not dead, still fannish
Jan. 24th, 2011 01:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitEr, it's been a while since I've made a fannish post, hasn't it? My job and other things have kept me pretty busy for a while.
I'm still all about the RPF at the moment. In a way it's not that surprising: over the last few years I've been feeling increasingly dissatisfied with scripted media, because too often, stories I start out loving go horribly wrong. Character development is stalled (Merlin) or twisted out of all recognition (Lewis) for the sake of plot contrivances; potentially cool stories end up perpetrating Massive Fail on account of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, ableism, etc. (Sherlock); compulsory heterosexuality means that homoerotic elements (especially but not exclusively between male characters) are downplayed, denied, turned into a joke, or used to shiptease the audience (damn near every show whose male/male homoeroticism has ever intrigued me, from Buffy to Torchwood); or, at best, a good show doesn't have much of an active fandom and I lose interest (DS9).
The knowledgeable reader will have noticed that my RPF fandoms of the moment, the Doug Anthony All Stars and Top Gear, are hardly immune from these problems. But somehow I'm less likely to be put off by, say, Jeremy Clarkson being a sexist homophobic ass as an individual than I am by a scripted show that's selling me sexism and homophobia because its creators either (a) don't recognize what they're doing or (b) cynically think it's what I want. I'm fully aware that this isn't entirely a valid distinction: Top Gear in particular is largely scripted, and its creators certainly play up its blokeish "un-PC-ness" on purpose. But I guess that when stories go wrong, I feel betrayed in a way that I don't when not-explicitly-fictional fandoms do. Because the characters have been betrayed as well--their potential is left unfulfilled, the better story that might have been will never be.
Which is perhaps all a long-winded way of saying that I'm more easily pleased by RPF fandoms at the moment because my standards, or at least my hopes, for them are lower? (Also, RPF has a "canon" that's vastly larger than most fictional fandoms and could potentially go on for many years--without being as byzantinely intricate as, say, comics canon. So it's a bigger playground, and one that won't be cut short abruptly because a network exec didn't like the ratings in the 18-34 year old male demographic.)
I'm still thinking of writing a Top Gear steampunk AU. Somewhat to my horror, the idea is growing to novel length, with middle-aged gay love, steam-powered rockets, and meta-critique of steampunk's tendency to celebrate colonialism. Also an ending that is entirely too Cory Doctorow and that I need to complicate for both artistic and political reasons.
Whether I'll actually write this beast, or even try, is still uncertain, but I do feel like I ought to attempt writing a big, complex story with, you know, plot and stuff.
As for my other RPF fandom, tonight I rewatched a bunch of DAAS performances and have rekindled the love. Oh, how I wish there was more of a fandom. (*crickets chirp*)
Anyway. A new series of Top Gear has just started, and the next series of Good News Week (hosted by Paul McDermott, formerly of DAAS) is due to begin in February sometime. That's about as much TV as I can normally be bothered to follow, and I'm not missing being at the mercy of showrunners. I will of course keep watching Doctor Who whenever it resumes, but apart from that, I'm feeling something close to aversion for scripted shows at the moment.
I'm still all about the RPF at the moment. In a way it's not that surprising: over the last few years I've been feeling increasingly dissatisfied with scripted media, because too often, stories I start out loving go horribly wrong. Character development is stalled (Merlin) or twisted out of all recognition (Lewis) for the sake of plot contrivances; potentially cool stories end up perpetrating Massive Fail on account of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, ableism, etc. (Sherlock); compulsory heterosexuality means that homoerotic elements (especially but not exclusively between male characters) are downplayed, denied, turned into a joke, or used to shiptease the audience (damn near every show whose male/male homoeroticism has ever intrigued me, from Buffy to Torchwood); or, at best, a good show doesn't have much of an active fandom and I lose interest (DS9).
The knowledgeable reader will have noticed that my RPF fandoms of the moment, the Doug Anthony All Stars and Top Gear, are hardly immune from these problems. But somehow I'm less likely to be put off by, say, Jeremy Clarkson being a sexist homophobic ass as an individual than I am by a scripted show that's selling me sexism and homophobia because its creators either (a) don't recognize what they're doing or (b) cynically think it's what I want. I'm fully aware that this isn't entirely a valid distinction: Top Gear in particular is largely scripted, and its creators certainly play up its blokeish "un-PC-ness" on purpose. But I guess that when stories go wrong, I feel betrayed in a way that I don't when not-explicitly-fictional fandoms do. Because the characters have been betrayed as well--their potential is left unfulfilled, the better story that might have been will never be.
Which is perhaps all a long-winded way of saying that I'm more easily pleased by RPF fandoms at the moment because my standards, or at least my hopes, for them are lower? (Also, RPF has a "canon" that's vastly larger than most fictional fandoms and could potentially go on for many years--without being as byzantinely intricate as, say, comics canon. So it's a bigger playground, and one that won't be cut short abruptly because a network exec didn't like the ratings in the 18-34 year old male demographic.)
I'm still thinking of writing a Top Gear steampunk AU. Somewhat to my horror, the idea is growing to novel length, with middle-aged gay love, steam-powered rockets, and meta-critique of steampunk's tendency to celebrate colonialism. Also an ending that is entirely too Cory Doctorow and that I need to complicate for both artistic and political reasons.
Whether I'll actually write this beast, or even try, is still uncertain, but I do feel like I ought to attempt writing a big, complex story with, you know, plot and stuff.
As for my other RPF fandom, tonight I rewatched a bunch of DAAS performances and have rekindled the love. Oh, how I wish there was more of a fandom. (*crickets chirp*)
Anyway. A new series of Top Gear has just started, and the next series of Good News Week (hosted by Paul McDermott, formerly of DAAS) is due to begin in February sometime. That's about as much TV as I can normally be bothered to follow, and I'm not missing being at the mercy of showrunners. I will of course keep watching Doctor Who whenever it resumes, but apart from that, I'm feeling something close to aversion for scripted shows at the moment.
