The Rec Center #180
Happy Friday, everyone! This week we have a wonderful Good Omens explainer and rec list from guest editor Kira, along with some accompanying fanart, coverage of AO3’s exemplary tagging system, and more. — Gav
new stuff
“Fans are better than tech at organizing information online” by Gretchen McCulloch at Wired
On AO3’s tags and tag wranglers—and what the tech industry can learn from fans about organizing information online.
“How Star Trek’s warp drive touches on one of physics’ biggest mysteries” by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein at the New Scientist
“Star Trek’s light speed engines may not be possible in our universe, but we are learning more about the particles that fuel them.”
older stuff
“There’s More Than One Way to Dress for Disney” by Stephie Grob Plante at Racked
There’s been some interesting coverage recently about Disney’s policies for Star Wars costumes in the new Galaxy’s Edge—namely, that you can’t wear costumes, even the ones they sell, but you can do something they call “Disneybounding.” This is a policy across their parks, and this piece digs into “Disneybounding”—a fascinating look at cosplay/fannish norms under a very strong corporate hand.
tumblr & beyond
If John Mulaney opened with the Darth Plagueis monologue.
Crowley is an idiot.
But on the bright side, Aziraphale is... also an idiot?
This Superman fanart is so cute. ;__;
“no popular pairings we die like men who have read all 23 fics of our rarepair on AO3”
fanfiction + explainer: good omens
Kira is a multi-fandom shipper who splits her time between worrying about verb forms and trying to keep up with 90s pop culture. She is currently between platforms, but will most likely be found at a-softer-butch wherever she ends up.
If you hadn’t heard of Good Omens before, you probably did in the last two weeks—after the miniseries adaptation was released and took the internet by storm. The story of a Biblical apocalypse and the angel and demon trying to prevent it, the nearly thirty-year-old book fandom is experiencing a new growth spurt thanks to the show. For new fans it’s well worth digging into the older parts of fandom and the huge amounts of content therein.
Good Omens has a long history as a slash fandom; while perhaps not a grandparent of slash, it’s at least a favourite aunt. Aziraphale and Crowley’s relationship in the book is that of an old married couple, an interpretation that was only bolstered by the authors’ revelation that post-canon they were sharing a cottage in the South Downs. There are multiple fandom introductions/starter packs, and a great place to dig into the history of the fandom is Lower Tadfield Air Base, a Livejournal community that’s been running since 2003. This was the centre of the fandom for many years, and is meticulously tagged for easy browsing. The recs tag is an excellent place to start if you want to see what people were recommending back in the day.
Day and Night Shifts by Polarain
Despite (or due to?) the lack of official visual interpretations of characters until now, the fandom has produced huge amounts of fanart, gif sets and fancasts. Most characters in the book are described fairly loosely, so while depictions have tended to default to white (thanks to the show you can now carbon date a lot of works by whether Crowley’s hair is black or red) there are a lot of fantastic people/supernatural beings of colour interpretations to be had.
One reason for the popularity of fancasts was the book’s forever-just-around-the-corner visual adaptations. A film version spent most of the 2000s trying to get off the ground, and while news of it eventually petered out after 2008, the first ‘official’ discussions of a miniseries were announced in 2011, starting the cycle of pain all over again for the book’s dedicated but perhaps somewhat exhausted fans. The announcement of the Amazon miniseries in 2016 was therefore met with a mixture of delight and trepidation. Happily, while fans and reviewers have had mixed reactions (the human characters get a lot less development than the occult ones), pretty much everyone agrees that the show is a beautiful love story (including the cast).
Good Omens was my first introduction to transformative fandom some 15+ years ago. It will always hold a special place in my heart, and seeing new people discover it through the show is very exciting. If you liked the show I strongly encourage you to read the book! — Kira
Fic recs:
“Iconography” by Daegaer. 17K words, rated Teen.
Ship: Gen
Backstory: This fic follows Crowley, from the War in Heaven and the Fall to World War I to post-canon.
Rec: This is one of my favourite classic fics from a hugely prolific writer (these days they can be found here on AO3), with a great examination of Crowley’s character and major hurt/comfort.
Content warnings: Deals with themes of wartime violence, PTSD, and self-harm
“i just happen to like apples (i am not afraid of snakes)” by gyzym. 3K words, not rated.
Ship: Aziraphale/Crowley
Backstory: Crowley and Aziraphale are reimagined as women, and Crowley especially is wonderful as an angry feminist from the beginning.
Rec: The fandom has a grand tradition of retelling and reinterpreting Bible stories. The author has a sharp, lyrical prose style that perfectly fits this deeply angry retelling.
Content warnings: N/A
“The Morning After the Morning After the End of the World” by Aegialia. 1.5K words, rated Gen.
Ship: Gen
Backstory: Anathema is a “Practical Occultist and Professional Descendant” to her prophetess ancestor whose book of prophecies guided her life up to the point of the apocalypse.
Rec: A sweet fic that addresses the major question hanging over Anathema’s head at the end of the canon—when you’ve spent your life being guided towards one event, what do you do afterwards?
Content warnings: N/A
“Amid the Sacred Wreck” by Vulgarweed (illustrations by Quantum_Witch). 4K words, rated Explicit.
Ship: Aziraphale/Crowley
Backstory: Aziraphale peacefully watches over a monastery, until it is raided by Vikings, who are accompanied by their own supernatural presence.
Rec: Successfully portrays a point at which they were definitely not friends yet, but not quite indifferent enemies either, and the complicated feelings they have for each other as the only ones of their kind on Earth. This fic captures a darker side of Aziraphale that I felt was really missing from the show.
Content warnings: N/A
“Going Native” by equestrianstatue. 4.5K words, rated Mature.
Ship: Aziraphale/Crowley
Backstory: Based on the show; a ‘missing scene’ set after they meet at a bar in Rome and Aziraphale talks about oysters.
Rec: This fic does an excellent job recreating the narrative style of the show. It includes some of my favourite A/C tropes: drunk conversations, pre-Arrangement arrangements, and rather suspect arguments about trying the full range of human pleasures.
Content warnings: N/A
“Twofish” by Grindylowe. 6.5K words, rated Teen.
Ship: Aziraphale/Crowley
Backstory: Post-canon. Crowley buys a beta fish.
Rec: Originally published in 2002, this fic has travelled from a personal website to ff.net to AO3. Three cheers for authors who continually re-archive their work! I originally read this fic a very long time ago, and it’s stayed with me ever since.
Content warnings: Deals with themes of suicide relating to an off-screen original character, including one character treating the topic very glibly
And a meta rec:
“Making An Effort: Queer (Trans) Masculinity in the Ethereal & Occult Beings of Good Omens” by byelegantidler and irisbleufic. 2K words.
Rec: Good Omens describes angels as “sexless unless they really want to make an effort,” which the fandom of course took and ran with. These authors do a deep dive into the text and make a compelling argument for why Aziraphale and Crowley should be considered not only as men but as trans men in a modern reading. This is a fantastic essay that had me re-examining the book with new eyes.
FINAL THOUGHT
A few weeks back we mentioned poet Richard Siken’s stroke recovery fund. Siken’s work has been very popular in fandom over the years, and now fans can give back via fanworks, not just donations, with the Fandom for Siken auction. It’s like a standard charity fanworks auction—you can sign up to create a work, or you can bid on the work of a creator, with your money going to the recovery fund. Creator signups are open until the end of June. <3 — Elizabeth
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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