Snowflake Challenge: Themes and Motifs
Jan. 27th, 2020 11:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
author_by_night Share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme
First, I gotta ask, and this isn't a criticism at all - am I the only person in fandom who doesn't care that much about sex? It would never, ever occur to me to read a fic specifically for a kink, or have a long conversation about which characters secretly want to do it, or who I'd fuck, kill, marry. Maybe that's why I'm more of a fandom outlier these days. Now, I do not judge anyone - you (universally) love what you love, and that's cool. It's just not something I personally care about. And I rarely read kinky stuff in fic. Or R-rated fics at all, really. (Which isn't to say the media I consume is squeaky clean. Some of it's on the tamer side, but some of it decidedly NOT tame. Looking at you, Fifty Shades of Furrowed Brows/Earth's Children.) Anyway, I'd love to know if there are any other non-kinky buzzkills out there. ;)
As far as motifs and tropes in ORIGINAL works go, I definitely like worlds where at least a few characters generally get along. There *are* exceptions - for instance, I loved 30 Rock, and none of the characters are overly sympathetic or really rooting for each other. But even then, you still at least have Liz and Jack, and Tracy and Kenneth, and Dot Com and Grizz. (I would've watched a Dot Com and Grizz spinoff.) I'm not averse to characters having conflicts here and there at all, because isn't that what makes a storyline good? Conflict? Still, it's easier to relate to the characters when they're pointing their guns at a common enemy rather than each other.
I also like to see worlds where there's more than one kickass leading lady. I feel so many works in the past especially have really just made do with one character is kickass, and everyone else is a bland or cliche female character. It's always nice to see more women sharing the spotlight.
With respect to fanworks, I love fanworks that explore backstory, missing moments, alternative POVs, minor characters, speculation on future canon events, stuff like that. Which is probably the biggest reason I'm not so into kinks - it's just not what I'm here for, usually.
First, I gotta ask, and this isn't a criticism at all - am I the only person in fandom who doesn't care that much about sex? It would never, ever occur to me to read a fic specifically for a kink, or have a long conversation about which characters secretly want to do it, or who I'd fuck, kill, marry. Maybe that's why I'm more of a fandom outlier these days. Now, I do not judge anyone - you (universally) love what you love, and that's cool. It's just not something I personally care about. And I rarely read kinky stuff in fic. Or R-rated fics at all, really. (Which isn't to say the media I consume is squeaky clean. Some of it's on the tamer side, but some of it decidedly NOT tame. Looking at you, Fifty Shades of Furrowed Brows/Earth's Children.) Anyway, I'd love to know if there are any other non-kinky buzzkills out there. ;)
As far as motifs and tropes in ORIGINAL works go, I definitely like worlds where at least a few characters generally get along. There *are* exceptions - for instance, I loved 30 Rock, and none of the characters are overly sympathetic or really rooting for each other. But even then, you still at least have Liz and Jack, and Tracy and Kenneth, and Dot Com and Grizz. (I would've watched a Dot Com and Grizz spinoff.) I'm not averse to characters having conflicts here and there at all, because isn't that what makes a storyline good? Conflict? Still, it's easier to relate to the characters when they're pointing their guns at a common enemy rather than each other.
I also like to see worlds where there's more than one kickass leading lady. I feel so many works in the past especially have really just made do with one character is kickass, and everyone else is a bland or cliche female character. It's always nice to see more women sharing the spotlight.
With respect to fanworks, I love fanworks that explore backstory, missing moments, alternative POVs, minor characters, speculation on future canon events, stuff like that. Which is probably the biggest reason I'm not so into kinks - it's just not what I'm here for, usually.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-28 03:30 pm (UTC)An essay I read about kink a few days ago made me realise that kink is not always about the characters having sex – although I think that there usually is a sex scene in a kinky fanfic – but anything that the reader finds erotic (even if sometimes the characters or even the writer don’t). I suppose there’s something I find erotic in a lot of the fic I write – but perhaps my kink is so unusual that it doesn’t work like that for readers.
In any case you’re certainly not alone, as the earlier comments here have shown. I hope that in this changed fandom it is easier to find what to read – if not necessarily readers for your fic – when people search stories on AO3 on the basis of tags and ratings. I don’t know how small a minority we who are not into sex and not so much into romance, either, are, and it must vary between fandoms, subfandoms and characters. (For instance, I used to feel that very few people who cared about my favourite pair of protagonists, Remus and Sirius, were interested in fics without sex, but of course even in this corner there are writers and readers of fluffy kissing fics, not so many interested in not-romance-or-sex-centred ones.)
no subject
Date: 2020-01-28 10:24 pm (UTC)and I found it hard to explain it without giving the impression that I had something against other people writing high-rated, explicit sex scenes.
Exactly! Not liking something doesn't mean you judge.
(For instance, I used to feel that very few people who cared about my favourite pair of protagonists, Remus and Sirius, were interested in fics without sex,
I can see why you'd think that, but I imagine a lot of R/S shippers are perfectly content with them just being together but doing other things.