(no subject)

[swatkat]

* Romance in fandom. The number of fen (boyslashers, too) who enjoy romance fiction and its tropes was something of a surprise for me. Everything that the posters describe in this post are *exactly* the things I don't enjoy in mainstream romance, which is why I'm here in fandom, reading shipfic that works for me. Different strokes and all that.

* remixredux08! Go play! (I, of course, won't, seeing how the deadline is April 12 and I have four submissions by that date, including one that has a 10,000 words requirement.)

* In the past few days I've watched Enchanted, which was adorable, and Jodha-Akbar, which was, well, godawful (*hides from plazmah*). Yesterday I went to a concert to listen to two living legends perform. My knowledge of classical music is embarassingly limited, but all you needed last night was a pair of ears. I'm still a little speechless.

* The sister called me up to say she has sent me BSG S3 discs. I suppose I should be a little disapproving, since her NEWTs (their equivalent, anyway) are about to begin (the practicals are already on), and she should be studying instead of watching Battlestar Galactica, BUT. OMG! I have trained her so well. *wipes tears*

Comments

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I think people find that romance is more appealing because you get to work with tension. Just look at the "popular" ships - they're often the ones with loads of angst and tension.

That said, I am more inclined towards genfic, because romancefic often ruins characters for me. Look at MyLar - there is NO WAY Mohinder would make out with a guy who, you know, killed his father. Maybe that wouldn't matter to the author, but it very obviously matters to him. (Of course, I think there's a bit of a reverse Oedipus Complex amongst those kinds of shippers.) And ships I do like - oftentimes, they're fluff when the characters aren't fluffy. So... yeah, I stick to gen, or at least stories that have a "healthy mix" of gen and romance. (Which my current WIP does.)

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

See, I can buy all kinds of pairings. I don't know the exact Heroes context, but I know that canon!Ron would NO WAY IN HELL sleep with canon!Draco. The author's task is to sell me the idea that yes, in this fanfic universe, he would. But the romance tropes don't work for me at all.

[plazmah.livejournal.com]

Oh noes, you didn't like J-A? Any particular reasons why? I'm quite curious :)

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

Too many reasons. *sigh* I don't expect historical accuracy from movies, but the changes led to something that was very disturbing. The entire nationalist agenda, with Akbar as the Good Muslim left a very bad taste in my mouth. I found Ash insipid, and why oh *why* was she wearing bikini-cut blouses and swordfighting a la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Hrithik was good on occasions, and melodramatic on others. The two of them do have good chemistry (some cute moments, like the part where she says 'I'm not coming, because you haven't won my heart', and he's all 'But I've done everything to please you!'; the mirror; any scene involving Hrithik's chest), but those stray moments, to me, were overshadowed by what the movie was trying to tell us, which is not a story about Jodha and Akbar at all but about our country and our times. And I don't like that story. I don't believe in that story.

[plazmah.livejournal.com]

why oh *why* was she wearing bikini-cut blouses and swordfighting a la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?

Ahahaha, it sounds ridiculous when you put it that way, now that you mention it! Unfortunately, Ash's blouses and sword-fighting were parts of the movie that I adored. ;)

I was surprised at how much the whole Jodha-Akbar story took a backseat to the other story about Akbar ruling a kingdom. But I wasn't going into this movie for historical accuracy... I assumed every character that wasn't Akbar was conjured out of thin air for the story-telling process.

*shurg* I dunno, my entire family liked it. Even my mother (who hates 95% of all movies she sees) liked it!

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

I was surprised at how much the whole Jodha-Akbar story took a backseat to the other story about Akbar ruling a kingdom.

Because the stories are so much tied together! The Good Muslim Ruler marries the Progressive Hindu Girl and rules over unified Hindustan - they are both parts of the same story. To me, anyway. I wish I could have enjoyed the story like you did - there are movies where I can enjoy the movie on a surface level even as I despise the other story it's trying to tell (Guru, for example), but this one just pushes too many of my buttons, with everything that's going wrong around me. There were moments, as I said - but not enough. *sigh*

[ijemanja.livejournal.com]

Funny with the romance thing - it seems a very high proportion of people devoured mills and boon when they were younger, or used to love romcoms a whole lot, and claim to have since grown out of these horrible things now that they have found fandom/slash. To which I say: ORLY?

But I'm with you - I'm here because I can't get everything I want out of the shows/characters I like. I'm here for the MORE that mainstream media never seems to offer.

P.S. Enchanted is love.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

and claim to have since grown out of these horrible things now that they have found fandom/slash. To which I say: ORLY?

Sometime ago I wrote a post ranting about boyslash and het, and invariably there were people telling me that they preferred boyslash because it was edgier and all that. ORLY, indeed.

P.S. Enchanted is love.

Socute!!! And I totally contemplated fic where Narissa returns from the dead to Andalasia and it falls upon Nancy to somehow save the world (with Edward as her trusty, if somewhat dim sidekick).

[delle.livejournal.com]

I LOVE romances. But I detest Harlequin/Mills and Boon - type romances, very genre stories, with specific plot contraints. Think BetsyG, who was a really talented writer, but then she started to write to Harlequin specs and ... I think she lost what made her so special. It became rote, standard fare.

I love romances about real people, strong women who refuse to be bullied (yes, even in medieval it can be done and not be Mary Sue) and strong men who love them and the two of them trying to find a way to make a relationship between two strong people work.

I love JDRobb and some Nora Roberts adn Diana Gabaldon and Jane Austen.

(wow I went on a rant here. maybe I should try to put these thoughts into my own LJ?)

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

I love romances about real people, strong women who refuse to be bullied (yes, even in medieval it can be done and not be Mary Sue) and strong men who love them and the two of them trying to find a way to make a relationship between two strong people work.

*nods to that*

[zulu]

I don't get the romance tropes, either. I've just spent a month trying to get two characters to fall in love without ever once a) acting like it, or b) admitting it. It's hard, but so much more worthwhile.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

There was this wonderful piece of meta once, where someone talked about two types of romances, the warm fuzzies and the cold pricklies. I ♥ cold pricklies.

[jaybee65.livejournal.com]

I guess I can't say I'm surprised to see how many fen love romance and romance tropes. For me, fandom is just so overwhelmingly romance-dominated, that only makes sense.

It's one of the things that makes me feel like an alien creature at times in fandom: I've kind of adapted myself to the romance-y terrain, but I still trip on things a lot. Not just because I don't see the same things everyone else does, but because it doesn't even occur to me to look for them.

But BSG3! You'll be almost caught up soon! (Razor, which follows, is made of awesome, and once you get past that I won't have to worry about spoilers!)

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

I'm an omnivore when it comes to fandom. I love gen. I also love shipfic. I love love stories and relationship stories, but none of the tropes, *none* of the tropes mentioned in the post work for me. I mean, soulbonding? Just... NO.

Meanwhile, I got the discs yesterday and STAYED UP TILL 5.30 WATCHING THE FIRST FOUR EPISODES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Razor, which follows, is made of awesome, and once you get past that I won't have to worry about spoilers!)

The sister just sent me a message saying that it's 'too good'. *g*