![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So... in one sense this is obvious, but a comment I saw recently on a H/D fic brought it to the front of my mind again.
The comment was in response to Draco declaring his undying hate for Harry, and basically said 'ah yes, classic H/D story...' And it made me wonder what is it about shipfic that makes people read almost identical scenarios over and over? (This isn't restricted to fanfic, of course: most romance novels follow a formula of arrogant bloke gradually revealed to be (or becoming) respectful of Our Heroine. And even within romance genre there are the subsections of medical romance, historical etc.)
It's been brought home to me, recently, as I've started reading more Lucius/Hermione again. A few years ago there were very few good Lucius/Hermione stories out there, and the whole scenario was so improbably that there were a variety of creative ways of bringing it about. Now, with Lucius having survived DH, much Lucius/Hermione tends to be set post-canon, with Hermione working at the Ministry and Lucius climbing back into respectability. And, much as I enjoy reading it, I wonder how long variations on what is essentially the same plot can remain interesting.
I'd be interested to know what those of you sailing longer established ships may think? Do Harry/Draco stories, say, tend to fall into similar plotlines, or do the characters allow for more variation, or does the sheer number of writes force acceptance of more 'out there' variations than might work in a smaller ship? And has the 'end of canon' led to a narrowing of focus, or are the variations on the theme still as variable as they ever were?
It's long struck me that shipfic scratches a particular itch in people - I've watched friends wander down paths that I can't follow because at some visceral level I just don't get what they're exploring - even if the characterisation is brilliant and I appreciate the story on that level, I'm aware of missing out on something running through the heart of it. And likewise I know in myself that in my writing and reading I'm trying to dig into something that I can barely define.
Luciusfic lends itself particularly to exploring issues of power. And at root, I suspect this is why its seen a marked drop since DH: while seeing him weak may make him a far more interesting character, he is no longer a symbol of power that we can throughourselves 'our' characters against. (Not that those weaknesses weren't always apparent, of course, but their consequences were always offpage before, apart from the end of CoS, which admittedly showed him not to be invincible but didn't rub his face in it.)
Narcissa/Lucius fics, in which the protagonists are usually portrayed of roughly equal social status, power conflicts tend to be drawn along gender or dynastic lines. It also lends itself to wealth wish-fulfillment fantasies, and regency-type romances without the bother of getting the period details right. But that isn't getting to the heart of it, perhaps because these fics don't suck me in - I'll certainly read them, but they don't call to me. Maybe if gender issues were more important to me they would - or maybe I'm completely misjudging the ship?
I suppose I can only really talk about Lucius/Hermione with any sort of insider perspective. Here the power conflicts are between different value systems, and the struggle to be/feel respected for oneself rather than one's position in society. And while I love the snark, I wonder how much of its appeal for me is related to my deep distaste towards
I wonder if Lucius/Narcissa stories appeal more to people who are willing to enter into the escapism of wealth, while Lucius/Hermione stories appeal more to people who are more inclined to challenge that? Though equally, Lucius/Hermione stories can also lend themselves to wealth-wish-fulfillment, but with a heroine who can stand on her own two feet, thank you very much (maybe the reason the more recent L/H fics don't grip me in the same way is that they don't evoke so much of the dynamic that drew me to the ship in the first place).
And as for Lucius/Harry, Lucius/Snape and others... I can't comment on the depths of slash, as on some fundamental level I just don't get the appeal. But I'm curious about buttons they press - is there something about slash as opposed to het? Are, say, the differences between Lucius/Harry and Lucius Hermione primarily character-based, or is the removal of gender difference in slash the central point? Are there issues common to all cross-gen pairings? Does Harry/Lucius have more in common with Harry/Draco or Lucius/Snape?
And then there's Ron/Hermione...
In the end, does character-driven shipfic just enable us to scratch our own particular psychological itches? Is it porn for the soul?
The comment was in response to Draco declaring his undying hate for Harry, and basically said 'ah yes, classic H/D story...' And it made me wonder what is it about shipfic that makes people read almost identical scenarios over and over? (This isn't restricted to fanfic, of course: most romance novels follow a formula of arrogant bloke gradually revealed to be (or becoming) respectful of Our Heroine. And even within romance genre there are the subsections of medical romance, historical etc.)
It's been brought home to me, recently, as I've started reading more Lucius/Hermione again. A few years ago there were very few good Lucius/Hermione stories out there, and the whole scenario was so improbably that there were a variety of creative ways of bringing it about. Now, with Lucius having survived DH, much Lucius/Hermione tends to be set post-canon, with Hermione working at the Ministry and Lucius climbing back into respectability. And, much as I enjoy reading it, I wonder how long variations on what is essentially the same plot can remain interesting.
I'd be interested to know what those of you sailing longer established ships may think? Do Harry/Draco stories, say, tend to fall into similar plotlines, or do the characters allow for more variation, or does the sheer number of writes force acceptance of more 'out there' variations than might work in a smaller ship? And has the 'end of canon' led to a narrowing of focus, or are the variations on the theme still as variable as they ever were?
It's long struck me that shipfic scratches a particular itch in people - I've watched friends wander down paths that I can't follow because at some visceral level I just don't get what they're exploring - even if the characterisation is brilliant and I appreciate the story on that level, I'm aware of missing out on something running through the heart of it. And likewise I know in myself that in my writing and reading I'm trying to dig into something that I can barely define.
Luciusfic lends itself particularly to exploring issues of power. And at root, I suspect this is why its seen a marked drop since DH: while seeing him weak may make him a far more interesting character, he is no longer a symbol of power that we can through
Narcissa/Lucius fics, in which the protagonists are usually portrayed of roughly equal social status, power conflicts tend to be drawn along gender or dynastic lines. It also lends itself to wealth wish-fulfillment fantasies, and regency-type romances without the bother of getting the period details right. But that isn't getting to the heart of it, perhaps because these fics don't suck me in - I'll certainly read them, but they don't call to me. Maybe if gender issues were more important to me they would - or maybe I'm completely misjudging the ship?
I suppose I can only really talk about Lucius/Hermione with any sort of insider perspective. Here the power conflicts are between different value systems, and the struggle to be/feel respected for oneself rather than one's position in society. And while I love the snark, I wonder how much of its appeal for me is related to my deep distaste towards
I wonder if Lucius/Narcissa stories appeal more to people who are willing to enter into the escapism of wealth, while Lucius/Hermione stories appeal more to people who are more inclined to challenge that? Though equally, Lucius/Hermione stories can also lend themselves to wealth-wish-fulfillment, but with a heroine who can stand on her own two feet, thank you very much (maybe the reason the more recent L/H fics don't grip me in the same way is that they don't evoke so much of the dynamic that drew me to the ship in the first place).
And as for Lucius/Harry, Lucius/Snape and others... I can't comment on the depths of slash, as on some fundamental level I just don't get the appeal. But I'm curious about buttons they press - is there something about slash as opposed to het? Are, say, the differences between Lucius/Harry and Lucius Hermione primarily character-based, or is the removal of gender difference in slash the central point? Are there issues common to all cross-gen pairings? Does Harry/Lucius have more in common with Harry/Draco or Lucius/Snape?
And then there's Ron/Hermione...
In the end, does character-driven shipfic just enable us to scratch our own particular psychological itches? Is it porn for the soul?
