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So on my flist yesterday appeared notes on Megan Whalen Turner's ideas about children's reading and appropriateness of books for children, etc: http://sounis.livejournal.com/591594.html
Which got me thinking about rating of fanfic and feeling a bit odd about that, and a bit of a hypocrite, because I read books featuring violence, rape, gore, torture, gang rape, serial killers, whatever when I was 13-14, and there was not a whole hell of a lot my parents could do to stop me, because I had control of my own library card and I'd get half a dozen books out of the library in town or the one down from the school every other day, take them home and read them, and my parents wouldn't even see them half the time, and certainly knew nothing about the content even when they did. It wasn't because I wanted to read those books in particular, but I read everything action-packed, fantasy and sci-fi-ish, and there weren't so many books around I hadn't read that I was going to let the fact they had that content stop me reading them.
Yet, ratings on fanfic, which is kind of a little silly to think about, when there are no ratings on books. Really, I feel like me putting "NC-17" on a fanfic is a bit of a joke, given the context.
The other week there was a comment going around Tumblr dismissing the idea of "R for violence", which I think is a bit stupid, to be honest, because since we do use ratings, seriously do not tell me that I cannot write something without one slightest whiff of sexual content that is not at least as devastatingly child-inappropriate as a graphic sex scene would generally be considered to be.
It's possible that my childhood reading had some lasting effect.
If there wasn't a convention to rate fanfic, I probably wouldn't, just like I frequently don't bother with warnings, because I'd rather people leap in and not have an outline already of what they're going to get. On the other hand, since there is an expectation of ratings, maybe that R rating is more of a declaration of intent, that I am going to do whatever the hell I want to in this fic, and you better be prepared for that. Frankly there are times when giving something an adult rating is gonna be the only way to prepare people for reading the thing.
It's topical for me at the moment because I have a gen fic which just so happens to be one of the most twisted little offerings I've ever written. Which is another thing that's bugging me at the moment, actually, because there's no hint of a slash relationship, but at the same time, I really, really want to put Duke/Nathan on it. Because the action and relationship between them in it is that intense. I probably can't excuse it, and for me the slash is there in all but the actual fact of inserting the overt suggestion in this story that these two guys might consider sleeping together. Which is kind of required content for slash. And yet with everything else that happens in the fic putting sex in the equation would almost be beside the point. It would be intrusive. It's not about that. It doesn't work.
Yet because it won't say Duke/Nathan on it, then from my calculations looking at the stats on AO3, it'll get about a quarter of the readership. Even though it's SO MUCH the boys and that relationship, in horrible, deep, visceral ways that just so happen to not have anything to do with sex. I'm just so, it's Duke/Nathan. It is. It's just nothing to do with sex. I have no idea what to do about this. I don't know how to fucking label the thing. I don't know how to rate the thing.
And lately I'm feeling a bit cynical about the gulf I'm noticing between the shipper stuff and the gen. So shoot me.
I could put on it 'Duke/Nathan (friendship)', except it's not. And you stick that label on something and it sounds like it's ruling out slash, or love, or saying "and don't let your brain wander into those nasty dirty slashy areas, this is purely platonic!", and it ain't so. Just like sticking 'gen' on something, as far as I'm concerned, only means I'm choosing not to enter into the subject of sex (or not to go any further than canon representations of relationships, in some cases). It doesn't mean purge your brain of the subject for the duration of this fic because the author won't stand for it. To give a recent fic example, I don't regard there to be much difference in the relationship between Duke and Nathan in Silencer than the one in Sea Change, except the latter one is validated with a kiss. (The fics themselves are worlds apart, though, comedy vs. drama-angst.) ((Something like Unbreakable is probably a different kettle of fish, entirely, since sex-as-characterisation/sex-as-character-arc becomes a big issue there.))
Holy crap, I have rambled. And now I am going home.
Which got me thinking about rating of fanfic and feeling a bit odd about that, and a bit of a hypocrite, because I read books featuring violence, rape, gore, torture, gang rape, serial killers, whatever when I was 13-14, and there was not a whole hell of a lot my parents could do to stop me, because I had control of my own library card and I'd get half a dozen books out of the library in town or the one down from the school every other day, take them home and read them, and my parents wouldn't even see them half the time, and certainly knew nothing about the content even when they did. It wasn't because I wanted to read those books in particular, but I read everything action-packed, fantasy and sci-fi-ish, and there weren't so many books around I hadn't read that I was going to let the fact they had that content stop me reading them.
Yet, ratings on fanfic, which is kind of a little silly to think about, when there are no ratings on books. Really, I feel like me putting "NC-17" on a fanfic is a bit of a joke, given the context.
The other week there was a comment going around Tumblr dismissing the idea of "R for violence", which I think is a bit stupid, to be honest, because since we do use ratings, seriously do not tell me that I cannot write something without one slightest whiff of sexual content that is not at least as devastatingly child-inappropriate as a graphic sex scene would generally be considered to be.
It's possible that my childhood reading had some lasting effect.
If there wasn't a convention to rate fanfic, I probably wouldn't, just like I frequently don't bother with warnings, because I'd rather people leap in and not have an outline already of what they're going to get. On the other hand, since there is an expectation of ratings, maybe that R rating is more of a declaration of intent, that I am going to do whatever the hell I want to in this fic, and you better be prepared for that. Frankly there are times when giving something an adult rating is gonna be the only way to prepare people for reading the thing.
It's topical for me at the moment because I have a gen fic which just so happens to be one of the most twisted little offerings I've ever written. Which is another thing that's bugging me at the moment, actually, because there's no hint of a slash relationship, but at the same time, I really, really want to put Duke/Nathan on it. Because the action and relationship between them in it is that intense. I probably can't excuse it, and for me the slash is there in all but the actual fact of inserting the overt suggestion in this story that these two guys might consider sleeping together. Which is kind of required content for slash. And yet with everything else that happens in the fic putting sex in the equation would almost be beside the point. It would be intrusive. It's not about that. It doesn't work.
Yet because it won't say Duke/Nathan on it, then from my calculations looking at the stats on AO3, it'll get about a quarter of the readership. Even though it's SO MUCH the boys and that relationship, in horrible, deep, visceral ways that just so happen to not have anything to do with sex. I'm just so, it's Duke/Nathan. It is. It's just nothing to do with sex. I have no idea what to do about this. I don't know how to fucking label the thing. I don't know how to rate the thing.
And lately I'm feeling a bit cynical about the gulf I'm noticing between the shipper stuff and the gen. So shoot me.
I could put on it 'Duke/Nathan (friendship)', except it's not. And you stick that label on something and it sounds like it's ruling out slash, or love, or saying "and don't let your brain wander into those nasty dirty slashy areas, this is purely platonic!", and it ain't so. Just like sticking 'gen' on something, as far as I'm concerned, only means I'm choosing not to enter into the subject of sex (or not to go any further than canon representations of relationships, in some cases). It doesn't mean purge your brain of the subject for the duration of this fic because the author won't stand for it. To give a recent fic example, I don't regard there to be much difference in the relationship between Duke and Nathan in Silencer than the one in Sea Change, except the latter one is validated with a kiss. (The fics themselves are worlds apart, though, comedy vs. drama-angst.) ((Something like Unbreakable is probably a different kettle of fish, entirely, since sex-as-characterisation/sex-as-character-arc becomes a big issue there.))
Holy crap, I have rambled. And now I am going home.