(no subject)

[graculus]

Somehow, in addition to the panel on 'Fictive Disasters' that I've been press-ganged into co-modding with cycnus39 at the upcoming Connotations slash convention the weekend after next, I seem to have also volunteered myself for another one.

So any comments on the subject at hand ('In a league of their own: riding counter to the new shiny show, pairing, trend...') would be very much appreciated as at the moment my thoughts are somewhat limited... particularly any comments from atdelphi, fellow queen of the underdog pairing! :P

I've never been someone who likes very much being told what to think - heaven knows this has got me into trouble more than once - so the chances of me jumping happily onto the latest shiny fannish bandwagon are close to zero. However, I can usually summon up a reason why I haven't that doesn't just boil down to 'awkward obstreperous cowbag'. Usually.

Let's take Firefly as a prime example. There are people on my lj friendslist who love the show in question, who would crawl over broken glass to get a ticket for the new movie and think it's the best thing since sliced bread. Me, I wasn't all that enamoured of sliced bread either! :P The more I'm told something is wonderful, the less I believe it, I think. I have to see it for myself, I can't follow and be swept along in the fannish wake of something. Now sometimes this means I might miss out, sometimes it means I might get into something relatively late in the day, but more often than not it just means I actually get to act like a human being and not a sheep. ;)

I'm a great believer in IDIC and I just don't see it being exercised in fandom as much as it ought to be. Fandom is too full of OTP-ness, where variety of any kind is frowned upon because everyone should conform - the pairing is the pairing is the fandom. Pffft. Now there are a couple of shows I write for (UNCLE and WWW, in case people were wondering) where I just can't see any other pairing than the one I write but that doesn't mean if people want to write other pairings they shouldn't. It just means I'd like them well-labelled so I don't stumble across them by accident, thankee kindly. But people don't, on the whole, do they?

Makes me wonder what drives people to write particular pairings - sometimes it's the pretty, sometimes it's the obvious. I can't imagine writing a canon-sanctioned pairing (unless you count the aforementioned UNCLE and WWW and then it depends on who you're talking to...) and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, so why aren't there more people who don't write the fandom-sanctioned OTP? Particularly when (as with SG, for example) the show seems determined to mess with your pairing of choice?

I've always had a tendency to fall for a particular character in a show and then I can quite happily write about them with someone else (if that person just has chemistry with them) without needing fannish permission to do so. In fact, even in the face of outright embargo (yes, Mag7 fandom awards people, I'm looking at you!) I can't help wanting to write about the pairings nobody else seems interested in, as well as the somewhat more accepted ones. As long as Ezra is in there, it's mostly all good. I guess I must just be wired up that way...

Comments

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I have to agree, IDIC is not followed much in fandom. I might not get another person's idea, and I might grumble about them to myself, but I do try get over myself when other's ideas disagree.

My only bugbear is labelling - I want to be able to avoid stuff I don't like. Other than that, if people want to write Napoleon/Waverly bdsm fic, have at it, I say! As long as they remember Napoleon is a squealing great bottom, that is... ;)

And I was at the same convention and now have the same reaction to Firefly - that kind of pimping works really well, as aversion therapy! :P

[mer1973.livejournal.com]

if people want to write Napoleon/Waverly bdsm fic, have at it, I say! As long as they remember Napoleon is a squealing great bottom, that is... ;)
0-0 Thank you for sharing that image. I must now go scrub my brain out, cause ew. Labels and/or descriptions of the story are good. The writer might consider it horrid to spoil the ending of the story, but I consider it important to know if one of the pairing is going to die.

And I was at the same convention and now have the same reaction to Firefly
You were there too? Jesus, how many people did this woman destroy this show for? And who stopped you from beating her to death with her tapes? Not a one of you is the type to suffer silently.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

0-0 Thank you for sharing that image. I must now go scrub my brain out, cause ew.

Just living up to my reputation. *points to icon* ;)

Labels and/or descriptions of the story are good. The writer might consider it horrid to spoil the ending of the story, but I consider it important to know if one of the pairing is going to die.

Yep, character death is one of the things I need to know about beforehand, thanks very much. I can cope with just about anything else but not that.

You were there too? Jesus, how many people did this woman destroy this show for? And who stopped you from beating her to death with her tapes? Not a one of you is the type to suffer silently.

See, we obviously all do have many more social graces than you're giving us credit for. IIRC, someone did approach the person running the con suite and ask if they could possibly play something else and the response wasn't good. So we just kept out of there, mostly. And thus a loathing of said show was born. ;)

So, to get back to the topic at hand - what do you think it is that makes people just go with the fannish flow? And why are some of us equally determined that we *can* swim upstream, damnit?