Meta: Mary Who, Trashy.
Mary Who?
I suspect this is something that other people have thought through more succinctly than I; I want to do the work myself, though. If you have links to other writers on the subject, I'd love to read them.
There's a lot of joking about Mary Sues in fandom. Before I ever encountered a story with a Mary Sue, I heard about them through snide references. Mary Sues come up on fanficrants at least once a day, and the term has a definition page on Wikipedia. You know the jokes, I'm sure: Mary Sue is the character with glistening amethyst orbs and vampiric-fae/human ancestry. She's the one with an impossible surplus of superhuman abilities, and she's the one who exerts an unbearable draw on the romantic lead.
To put it succinctly, Mary Sues are OCs (Original Characters) that are too perfect. Frequently people are unwilling to read stories that involve OCs because there's a major danger that the OC will resemble the author too closely or be too superhuman. With Pete Wentz, we know that there are some basic flaws that the author will have to acknowledge if they want to remain truthful to canon. Wentz has a nasally voice, is ridiculously short, has slept with underage people, and has a propensity for badly-motivated fistfights. With original character Aleecea Rayvan Darkestwing, though, there's no such guarantee.
Sometimes, though, authors don't respect that barrier. For example (fanficrants link), an author might insert herself into the fictional characters, using it as an opportunity for wish fulfillment and/or character bashing. A danger, I'll agree. But I can't condemn self-insertion entirely, because I do it myself. In fact, if I'm going to be honest, it's my writing style. I write (as the tired adage goes) from my experience. It's either my actual, lived experience, or my imagined experience.
hetrez and I were talking about this a few days ago, particularly in reference to my bigbang story, and she noted that my "major" stories -- the longer ones, at least -- are clearly from my own experience and say a lot about me. After, as I've said before, was about climbing out of depression for me. While I have enough distance from that story to be embarrassed by it now (that always happens, as you no doubt know), I still identify not only with the desperation and guardedness of Frank (the main point of view), but also with Gerard's flat affect and potentially psychotic hope, and even Disashi's lazy, avoidant life of books. In my bigbang story, I write both from Gerard and from Frank, even though they're radically different people. hetrez said that she thinks the best story conflicts come about between two characters who embody different aspects or facets of the author's self; funny, because my bigbang story has more conflicts in it than anything else I've ever written, even For Lack of a Better Word.
These aren't really the people you see on youtube and in the news, in my stories. (I mean, duh, but it bears repeating.) I look at a lot of canon -- I watch more Used canon than I probably should, let me put that right out there -- but generally I'm looking for ways in, not a more accurate portrayal.
Thinking about it that way -- "ways in" -- led me to think about why I like slash fiction, in particular.
I've talked before about how I identified as stone for a couple of years, so that's one aspect of it; I prefer reading and thinking about sex in ways that don't involve the presence of my own body. I've also talked elliptically about how slash allows for me to write about desire in a way that is more socially comprehensible. (That is, there are words for male sexuality, for male desire, which I don't think I've found yet for female-bodied sexuality and desire.) And I know better writers than I have talked about how queer male sexuality allows for writers to fantasize about an idealized sex, sex without the power imbalance that can be endemic to heterosexuality. Plus, writing dudes with dudes is so pleasurably queer!
Thinking about "ways in," though, gave me another reason for slash fiction. Without trying to speak for everyone, something I came up with is that slash fiction allows for a flexibility of identification. That is, when Male Character A is in love with Character B, I can put myself in A's role, B's role, or both. To be mildly crude about it, it's like sucking your own fingers, experiencing both the sensation of the fingers in your mouth and the sensation of your tongue and teeth on your skin. That's a bit autoerotic, but since when have I dissed the autoerotic? Since never, that's when.
That's enough of that. Although I'd like to hear from you, since I'm a nosy beast: why do you do fanfiction? Why slash, if you read or write slash? How do you identify with your characters, and do you? Which of your stories -- if you're feeling daring -- show the most about you, and how/why? Which characters? Or ask me nosy questions, because god knows I can talk about myself.
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Trashy.
This is something that's been bothering me lately. I'm going to make a note of it and move on. I really don't expect a response; I don't even remember the people who were using this particular phrase, and I sort of want to keep it that way.
When you use the term "white trash," even jokingly, you're using a slur. A history of the term, by Matt Wray. There are classist connotations to the phrase that make me wince.
As the joke goes:
Q: How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: That's NOT funny!
------
Just because I'm flinchy from a previous experience: if you happen to link this, can you give me a heads up? Thanks.
