On Person of Interest Fanfic
Mar. 21st, 2013 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rheasilviaOnce I had determined that Person of Interest shows a very interesting relationship, and had watched all the eps there were to watch, I went looking for fanfic. This is my normal modus operandi.
About slash fanfic, or the comparative scarcity thereof.
For some reason, I'd formed an impression of the POI fandom as fairly large and active. I don't know what exactly gave me this impression, because I hadn't had any contact with the fandom at all. Perhaps it was that several people on my friendslist regularly post about POI.
Anyway: I was surprised to find that the number of Reese/Finch slash stories fell far short of my expectations. Particularly longer stories seem to be in very short supply (if you'll pardon the pun).
I have yet to form a good theory on the reason(s) for this dismaying POI Slash Drought. Is the fandom simply less popular than I assumed? Are writers deterred because one of the protagonists is not classically handsome? Or is it something else entirely…?
About "undercover as a gay couple" fics.
Specifically: How come this fandom isn't full of "undercover as a gay couple" fics?
Since I first wrote this, one such story was actually posted. This is most definitely a step in the right direction! Carry on, please! :-) However, given how perfectly suited the fandom is for this particular cliché, I had expected a veritable flood of stories.
For example, canon practically cries out for a Reese/Finch story where their pursuit of a number takes them into a gay resort or gated community, or on a gay cruise, or some such. Most people automatically assume that the obviously filthy rich Finch is Reese's sugar daddy. Some are envious and/or incredulous – how did Finch manage to secure such a fine specimen of arm candy?! Others are contemptuous of one or both of them (because Reese would sell himself like that, and because Finch would buy someone and consider it something to be proud of).
Someone hits on Reese, and Finch doesn't react much at all, projecting cool confidence and the absolute conviction that Reese has no interest whatsoever in anyone else. And someone hits on Finch, and hey presto, the millionaire's indolent boytoy is suddenly all looming dead-eyed whispery menace, scaring the crap out of the hapless would-be interloper.
And one very smart person really gets it, and sees that Reese is not a boytoy at all, and Finch is not a sugar daddy. This person at some point confides in Reese that they're a little envious of Reese – for having found someone he's obviously so crazy about, and who is so crazy about him, and who complements him so perfectly.
Don't you think fandom needs a story like that? Not that I've thought about it or anything.
About all those other missing fics.
Undercover in a gay bar. (Totally distinct from "undercover as a gay couple"! No, really. Ahem.) Amnesia. Bodyswap. Fuck or die. Soulbonds. Telepathy. Everyone thinks they're doing it. One of them's a hooker. One of them is undercover as a hooker in a gay bar while having amnesia and stuck in the wrong body (get your mind out of the gutter, you know what I meant).
Needless to say, there need to be way more of the non-cliché kind of slash stories in this fandom, too. There need to be more POI slash stories of every kind, period.
Where are all the stories? Where??
I have found some truly excellent POI slash stories, mind you. Their number is just depressingly small.
About slash fanfic, or the comparative scarcity thereof.
For some reason, I'd formed an impression of the POI fandom as fairly large and active. I don't know what exactly gave me this impression, because I hadn't had any contact with the fandom at all. Perhaps it was that several people on my friendslist regularly post about POI.
Anyway: I was surprised to find that the number of Reese/Finch slash stories fell far short of my expectations. Particularly longer stories seem to be in very short supply (if you'll pardon the pun).
I have yet to form a good theory on the reason(s) for this dismaying POI Slash Drought. Is the fandom simply less popular than I assumed? Are writers deterred because one of the protagonists is not classically handsome? Or is it something else entirely…?
About "undercover as a gay couple" fics.
Specifically: How come this fandom isn't full of "undercover as a gay couple" fics?
Since I first wrote this, one such story was actually posted. This is most definitely a step in the right direction! Carry on, please! :-) However, given how perfectly suited the fandom is for this particular cliché, I had expected a veritable flood of stories.
