The Rec Center #178
Hello all! This week I’m very excited to have guest reccer Karin’s explainer and fic recs for THE TERROR, a show I shamefully have yet to see, given my love of historical dramas that involve ships. But perfect timing: as of this week, the first season is on Hulu, so I can rectify that immediately. We also have our usual mix of articles and posts from Tumblr & Twitter, including some exquisite renderings of Game of Thrones actors being interviewed about the final season. — Elizabeth
new stuff
“Shady Numbers And Bad Business: Inside The Esports Bubble” by Cecilia D’Anastasio at Kotaku
“‘I feel like esports is almost running a Ponzi scheme at this point,’ Frank Fields, Corsair’s sponsorship manager, told an audience at San Francisco’s Game Developers Conference last March. He smirked. The crowd laughed uncomfortably.”
“should we be archiving our digital lives? and how?” by Marianne Eloise at i-D
Not *strictly* about fandom specifically, but Elizabeth was quoted at length about personal digital archiving, which is especially relevant six months on from the Great Tumblr Meltdown.
Stroke Recovery Fund for Poet Richard Siken
Fandom’s favorite poet Richard Siken recently had a stroke, and is in need of financial support. You can donate to his recovery fund here—his expenses will definitely exceed the initial fundraising goal.
older stuff
“6 Ways That Fanfiction Makes Your Writing Stronger” by Vivian Shaw at Tor
“Fanfiction is a discipline of its own, and it can teach you some specific things that will be of use to you in whatever kind of writing you choose to pursue.”
tumblr & beyond
Supervillains announcing their plans is actually a union thing.
The year is 2027. The Met Gala theme is Dashcon.
Spider-Man tries to avoid underage drinking without giving away his secret identity.
Only one Jedi is allowed to fuck.
“your au isn’t completely canon compliant”
fanfiction + explainer: the terror
Karin works for a Big Tech Company, reads buckets of history, and has contributed at Tor.com. She goes by hangingfire at Twitter, Tumblr, and AO3, and is still chuffed about her Terror fic getting listed in Rec Center #157.
The Terror was adapted for TV (and arguably improved) by Dave Kajganich (Suspiria) and Soo Hugh (Under the Dome) from Dan Simmons’s 2007 horror-novel fictionalization of the lost Franklin Expedition of 1845. The introduction of the first episode lays out the known facts for you:
The series begins with HMS Erebus and Terror a year into their mission. Expedition leader and Erebus captain Sir John Franklin (Ciaran Hinds), distinguished explorer and political failure, is confident of success. His second-in-command Francis Crozier (Jared Harris), the embittered and alcoholic captain of Terror, is not nearly as certain. A high-handed navigation decision by Franklin results in the ships becoming icebound in Victoria Strait. The following summer, the sea ice fails to thaw and the expedition’s circumstances worsen; they also fall afoul of an Inuit spirit that begins picking off the men. But far worse than a giant spirit bear are the creeping disease, fear, and madness slowly overtaking the crew.
The Terror is tightly-written, strongly-acted survival horror. The cinematography is so beautiful that it hurts. And it’s special because it’s more than a miserable descent into slow death; it’s about humanity and decency amidst the worst extremes of existence. What makes a character in The Terror heroic isn’t being a toxic Man’s Man; it’s being compassionate and loving one’s fellows in the face of absolutely certain doom. Fans especially love the evolving relationship between Crozier and golden boy officer James Fitzjames (Tobias Menzies), as well as the sweet and steely goodness of Harry Goodsir (Paul Ready) (yes, the actual name of Erebus’s assistant surgeon) and his friendship with the Inuit woman known as Lady Silence (Nive Nielsen), who has a fraught connection to the predatory spirit. The true villainy of Cornelius Hickey (Adam Nagaitis) is his profound, murderous selfishness; for him, no step is too far to survive—not even cannibalism.
I could enumerate the virtues of every significant character and go on forever about why I love The Terror—excellent writing, obsession-inspiring historical depth, the fact that the main female character has her own arc and agency and is never threatened with sexual violence (or an obligatory romance), the late Marcus Fjellström’s spooky, gorgeous music—but I’m running out of space, so let’s dive into some recs. In the small-but-mighty Terror fandom, you’ll find quality fic as well Tumblr content that ranges from dissertation-worthy levels of research to the dankest of memes and shitposts (the latter because we know we have to find our laughs where we can). — Karin
“Stories Yet to Tell” by kiev4am 3.8K words, rated Teen.
Ship: Francis Crozier/James Fitzjames.
