. Girl!Draco or Girl!Harry). In my head, the male/male symmetry is the whole point, though I suppose some just write slash because they find the so-called taboo of writing gay love exciting. :-)
So, yes, I'm in love. Totally and completely.
What can I say? The boys are just so very pretty...