The Rec Center #2
Yeah, it’s been that kind of week. We’ve got Bowie and Rickman if you’re still wallowing in sadness (I know I am), or some top-level trolling and Star Wars fic recs if you’re looking for a little levity this weekend. Or both. Both is good. — Elizabeth
new stuff
Alan Rickman: Remembrances for the actor have poured in across the web, but there’s perhaps nothing so loud as the collective response from Harry Potter, both fans and creators, including JKR, DanRad, and others.
“The Bigger Luke Hypothesis is a beautiful parody of ridiculous ‘Star Wars’ fan theories” by Gav at The Daily Dot
“This combines three of my absolute favorite things on the Internet: Star Wars, celebrity height trivia, and unnecessarily detailed conspiracy theories.”
old(er) stuff
Conflicting reports emerged this week that One Direction's temporary hiatus may become a permanent split. It felt like a good a time as any to look back at a couple of 1D/boy band-related pieces.
“Hysteria and Teenage Girls” by Hayley Krischer at The Hairpin
We’ve always been hysterical fangirls—but women aren’t the ones who made that a bad thing. “Women don’t need a reason to be hysterical. We just are.”
“Why do we mock teenage girls who love One Direction when Top Gear fans are just the same?” by Elizabeth at the New Statesman
“Why do One Direction fangirls bother people so much? Why do their emotions, and the way they perform that emotionality, seem to anger complete strangers?”
tumblr etc.
The Fandom Points System (FAPS) by dameronslaw
A possibly mean-spirited (yet effective) satire of fandom’s very complex relationship with shipping and social justice issues. It’s a points-based grading system you can use to judge whether your favourite pairing is ~problematic or not. (Ed. note: ALL FAVES ARE PROBLEMATIC, AND NONE OF US ARE FREE FROM SIN.)
“JK Rowling’s Harry Potter Revenge on Stephen Fry” at Petty Revenge Stories
“When he met JK Rowling, she mentioned that she was writing a sequel. Stephen replied very condescendingly ‘good for you.’” We’re not sure if the story that follows is true, but we are INCREDIBLY HOPEFUL.
fanfiction
Star Wars recs by Gav!
“to the sky without wings” by leupagus. 82K words, rated Mature.
One of those fics that 100% sells you on a pairing you’d never considered before. It begins with Poe’s hilariously embarrassing childhood crush on Luke Skywalker, but evolves into a space epic about the growing conflict with the First Order, following Poe’s career as a pilot and later with the Resistance. The best longfic I’ve read in TFA fandom to date.
“Snowball’s Chance on Hoth” by Sholio. 1.6K words, rated Gen.
Cute (and very in-character) genfic about Luke encountering snow for the first time.
“Occupational Safety” by shadydave. 2.7K words, rated Gen.
A delightful story that focuses on one very specific worldbuilding detail—in this case, the idea that all stormtroopers are trained with grappling hooks, so Finn is shocked that no one at the Resistance seems to use them.
“last stop on this highway” by augustbird. 19K words, rated Explicit.
Poe teaches Finn to fly, and they go on their first mission together. Tonally, this feels satisfyingly similar to a “real” Star Wars tie-in novel, except it’s also Poe/Finn slash.
“Tomorrow (there’ll be more of us)” by dimircharmer. 2.9K words, rated ~PG.
Inspired by Finn, more and more stormtroopers begin to defect to the Resistance. A lovely idea, and very well executed.
bowie bowie bowie
This week has seen numerous Bowie fans post their personal experiences of his life and work, so instead of writing another one, I’m sharing a recommendation: Watch Velvet Goldmine.
Directed by Todd Haynes (whose new movie, Carol, is also brilliant), Velvet Goldmine is a fictionalized tribute to the glam rock era, starring Jonathan Rhys Myers as a Bowie-inspired rockstar named Brian Slade, and Ewan McGregor as a character inspired by Iggy Pop. In a very literal sense, it’s fanfiction—and it’s also very much about the experience of being a fan. One of the main characters is a young journalist (Christian Bale) who grew up as a fan of Slade in the ’70s, latching onto him as the first queer person he'd seen on TV.
As a loose depiction of Bowie’s early career, Velvet Goldmine may be more thematically “truthful” than a factual biopic would be. It’s packed with meticulously detailed visual and musical references, but it's far too mythologized to feel like a pastiche. Essential viewing, even if you're not very familiar with Bowie’s work. — Gav
FINAL THOUGHT: On collective grief
In the immediate, overwhelming flood of shock and grief on Twitter Monday morning, the first thing that struck me was this:
I saw variations on this sentiment in the days that followed; people folded it into their eulogies and remembrances and personal Bowie stories. About how Bowie—as a person and as an artist, and perhaps most importantly, as a (wildly popular for decades) pop star—gave permission to outsiders of all sorts to feel *inside*, how he made a space in the culture for queer kids or countercultural kids or kids that existed in some messy, ambiguous space, and maybe still do, but that’s OK, because David Bowie. And the thing that deeply moved me this week, as I dwelled in the wound of my own personal Bowie feelings, was how these stories looked in the aggregate. How so many people could be collectively united in their outsider status, how everyone could have such a deep personal relationship with a singer, and how every single one of those relationships were different—and exactly the same.
In the immediate, overwhelming flood of shock and grief on Twitter Thursday morning, I saw people celebrating Alan Rickman, as an actor and as a man, but also as his characters, especially Severus Snape, and the way those characters gave people space to grow, to relate—Snape, who exists in his own sort of messy, ambiguous space, has meant so much to so many people, and for many, Rickman’s portrayal, all the nuance and ambivalence he brought to it, was at the heart of that. In a way, this feels similar—David Bowie often played a character, after all. I saw another tweet, kind of the capstone to all of this, that stuck with me:
How strange it is, that we grieve together because we’ve all been changed together. We put something deeply personal on display because that’s what fans do. And just like we find solace in seeing other people who care a lot about something, we find solace in seeing other people care about the loss of something—or someone. We cry together because of who we were, and who we’ve become, just as much as we’re crying for the person who helped us get there.
I don’t know about you, but there’s only one way to end this nightmare week. —Elizabeth
If you liked this, please share it with your friends! https://thereccenter.substack.com/. And find us on social media: Gav (twitter/tumblr) & Elizabeth (twitter/tumblr)