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Oct. 26th, 2003 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76Ponderings while embroidering this evening ran along the lines of fanfic taboos.
SailorMac posted recently in her LJ that she'd opened a can of worms via an inquiry about RPS (real person slash). Myself, I don't understand why anime fanfic fandom is so afraid of it. I've written a little RPS and then stopped, mostly because I just didn't have the drive for it. This in and of itself I don't feel is a condemnation--there are many fandoms out there I don't have the drive to fanfic. I feel no call to write fanfic about novels (Harry Potter), movies (Pirates of the Caribbean), or TV series (Buffy). The fandom I write for is, in fact, pretty narrow: anime and manga.
Why is RPS considered so inherently bad? It's not as if anyone pretends these are the real people. (Well, there may be, but such individuals would not be in touch with reality no matter what.) Is it a problem with disrespect/confusion of reality? That I can maybe see. But still, there are many wonderful, talented RPS writers out there whose work I critically and non-critically adore. The "cup of coffee" that jump-starts my week is reading the newest installment in Matthew Haldeman-Time's boy band RPS series "Living." I consider it a work that teaches me something with every single chapter, whether it be a lesson on social dynamics, a demonstration of rock-solid faith, or simply an opening of my eyes to a new way to view the world.
RPS can be good too.
SailorMac posted recently in her LJ that she'd opened a can of worms via an inquiry about RPS (real person slash). Myself, I don't understand why anime fanfic fandom is so afraid of it. I've written a little RPS and then stopped, mostly because I just didn't have the drive for it. This in and of itself I don't feel is a condemnation--there are many fandoms out there I don't have the drive to fanfic. I feel no call to write fanfic about novels (Harry Potter), movies (Pirates of the Caribbean), or TV series (Buffy). The fandom I write for is, in fact, pretty narrow: anime and manga.
Why is RPS considered so inherently bad? It's not as if anyone pretends these are the real people. (Well, there may be, but such individuals would not be in touch with reality no matter what.) Is it a problem with disrespect/confusion of reality? That I can maybe see. But still, there are many wonderful, talented RPS writers out there whose work I critically and non-critically adore. The "cup of coffee" that jump-starts my week is reading the newest installment in Matthew Haldeman-Time's boy band RPS series "Living." I consider it a work that teaches me something with every single chapter, whether it be a lesson on social dynamics, a demonstration of rock-solid faith, or simply an opening of my eyes to a new way to view the world.
RPS can be good too.
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Date: 2003-10-28 12:34 am (UTC)I work as an unpaid intern for the Goleta Gabble, a tiny community paper folks use for wrapping fish, in the celebrity gossip column. Wishing to liven up a slow day for scandal, I decide to write about the new opera production that has come into town, and the two stars, Mrs. Grenouille and Herr Samovar. To simply say that they sang La Boheme well is boring, I find, so I allege that they seemed to have a chemistry that suggested that they are intimate offstage as well as on.
This story gets pasts the editor's eye, and hits the stands. Sure, a couple of hundred people may simply place the newspaper unread under the dog's water bowl that evening, but what if, before it lines a parrot cage, it meets the eye of Herr Samovar? Or his wife? Or his child? Should this story be called into question, the paper would have to write a retraction or take the risk of a lawsuit. I would lose my internship. And this in only a paper of a few hundred readers.
The internet has thousands of readers. Someone who knows someone is always out there. I remember reading the comments of a woman who was related to Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees, who was rather unhappy about a fanfic which described her uncle having graphic sex with the author, who was writing as a Mary Sue. In the YC panel we went to, they described an incident in which a person brought an RPS to an X-files con and presented it to one of the actors featured in the fic. The actor was quite upset, and security was called and the fan escorted away. A bit extreme, but the possibility for hurt feelings on the part of the subject is very real.