Fic Report: A very long fic, Fall Girl again, this, and that

[tinturtle]

Ahoy, everybody. It's me again with another fic report. I hope you will enjoy it. Here's some of what I've been reading:

Fruit of the Spirit by Cherilyn (94942 words, slash)
This is probably the longest single fanfic I have ever read. I was tempted to give up on it near the beginning, because apparently I am a sensitive little bunny (albeit a sensitive little bunny who reads deathfic and all manner of other warning-laden things) and am unreasonably upset by certain types of conflict. Which is to say, Bodie and Doyle being mean to each other makes me unhappy. I persevered, however, and enjoyed the later parts of the fic quite a bit. Its great strength is the time it takes to show the incremental development of the Lads' relationship, both as a friendship and as a romance. It also fleshes out life at CI5 in a way that felt unusual, by skipping over the events recorded in canon in favor of filling the spaces between. The fic's structure is episodic, telling a story in a series of vignettes. These vary in tone, which I thought was effective, mirroring real life and also keeping the reader engaged.

Turtle or bunny?

Masquerade by Tarot / Chris_Quinton (46299 words, slash)
This fic was excellent. The casefic portion was interesting and very well plotted, with new twists added at all the right times. The banter between Bodie and Doyle was well written, though they were somewhat more combative with each other than I perceive them to be in canon. (That was also true in Of Tethered Goats and Tigers, by the same author, so it was likely no accident. Reading different interpretations of the same material is one of the exciting things about fan fiction, I think.) The romantic elements also worked well, and interlocked with the other parts of the story.

Blistered by grey853 (3471 words, slash)
This fic is a coda to Fall Girl. I finished it so that I could write about it, but otherwise I would undoubtedly have stopped reading. While there were several moving moments early on, the latter part of the fic did not work for me at all. The transition to the slashy bit felt far too abrupt. I found myself wondering, "Why are these people kissing? Why are they doing these other things?" Furthermore, there were, not quite consent issues, but certainly issues of what is honorable behavior that were not acknowledged. The writing was a bit too arty for my taste, also.

Middle Ground by shirasade (1570 words, slash)
This is another Fall Girl coda that follows the same rough outline as Blistered, while also presenting a mirror image to it. I liked this fic better. The slash element arose more believably from the story, and it did not have the squicky undercurrent found in the other fic. It also didn't try to accomplish too much in its relatively short span, which was another weakness of Blistered.
[Addendum: It seems I discussed this fic without saying much about it except as it contrasted with Blistered. It is an evocative fic with lifelike dialog. I found it well worth reading, and some of its images stuck with me afterward.]

Scapegoat by hgdoghouse (13616 words, officially gen)
This is a longish sequel to Fall Girl. It is an engaging fic that ties up the episode's loose ends with believable emotion, a satisfying arc of conflict and resolution, and good pacing. I enjoyed it. Note that, while the author labelled it gen, it would not please purists in that area.

Guilty? by angelfish45 (4605 words, gen)
I found this fic unsatisfying. It started fairly strongly, with a mystery, but that was cleared up too quickly for me really to engage with it. Furthermore, while the characters' emotions about them rang true, the bureaucratic processes the story depicts seemed radically oversimplified, undermining the story's believability. Personally, I also found it troublesome that the plot hinged on a misconception. Although, since it is a common one, that might not have been wholly unrealistic. (The misconception being that "most people who commit suicide leave a note.")

Beating the Odds by Dimity Blue / dimity_blue (865 words, gen)
This is a very nice missing scene from Long Shot that was posted about a week ago. I like its versions of the Lads' characters as well as its touches of realism.

Flickering Lights by jaicen5 (1380 words, gen)
The premise of this story is very fanfic-y, but it is the sort of thing I go for and the execution is admirable; I enjoyed it a lot. (Clearly, there is something wrong with me.)

Comments

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Another fic report - brilliant! I'm enjoying these, thanks! And I really want to join in, but November is kicking my bottom and I'm not reading fic at all right now (and barely even books, and both things are just wrong for me...)

That said - I've not read most of the stories you describe, because they're gen stories! I'm only rarely able to read gen, because since watching Pros again as a grown-up, all I've been able to see is the slash between the lads, and gen stories tend to feel like only half the story, unless they're very very very good (bearing in mind that we all have different ideas of "vvv good", obviously my humble opinion only). Dinah/Laura is one of those authors - and although I've never knowingly read any of HG's "gen", I suspect she is too. I'm printing this story out now, to find out. *g*

It also fleshes out life at CI5 in a way that felt unusual, by skipping over the events recorded in canon in favor of filling the spaces between.
This fascinated me a bit, because I always thought that's what Prosfic was for... *g* But perhaps you mean by including both moments from the eps as well as the in betwe n bits? Interestingly, one of the first Pros fics I ever wrote (but which won't see the light of anyone else's day *g*) was set like that in Runner! In fact I usually struggle with fics that include extracts from the eps themselves (more than the odd line or two), because suddenly someone is asking me not to imagine something (what happened next/outside) but also to interpret something differently, through the author's eyes not mine, and suddenly I'm outside a story instead of inside...

