[a normal sort of superhero]
May. 30th, 2006 05:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaI'm reading Alias (the comic!), which is written by Brian Michael Bendis, same guy who does Daredevil right now. And it's good. I mean, it's seriously good-- not amazing or top-10, but solid. And I mean, I realized how much I miss that sort of solid work when I don't read professional stuff and just read slash.
I mean, I love fandom as a concept-- and amateur stuff as a concept. I love the idea of creative freedom, sharing memes and stories, doing whatever the hell you want with both stories & media and screw the market demands. I love all that. But. It's slush-pile reading a lot of times if you want to read a lot. And while I -enjoy- that, at the same time... seeing quality inspires me. Makes me... I don't know, makes me want to create things.
More than satisfying my yen for pretty boys in compromising positions, more than reading exactly what the summary and the warnings promise, I just want something good. Something that's both professional and worthwhile -and- fun. Something that embodies the -good- side of 'professionalism' the way some of the best fic embodies the best about being amateur-- meaning, the work is polished, cut-- the dialogue is on the money, the art is mesmerizing and unique and holds your attention, the story is unpredictable and fun. It's satisfying in a unique way that amateur stuff never quite touches, it feels like. I dunno.
More specifically, it's the het. Being in fandom makes me feel like het can't be interesting-- I mean, I know it can and I even know how to write it that way and what pairings to look for if I want to read, but-- still, my instinct is that slash or yaoi is just more interesting. The dynamics are more equal, the drama's more intense, it's more risque sexually-- all that. I mean, bottom line, in fandom-think I just think gay = cooler because misfits & outsiders = cooler than the 'normal' people, that's what it comes down to, at least for me. I mean, I think of reading those Mary Sue-type fics where pretty sparkly girls get pretty sparkly boys to stare at their tits and it's just-- it feels like objectifying boys is 'better' somehow. Messed up, but. Yeah.
And I know most fangirls just think two cocks are better than one or whatever-- all I know is that -I- love slash because it breaks barriers and makes otherwise stagnant characters do interesting, unlikely things (though admittedly this is much more extreme in pairings like H/D). But. the truth is, it's just harder to do that with het, that's all. It can still be done by a good writer.
So. It's just nice to read this comic and be like-- hey. Het is pretty damn interesting (and it's not even a romance comic), especially when it's between messed-up yet surprisingly normal former superheroes in a crazy world of mutants and weirdo basically normal people. It just gives me perspective-- this feeling like hey.
Hey.
Straight or gay or muddled, mutant or not-- it's the story that makes that character someone you can identify with. Just another person the way we all are. And no matter how 'special' they are, it just underscores how terribly ordinary they are, somehow, and I needed that. And I think it takes a tight-- a professionally tight-- writer to show that well.
I mean, I love fandom as a concept-- and amateur stuff as a concept. I love the idea of creative freedom, sharing memes and stories, doing whatever the hell you want with both stories & media and screw the market demands. I love all that. But. It's slush-pile reading a lot of times if you want to read a lot. And while I -enjoy- that, at the same time... seeing quality inspires me. Makes me... I don't know, makes me want to create things.
More than satisfying my yen for pretty boys in compromising positions, more than reading exactly what the summary and the warnings promise, I just want something good. Something that's both professional and worthwhile -and- fun. Something that embodies the -good- side of 'professionalism' the way some of the best fic embodies the best about being amateur-- meaning, the work is polished, cut-- the dialogue is on the money, the art is mesmerizing and unique and holds your attention, the story is unpredictable and fun. It's satisfying in a unique way that amateur stuff never quite touches, it feels like. I dunno.
More specifically, it's the het. Being in fandom makes me feel like het can't be interesting-- I mean, I know it can and I even know how to write it that way and what pairings to look for if I want to read, but-- still, my instinct is that slash or yaoi is just more interesting. The dynamics are more equal, the drama's more intense, it's more risque sexually-- all that. I mean, bottom line, in fandom-think I just think gay = cooler because misfits & outsiders = cooler than the 'normal' people, that's what it comes down to, at least for me. I mean, I think of reading those Mary Sue-type fics where pretty sparkly girls get pretty sparkly boys to stare at their tits and it's just-- it feels like objectifying boys is 'better' somehow. Messed up, but. Yeah.
And I know most fangirls just think two cocks are better than one or whatever-- all I know is that -I- love slash because it breaks barriers and makes otherwise stagnant characters do interesting, unlikely things (though admittedly this is much more extreme in pairings like H/D). But. the truth is, it's just harder to do that with het, that's all. It can still be done by a good writer.
So. It's just nice to read this comic and be like-- hey. Het is pretty damn interesting (and it's not even a romance comic), especially when it's between messed-up yet surprisingly normal former superheroes in a crazy world of mutants and weirdo basically normal people. It just gives me perspective-- this feeling like hey.
Hey.
Straight or gay or muddled, mutant or not-- it's the story that makes that character someone you can identify with. Just another person the way we all are. And no matter how 'special' they are, it just underscores how terribly ordinary they are, somehow, and I needed that. And I think it takes a tight-- a professionally tight-- writer to show that well.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-30 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-30 11:51 pm (UTC)SO it's a little confusing mixing up Alias (the comic book) and books with characters that are motivated by non-sexual passion and specific fandoms and stuff. :> Generally, if it's a passionate character they will -sometimes- be sexually motivated, because no one is so two-dimensional as to have only one passion. I think in fanfic, there's too much of a focus on sexual passion 'cause the stories are all about the pairing, whereas a more general story will have other subjects. But it's also nice to have a story where human motivations are put in perspective, I guess? A professional story tends to be more like that, anyway. :>
Er, in any case, I just meant that if a character's totally asexual they probably come off as cerebral, whereas if a character seems passionate they tend to 'exude' sexuality even if they never do anything sexual-- in the way that the old Catwoman from the 60s TV series was 'sexual' merely from existing. But that's a different thing than what pairing-centric fanfics do, of course....