Fandom Primer Post (aka Pimp Your Fandom)
Now that nominations are done and sign-ups are just on the horizon, here's a post where you can advertise your fandoms to the rest of yuletide. Tell us about your fandom(s) and link to sources you think will help a new fan interested in checking it out or an old fan looking for canon refreshing. And if you're looking for new (or old but forgotten) fandoms
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Category: Books & Literature
Comments: Scrawny, naive Henry has transcendent talent as a baseball player, but can't quite fit in at college. Then on one fateful evening he makes a bad throw and puts one of his teammates in the hospital. The fallout from that one throw sends him into a tailspin and changes the lives of his friends forever.
Even though three of the five main characters are on the college baseball team, this is far from being "a baseball novel" (I was 3/4 of the way through before I figured out what a shortstop was) and has as much literature geekery as sports (the entire campus is a little obsessed with Moby-Dick, possibly just so they can wear t-shirts saying "Westish College - Our dick is bigger than yours"). It also has a canonical interracial agegap gay relationship, which is both endearing and a clear attempt to win at shipping bingo.
If you've ever been "blocked", whether in writing or sports or just trying to figure out what to do with your life, this book will probably appeal. (It's also kind of hilarious.) Here's an early exchange between Henry and his gay teammate Owen, who plays so rarely that he actually does his studying on the bench:
“Owen,” Henry said excitedly, “I think Coach wants you to hit for Meccini.”
Owen closed The Voyage of the Beagle, on which he had recently embarked. “Really?”
“Runners on first and second,” Rick said. “I bet he wants you to bunt.”
“What’s the bunt sign?”
“Two tugs on the left earlobe,” Henry told him. “But first he has to give the indicator, which is squeeze the belt. But if he goes to his cap with either hand or says your first name, that’s the wipe-off, and then you have to wait and see whether-”
“Forget it,” Owen said. “I’ll just bunt.”
He grabbed a bat, ambled to home plate, nodded politely at Coach Cox’s gesticulations, and pushed a perfect bunt past the pitcher. The shortstop’s throw nipped him by a quarter step, and Owen trotted back to the dugout to receive congratulations from his teammates. This was Henry’s favorite baseball custom: when a player hit a home run, his teammates were at liberty to ignore him, but when he sacrificed himself to move a runner, he received a long line of high fives.
“Sweet bunt,” Henry said as he and Owen bumped fists.
“Thanks.” Owen picked up his book. “That pitcher’s not bad-looking.”
Links:
1. The author reading two early chapters - in which a baffled Henry discovers his jeans are all wrong for college life and tries out for the baseball team.
2. Amazon, with the first pages available to read.
3. An interview with Harbach on the book's exploration of homosocial and homosexual themes (possibly spoilery for later chapters).
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