[i'm such a geek]
Jan. 31st, 2004 03:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaThinking about reading het... it occurs to me that if you can -only- bear to read slash (in general, I don't mean specific pairings), then you're really in the same boat as the people who can only bear to read het. I mean, there's that default setting of rightness, and everything else is uncomfortable. So if it works that way, then slash is no longer "different"-- it's just the same thing with different equipment. If the important thing is that the equipment remains or that you're turned on by the equipment, then you're not really... er... doing anything special, I guess.
I don't know where this whole "slashers are special" thing comes from, anyway. It's so easy to feel like being a slasher means you're more open-minded and maybe kinkier and more free-spirited. All those het-obsessed people are just prudes, aren't they? Prudes who don't know what they're missing, right?
It's funny, because while I would say it's "all about the dynamic", for me, I -am- shallow. It's not as if I look "beyond the bodies" or whatever. I -like- the bodies. Possibly, it can be equally if not more freeing for girls to write/read a certain kind of het fic rather than slash. Because you're learning to be okay with yourself, to not fall into gender roles, to challenge your assumptions-- right there, where it's difficult. Where you're reminded of yourself. Where there's a -girl- there, and you're not that girl and maybe you want to be and that -hurts- or maybe you -can- pretend you are, and then you remember you aren't and -that- hurts.
It would be hard for me, actually, to imagine a true romantic who's exclusively a slasher (or vice versa). Or a real hedonist, for that matter. And I'm pretty much both. How could you confine yourself to only one arena? How could you pretend the fun's only over -here- and not over -there-? The fun is everywhere, isn't it? People fall in love with other people, and have the same emotions no matter -who- they have them with, right? And bodies are always fun together, aren't they, no matter whose bodies they are? It's the bisexual revolution all over again, man.
Slash for the sake of slash or vice versa just strikes me as sad, really. Anything for the sake of itself can be seen as sad-- sex for the sake of sex, food for the sake of food. Righteousness for the sake of righteousness. I can go on and on. (And most often, I do, don't I.) It's like... meaning may come from within, but it's pointless if there's no larger context. And my larger context tends to be love... hopefully sans the righteousness.
EDIT - Yeah, all right. It's hotter. Slash, that is. Or maybe it's my H/D button. Can never tell, really. *gives up*
I don't know where this whole "slashers are special" thing comes from, anyway. It's so easy to feel like being a slasher means you're more open-minded and maybe kinkier and more free-spirited. All those het-obsessed people are just prudes, aren't they? Prudes who don't know what they're missing, right?
It's funny, because while I would say it's "all about the dynamic", for me, I -am- shallow. It's not as if I look "beyond the bodies" or whatever. I -like- the bodies. Possibly, it can be equally if not more freeing for girls to write/read a certain kind of het fic rather than slash. Because you're learning to be okay with yourself, to not fall into gender roles, to challenge your assumptions-- right there, where it's difficult. Where you're reminded of yourself. Where there's a -girl- there, and you're not that girl and maybe you want to be and that -hurts- or maybe you -can- pretend you are, and then you remember you aren't and -that- hurts.
It would be hard for me, actually, to imagine a true romantic who's exclusively a slasher (or vice versa). Or a real hedonist, for that matter. And I'm pretty much both. How could you confine yourself to only one arena? How could you pretend the fun's only over -here- and not over -there-? The fun is everywhere, isn't it? People fall in love with other people, and have the same emotions no matter -who- they have them with, right? And bodies are always fun together, aren't they, no matter whose bodies they are? It's the bisexual revolution all over again, man.
Slash for the sake of slash or vice versa just strikes me as sad, really. Anything for the sake of itself can be seen as sad-- sex for the sake of sex, food for the sake of food. Righteousness for the sake of righteousness. I can go on and on. (And most often, I do, don't I.) It's like... meaning may come from within, but it's pointless if there's no larger context. And my larger context tends to be love... hopefully sans the righteousness.
EDIT - Yeah, all right. It's hotter. Slash, that is. Or maybe it's my H/D button. Can never tell, really. *gives up*
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-31 07:30 pm (UTC)Another thing is that I read fanfic the same way I read published works. I mean... I read Diana Wynne Jones and John Barth and even JKR, right. And they write het. So I mean, it's weird, applying a whole different standard to fanfic, though I know most people do. I dunno -why- they do, actually. Hmm. 'Cause it's amateur work? But... that's just not enough. Seems like a cop-out. So yeah... I won't say that what "really" matters is Good Writing-- I can only say that it's that and my pre-existing emotional investment. And I don't have emotional investment in penises, y'know. Well, I do, but. *laughs*
Re:
Date: 2004-02-01 10:15 am (UTC)I will probably always see a distinction between published work and fanfic simply because of the circumstances (albeit superficial) of their existence, i.e. fanfic is based on existing characters, and those characters can be written wildly OOC from the canon; it is not protected by copyrite, and is found almost exclusively on the internet therefore is not accessible to a large majority of the population. Thanks for all your great insights! :)