The Rec Center #355
Hello everyone! This week we have articles on dōjinshi and a truly ridiculous ~themed cruise~, Sandman fanart, and autumnal and/or spooky fic. — Elizabeth
new stuff
“The Chinese government’s unlikeliest standoff is with … fandom” by Aja Romano at Vox
On the thorny dynamics between fans, idols, and the Chinese Communist Party: “The CCP’s attempts to control fandom feel, to some degree, like Wile E. Coyote trying to outwit 100 million Road Runners—many of whom are also trying to outwit each other.”
“My Eight Deranged Days on the Gone Girl Cruise” by Imogen West-Knights at Slate
“As I had many times in the previous four days, I contemplated the decisions that had brought me here. But then the riesling breakfast began to do its job. I shrugged. So began another day on the Gone Girl cruise.”
“The Role of Dōjinshi in Comic Fanzine Discourse” by Kathryn Hemmann at Women Write About Comics
On different—and sometimes clashing—fanzine cultures, tracing the rise of highly produced, selective zines in Western fandoms to Japanese dōjinshi.
https://twitter.com/perfectsweeties/status/1582894167541223425
older stuff
“I Found My Voice As A Writer In Justin Timberlake Fan Fiction” by Arianna Rebolini at Buzzfeed
“The hours I spent imagining happily-ever-afters for me and my favorite pop star as a preteen taught me more than I realized about how to tell a story.”
tumblr & beyond
Sandman fanart by ravennowithtea
An important tale from Tom Hardy history.
“Does America have a national epic?”
Analyzing the precise appeal of Columbo.
The true political crisis of our era.
fanfiction
This is the first half of the submissions from our call for autumnal and/or spooky fic; we’ll run the second half next Friday. Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a rec. — Elizabeth
“apes debemus imitari (we should imitate the bees)” by buckysbees. 15K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Captain America/Marvel; Ship: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes
Recced by: sonatine
Backstory: It’s a version of You’ve Got Mail/The Shop Around the Corner except all of the characters are vendors at the farmer’s market.
Rec: I re-read this fic every autumn. It’s semi-epistolary and very sweet (but also heart-rending at times).
Content warnings: N/A
“Frostbitten But Never Better” by youshallnotfinditso. 6.5K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: The Social Network; Ship: Divya Narendra/Cameron Winklevoss
Recced by: phonecallfromgod
Backstory: A tiny but mighty ship in the TSN fandom, Divya/Cameron shifts the focus towards the B-plot where friends and business partners Divya and Cameron are at odds with each other over how to respond to their website being (allegedly) stolen by Mark Zuckerberg. Gentleman-Scholar-Athlete Cameron wants to play it safe while scrappy pragmatist Divya is out for blood, a dynamic which youshallnotfinditso transitions perfectly into a werewolves and vampires urban fantasy setting.
Rec: Fuck buddies to frenemies to lovers done absolutely pitch perfectly. Youshallnotfinditso’s lore and world building for both the vamps and wolves feels fresh and so well developed despite the shorter wordcount. The vampire POV for Divya builds in perfect sensory intensity into the wildly intimate blood drinking scene to end all blood drinking scenes.
Content warnings: Graphic blood drinking
“if you go chasing rabbits” by occultings (microcomets). 24K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: 魔道祖师- 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù陈情令 | The Untamed (TV); Ship: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Recced by: elle-dubs
Backstory: Untamed AU, in which Wei Wuxian is a disaster witch who had been kicked out of witchy academy, and Lan Wangji is the immaculate perfection of a familiar who has been sent to check up on him.
Rec: Most Wangxian fics are sweet (or horny, or both), and this one is adorably sweet, and it also has in it so much fall mood. It made me even more ready for sweaters and rain and mugs of hot cocoa.
Content warnings: N/A
“Don’t Take The Money” by HMSLusitania. 22K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: 911; Ship: Eddie Diaz/Evan Buckley
Recced by: marieke
Backstory: Eddie and Buck are firefighters and best friends, but one of the major moments when they fall out is over Buck suing the LAFD over letting him come back to work after he’s been injured on the job—ie the infamous lawsuit story arc.
Rec: Making this a Groundhog Day-style timeloop story allows all the characters to realise where they made missteps and how they can grow back together again, while including a lot of levity and opportunity for shenanigans.
Content warnings: Temporary character death (specifics included in the relevant chapter notes), physical injuries, mentions of institutionalisation
“Devour” by ancient_moonshine. 29K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian; Ship: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Recced by: Clever Manka
Backstory: “Zhao Yunlan returns to his childhood home, and to the monster living in it.” Coraline AU with Zhao Yunlan as Coraline and Shen Wei as the Other Mother.
Rec: Creepy/Sexy that doesn’t shy away from the Creepy aspect can be hard to find but this fic delivers. The only things that kept it from being perfect for me were occasional typos and some awkward dialogue transitions (which bothered me more than the content). Ignoring those minor issues, this is one of the best truly horrific love stories I’ve read on AO3.
Content warnings: Darkfic, unhealthy relationships, cannibalism (sort of), dead dove: do not eat
And since we got two recs for this fic, we’ve combined them:
“The Anatomy of a Fall” by novembersmith. 106K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Bandom, My Chemical Romance; Ship: Gerard Way/Frank Iero
Recced by: anon and PhantomsForever
Backstory: The author’s summary: “The unholy union of a high school AU and a ghost story. Gerard’s life takes a strange turn when his family moves to a small town in Vermont and he discovers the locals aren’t all what they seem to be.” Our anonymous reccer adds: “This is one of those fics about real people where the setting and setup is so separate from reality that if you swap the character names, it works beautifully as an original fic. That said, the characters feel like the public personas of the real people, who while canonically (IRL) not romantically involved, are a fandom favorite ship.”
Rec: anon writes: This story invokes the beautiful, haunting melancholy only accessible in deep autumn. It’s romantic, and legitimately sad, painful, and gorgeously written. It’s one of my absolute favorite all-time fics.
PhantomsForever writes: A Halloween classic in Bandom! Gerard meets and falls for Frank who, surprise, is actually a ghost - cue a scooby-doo style murder mystery, and dumb teens figuring out how to make out when one of them isn’t exactly corporeal. This fic is so cozy and spooky, I read it at least once per year.
Content warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, major character death (told in flashback), violent homophobia, bullying, underage characters, age gap, one scene of underage masturbation
https://twitter.com/akblakemore/status/1582070532727402497
FINAL THOUGHT
PSA: Yuletide signups close tomorrow night! Have a relaxing weekend! — Gav