The Pros curtain Fic poll - what *is* curtain fic?!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

callistosh65 and I were chatting in my post about Pros curtain fic recs, and we suddenly realised that we were defining "curtain fic" in completely different ways, and one thing led to another and so we thought we'd do a poll to see what other people thought! Please help us!

[Poll #1353143]

Comments

[wivern.livejournal.com]

I've said other but in fact I've never heard the term until this post.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ah... in any fandom, I presume, not just Pros? D'you mind me asking how long you've known/read in Pros fandom? I'm also quite curious about where the term came in, you see! *g*

[lysimache.livejournal.com]

I said "no matter where it's set," because for me, the archetypal curtain fic is set in a *curtain store*, buying curtains, not at home at all!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hee! Is that cos you're anti-label in general, or cos you don't know/like that one, or...? (Apart from the obvious... *g*)

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

Oh god, you're going to throttle me!

All the above ::ducks::

Any time a story has a domestic atmosphere, but not necessarily set entirely in a domestic situation: shopping together for something of joint use/ownership; sharing living space for some reason other than work or sex.

OK - you can shoot me now *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ha - it's okay, we wouldn't throttle even you... *g*

So... so if a story is about, say, an argument that the lads have had, and the focus is on what happened, and the way they work through it, but it's completely set in, say, Doyle's flat - would you still count that as a curtain fic? If it's just the setting, but not the focus of the story, that's domestic?

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

In Sentinel, I called it nesting since the guys both had spirit animals. *g* Never heard "curtain fic" until Pros, but it's pretty self-explanatory. Homemaking or being domestic are other terms that I've heard here and there.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got the impression that "curtain fic" was the Pros equivalent of TS "nesting", but that there's an awful lot more "nesting" fic in TS! And "homemaking" and "being domestic" are good descriptions for the stories...

[sineala.livejournal.com]

I believe the term "curtainfic" dates from X-Files (specifically, Mulder/Krycek) fandom, when Torch or Te or some BNF like that was daring people to write stories where M/K go shopping for curtains. In a curtain store. Which is what I've read, certainly.

I am perfectly happy to consider other kinds of domestic-themed stories curtainfic (they can be at home! in the supermarket!), but I think historically there always was curtain-buying involved. At least, in XF, when people first used it. So I kind of think of the original meaning first.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ah, sounds like it changed somewhat when it came over to Pros then, because whenever someone in Pros has explained what it is, it's that it has a cosy domestic focus - the actual curtains were optional!

So roughly when would this have been then, d'you think? When was X-Files more active as a fandom?

[mistry89.livejournal.com]

Oh - LJ let me post!

"Curtain fic" conjures up images of Miss Read, to me. Sort of cosy dosmeticity - or if the snark ramps up, the it could be a sort of E F Benson story. *g*
So, a comfy tale, all in all.

But I suspect it is a term that carries fanfic-weight and probably means making curtains or peering through them or something ..

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Yeay, lj let you post! (Except - lj isn't letting you post? Waaah!)

I've not read Miss Read for yonks! I went through a whole phase of them... *g*

But I suspect it is a term that carries fanfic-weight and probably means making curtains or peering through them or something ..
Well, not in Pros I don't think, although it's interesting to see what sineala says about it being in X-Files first - I don't think I've heard that before! But in Pros I think it's had a wider definition - sort of taking the piss out of the idea of the lads buying curtains together cos it's so unlikely - for as long as I've been in Pros. Which isn't, in the scale of things, very long at all - nearly 4 years?

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

As I've always understood the term (in other fandoms too), curtain fic involves setting up home together and possibly choosing curtains or at least thinking about it. It is usually (to me) unbearably soppy and that gorgeous fic about the green carpet (that you recced - but I already knew it) is a sort of spoof curtain fic. A story set at home and/or about domestic arrangements, could be e.g. a story about the dynamics of an established relationship. So I clicked 'other'.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Sorry I didn't get back here before!

Brenk's fic is definitely a spoof of the genre, we'd been chatting together when she decided to write it, and she had great fun!