For example, canon practically cries out for a Reese/Finch story where their pursuit of a number takes them into a gay resort or gated community, or on a gay cruise, or some such. Most people automatically assume that the obviously filthy rich Finch is Reese's sugar daddy. Some are envious and/or incredulous – how did Finch manage to secure such a fine specimen of arm candy?! Others are contemptuous of one or both of them (because Reese would sell himself like that, and because Finch would buy someone and consider it something to be proud of).
Someone hits on Reese, and Finch doesn't react much at all, projecting cool confidence and the absolute conviction that Reese has no interest whatsoever in anyone else. And someone hits on Finch, and hey presto, the millionaire's indolent boytoy is suddenly all looming dead-eyed whispery menace, scaring the crap out of the hapless would-be interloper.
And one very smart person really gets it, and sees that Reese is not a boytoy at all, and Finch is not a sugar daddy. This person at some point confides in Reese that they're a little envious of Reese – for having found someone he's obviously so crazy about, and who is so crazy about him, and who complements him so perfectly.
Don't you think fandom needs a story like that? Not that I've thought about it or anything.
About all those other missing fics.
Undercover in a gay bar. (Totally distinct from "undercover as a gay couple"! No, really. Ahem.) Amnesia. Bodyswap. Fuck or die. Soulbonds. Telepathy. Everyone thinks they're doing it. One of them's a hooker. One of them is undercover as a hooker in a gay bar while having amnesia and stuck in the wrong body (get your mind out of the gutter, you know what I meant).
Needless to say, there need to be way more of the non-cliché kind of slash stories in this fandom, too. There need to be more POI slash stories of every kind, period.
Where are all the stories? Where??
I have found some truly excellent POI slash stories, mind you. Their number is just depressingly small.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-20 08:17 am (UTC)(And trying to hang out more here on DW instead of always being on LJ, so may I friend you?)
no subject
Date: 2013-04-20 11:42 am (UTC)I've been in a good number of fandoms with female leads and other strong female characters, and I would say that Carter fans are probably not the reason for the relative scarcity of slash in POI. :-) My first fandom was X-Files, and Mulder/Scully shippers were everywhere - but at the same time, there were not one, but two huge and flourishing slash fandoms alongside the MSR fans. Mostly (barring some cases with flame problems), slash and het fans seem to coexist perfectly well in fandom, and not get in each others way much or draw fans away from each other.
In fact: I just checked the AO3 and found 426 fanfics for Reese/Finch, and 13 for Carter/Reese. Even assuming that there is a disproportionally large number of slash fans on the AO3, that's still a dramatic discrepancy that I feel is a good indication that it's not the preponderance of het fans that's getting in the way of the slash fanfic.
At this point I don't have a good theory on what the reason might be. Why do some fandoms catch on in the slash world and others just... don't? General popularity of the show no doubt has a lot to do with it, and I have a suspicion the conventional attractiveness of the male characters in question does too. Plus, there's the need for a "buzz" to build up in fandom, a kind of fannish momentum which automatically attracts new fans who read and write.
So: Yay for writing, and for writing long fic in particular! I think that's basically the best thing to be done to invigorate the slash fandom. :-)
no subject
Date: 2013-04-20 11:11 pm (UTC)It's hard to take those numbers on AO3 as definite -- as you say, there are more slashers on AO3 and some authors seem to write a hundred words or so and call it a story and post more than one a day so that makes additions to the numbers of fics. Not that I read on The Pit, but there the numbers are the reverse... waaaay more het. I guess, as I said, there is so much het discussion in the places I've been hanging out, which is kind of buzz killing to me. It's like Finch doesn't exist or only Carter can help or motivate Reese. Guh.
I'd like to see meaty fics that aren't pwps or about some sort of power dynamic between the characters. I think for me it harks back to the the early reason for slash, where having two men meant you didn't need the role playing associated with het romance stories and I still tend to like my slash more "even handed" so to speak. Not that the occasional role play fic or "I'll top tonight" isn't cool, and we all have our valid preferences in fics, but I'd like to see them more as equal partners.
