Thinky-thoughts about ST:XI fandom
Jun. 15th, 2009 12:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
emmagrant01I've been in big-F Fandom for 7 years now (OMG), and I'm really enjoying rolling around in all the shiny new-ish-ness that is ST:XI. Not new in that the characters have been slashed by people since before I was born, but new to most of the folks on my flist who are reading and writing it after watching the film. I've never managed to come into a fandom in the beginning before (and I do consider the reboot a new beginning), and so I'm really enjoying this moment.
Here are some thoughts on this fandom, in no particular order. Lots of navel-gazing, sorry.
1. It's been a long time since I have felt so obsessively compelled to read and write fic, and I missed that feeling SO much. When I lost it after the last HP book came out, I was so sad. I had trouble motivating myself to write, and basically stopped reading fic. How much I want to read fic is a sort of barometer for how much I'm into a fandom, so it scared me when I stopped wanting to read HP fic. I'm still sad about that, and I hope I get interested again when the next movie comes out, but for now I am LOVING feeling obsessed again!
2. For the first time in, well, EVER, DH and I share a fandom. It's so, so cool to be able to be all nerdy with him, even if he isn't into it in quite the same way. We're re-watching ST:TOS together, and it's awesome to hear him go on and on about each episode and what's important about it, or what the continuity errors are, etc. Fandom is something I always did alone in my house, but having him be the one with all the detailed info is so much fun!
3. Like everyone else, I've been aware of Kirk/Spock since I first got into fandom. It's funny how I assumed that when this movie came out, I'd be all about the K/S, but that was totally not what happened. I like reading K/S, but it's not as attractive to me as Kirk/McCoy. There are a lot of reasons why that's true, I think, but it's interesting to me that the Kirk/McCoy is what I'm obsessing about.
4. As we're re-watching TOS, I totally see the Kirk/McCoy vibes. Granted, we're still in the first season, and I expect it to change, but the looks between those two, OMG! McCoy is usually staring longingly after Kirk in every scene he's in. It's stunning, really. In the past, all I've ever seen is the K/S (which I still see, of course). I don't know why this pairing never occurred to me before. Okay, I do. It's all about Urban, really...
5. DH said he always thought Bones was gay. In fact, when I told him I was shipping Kirk/McCoy,he said, "Well, that makes more sense than Kirk and Spock, since McCoy is actually gay." He didn't have a particular reason why; he just said McCoy always set off his gaydar. I find that really interesting.
6. I'm finding that my reading tastes (and writing, for that matter) are pretty narrow at the moment. For the most part, what I want to read are smutty, first-time, minimal-plot, not-too-schmoopy Kirk/McCoy fics. Fortunately for me, there are a lot of them out there! If it starts to feel like a Trek episode in the making, I tend to hit the back-button, unless the set-up for that first-time sex is really good and sucks me in from the beginning. *is shallow* This is odd because, in the other fandoms I've been in, I loved me some long, plotty fics.
7. I am loving how tolerant this fandom is of crack! Half the fics I've read have had unbelievably cracky premises, and no one even warns for it! It's awesome! I;m guessing this is because TOS itself was so freaking cracky that there's not much you can do that wouldn't make sense in that universe. Even crossovers seem pretty tame. The last TOS episode we watched was "Shore Leave", and that was pretty damn cracktastic.
8. I know I was AWOL for 18 months doing the mommy thing, but I am still amazed at how quickly the internet lingo changed. I come back and there's a whole new language! It's all "I'll be in my bunk" and "This is relevant to my interests" and "I am subscribing to your newsletter". It took me ages to figure out what Captcha was, and why people kept quoting it and even writing fics based on its prompts.
9. I uploaded my own ST fics to my web site and Skyehawke last night, and there are no character listings for the TOS characters on Skyehawke! What gives? Is there really no Old-School Trek fic on Skyehawke???
10. I know the old-school Trek fic is what got us all where we are today, but I have a hard time reading it. I feel bad about that, but I am all the the reboot characterizations, I'm afraid. I adore the ways the universe was changed, and how rough around the edges the characters are. I like my Kirk a cocky slut with a juvenile arrest record, my Bones snarky and bitter, my Spock dipping his toes in his human emotions at a younger age than Spock Prime ever did, my Scotty being played hilariously by Simon Pegg, my Chekov being adorkable jailbait, my Sulu being a BAMF with a sword, and my Uhura kicking ass and taking names. I even love me some Spock/Uhura, man. Can you see Spock Prime getting it on with one of his students? I thought not. ;-)
Tell me what you love about this fandom!