Backstory: Fix-its in this fandom range from “my favorite character survives” to “just this once, everybody lives.” This falls on the latter end of the scale.
Rec: I really enjoy the dialogue and the POV of steward John Bridgens here, and also the fact that it incorporates one of the more ludicrous details from William Battersby’s biography of James Fitzjames. It’s the fix-it I always hand to someone after they’ve just finished the show.
Content warnings: N/A
“The Man That Never Was” by dottore_polidori. 7.2K words, rated Mature.
Ship: Cornelius Hickey/Original male character
Backstory: How Cornelius Hickey came to be the man we see in the show, escaping an impoverished childhood through theft and murder.
Rec: The TV show made Cornelius Hickey much more compelling (and, importantly, initially sympathetic) than Dan Simmons’s original pantomime bad guy. This story takes the show’s hints at his background and further explores what might have shaped him.
Content warnings: Graphic violence, depiction of youth sex work
“on rats and men” by potted_music. 4.7K words, rated Explicit.
Ship: Cornelius Hickey/William Gibson
Backstory: You will probably ask yourself at some point, “why in God’s name does Billy Gibson put up with Cornelius Hickey?”, and this story does a great job of answering that question.
Rec: This is a really great look into Gibson’s head, a character more sinned against than sinning, and also features excellent research and nautical detail, two things that make me weak in historical fandoms.
Content warnings: Passing references to period homophobia and animal cruelty
“On Infatuation (A Case Study)” by Key of MGY. 3.6K words, rated Teen.
Ships: Harry Goodsir/Lady Silence, John Bridges/Henry Peglar
Backstory: An utterly charming coffeeshop AU in which Harry is a postgrad and Silence the cute girl playing ukulele at the shop. (Death-free AUs are also very popular in this fandom.)
Rec: Confession: normally I cannot abide coffeeshop AUs. No shade to anyone who likes them; I just have a profound and irrational distaste for them. This one won me over. The author also has a wonderful, minutely-researched WIP multi-chapter Harry Goodsir fix-it, “All That’s Left to Chart.”
Content warnings: N/A
“the taming of the shrew (and by the shrew, Thomas Blanky means a giant flesh-eating ice demon; and Tuunbaq means a puny one-legged human)” by potted_music. 10K words, rated Explicit.
Ship: Thomas Blanky/Tuunbaq
Backstory: The last we see of Terror’s snarky ice master, Thomas Blanky, he’s facing down his death in the form of the spirit bear known as the Tuunbaq. But what if that encounter goes somewhere else entirely?
Rec: I’m in awe of the fact that a seemingly pure-crack pairing actually becomes something genuinely moving by the end, and it’s a joy to spend more time with Blanky.
Content warnings: Does it count as bestiality if it’s a supernatural being?
“Aukkanik” by Ias. 2.8K words, rated Gen.
Ship: Harry Goodsir/Lady Silence
Backstory: Harry and Lady Silence’s relationship is so good, not least because the showrunners could have made it a typical romance and emphatically didn’t (which, ironically, makes a lot of us ship it even harder).
Rec: This story has a lovely dreamy atmosphere that you wish could last forever for both of these lovable characters.
Content warnings: N/A
“like honey” by Askance. 4.2K words, rated Mature.
Ship: John Bridgens/Henry Peglar
Backstory: Backstory for the best bookworms in love. The delicate portrayal of this relationship is a small highlight of the show, and it’s nice to see them in happier days.
Rec: A beautifully tender story, and the weaving-in of historical detail is subtle and poignant. (Incidentally, if you don’t know about the Peglar Papers, go be enlightened; it’s one of the many fascinating and frustrating fragments that remain of the Franklin Expedition.)
Content warnings: References to period homophobia.
Postscript: The Terror’s second season, premiering in August, is a new, unrelated story called The Terror: Infamy. It’s about a Japanese-American family interned under Executive Order 9066—an important (and all too topical) story that I’m thrilled is getting told on American TV. Season 1 of The Terror is now available on Hulu, and you can buy the seasons on Amazon Prime and iTunes.
FINAL THOUGHT
That’s all, folks! Everyone have a great weekend, and we’ll be back next week with multifandom Regency AU fic recs, so tell your friends. — Gav
Have a favorite one-off rec? Please send it our way! We’ll use it in a future list. Other fanworks—comics, vids, zines, etc—are strongly encouraged as well. And if you have any interest in doing an entire rec list, explainer, or ship manifesto, please get in touch! elizabethandgav at gmail dot com.
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