Gen! Gennity Gennity Gennity Gen! How I do love the stuff...
Okay, okay, okay, so. There is a debate going around about what constitutes Gen. I like Gen. I think I end up writing a lot of it, though I don’t usually bother actually labeling things gen or het or slash. Therefore, I’ve been following the aforementioned debate in a casual sort of way.
Consequently, I am befuddled.
See, a lot of people appear to be approaching the situation from a peculiarly compartmentalized sort of mentality. I don’t think I could write a fic with absolutely no mention of any romance or sexual attraction. Not because I’m particularly invested in romance, but because, well. Human beings being human beings, we don’t leave our relationships in boxes. They’re part of us. They stay.
Romantic relationships become a part of the character, even when the character is a lot more then their romantic relationship. If, for an example, one were writing Westmark fic, and one were writing Theo, one would have to take into account the fact that he is in love with Mickle. Even if this hypothetical fic is set during one of the many time periods where they’re several hundred miles or so away from each other, he still loves her. It’s a defining part of a lot of where he goes and what he does and how people react to and understand him. The only way you could get around this totally and completely would be to write a story set back before he meets her. Which could be interesting, but you’d run out of stuff to write about very quickly, because Theo’s life pre-Mickle is canonically rather dull.
Even if I were to write a story about Theo in which Mickle never appears and he is too busy to think much about her explicitly, I will never the less be taking as part of the base understanding of his character the fact that he loves Mickle, and that loving and knowing her have changed him. Immensely. Actually, he’d probably be dead if it weren’t for the loving and knowing her part.
Admittedly, Westmark is an unusual example, because like a lot of Lloyd Alexander series it features numerous people who are plainly romantically entangled in some fashion for a lengthy span of the work. There’s also subtext (Connie’s posited crush on Mickle! Las Bombas/Musket!) but, well. When it’s canon it’s fairly obvious. Unless you’re Theo. But Theo’s picture should be in the dictionary next to “Naïve Narrator” so, hey.
Nonetheless! You see this in other canons, too. Take Fullmetal Alchemist (the manga version, in this case). I like writing about Dr. Knox. I like writing about him a lot. He intrigues me. But one of his primary character traits is that he is separated from his wife - not so much because he doesn’t love her as because he has severe PTSD and both is afraid of hurting her and believes he shouldn’t be around her and shouldn’t be happy because he is just that much of a worm. You can write fic without directly mentioning this fact about him - I have some of it stewing happily on my hard drive - but when you are writing the story you, as the author, still have to keep this in mind. It’s an important part of who Knox is. Married. In love. Separated anyway.
And here I have a good example, because I’ve actually never written much with Theo, certainly not Theo alone, because he’s much more fun when you’re bouncing him off Mickle. But Knox, I have a good example.
When I wrote A One Sided CorrespondenceI was certainly hoping that the fact that Knox loves his wife very much would come through, but at the time we hadn’t actually either met her or his kid (hence my getting the gender there wrong) and I didn’t, and don’t, think it’s a particularly shippy story. It wouldn’t bug me at all if someone called it het somewhere because, yeah, it kind of is. You are supposed to get that he has a strong relationship with her and his mind is just very haywire right now, but. I, myself, think of that story as gen, because the primary point is not his relationship with his wife, but his obsessive reactions to the letters and the degenerative, anxiety fuelled cycle he gets himself into over them.
My point! My point is actually this - I have seen people referring to gen as being “the parts of people’s lives that are not affected by romance”. Which sounds pretty straightforward, yes, but strikes me as problematic. A romantic relationship is a relationship, after all, and is usually an important relationship. Important relationships touch people, change people, are a part of them and affect them very strongly. I hardly think it’s necessary to write about romance all the time, but it would feel rather strange to me to ignore a character’s romantic relationships while writing about her filial ones - both of them, presumably, are important to her.
It seems to me kind of like trying to peel the pepperonis off of a pepperoni pizza. You can do it, but there’ll be a mark left behind.