Fruit of the Spirit and Masquerade are two of my favourite Pros fics though. *g*

[tinturtle]

I always thought that's what Prosfic was for...

Indeed. As I said, the approach in Fruit of the Spirit felt unusual. While I was reading, there was just that feeling. I had to think about it afterward to come up with anything more exact, and I know that the way I described it does sound like what other fics do.

Yet here is what I think was going on: A lot of fics tell you what happened before or between or, especially, after the events of an episode. A lot of other fics make no reference to the episodes at all. Fruit of the Spirit says, "So that stuff included in the episode happened, then a week and a half later Bodie and Doyle were in the restroom when Murphy walked in with a newspaper and a puzzled look..." Things happen relative to the events of the episodes, but the events of the episodes themselves, and any action surrounding them, get very little attention. I'm sure this is not unique, but it wasn't what I expected and it stood out.

(It also made CI5 feel more real, like something that is there all the time, even when you don't see it.)

***
I'm only rarely able to read gen, because since watching Pros again as a grown-up, all I've been able to see is the slash between the lads, and gen stories tend to feel like only half the story[.]

I recalled from your previous posts that you've had slash LASIK and don't even need the goggles anymore. I wear only weak goggles, myself. In both my major fandoms, the events of canon seem to me to bear gen and slash interpretations equally well.

Yet goggles or not, a lot of gen is slash-compatible. In many short gen pieces, a slash relationship could be going on without coming up in the limited scope of the story. A friend of my mother's, when asked if he was gay, used to answer, "Well, not right now," and no doubt the same would often be true of the Lads. As for pieces that do preclude a contemporaneous slash relationship? Well, there are slash fics placing the beginning of B and D's sexual relationship at almost every point in time. (Indeed, someone should create a collection featuring a first-time narrative for every episode.) This means that nearly any gen story could be understood to take place before the slash happened (unless it marries the characters off or something, but very few fics do that).

I'm glad I'm able to read both gen and slash and not find them in conflict either with canon or with each other. I'd have missed many of my favorite fics by avoiding either category. Obviously, there isn't a wrong way to choose fanfic, though.

[tinturtle]

This means that nearly any gen story could be understood to take place before the slash happened (unless it marries the characters off or something, but very few fics do that).

I suppose that another notable exception would be gen deathfic. If there is no aftertime, then there is no room left for slash. So no gen deathfic for you. *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Lol - there's definitely some gen that I can read as "pre-slash" (except I don't really like that term, because to me "slash" means that the lads think of each other, even subconsciously, as romantic partners in some way - even if it's before they've actually got together. And I suppose that's another debate entirely - the definition of "slash". I've read some people defining it very specifically as sex scenes between two characters, but that's not at all what it means for me. Love is complicated and it's not always about having sex every minute (fun though that can be *g*), so slash=sex is far too narrow a definition for me, and it's not the definition I understood when I first came into fandom, it seems to be one direction that some people took it.

So maybe I need to define "gen" - and for me that would be a story where, as you say, it's absolutely ruled out that the lads might ever get together. I can usually spot it a mile off through the writing, whether or not the author brings in female partners for the lads - there's something... the focus isn't on their relationship. If the focus is on their relationship, and it's done well enough that it seems to match the eps, then a story can read as slash to me, whether or not anything happens between the lads. Dinah/Laura is a good example, because I think she's very true to the lads I see in the eps.

you've had slash LASIK and don't even need the goggles anymore
I have no idea what "LASIK" is!

I'm never entirely sure what people mean by "slash goggles" either (definitions in fanlore etc. notwithstanding, because people seem to use the term so differently). To me it conjures up the idea of purposefully putting on goggles - looking at something in a particular way - deciding that you're going to wear them. Whereas I never made a conscious decision/had a conscious thought "I wonder what would happen if I imagined them..." When I re-discovered Pros and watched the eps, it felt like there was some joyous undercurrent that I couldn't quite define and I fell in love with the relationship between the lads again - when I googled to find out how many eps were available on dvd, I found Kitty Fisher's B/D fic, read it out of curiousity, and realised that was the undercurrent I'd picked up on without being able to define it. Now I could define it. So there was nothing conscious in my slashing of the lads, I never "put on goggles" at all.

And I can't do that with other shows/books etc. - I can't think "I'm going to imagine him and him are in a relationship and see what happens", they have to be there to start with in my head, I have to see that spark between them to begin with. And that's true for m/f for me too, and f/f, although that's not somewhere I tend to go. I have to believe in them before I can imagine them.

