The Rec Center #263
Hi folks! This week we've got some timely thoughts on Captain America, coverage of whether certain popular fanfics are crashing AO3, and the second half of our super-long Yuletide rec list! — Gav
new stuff
“Can Captain America serve two dramatically different versions of America?” by Aja Romano at Vox
“The fluctuating role of Marvel’s fictional patriot in the ideological melee offers a microcosmic view of the deep ironies of America’s current, frustrating political situation.”
“People Are Reading So Much Fanfiction It's Crashing the Biggest Fanfic Website” by Gita Jackson at Vice
There are a few mega-popular fics regularly updating right now, but in reality, people are just reading more fic than ever.
“Inside the World of British Brickophiles” by Karen Chernick at Atlas Obscura
Does brick-collecting count as a fandom, and therefore fall within the Rec Center’s editorial purview? We’ve decided... yes.
older stuff
“The Secret History Challenge for The Sims 4” by Peyton at The Niche
“To win, you and your classmates have to murder Bunny Corcoran while maintaining a 4.0 GPA.”
tumblr & beyond
Jaskier fanart by Anna Zee
“Klingon tumblr is called tm’blarr and if you post a nipple they stab you”
Inquiring minds want to know more about Luke Skywalker’s Chanel boots.
“Every so often I remember Jamie Lee Curtis is a huge One Piece fan”
“‘Don't talk so much, old sport,’ commanded Gritty. ‘Play!’” The masterpiece that is The Great Gritty, aka The Great Gatsby starring Gritty.
“Guy who’s got a normal name in star wars so all the other characters are like this mfer named Robert”
“my child is fine” you sold her to one direction
“Wellerman isn't even a sea shanty it’s a whaling song. Fake fans.”
fanfiction
The second half of our Yuletide 2020 rec list! You can read part one here. Thank you very much to everyone who sent in a rec. — Elizabeth
“Undying Love and Devotion” by lirin. 1.1K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy; Ship: Marguerite Blakeney/Percy Blakeney
Recced by: Jen
Backstory: Post Scarlet Pimpernel, Marguerite uses her skills as an actress to help Percy during a League mission. (AO3 summary: A lovers' quarrel at the gates of Paris livens things up briefly for the guards.)
Rec: It is so in-character and the writing feels like the novel. It is great to see Marguerite and Percy working together for the League and they have such tenderness and playfulness with each other.
Content warning: Referenced infidelity, but no actual infidelity
“so then we grew a little” by celaenos. 7K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Halt and Catch Fire; Ship: Donna Clark/Cameron Howe
Recced by: anon
Backstory: Donna and Cameron are friends, coworkers, and rivals in the 1980s and 90s tech scene where Halt and Catch Fire is set. This fic expands on the canon history of their complicated relationship and adds a romantic future jumping off from the series finale.
Rec: I love the use of the nonlinear narrative to add details to the 15 year history of the characters and build the romantic tension. The characterization is great, especially of Cameron. And it’s a really warm take on starting over as an adult.
Content warnings: N/A
“Thus We Braid Strand 6 to Strand 9” by Seekingferret. 2.3K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: This Is How You Lose The Time War; Ship: Gen
Recced by: Chestnut_filly
Backstory: TIHYLTTW is an epistolary story of the most original kind, between two time-traveling, timeline-unraveling spies caught up in a galactic war of imagination.
Rec: Rather than pastiching the novella’s unique style, seekingferret uses their own voice to demonstrate how one of those quickly elided timeline changes came to be, subtly but profoundly changing the life of one bystander. Great, creative use of the Archive’s coding options too!
Content warnings: N/A
“It’s a Lovely Day for Interdimensional Chaos” by Traykor. 2.9K words, rated Gen.
Fandoms: Untitled Goose Game, MCU, Deadpool; Ship: Gen
Recced by: mlraven
Backstory: Pretty much what it says on the tin—Deadpool gets Goose and Goose to go on an interdimensional, cross-fandom looting spree and it's exactly as hilarious as it sounds.