Here are some thoughts on this fandom, in no particular order. Lots of navel-gazing, sorry.
1. It's been a long time since I have felt so obsessively compelled to read and write fic, and I missed that feeling SO much. When I lost it after the last HP book came out, I was so sad. I had trouble motivating myself to write, and basically stopped reading fic. How much I want to read fic is a sort of barometer for how much I'm into a fandom, so it scared me when I stopped wanting to read HP fic. I'm still sad about that, and I hope I get interested again when the next movie comes out, but for now I am LOVING feeling obsessed again!
2. For the first time in, well, EVER, DH and I share a fandom. It's so, so cool to be able to be all nerdy with him, even if he isn't into it in quite the same way. We're re-watching ST:TOS together, and it's awesome to hear him go on and on about each episode and what's important about it, or what the continuity errors are, etc. Fandom is something I always did alone in my house, but having him be the one with all the detailed info is so much fun!
3. Like everyone else, I've been aware of Kirk/Spock since I first got into fandom. It's funny how I assumed that when this movie came out, I'd be all about the K/S, but that was totally not what happened. I like reading K/S, but it's not as attractive to me as Kirk/McCoy. There are a lot of reasons why that's true, I think, but it's interesting to me that the Kirk/McCoy is what I'm obsessing about.
4. As we're re-watching TOS, I totally see the Kirk/McCoy vibes. Granted, we're still in the first season, and I expect it to change, but the looks between those two, OMG! McCoy is usually staring longingly after Kirk in every scene he's in. It's stunning, really. In the past, all I've ever seen is the K/S (which I still see, of course). I don't know why this pairing never occurred to me before. Okay, I do. It's all about Urban, really...
5. DH said he always thought Bones was gay. In fact, when I told him I was shipping Kirk/McCoy,he said, "Well, that makes more sense than Kirk and Spock, since McCoy is actually gay." He didn't have a particular reason why; he just said McCoy always set off his gaydar. I find that really interesting.
6. I'm finding that my reading tastes (and writing, for that matter) are pretty narrow at the moment. For the most part, what I want to read are smutty, first-time, minimal-plot, not-too-schmoopy Kirk/McCoy fics. Fortunately for me, there are a lot of them out there! If it starts to feel like a Trek episode in the making, I tend to hit the back-button, unless the set-up for that first-time sex is really good and sucks me in from the beginning. *is shallow* This is odd because, in the other fandoms I've been in, I loved me some long, plotty fics.
7. I am loving how tolerant this fandom is of crack! Half the fics I've read have had unbelievably cracky premises, and no one even warns for it! It's awesome! I;m guessing this is because TOS itself was so freaking cracky that there's not much you can do that wouldn't make sense in that universe. Even crossovers seem pretty tame. The last TOS episode we watched was "Shore Leave", and that was pretty damn cracktastic.
8. I know I was AWOL for 18 months doing the mommy thing, but I am still amazed at how quickly the internet lingo changed. I come back and there's a whole new language! It's all "I'll be in my bunk" and "This is relevant to my interests" and "I am subscribing to your newsletter". It took me ages to figure out what Captcha was, and why people kept quoting it and even writing fics based on its prompts.
9. I uploaded my own ST fics to my web site and Skyehawke last night, and there are no character listings for the TOS characters on Skyehawke! What gives? Is there really no Old-School Trek fic on Skyehawke???
10. I know the old-school Trek fic is what got us all where we are today, but I have a hard time reading it. I feel bad about that, but I am all the the reboot characterizations, I'm afraid. I adore the ways the universe was changed, and how rough around the edges the characters are. I like my Kirk a cocky slut with a juvenile arrest record, my Bones snarky and bitter, my Spock dipping his toes in his human emotions at a younger age than Spock Prime ever did, my Scotty being played hilariously by Simon Pegg, my Chekov being adorkable jailbait, my Sulu being a BAMF with a sword, and my Uhura kicking ass and taking names. I even love me some Spock/Uhura, man. Can you see Spock Prime getting it on with one of his students? I thought not. ;-)
Tell me what you love about this fandom!
