The Rec Center #290
Hello everyone! This week we have Gav’s coverage of Tumblr’s Post+ (my take on Post+, btw: 😬), some lovely One Piece fanart, and multifandom character study fic. — Elizabeth
new stuff
“I have had sex with every actor from the TV show ‘Supernatural.’” by Perfume Genius
Last week, indie pop star Perfume Genius decided to post a first-person fic about having sex with Jensen Ackles at a Zales Jewelry in 2014. Why? Why not. It’s a self-insert fic in both the literal and figurative sense, due to some rather graphically-imagined vore elements. IDEK, man. Perfume Genius is one of a kind.
“Meet the teens running fan pages for 2000s TV shows that aired when they were babies” by Deanna Schwartz at Insider
Why are so many Gen-Z kids into teen shows from the 2000s? It’s partly due to nostalgia, but it’s also a reaction to the tone of modern TV dramas aimed at the teen market.
“Tumblr is testing a subscription service, and users already hate it” by Gav at the Daily Dot
Tumblr’s new subscription service, Post+, has attracted overwhelming criticism from Tumblr users since its announcement on Wednesday. One of the biggest concerns is copyright infringement, because Tumblr is encouraging people to monetize fanfiction—something that could result in legal action from copyright holders.
According to Tumblr, it’s up to creators to figure out which commercial fanworks are acceptable under fair use (yikes!), and up to copyright holders to police their IP using DMCA notices. For more info on this topic, check out the OTW’s fair use explainer, or this Fansplaining interview with Earlgreytea68 about fanworks and IP law.
Could u imagine you send ur son off to professor Xs school thinkin he has a better life now, you look on the tv and juggernaut just threw him into a building lmfaoooooo
older stuff
“‘If You’re Five Boys, You Can Do Anything’: An Oral History Of One Direction” at Clickhole
“We all had our thing. Harry was the enormous one, Zayn was the aquatic one, Louis was the spinning one, Liam was the silent one, and I was the other enormous one.”
tumblr & beyond
One Piece fanart by Jesse Martin
Interesting graph illustrating the ratio of male and female characters in Star Trek from TOS to the present day.
“star wars would have been so much shorter if one clone decided to murder palpatine in his office”
“F**k your Loki”: An unnecessary censorship vid for Marvel’s Loki.
“murder is bad? even if i say sorry afterwards? even if i am an anime girl.”
Kira Nerys weighs in on Trill/symbiote relationship guidelines.
The ubiquity of holodecks in Star Trek implies that by the 24th century self-insert fanfiction has become the dominant form of entertainment
fanfiction
Character studies: one of my favorite things! If you also love them, check out our last character study list from December 2020. Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a rec. — Elizabeth
“My Boy Carved Coffins” by notkingyet. 5K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Moby-Dick; Ships: Ishmael/Queequeg, minor Ishmael/others
Recced by: ExpatGirl
Backstory: Ishmael copes with the aftermath of the wreck of the Pequod.
Rec: I’m convinced Melville himself would like this unbury (unsink?) your gays fix it fic.
Content warnings: Canonical character death
“chasing the shadows of the lives we made” by SugarFey. 2.7K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: The Expanse; Ship: Drummer/Naomi
Recced by: anon
Backstory: The Expanse is a space opera. Drummer is a pirate captain/political revolutionary/woman just trying to do her job and not die. This fic is about her life.
Rec: The best Drummer voice in fandom. The author expands on the little details in the show to make a lovely picture of who Drummer is, who she wants to be, and how she looks for her place in the world.
Content warnings: Mentions canon injuries & death
“Burn Your Rage” by theonlytwin. 4K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: New Japan Pro Wrestling; Ship: Jushin Thunder Liger/Minoru Suzuki
Recced by: @f00t
Backstory: Jushin Thunder Liger (real name: Keiichi Yamada) is a legendary masked pro wrestler who has finally announced his retirement at the end of 2019. Minoru Suzuki is the nastiest pro wrestler in the entire company who intends to force him to retire before then. They have some history.
Rec: The writer admits that this story started out as a joke ship—after all, it is an explicit slash pairing between two of the oldest men in the source material—that they became surprisingly invested in, and I can’t help but feel the same way while reading it. It’s a melancholy study on aging and the ways people connect as told through a beast god Power Rangers character and the sadistic old man who really wants to break his limbs.
Content warnings: References to choking
“In the World to Come” by Newredshoes. 5K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Captain America/MCU; Ship: Gen, brief Bucky/OFC
Recced by: Rosa
Backstory: What if Bucky Barnes were Jewish?
Rec: This story strikes right at the heart of what it means to me to be Jewish. I’m generally not that interested in Bucky, but this one made him real to me.
Content warnings: Anti-Semitism
“For What Binds Us” by aban-asaara. 65K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Dragon Age 2; Ship: Fenris/Female Hawke
Recced by: Bee
Backstory: “Leaving Hawke was not enough: the night Fenris spent with her is branded into his soul like lyrium into his skin, and even his dreams are not his own anymore. A love letter to the Amell family and a study of the intervening years between Fenris and Hawke’s breakup and reunion.”
Rec: It’s gorgeously written, and explores not just Fenris’ path back to Hawke, but the Amell family’s past and all the pain hidden within it. The payoff is absolutely marvelous.
Content warnings: References to slavery and sexual assault (canon-typical), canonical character death, violence, sexual content, unreality
“What We Know” by Danahid. 5K words, rated Teen.
Fandoms: Star Trek AOS/Reboot/STXI; Ship: Gen (Kirk, crew)
Recced by: Taylor
Backstory: Character study of Jim Kirk as a leader. From the author: “We didn’t know then that Jim Kirk specialized in not living up (or down) to anyone’s expectations.”
Rec: A look at what a lot of Star Trek fandom takes as a given and refers to in shorthand—that Jim Kirk is a brilliant captain, but he didn’t start out that way.
Content warnings: N/A
I love when people are like “did you know this movie is actually based on Shakespeare” it’s like yeah I think I was tipped off when the 15 year old in Ohio is named Petruchio and attends Hamlet Regional High School and plays soccer for the Fighting Jesters or whatever the fuck
FINAL THOUGHT
That’s all, folks! Have a great weekend! — Gav