Save the puppies!

[snorkackcatcher]

One of my rambly meta posts ahoy.

A metafandom-ed essay Shipping Kills Puppies! caught my eye and reminded me of one of the things that I perennially just don't grok -- i.e. why many fans/fen seem to regard shipping as the One True Approach to a fandom, sometimes apparently to the point of finding it bizarre that it might be approached in some other way. As I understood it, the author's basic theme in the linked post was that the really vicious ship wars occur where there are canon ships that spoil OTPs, and they therefore draw the conclusion that said canon ships are generally a Bad Thing that stop you hunting for subtext that shows how amazing A and B would be together, which is where all the fun is.

Seems odd to me. If I get fannish about something, it's simply because I like the source material, whatever it is. If it's essentially all about the ships -- e.g. This Life -- fine. If it's essentially high drama -- e.g. the Lord of the Rings books -- fine. If it's the more normal mixture of gen plot arcs and character ships -- e.g. Farscape -- also fine. I'm happy to take it as it comes, provided it holds my interest. And if it doesn't -- e.g. the recent BBC Robin Hood (which I just couldn't get into enough, despite watching being practically a bounden duty for a Nottingham lad) -- then frankly I don't really care who ends up with who, or want to be bothered to play around with the possibilities offered by the 'verse or the characters.

So as I say, I remain somewhat mystified by the approach to fandom in which the shipping (or slashing, which is largely but not entirely a subset of it) is the key point. It seems to be a "one-size-fits-all" approach, a sort of meta-fandom (as opposed to metafandom) in which sources are just raw material for the real fandom of OTPing, and the actual events of the text almost incidental. Fine if that's your thing, but even though I quite enjoy many ship speculations and stories, I generally want more than that from a fandom.

Seriously, to link your enjoyment primarily to shipping seems to be just setting yourself up for disappointment (except in the rare cases where a left-field fanon ship actually becomes canon, such as Remus/Tonks in HP -- and even there it developed in a way most of its fans didn't like). Also, it misses out on a lot of the fun available from the other 90% of what is actually happening on the page or screen!

Oh well. I guess it's just a plenty-of-room-for-all, never-the-twain-shall-meet type of thing. Now I suppose I'd better press on with my springtime_gen fic, and wonder whether I can get away with a bit of shippy stuff that seems relevant to the story ...

Comments

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

...Yeah. There are all sorts of very funny things about serious fanfic fans, like a tendency to hate the author, that make me struggle at times.

I've never been too involved with it in HP (apart from the Ginny-haters I suppose) but Doctor Who fans were so batshit about Rose that I ended up staying very very far away from the fandom on LJ.

I've got to the point with HP where I actually can't read most fanfic, because it mostly has bog all to do with the source and I'm actually the most interested in fanfic that plays around with some of the core ideas in the text. Too much focus on the shipping produces some very odd effects.

[snorkackcatcher]

After exposure to fandom, my somewhat jaded definition of 'fan' is becoming 'someone who hates a aource text and its creator(s) far more than usual'.

As for fic, you seem to get a lot of stuff that uses the general idea of the characters rather than the original versions thereof. It's not all shippy stuff (cf numerous HP fics with elaborate werewolf lore that seem to have been acquired on import), but that does indeed produce odd effects. I've never really got into LOTR fandom, but there appears to be plenty of stuff out there that doesn't exactly mesh well with the epic feel of Middle Earth (one I saw mentioned was Eomer/Frodo mpreg, but I doubt that's the outlier).

(Incidentally, can't resist asking here: did you think the Medes and Persians story managed to stay in touch with the source? I tried to get the same feel. :D)

[shiiki.livejournal.com]

I can understand people who feel that their interest in fandom is solely in shipping, but I can't understand why they can't accept that other people have different approaches to enjoying fandom.

I didn't quite get what the author of that essay was saying about participating only in fandoms without canon ships. If there are characters, surely the only way for there not to be canon ships is for the story/series to be gen or simply unfinished. In the former case it seems strange that people could derive so much enjoyment from shipping; in the latter there are bound to be canon ships ultimately.

Oh well, I suppose as I'm beginning to believe that gen is my 'One True Way', I'm just not set up to understand the mysteries of shippers.

[snorkackcatcher]

Me neither,I guess. It just seems rather limiting to me, especially if you're writing a dozen or more versions of the same ship, although obviously as a Checkmated prefect I'm not averse to shipping per se! Mind you, now canon has provided the basic outline for R/Hr I'm not sure I can think of much to write about it that's different. As a component of some wider story, sure, but not standalone. (It may just be me, but the pattern of recent submissions seems to suggest other people may feel the same?)

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to say I completely agree -- I'll write ships as part of a fic about something else, because usually it makes sense in context, but I don't really like the idea of writing a story solely focused on a ship. It's just not my cup of tea. And I understand that that's what draws other people to a fandom, and that's fine -- but, like shiiki, I don't get why a lot of people in fandom don't understand anything outside of ships. Or get so caught up in them that they forget the source text completely.

Although you've reminded me that I really must work on my springtime_gen story, which is stalled out at 553 words. Yipes!

[snorkackcatcher]

I don't get why a lot of people in fandom don't understand anything outside of ships. Or get so caught up in them that they forget the source text completely

Yes, exactly. It may just be self-fulfilling prophecy -- most of what new people see is ship-related, so undecideds go with the flow and it weeds out those who really aren't interested. Honestly, though, I often think it would produce better shipfic if the ship was part of the story rather than the other way round.

I'm seriously considering going for the light-hearted reserve option for springtime_gen. The one I had in mind is thin ice for reasons that are unrelated to shipping ...

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I definitely think that a lot of people look at fandom and see nothing but ships -- that's what turns up in news articles and interviews and so forth because people find it strange and funny. And I definitely think that the best shipfic are the ones where they focus on story and character, and the ship is only part of the larger picture.

I wish I had a light-hearted reserve option, but I don't at the moment. I just need to figure out where my story is going.