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You know what I just realized?

Zuko = Faramir.

And now my crossover-happy brain is done thinking tonight.

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Edit: Sokka's line, "Hey, this is quality rope" gave me all kinds of happy because really, only someone who grew up around boats notices that kind of thing. Trust me. Quality line? Good to have in a crisis and expensive to come by.

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...You're the only person on my friends list (I think) who's not like "eww! slash" but also just isn't that interested in reading it. As you might have seen, I'm writing a paper on fanfiction and slash, and I just realized: I have quotes from a bunch of slashers, but no one representing the other side. So if you don't mind, could you tell me:

1) What you get out of fanfiction, both gen and romantic fic;
2) Why you're kind of indifferent to slash (if indeed, you are).

I might quote you, but three of my English profs would be the only people to see it. (Oh, and I guess other people on LJ--I might post this on my journal when it's done. If that makes you uncomfortable, you can forget this entire comment exists!) Anyway, either way: thanks!

not like "eww! slash" but also just isn't that interested in reading it

That's a nice summary of my opinions, actually. :D Although, I make an exception for Kakashi/Kabuto because, dude, they are so eyefucking. (see icon)

1) I get more of the story I love. I tend to get very attached to particular books or tv shows (to a much lesser extent films-- the length of the source material is what causes so much attachment I think), and by the time they end I'm disappointed because there's no more left. Fanfiction fills that gap. A show can get cancelled after four years but if there's a healthy online fanbase then there can be new stories in the form of fanfiction for years to come. I tend to read more romantic fic than gen, but that's mostly because romance gets written more often. And I'm a romantic at heart so the imbalance doesn't bother me too much.

2) I am indifferent to m/m slash because for the most part I can't relate to it. I'm not a man so I feel no connection to the characters beyond the surface level. I don't know what a man feels in a relationship and I certainly don't know how a man relates to another man in a romantic relationship. From my observations a lot of female slash writers compensate for this by giving the male characters exaggerated feminine qualities (the "uke" syndrome is how I think of it); this feels false to me as a writer/reader. False to the characters you're handling. I also find it difficult to write/read a male character's point of view in a het fic, but usually the connection I can make with the female bridges the gap. I know a lot of slashers like slash because it titilates them-- this is also untrue for me. I'm not totally immune (my housemates have ourselves all hyped up about the upcoming hotness of Brokeback Mountain), but for the most part guy/guy action doesn't interest me. There's really only two, MAYBE three m/m pairings in all of my fandoms that I find sexy to read, and both of those are extremely unconventional and non-canon.

I read f/f slash even less than m/m slash. For one it's written less (and isn't THAT strange, since most writers are female?), and for two.. because women on women is even less sexy to me than man/man. In conversation lesbianism doesn't bother me any more than people who like the color red bother me, but as applied to my own sexual preferences, reading about lesbianism makes me bored at best, somewhat uncomfortable/awkward at worst.

femmeslash UST can be interesting to read, and I've read plenty of Buffy fanfics and episodes where Tara/Willow moved me emotionally, as a loving couple. Romantically I'm indifferent, but the sexual aspect of it turns me away.

I just thought of the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey. Three or four of those books are about an openly homosexual male protagonist. I enjoyed reading then and I believe I finished that whole series. But that was before I had really discovered online fandom, so my view back then was probably less jaded by use of story cliche. I was just thinking that because those books were more plot-based and not entirely about the slash just for the sake of being about the slash, I didn't mind reading about homosexuality or a homosexual main character. They were also rather pg-13 rated, so it wasn't hardcore stuff.

I think it's the slash that fails to interest me, not the sexuality of the protagonist.

I think the stories people read, whether fanfic or traditional fiction, they read because they want to lose themselves in the characters and world presented. It's escapism and vicarious living. This is especially true for romantic stories, I think. Everyone wants to be in love, or imagine what it's like to be in love. I think that because I'm heterosexual and because I need to connect somehow to characters I read about, I tend to read about heterosexual pairings.

Hope that helps. And let me know if it's similar to what other people have said, would you? :D

Thanks so much for responding to this--and quickly, too! This is very interesting. Your answer to the first question is, at times, almost word for word what other people--loads of other people--have said, but your second is almost diametrically opposite. (I'm sorry that I've sort of set you up as sort of the minority viewpoint here--we both know, of course, that there are plenty of people who agree with you.) I find it especially interesting not that m/m just doesn't turn you on, but that you say you don't/can't relate to the male characters--based on my personal experiences (and a lot of the responses) that's all I relate to. Even reading het fic, say, Spike/Buffy, I was always Spike. Until the sex started, of course--but even then, I was still emotionally, if not physically, the guy.

In conclusion, a very scientific: huh.

I wish I had another month and 10,000 more words to write this paper in. But your answer helped a lot, so thank you!

I want to make sure I am clear, because I think I might have muddled my answer: I have difficulty relating to the guy in a *romantic* context. Taken outside of the romantic context I often relate to male characters as much or more than female characters. Partly because (like many fandom women I think), I like the kind of "guy" things: swordfighting, heroics, snark, combat, explosions... all those things that video game makers always market to boys. The entire sci-fi/fantasy genre is marketed more toward boys, in fact. But I love action/adventure and I tend to be able to connect to male characters because they're typically given the more action/adventury stuff. If that even makes sense... I dunno. Anyway, I tend to write fic more about male characters (except in Harry Potter ficdom), and I identify with male characters as strongly as female characters in a gen context. It's the romantic/sexual context where I can't connect to guys as well.

That being said, that isn't cut and dry. Often the circumstances of the character make me identify wiht their emotional situation very strongly regardless of their gender. Spike in S/B is one of those cases. Throughout season 6 I was always emotionally more in Spike's world than Buffy's. But then Spike was pretty atypical for a television male love interest anyway (embodying a lot of the qualities in the relationship normally regulated to the female character), so I'm not sure how much he counts in the comparison/analogy.

Ahh, gotcha. Sorry about that. So, um, I guess I just suffer from greater penis envy than you? *g*

Man, I would have to write a book to sort this out, even just to my own satisfaction. Hell, maybe that's what I'll do. =D

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