I would have posted an answer to this sooner, but I was busy writing a sex scene in a "Lewis" story, the one where Our Heroes decide that they really are for each other, after six seasons of putting off declarations and feeling insecure (or five seasons or four or occasionally right after "Life Born of Fire"). I have, in fact, written this story before, and so have a whole lot of other people, repeatedly. Not that other stories don't get told in that archive, but it's a great case study for what happens when a lot of people see a pairing that isn't ever going to get shown on the screen (although clearly some of the writers and at least one of the actors have some investment in the concept), and we really really want to Tell The Story.
Frankly it's a lot more interesting when the story-told-over is "Gregor (or Miles) finds out about Escobar" or "Aral uses feudalism for the good of Barrayar and Cordelia challenges him" or "Helen Natalia Vorkosigan turns out to be a rabble-rouser" or even "Simon, in love with Aral, what are we going to do about that?" Probably because, though this is somewhat contrary to logic, it's a broader world for not being our real one, and it has so many corners and angles, and the rules are so rigid and yet can be flexed so many ways. You'd think within that everyone would find a totally different story to tell, but yes, we do keep coming back to the same ones. In some cases I think because we get set up by the author - the next generation finding out what went down at Escobar is the obvious one. In some cases it's more like an infectious disease passed around the fandom.
I like this way of approaching the issue; I'd been thinking on a more micro-level about what makes fic clusters among small numbers of participants, who pick up each other's questions and answer them, and reuse little motifs: for example, the reportedly off-hand way that Philomytha decided in AVD that Simon was born in a cold climate, which Raven then used beautifully in "the winters here are cold, and bitter" and I picked up (not quite remembering where it was from) and played with in "the heart is hard to translate."
On a not unrelated note and harking back to the first paragraph of this lengthy reply, it would be interesting to compare the stories that explore Aral and Simon's relationship, both the ones that incorporate a sexual attraction and those that don't, and see if the themes resonate similarly (although this might be unfair, since P. has written so much of that pairing, and her themes are assuredly consistent). Or Miles/Gregor, if that made a better study. I like that this fandom is not slash-obsessed, but it does connect itself to the larger fandom world in this and in a number of other ways. Or maybe I'm just a little preoccupied at the moment (again, see first paragraph).
(I have read The Queen of Attolia. I really need to get to the other books. Maybe while the winter is being cold and bitter, if we get that this year.)
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Date: 2012-11-27 12:26 pm (UTC)Frankly it's a lot more interesting when the story-told-over is "Gregor (or Miles) finds out about Escobar" or "Aral uses feudalism for the good of Barrayar and Cordelia challenges him" or "Helen Natalia Vorkosigan turns out to be a rabble-rouser" or even "Simon, in love with Aral, what are we going to do about that?" Probably because, though this is somewhat contrary to logic, it's a broader world for not being our real one, and it has so many corners and angles, and the rules are so rigid and yet can be flexed so many ways. You'd think within that everyone would find a totally different story to tell, but yes, we do keep coming back to the same ones. In some cases I think because we get set up by the author - the next generation finding out what went down at Escobar is the obvious one. In some cases it's more like an infectious disease passed around the fandom.
I like this way of approaching the issue; I'd been thinking on a more micro-level about what makes fic clusters among small numbers of participants, who pick up each other's questions and answer them, and reuse little motifs: for example, the reportedly off-hand way that Philomytha decided in AVD that Simon was born in a cold climate, which Raven then used beautifully in "the winters here are cold, and bitter" and I picked up (not quite remembering where it was from) and played with in "the heart is hard to translate."
On a not unrelated note and harking back to the first paragraph of this lengthy reply, it would be interesting to compare the stories that explore Aral and Simon's relationship, both the ones that incorporate a sexual attraction and those that don't, and see if the themes resonate similarly (although this might be unfair, since P. has written so much of that pairing, and her themes are assuredly consistent). Or Miles/Gregor, if that made a better study. I like that this fandom is not slash-obsessed, but it does connect itself to the larger fandom world in this and in a number of other ways. Or maybe I'm just a little preoccupied at the moment (again, see first paragraph).
(I have read The Queen of Attolia. I really need to get to the other books. Maybe while the winter is being cold and bitter, if we get that this year.)