Wobbling over canon
Aug. 27th, 2006 07:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestI thought I'd got over the RPS wobbles ages ago. Actually, for someone whose first fandom definitely frowned on the Real People Fic, someone who didn't like actorfic, I think I sidled over to the dark side the wonderful world of popslash with remarkable ease.
But I'm having a bit of a wobble at the moment.
It's Lance, of course. He's given/giving us lots of fresh canon right now, *personal* stuff. Not releasing a new album andplaying working with JC like Justin is doing, but insights into how he managed for years in NSync without talking about the fact that he was gay, and how shocked his family were to discover it. And, of course, there's Reichen. And while I'm charmed to the point of dissolving into a sentimental puddle by the photos of those two together, the fact that they are together makes me hesitant to write about them.
Hasn't actually *stopped* me, I admit, but I wibbled and wobbled about it, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ephemera_pop can attest.
So I'm trying to figure out, why the wibbly-wobbling? There are two things, I think, going on here.
With regard to Lance's revelations about what he had to go through, I think there's a lot to be written about that, but I wonder whether anyone's going to do so? The possibilities of Lance having to hide his homosexuality, and being afraid to come out, have already been explored in fiction. So maybe there's no generally-felt need to go into that. (Or maybe there is someone among you right now producing something? Hmm?)
As for his family, well, again, there have been all sorts of representations in canon already, from cool, understanding and accepting to screamingly homophobic, so perhaps the ground has more or less been covered. Or is it that, now that we *know*, there's not much fun to be had by writing fiction, where the fun is in the guessing, the speculating on possibilities?
I hope that we'll see more stories that explore both these things, although at the moment they both feel like tender spots. Also, there's the fact that Lance's sexuality seems to have been dealt with in silence rather than solidarity, which feels like a breach in the agreed fanon of "all for one and one for all", and it's a lot easier to retreat into crack!fic than to poke cautiously at this.
Still, it's not so much the revised canon of the past that troubles me, but the canon of present and future. Do I want to write L/R, I ask myself? Do I want to read L/R?
Um.
I think, after much cogitation, that it's a bit too real and a bit too immediate. I can happily write an explicit Trickyfish sex scene because, well, I'm making it up. And I *know* that if I were to do the same with Lance and Reichen (okay, digression: what are we calling these two? CareBears? 'Cause ColdFish just doesn't seem right) I'd be making that up, too, but...
I think I'm accustomed to being separated by time from the canon events in question, whatever they may be. It's easy to write fic set a few years ago, possibly because the people they were then aren't the people they are now, or, possiby, because there's already a clouding of fanon around everything.
And sure, I've responded with a quick drabble to things like the Lancelot Incident, and the Snowboarding Auction (oh, Lance, you do give *good* canon), but it's not the same thing! Maybe there's a degree of emotional distance necessary, too. When the Lancelot story came out, emotional distance was achieved by laughing like a drain. Seeing our two lovebears beaming at one another in a succession of venues doesn't provide me with that kind of distance, because the non-writerly part of me is too busy squeeing.
Perhaps it's also that I feel a wee bit lost without a background of existing fanfic. I find I'm a bit intimidated by the thought of being the first...
How is it for you?
But I'm having a bit of a wobble at the moment.
It's Lance, of course. He's given/giving us lots of fresh canon right now, *personal* stuff. Not releasing a new album and
Hasn't actually *stopped* me, I admit, but I wibbled and wobbled about it, as
ephemera_pop can attest.So I'm trying to figure out, why the wibbly-wobbling? There are two things, I think, going on here.
With regard to Lance's revelations about what he had to go through, I think there's a lot to be written about that, but I wonder whether anyone's going to do so? The possibilities of Lance having to hide his homosexuality, and being afraid to come out, have already been explored in fiction. So maybe there's no generally-felt need to go into that. (Or maybe there is someone among you right now producing something? Hmm?)
As for his family, well, again, there have been all sorts of representations in canon already, from cool, understanding and accepting to screamingly homophobic, so perhaps the ground has more or less been covered. Or is it that, now that we *know*, there's not much fun to be had by writing fiction, where the fun is in the guessing, the speculating on possibilities?
I hope that we'll see more stories that explore both these things, although at the moment they both feel like tender spots. Also, there's the fact that Lance's sexuality seems to have been dealt with in silence rather than solidarity, which feels like a breach in the agreed fanon of "all for one and one for all", and it's a lot easier to retreat into crack!fic than to poke cautiously at this.
Still, it's not so much the revised canon of the past that troubles me, but the canon of present and future. Do I want to write L/R, I ask myself? Do I want to read L/R?
Um.
I think, after much cogitation, that it's a bit too real and a bit too immediate. I can happily write an explicit Trickyfish sex scene because, well, I'm making it up. And I *know* that if I were to do the same with Lance and Reichen (okay, digression: what are we calling these two? CareBears? 'Cause ColdFish just doesn't seem right) I'd be making that up, too, but...
I think I'm accustomed to being separated by time from the canon events in question, whatever they may be. It's easy to write fic set a few years ago, possibly because the people they were then aren't the people they are now, or, possiby, because there's already a clouding of fanon around everything.
And sure, I've responded with a quick drabble to things like the Lancelot Incident, and the Snowboarding Auction (oh, Lance, you do give *good* canon), but it's not the same thing! Maybe there's a degree of emotional distance necessary, too. When the Lancelot story came out, emotional distance was achieved by laughing like a drain. Seeing our two lovebears beaming at one another in a succession of venues doesn't provide me with that kind of distance, because the non-writerly part of me is too busy squeeing.
Perhaps it's also that I feel a wee bit lost without a background of existing fanfic. I find I'm a bit intimidated by the thought of being the first...
How is it for you?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-08-27 07:39 pm (UTC)Now that it is reality it makes me even more certain I wouldn't want to read about it. Maybe because that's a line I don't want to cross or perhaps because Reichen isn't a Sparkly boy and I am horribly biased. To be honest, both are probably true.
I liked this post, got my brain going.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-27 09:05 pm (UTC)Another thing that occurs to me is that while we are being supplied with lots of fresh canon in the form of pretty pictures of Lance and Reichen, and the occasional MySpace entry (really, who could ask for anything more?) we don't *need* fic about them.
Anyway, I'm glad to have set you thinking.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-28 07:20 pm (UTC)I wonder if this is part of it. When you read/write fanfiction you're expanding on a universe that exists. Changing it, fictionalizing it, whatever, but it's a modification. To make it more interesting, or happier, or to understand it better, or to be a part of it, but in whatever sense it's an alteration. I don't think I want to change what exists between Lance and Reichen because (at least right now) it doesn't need to be altered. It seems like they're really happy together. Fiction can't make them happier. *shrugs* dunno. Just a thought.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-28 08:24 pm (UTC)