Then again, there are those weird (from the slasher's viewpoint) fans who think there shouldn't be anything "non-canonical" in fic and that the whole world of fandom sees everything as slash and "Reese loved Jessica and Finch had Grace so they're definitely two hetero men!" (yes, I did read that exact statement in someone's lj post awhile back. As if bi-sexuality is non-existent. )
I see what you're saying about X-Files -- though I wasn't in that fandom, who wouldn't know about Mulder/Krychek or Mulder/Skinner? And there are those H50 fans who write about Steve and Catherine and other het pairings... I just don't have to keep reading their fannish discussions since there are comms that support those parts of that fandom. So far, I guess due to size, POI just seems to have a main community or two where all fans are welcome and that's not a bad thing, but after being told recently that the roof top scene was a "let down" after the hallway scene with Carter... I think you get my drift.
You said something about the attractiveness of the characters? Are you saying you think that Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson aren't as hot as say... IDK, the men on Teen Wolf or H50? Or that they are "older" -- heh, there were those in Sentinel who thought Jim Ellison was too old, which possibly explains why so many younger fangirls were into Blair. (I hope my love for them isn't just because I'm one of those "older" fans, lol. )
I did recently find meme_of_interest over here which seems to be generating a good bit of slash. That's promising.
Maybe as more authors show up the slash will snowball. We can hope.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-21 12:53 am (UTC)Yeah... not a bad thing per se, but still, it is more relaxing for slashers to have their own corner. Most het fans are perfectly reasonable, but there are always those crazies who feel like implying a characters might be interested in someone of the same gender is somehow besmirching and ruining the character OMG!! *headdesk* Reading that kind of thing all the time can totally stress you out...
Also, weird how the canon-thumpers never thump canon when it strangely doesn't explicitly include their het ship of choice, either.
I think for me it harks back to the the early reason for slash, where having two men meant you didn't need the role playing associated with het romance stories
You too? Yes! Sadly enough, in some ways m/m relationships are the only ones that allow you to get away from the inherent hierarchical structures built into m/f relationships by the world we live in. In fandoms where the usual m/f power imbalance is reversed and there is a truly strong and interesting female character, I do sometimes ship het - like Buffy and Spike, or Cameron and John Connor in The Sarah Connor Chronicles. But usually, it's only m/m that starts out the characters on even ground, without the automatic assumptions that still go along with the social roles of men and women in modern society.
I have a theory that this is part of the attractiveness of slash for many fans. It's just so relaxing to be able to focus on two people without all the baggage of gender stereotypes and expected roles and social hierarchies - just two people, with their relationship determined solely by who they are, not their gender.
I'd like to see them more as equal partners
Generally speaking, I do too. But even when they're not equals, in slash it's not because of gender.
In POI, I do think there are some dependancies that land heavily in the court of one character. But I like it a lot because the dynamic between the characters fascinates me, and in the case of these two, it really works for me. If one of them were a woman - then, the entire situation would shift, and I think I could not put up with the dependancy issues I see in the show; it would be too much of an echo of expected, clishéd gender roles that always put my hackles up.
Are you saying you think that Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson aren't as hot as say... IDK, the men on Teen Wolf or H50? Or that they are "older"
My own judgement on attractiveness can be a bit off the beaten track. ;-) I wasn't talking about my personal opinion, but rather what I think of as "conventional attractiveness". Reese is cast to be conventionally attractive, IMO, even though he might be a bit older than the usual action-type protagonist; Finch, OTOH, is not. If Finch were played by, say, George Clooney or Hugh Jackman or someone of the kind, I think the situation might be very different. (And also, the character would not work at all. *g* But I hope you know what I mean despite my bad examples! I merely think that Finch is not cast to be conventionally attractive.)
Fans can be depressingly predictable in some ways. Take Harry Potter fandom... as soon as I saw they actor they'd cast for young Voldemort was gorgeous, I just knew apologists were going to come stampeding out of the woodworks. And lo and behold, so it was. I will bet you anything that had he been ugly, not many fans would have felt such sudden sympathy and the urge to excuse his actions and slash him with all and sundry.
Of course there are also cases where a canon has a huge slash following despite not having two conventionally attractive leads. It's just one factor, but it can definitely make a huge difference, I think.
meme_of_interest is wonderful! I am loving it to bits. And it seems the POI slash fans are gaining momentum apace! We have hope yet. :-)