meta

[sarren]

cesperanza talks about why that Bond/M fic that I just recced is so fabulous in terms of gender politics, and why the fic I recced the other day by helenish is really really bad. Clearly, the fic did not have that effect on me. I find it fascinating.

http://cesperanza.livejournal.com/142659.html

Comments

[cricketk.livejournal.com]

I understand what she says about Helenish's fic to be - "it was too intense for me and not what I expect from fanfic", not "it was a bad fic".

I LOVE Helenish's TCOAD. I think it is one of the most interesting stories to come out of SGA. Actually, I'm really hard pushed to think of another that was so interesting - maybe Riv's Exigencies, but they are different beasts doing different things.

One of the many things I found so compelling about TCOAD was that John was completely lacking the tools to understand what Rodney was about. John's spent so much time defining himself outside and around the role of sub, that it makes me crazy that he's not seeing that Rodney is doing exactly the same thing around the role of dom.

I need to go back to the Cutting Board and read all of the meta about TCOAD.

[sarren.livejournal.com]

Yes, I phrased that badly, sorry.

I agree with what you said about John not seeing Rodney properly and it was what left me feeling like the fic was unfinished. I wanted a meeting of minds happy ever after ending dammit!

[cricketk.livejournal.com]

I thought it was perfect, it made me intensely uncomfortable and I've had to read it several times. It's such a powerful short story.

I'm glad it didn't do the happy ever-after ending - but like ces says, it's not what you expect in fanfic.

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

It did feel unfinished to me, just because I wanted them to find some place where they could be outside the roles of their society.

[zebra363.livejournal.com]

I read her post and the comments earlier and it made me grateful not to have any background in academic feminism.

I need someone to explain the current-day issues I'm supposed to be so upset about in very basic steps.

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

I thought this was one of the best stories I've ever read. I will try to explain why.

Most slash makes a valiant effort at talking about romance and sex but getting rid of the structural inequalities of gender. By writing about men and men who are both nominally in the same status, the issue of inequality is put to one side.

It does become, though, the elephant in the corner of the room. It's a bit like Jane Austen. She never writes about race but she implicitly condones the slave trade (an ongoing issue at the time) by accepting that men go off to the Carribean and make money there (with slaves).

Slash writers can be thought to accept structural inequaltiies by focussing on the m/m.

Helenish manages to confront it straight on. It's a fabulous, fabulous fic, taking slash into a whole new level of political inquiry. (As well as being beautifully written).

[sarren.livejournal.com]

You put it so well. :)

Except, how do you mean she 'implicitly condones the slave trade'? How else should she have written about it?

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

Well, some of her contemporaries - not many but some - did write about how bad it was. There was a huge debate at the turn of the 19th century and in, I think, 1807 Britain outlawed the slave trade and began using its navy to stop slave carrying ships across the ocean.