The Rec Center #25
Thank you to everyone who responded to our reader survey last week! You guys had so many interesting and constructive comments. :)
We may write a bit about the survey results next week, but today we’re rather...distracted. By, you know, the impending armageddon re: Brexit. It’s been a stressful night/morning for both of us (and, I assume, for many of you guys), so hopefully this week’s Rec Center will be a welcome respite from today’s bleak political coverage. — Gav
new stuff
“Who Owns Star Trek?” by Adam B. Vary at Buzzfeed
A #longread about the history of Star Trek and its fandom—and the thorny relationship between the current rights holders and some fans.
“Guest Post: Keidra Chaney” by Claudia Rebaza at the Organization for Transformative Works
If you’re not familiar with “The Learned Fangirl,” start with this interview with its publisher/editor before you dive into their archives.
“This fan's slice-of-life Spidey comics are a must read for Spider-Man fans” by Gav at The Daily Dot
Hannah Blumenreich’s Spider-Man fan comics are A DELIGHT, focusing on Peter Parker’s everyday life as a dorky teen. Gav interviewed her this week, and we highly recommend both Hannah’s thoughts about Spidey as a character, and all of her fanart. (You may already have seen her Tumblr comic about Spider-Man protecting a woman from street harassment, but she also posted a zine that includes several other awesome Spidey comics in a variety of genres.)
old(er) stuff
“The Surprisingly Serious Quest to Make Muggle Quidditch a Real Sport” by Raya Jalabi at The Atlantic
Quidditch World Cup season is upon us so it’s worth looking back at the evolution of the sport—and the growing divide between people who are really into its origins and people who’d like to distance themselves from it.
[Confession: we actually only included an article on Quidditch so we could include the Wikipedia page for another book-based game competition: THE WORLD POOHSTICKS CHAMPIONSHIP.]
tumblr and beyond
“Bustin”: This Ghostbusters vid will cheer you right up, go now.
“Captain Janeway judges your badfic.”
OMG THIS FANMADE TRAILER FOR A “CHECK, PLEASE!” NETFLIX SERIES.
ship manifesto: Rogue One’s obvious OTP
Entertainment Weekly just published a series of photos and character bios from the new Star Wars spinoff, Rogue One, and I am VERY EXCITED.
Here’s the basic gist of Rogue One, if you’re not familiar: It’s a semi-prequel to Episode IV, a combination of war movie and heist adventure about stealing the plans to the Death Star. Felicity Jones stars as a former street kid named Jyn Erso, alongside Diego Luna as a Rebel intelligence officer. The supporting cast are a ragtag team who join them to steal the Death Star plans.
EW’s coverage includes a guide to each of the new characters, and it took me approximately 0.01 seconds to identify the clear OTP of this movie. Please say hello to Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus.
Played by martial arts megastar Donnie Yen, Chirrut Imwe is a blind warrior monk who follows some aspects of Jedi philosophy without actually being a Jedi. (Remember, this movie takes place shortly before the appearance of Luke Skywalker!) You can see him being a total badass here in the trailer.
For his partner Baze Malbus (played by Chinese actor/director Jiang Wen), I’ll defer to EW’s official description:
‘Heavily armored, Baze prefers a blaster to hokey religions and ancient weapons, but he is devoted to protecting his friend Chirrut at all costs. “He understands Chirrut’s spiritual centeredness, but he doesn’t necessarily support it,” [Star Wars producer] Kathleen Kennedy says. Baze goes along with this Force business because “it’s what his friend deeply believes,” she adds. Think of them as a little like the galactic version of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.’
In EW’s other photo gallery, Baze is described as “Chirrut’s Force-doubting rough-and-tumble protector.” They’re compared to the two lead characters in Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, a film that is already credited with influencing the original Star Wars trilogy.
Without knowing anything further, this is clearly an ideal OTP option. And I’m glad to see that someone on Tumblr already agrees with me. Despite their philosophical differences, Baze and Chirrut are devoted to one another—including the possibility of a not-actually-unrequited situation where Baze is secretly, angrily in love with Chirrut, while Chirrut remains oblivious. HELLO YES. CHIRRUT AND BAZE AGAINST THE WORLD. INSEPARABLE WARRIOR PARTNERS. I am ready for this. — Gav
fanfiction
OK! So we got *a lot* of feedback about what you do and don’t like in our fanfic rec lists, to the point where….many answers contradicted each other and we’re not going to be able to please everybody all of the time. :-) We did get a lot of requests for more multi-fandom lists, though, and that’s something we can do! The trouble is if you’re like me and pretttttty loyal to just a few fandoms, it’s hard to get any real variety. So I’m hoping to set up an easy form to solicit single recs from you guys in the future, to help compile the occasional grab bag. I’d especially like THEMED grab bags—welcoming suggestions on how to make that happen.
As for this week’s grab bag, I asked a few friends (Flourish, Aja, Anna, and Sulagna) for stories and we wound up with a mix of fandoms, lengths, ratings, and types of pairings. This one isn’t really ~themed; the prompt was: “What are some of the best fics you’ve ever read?” That’s a high bar, lol. — Elizabeth
“Intersecting Geodesics” and “The Roots of the Quadratic” by NancyBrown. 37K and 45K words, respectively, both rated Mature.
Fandom: Torchwood (+ Doctor Who). Ship(s): Jack/Ianto, Alice/Jenny (in TRotQ)
Recced by: Elizabeth
Backstory: Captain Jack Harkness, the immortal omnisexual head of alien-fighting Torchwood Cardiff, was once a (mortal) (still omnisexual) Time Agent in the 51st century. Ianto (his employee and canonical boyfriend), for reasons that are related to massive spoilers—heads up if you haven’t seen the show and intend to—winds up 3,000 years from his home time, caught between these two versions of Jack. (The sequel also features Jack’s daughter, Alice, and Jenny, from DW’s “The Doctor’s Daughter,” and they are both amazing.)