I suspect this is something that other people have thought through more succinctly than I; I want to do the work myself, though. If you have links to other writers on the subject, I'd love to read them.
There's a lot of joking about Mary Sues in fandom. Before I ever encountered a story with a Mary Sue, I heard about them through snide references. Mary Sues come up on fanficrants at least once a day, and the term has a definition page on Wikipedia. You know the jokes, I'm sure: Mary Sue is the character with glistening amethyst orbs and vampiric-fae/human ancestry. She's the one with an impossible surplus of superhuman abilities, and she's the one who exerts an unbearable draw on the romantic lead.
To put it succinctly, Mary Sues are OCs (Original Characters) that are too perfect. Frequently people are unwilling to read stories that involve OCs because there's a major danger that the OC will resemble the author too closely or be too superhuman. With Pete Wentz, we know that there are some basic flaws that the author will have to acknowledge if they want to remain truthful to canon. Wentz has a nasally voice, is ridiculously short, has slept with underage people, and has a propensity for badly-motivated fistfights. With original character Aleecea Rayvan Darkestwing, though, there's no such guarantee.
Sometimes, though, authors don't respect that barrier. For example (fanficrants link), an author might insert herself into the fictional characters, using it as an opportunity for wish fulfillment and/or character bashing. A danger, I'll agree. But I can't condemn self-insertion entirely, because I do it myself. In fact, if I'm going to be honest, it's my writing style. I write (as the tired adage goes) from my experience. It's either my actual, lived experience, or my imagined experience.
hetrez and I were talking about this a few days ago, particularly in reference to my bigbang story, and she noted that my "major" stories -- the longer ones, at least -- are clearly from my own experience and say a lot about me. After, as I've said before, was about climbing out of depression for me. While I have enough distance from that story to be embarrassed by it now (that always happens, as you no doubt know), I still identify not only with the desperation and guardedness of Frank (the main point of view), but also with Gerard's flat affect and potentially psychotic hope, and even Disashi's lazy, avoidant life of books. In my bigbang story, I write both from Gerard and from Frank, even though they're radically different people. hetrez said that she thinks the best story conflicts come about between two characters who embody different aspects or facets of the author's self; funny, because my bigbang story has more conflicts in it than anything else I've ever written, even For Lack of a Better Word.
These aren't really the people you see on youtube and in the news, in my stories. (I mean, duh, but it bears repeating.) I look at a lot of canon -- I watch more Used canon than I probably should, let me put that right out there -- but generally I'm looking for ways in, not a more accurate portrayal.
Thinking about it that way -- "ways in" -- led me to think about why I like slash fiction, in particular.
I've talked before about how I identified as stone for a couple of years, so that's one aspect of it; I prefer reading and thinking about sex in ways that don't involve the presence of my own body. I've also talked elliptically about how slash allows for me to write about desire in a way that is more socially comprehensible. (That is, there are words for male sexuality, for male desire, which I don't think I've found yet for female-bodied sexuality and desire.) And I know better writers than I have talked about how queer male sexuality allows for writers to fantasize about an idealized sex, sex without the power imbalance that can be endemic to heterosexuality. Plus, writing dudes with dudes is so pleasurably queer!
Thinking about "ways in," though, gave me another reason for slash fiction. Without trying to speak for everyone, something I came up with is that slash fiction allows for a flexibility of identification. That is, when Male Character A is in love with Character B, I can put myself in A's role, B's role, or both. To be mildly crude about it, it's like sucking your own fingers, experiencing both the sensation of the fingers in your mouth and the sensation of your tongue and teeth on your skin. That's a bit autoerotic, but since when have I dissed the autoerotic? Since never, that's when.
That's enough of that. Although I'd like to hear from you, since I'm a nosy beast: why do you do fanfiction? Why slash, if you read or write slash? How do you identify with your characters, and do you? Which of your stories -- if you're feeling daring -- show the most about you, and how/why? Which characters? Or ask me nosy questions, because god knows I can talk about myself.
------
Trashy.
This is something that's been bothering me lately. I'm going to make a note of it and move on. I really don't expect a response; I don't even remember the people who were using this particular phrase, and I sort of want to keep it that way.
When you use the term "white trash," even jokingly, you're using a slur. A history of the term, by Matt Wray. There are classist connotations to the phrase that make me wince.
As the joke goes:
Q: How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: That's NOT funny!
------
Just because I'm flinchy from a previous experience: if you happen to link this, can you give me a heads up? Thanks.