P.S. Of course, like I said, I don’t actually label my stuff het or slash or gen, so for me it’s all kind of academic, and not in the slightest about not upsetting my readers, or anything. I generally assume my readers can cope.
Consequently, I am befuddled.
See, a lot of people appear to be approaching the situation from a peculiarly compartmentalized sort of mentality. I don’t think I could write a fic with absolutely no mention of any romance or sexual attraction. Not because I’m particularly invested in romance, but because, well. Human beings being human beings, we don’t leave our relationships in boxes. They’re part of us. They stay.
Romantic relationships become a part of the character, even when the character is a lot more then their romantic relationship. If, for an example, one were writing Westmark fic, and one were writing Theo, one would have to take into account the fact that he is in love with Mickle. Even if this hypothetical fic is set during one of the many time periods where they’re several hundred miles or so away from each other, he still loves her. It’s a defining part of a lot of where he goes and what he does and how people react to and understand him. The only way you could get around this totally and completely would be to write a story set back before he meets her. Which could be interesting, but you’d run out of stuff to write about very quickly, because Theo’s life pre-Mickle is canonically rather dull.
Even if I were to write a story about Theo in which Mickle never appears and he is too busy to think much about her explicitly, I will never the less be taking as part of the base understanding of his character the fact that he loves Mickle, and that loving and knowing her have changed him. Immensely. Actually, he’d probably be dead if it weren’t for the loving and knowing her part.
Admittedly, Westmark is an unusual example, because like a lot of Lloyd Alexander series it features numerous people who are plainly romantically entangled in some fashion for a lengthy span of the work. There’s also subtext (Connie’s posited crush on Mickle! Las Bombas/Musket!) but, well. When it’s canon it’s fairly obvious. Unless you’re Theo. But Theo’s picture should be in the dictionary next to “Naïve Narrator” so, hey.
Nonetheless! You see this in other canons, too. Take Fullmetal Alchemist (the manga version, in this case). I like writing about Dr. Knox. I like writing about him a lot. He intrigues me. But one of his primary character traits is that he is separated from his wife - not so much because he doesn’t love her as because he has severe PTSD and both is afraid of hurting her and believes he shouldn’t be around her and shouldn’t be happy because he is just that much of a worm. You can write fic without directly mentioning this fact about him - I have some of it stewing happily on my hard drive - but when you are writing the story you, as the author, still have to keep this in mind. It’s an important part of who Knox is. Married. In love. Separated anyway.
And here I have a good example, because I’ve actually never written much with Theo, certainly not Theo alone, because he’s much more fun when you’re bouncing him off Mickle. But Knox, I have a good example.
When I wrote A One Sided CorrespondenceI was certainly hoping that the fact that Knox loves his wife very much would come through, but at the time we hadn’t actually either met her or his kid (hence my getting the gender there wrong) and I didn’t, and don’t, think it’s a particularly shippy story. It wouldn’t bug me at all if someone called it het somewhere because, yeah, it kind of is. You are supposed to get that he has a strong relationship with her and his mind is just very haywire right now, but. I, myself, think of that story as gen, because the primary point is not his relationship with his wife, but his obsessive reactions to the letters and the degenerative, anxiety fuelled cycle he gets himself into over them.
My point! My point is actually this - I have seen people referring to gen as being “the parts of people’s lives that are not affected by romance”. Which sounds pretty straightforward, yes, but strikes me as problematic. A romantic relationship is a relationship, after all, and is usually an important relationship. Important relationships touch people, change people, are a part of them and affect them very strongly. I hardly think it’s necessary to write about romance all the time, but it would feel rather strange to me to ignore a character’s romantic relationships while writing about her filial ones - both of them, presumably, are important to her.
It seems to me kind of like trying to peel the pepperonis off of a pepperoni pizza. You can do it, but there’ll be a mark left behind.
P.S. Of course, like I said, I don’t actually label my stuff het or slash or gen, so for me it’s all kind of academic, and not in the slightest about not upsetting my readers, or anything. I generally assume my readers can cope.