This means that nearly any gen story could be understood to take place before the slash happened
In theory that's true, but as I said above, there's often something about the writing that stops me reading it. A lack of heart or something, a focus on the events or cars/guns, or other characters that just means I'm not really interested enough to keep reading. I like Pros for the relationship between Bodie and Doyle - everything else for me is just the setting. I can read about each of them individually - as long as I can feel it's a pre-cursor to them becoming who they are when they know/love each other. If it's just for the sake of telling me about them as individuals, then it tends not to work. I can read about Doyle on his own more easily, because I can emphathise with him more easily - I'm less emotionally invested in a man who chooses to go and be violent "for the money", which is who Bodie can come across as.

I'm glad I'm able to read both gen and slash and not find them in conflict either with canon or with each other. I'd have missed many of my favorite fics by avoiding either category.
I don't avoid gen as such - I just know that I'm far less likely to be satisfied by those stories, and the first few lines generally back up that idea. I might miss a few gems, but that's why I like reading people's story reviews... *vbg*

[tinturtle]

you've had slash LASIK and don't even need the goggles anymore
I have no idea what "LASIK" is!

"Laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis." It's the laser eye surgery after which many people don't need to wear their glasses anymore.
__

Lol - there's definitely some gen that I can read as "pre-slash" (except I don't really like that term, because to me "slash" means that the lads think of each other, even subconsciously, as romantic partners in some way - even if it's before they've actually got together. And I suppose that's another debate entirely - the definition of "slash".

Isn't it just? You say it bothers you that some people consider a fic slash only if there is sex. That does seem reductive. On the other hand, by a more common definition, a fic is slash if it has any hint of romantic or sexual feeling between male characters. Given how much incidental heterosexuality a fic can have and still be considered gen, I've always found that a bit of a double standard. The people who understand slash as fic with M/M sex are at least using a definition that is symmetrical with a popular definition of het.

I've never been sure what pre-slash is, either. Possibly it is fic that depicts a step up in the intimacy of the relationship, but without any acknowledged homoeroticism. In my experience, h/c is often labeled as pre-slash. If that's what people mean by it, then it is a story of what happened shortly before the heroes started thinking of each other as romantic partners.

In addition to the LGBT-themed non-slash I keep going on about, I have a soft spot for fics that are difficult to classify as slash or gen, because the relationship depicted falls somewhere between the ideals of friendship and romantic partnership. Those things have always seemed to me to exist on a continuum, with no clear demarcation between. (Though, of course, people are either having sex or they aren't, provided you can figure out what sex is.) One of my two WIPs is an MFU fic that falls into this grey area. (I have two WIPs!)

__

This means that nearly any gen story could be understood to take place before the slash happened
In theory that's true, but as I said above, there's often something about the writing that stops me reading it. A lack of heart or something, a focus on the events or cars/guns, or other characters that just means I'm not really interested enough to keep reading. I like Pros for the relationship between Bodie and Doyle - everything else for me is just the setting.

I know the kind of fics you mean; I don't like those, either. The Lads' relationship is a big part of the show's appeal to me, too. Sometimes I describe my favored type of show as the ones about "doing something that matters with someone who matters to you."
__

I can read about Doyle on his own more easily, because I can emphathise with him more easily - I'm less emotionally invested in a man who chooses to go and be violent "for the money", which is who Bodie can come across as.

I feel as if I should like Doyle the better of the two. He and I are certainly much more alike (aside from the temper). Bodie is my favorite character, though. I'm not sure why. Perhaps he seems more naturally warm, and that's something that appeals to me in other people? Or perhaps it's how attached he is to Doyle, in particular. (I don't think it's because he's prettier; the Lads' physical charms are mostly lost on me. I was a little startled at BistoCon to find how much more attuned to them a lot of people are. Somehow it just hadn't occurred to me.)

[tinturtle]

Perhaps he seems more naturally warm, and that's something that appeals to me in other people?

Maybe "relational" would be a better word than "warm." Motivated by connections to others more than by ideas. I'm not sure why that should appeal to me, as I am quite the opposite.

I feel as if I should like Doyle the better of the two. He and I are certainly much more alike (aside from the temper).

And aside from the animal grace, of course, among other things.

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reminding me of some favourite stories e.g. Masquerade and Fruit of the Spirit. And for bringing to my attention a couple of stories I haven't read or was aware of e.g.Beating the Odds sounds interesting.

[jat-sapphire.livejournal.com]

I feel that way about grey too. Her vision is so dark, and sometimes the sex scenes seem ... as if she said to herself, "time for the sex or it won't be slash!" I dunno. In this one, there are a few "his cock touched the tip of his ear" kind of moments that distract me, and ... yeah. Distracting. I read through that Keller series and the Bodie/Cowley one and just wondered why, which is not the effect I look for in fanfic. Skilled but grim.