Hmmn, interesting that it's even more specific than I was imagining - I don't remember anyone saying exclusively house setting-up, but maybe that was just assumed... You know, I'm thinking that it might be quite useful to link to all these genre discussions over at palelyloitering fic site too now! *g*

[erushi.livejournal.com]

Setting up home, that's the idea I got from the fandom.

Though I still insist that it makes me think of Gone with the Wind.


[eta] Just thought I'd add that by "domestic", I actually think things like doing the dishes or scrubbing the floors. Not the specific act of setting up a home. *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ah, so more specific than either of the definitions that callistosh65 and I were thinking of... interesting... *g* Oh, except eek for your eta - cos then that does rather align with what we were thinking as one of the options - so domestic things required around the house, not specifically moving in for the first time and "nesting"... Hmmn! *g*

[hagsrus.livejournal.com]

I've opted for "other" because I thought it was about the specific process of setting up or maintaining a shared home.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ah, a few people have been saying this - we clearly had no idea it was even more specific than either of us had thought, to alot of people! In which case I'm not sure any of the fics up at AH and categorised as "curtain hanging" actually fall within what alot of people think of as curtain fic... Hmmn! Actually this is why I hate labels like this in the first place - they never turn out quite as you're thinking they will, or at least not to everyone!

[saintvic.livejournal.com]

I've said other purely because, as you know from the other recent post, I am not familiar enough with that description to make that call. But from the bits and pieces I have read and the few fics I have read through after our discussion I am going to say I think it could be 2 or 3, probably leaning more towards 3 at the moment but I need to finish reading more about it to be definitive.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Well, it turns out that people are all thinking of it quite differently. Some people actually define it even more specifically as setting up a home for the first time! And of course it's so hard to know whether people in the fandom pre-internet (or pre-X-Files determinance and subsequent spread, according to other responses above) or pre-lj originally might have meant by it... Everything changes! Which is why I really hate labels! ("Crackfic" is another one - I know there's been talk lately about how there's hardly in any in Pros, but actually there's been "crackfic" in Pros since day dot (eg on ProsLib, in the paper circuits and zines, as well as online now - it wasn't called that then, or even until really recently, but it's there, and appreciated as much as everything else. Well, maybe not the werebudgie so much, but... *g*)

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

Very interesting to read all these definitions of 'domestic' and see how people classify Curtain Fic - what I thought of as Curtain Fic is clealry NOT for a lot of folk! For me, setting made it so, but now I see that the focus of a fic is what affects how folk think of a story.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It is, isn't it! And actually it looks like neither of us was specific enough for alot of people, cos alot of people are defining it as setting up in a home - the original and first nesting thing when the lads move in together. See, this is why I hate labels! *g* I'm so glad we asked, though!

[jgraeme2007.livejournal.com]

I'm tempted to say any time the focus of the story is on "nesting," which does seem to happen inordinately for two blokes in their particular profession. I mean, I could see Bodie and Doyle discussing curtains in depth if the point of the curtains was how they're blocking their view of a suspect. *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

That's what I'd've said myself - alot of people are going even more specific and saying it's the first setting up of a home, which is interesting... the original nesting, I guess.

I suspect our view of Pros fic is skewed sometimes by the sheer number of stories in the fandom - I don't think most writers think that their lives revolve around curtains, but I guess alot of writers want to write about it just once, which over thirty years rather adds up... *g*

I mean, I could see Bodie and Doyle discussing curtains in depth if the point of the curtains was how they're blocking their view of a suspect. *g*
Ha! Yes, totally! *vbg* Although I do have a fondness for Brenk's fic up above, because it's just so much fun to imagine... And actually I have heard blokes get into that kind of detail about things like decorating - all that detail-oriented stuff, that makes great engineers and train-spotters, focussed on the colour of the cushions... *g*

[hagsrus.livejournal.com]

Wondering if A Different Game by DVS would fit the genre.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think so! Actually that was one I had half my mind on when I wrote this, but as usual couldn't think of the title... *g* It's very much about setting up house, isn't it...