Rec: Argh I love these stories *so* much. They are long and plotty and character driven and so beautifully written, and they dwell in the kind of complicated questions that science fiction can (and should) ask about the future, particularly about humanity’s long view of its own species.
CW: “Intersecting Geodesics” contains dubious consent, as indicated by the author.
“Go Wash Your Heart In The River” by mardia. 12K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Sleepy Hollow. Ship(s): Gen
Recced by: Flourish
Backstory: Abbie Mills is a cop. Jenny Mills is her somewhat unstable and completely badass sister. Ichabod Crane is a time traveling Revolutionary era fable. Together they fight crime.
Rec: This fic is all the best and most generative bits of the show, the things the show could have been: Abbie and Jenny’s deep sisterly bond, an interesting Monster of the Week, and Crane at his most fish-out-of-water amusing.
“Never Be Satisfied” by torakowalski. 15K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Les Misérables. Ship(s): Enjolras/Grantaire (cis femslash)
Recced by: Anna
Backstory: This is an AU lightly based upon the radical student characters from Les Misérables who, in canon, stage a failed 1832 June rebellion in Paris. In this AU, the cast are members of a campus LGBTAQ group.
Rec: Grantaire, a confidently sexual college student, is nursing a crush on her standoffish classmate Enjolras. When Enjolras confesses that she’s never found sex all that much fun, Grantaire rashly offers to give Enjolras some pointers. The tender and voracious sexual exploration that follows blends sexual and emotional intimacy (plus humor!) in a way too few works of femslash achieve.
“Switch” by fmo. 4.5K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Pacific Rim. Ship(s): Mako Mori/Raleigh Beckett
Recced by: Sulagna
Backstory: This pairing in Pacific Rim is ambiguous because they are “drift compatible”—in that they have a strong mental connection that they can use to work a giant robot to fight off a giant monster. The ambiguity is such that you could say they’ve just got a close friendship but you can also ship them with the added joy that the female character was not simply a love interest. I love the ambiguity of the movie but I also love shipping them.
Rec: The story is an AU of the movie. As if giant monsters wanted to destroy humanity weren’t enough, the story adds in the idea of “switching”—where the universe “switches” to an alternate timeline that differs in small or big ways. The story follows Raleigh as he ends up in a world without kaiju—but where he's living with Mako Mori, a woman he’s never met.
“The Evolution of Reptiles” by Fahye. 7,708 words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Elementary. Ship(s): Gen
Recced by: Flourish
Backstory: In Elementary, Irene Adler is a painter, not an opera singer. And Moriarty and Irene Adler are the same person—and at the end of Season 1, _Watson_ outsmarted and defeated her, not Holmes.
Rec: Magical realism can be completely terrible if it’s not done right. Fortunately, here it’s done right. The intensity of the ACD Holmes-Adler bond is here transposed onto Moriarty and Watson, in a really beautiful way that does justice to both characters.
“She Likes a Prizefight” by Telanu. 18K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Devil Wears Prada. Ship(s): Andy/Miranda
Recced by: Aja
Backstory: In the film, a bumpinky would-be journalist named Andy becomes the latest disposable assistant to an Anna Wintour stand-in named Miranda—but Andy has a few tricks up her sleeve and isn't about to go down without a fight. The resulting knife-sharp chemistry, cutting takedowns of sexism, and sheer hotness in this flawlessly acted cast of characters has yielded enough juicy rivalslash goodness to fuel a tiny but fantastically good femslash fandom for a solid decade and counting.
Rec: Telanu is a fandom legend and a gift to every fandom she joins, but her greatest work is in the DWP fandom. Set after the events of the film, this fic jumps smoothly between the past and present to give you a quick, vivid portrait of Miranda and Andy as they move from rocky camaraderie to a deeper relationship. This fic makes a great intro to the rampant UST, stinging wit, wonderful characters, and stone-cold NYC glitz that makes DWP fic so addictive. After it, do read every DWP fic Telanu has ever written!
“The Pure and Simple Truth” by lettered. 65K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Harry Potter. Ship(s): Harry/Draco
Recced by: Elizabeth
Backstory: It’s...Harry Potter. I guess I shouldn’t assume everyone knows Harry Potter? Post-war, “epilogue what epilogue,” Harry and Draco both work at the Ministry and get drinks. One by one, in various combinations, their friends join them. There is a lot of talking.
Rec: Ha, “people getting drinks and talking” sounds ridiculous and certainly doesn’t convey how STAGGERINGLY GOOD this story is. Like as I was reading it I said aloud, “This is so good.” It is complicated and the dialogue is masterful and it’s about moral philosophy! Plus literally the slowest burn you can imagine while still being a romantic story, so a++ for me.
FINAL THOUGHT
Thank you again to the NEARLY 300 PEOPLE who took our survey. If you forgot or missed it etc and are still interested in giving us some feedback, please consider filling it out!
We’ll have more thoughts about this in coming weeks when we’re not blinded by sheer horror (this newsletter is brought to you by a Scot who works for an American site and an American who writes for British sites and was recently booted out of England by the Home Office, greetings from the Transatlantic Sadness Brigade).
One quick thing we can offer up is back issues: start here and click on the archives. And thank you so, so much for all of your kind words in the feedback. It’s wonderful to know how much you guys appreciate the newsletter (the feeling is mutual). —Elizabeth
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