Rec: Lots of excellent chaos and cameos from other fandoms. I love the Goose Game-style To Do lists sprinkled throughout!
Content warnings: N/A
“A Dog and Her Moth” by Yhlee. 1.2K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Machineries of Empire; Ship: Gen
Recced by: Chestnut_filly
Backstory: Machineries of Empire is an intricately political science fiction epic by Yoon Ha Lee, in which some rather terrible people try to make a terrible society less terrible. You will have to have read all the books for any of this story to make sense/not spoil you.
Rec: Running Red Over the Sweet Fields Backlit By the Sun is the bestest, fastest, cleverest Dog. Yes she is.
Content warnings: N/A
“slow burning fuse” by idrilka. 34K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: 학교 2013 | School 2013; Ship: Go Namsoon/Park Heungsoo
Recced by: anon
Backstory: Roommates and recent high school grads try to figure out their next steps and relationships
Rec: Yuletide rec! I’ve never seen this drama but devoured this heartfelt roommates-to-lovers story.
Content warnings: N/A
“A Dreaming Art” by Sinope. 5.4K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Piranesi (Susanna Clarke); Ship: Angharad Scott/OFC
Recced by: Chestnut_filly
Backstory: Piranesi is a dreamlike short novel about a House that is the World, a House full of allegorical representations of stories and culture now passed away.
Rec: The House as we meet it in the novel is beautiful and strange and allegorical and very Eurocentric. The book hints that it is not the only House out there, and this story takes that hint and runs gloriously with it, showing all the other stories there to be told.
Content warnings: Descriptions of war, trauma, amnesia
“phases of a theory” by Val Mora (valmora). 1.3K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Me and AU Podcast; Ship: Gen
Recced by: Puck
Backstory: Me and AU is a podcast from Procyon Podcasts about two young women who fall in love through participating in a tiny fandom—a fictional Canadian monster of the week show called Selkirk. It's kind of a perfect love letter to fandom.
Rec: This fic (a Modern with Magic AU) is a pitch-perfect representation of both tumblr & email correspondence between fandom people, the way people speculate on show reveals, share meta, and so on.
Content warnings: N/A
“Re: Thesis defense issue” by kalirush. 3K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: FAQ: The “Snake Fight” Portion Of Your Thesis Defense (McSweeney’s Post) - Luke Burns; Ship: Gen
Recced by: Stephanie and ppyajunebug
Backstory: “All Linda wants to do is bake a pie but of COURSE one of the grad students messed up the snake fighting portion of her defense paperwork.”
Rec: Stephanie writes: This is an email exchange sorting out the logistics of the snake fight portion of a grad student’s thesis defense. It gleefully skewers the bureaucratic machinery of academia with deadly accuracy.
ppyajunebug writes: If you have ever been in grad school, dealt with academics, or really ever had to manage bureaucratic paperwork, you will enjoy this fic. As a former grad student who deals with faculty every day, I shrieked with laughter multiple times.
Content warning: Pictures of snakes
FINAL THOUGHT
Cleaning up our archives, I had repeated moments of “omg February again??”—because since 2017, we’ve been doing Femslash February for the entire month. I’ve lost all sense of time in the past few weeks, but January is halfway over?? So it seemed like it was time to start soliciting recs for Femslash February 2021.
That includes:
Your individual recs! Please use our form and include “Femslash February” in the “themes” section.
Guest lists! Past examples: multifandom, a trope, a single ship. If you’re interested, please email us at elizabethandgav at gmail dot com.
Additionally! While “femslash” obviously encompasses trans characters and narratives, it doesn’t necessarily leave space for nonbinary or genderqueer characters. So we’d also like to solicit nonbinary/genderqueer/gnc character fic for a post-February list(s). (Note that these fics should center nonbinary characters—not side characters.) Please use the “themes” section to flag your fic if you’re submitting for this request, so it’s easy for me to spot! — 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.
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)