The Rec Center #366
Happy New Year! This week we have articles about flouncing and Prince, Severance fanart, and the first half of the Yuletide 2022 fics you sent in over the last two weeks! — Elizabeth
new stuff
“The Big Flounce” by Laura Miller at Slate
This week a lot of coverage of author Susan Meachen, who faked her own death by suicide, centered on what the debacle says about the book world. But Miller contextualizes this story in a longer history a lot of fandom people know: “It’s a tale as old as the internet: an insular online community turns toxic and claustrophobic, and drama ensues.”
“Prince Taught Me a Whole New Love Language” by Matt Mitchell at Catapult
“When you struggle with bodily autonomy for years, there is something liberating about watching someone take the spectacle of their body and turn it into an art form.”
Sorry I didn’t text you back, my old heist crew used emotional leverage to draw me into a big heist after I had already said I was done doing heists lol
— michael timlin (@MichaelTimlin) August 15, 2020
older stuff
“All in Good Fun: How Fanfiction Reignited My Passion for Writing” by Briana Lawrence at Uncanny Magazine
“Fanfiction was, basically, the fun part of writing, the part I dreamt about when I was a nine-year-old girl who made books out of construction paper, pencil, and crayon.”
tumblr & beyond
Severance fanart by wuntrum
new shipping discourse just dropped.
nodding in agreement with this blorbo/poor-little-meow-meow scale.
“sorry your boyfriend entered the public domain”
a real “true heads know” post for Due South fans.
fanfiction
New year, new batch of Yuletide fic! This is the first half of the list, and we’ll run the other half next week. Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a rec. — Elizabeth
“Blue and Green Vs.” by icandrawamoth. 1.1K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Foxes in Love; Ship: Blue/Green
Recced by: penna_nomen
Backstory: Foxes in Love is an adorable webcomic about Blue Fox and Green Fox, focusing on their daily lives as a couple.
Rec: This story perfectly captures the voice, humor, and sweetness of the comic. I particularly love the part about their experiences with a scary spider in their bedroom.
Content warnings: N/A
“Clueless in College” by velvetjinx. 1.8K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Clueless; Ship: Cher/Tai
Recced by: penna_nomen
Backstory: Clueless was a movie that retold Jane Austen’s Emma in a 1990’s setting. The Emma character was Cher, a high-school student. The Harriet character was Tai, another student at the school. As in Emma, Cher sees herself as a matchmaker, causing havoc as she tries to guide Tai to the right guy.
Rec: The character voices are so true to the film! Once again Cher is laughably clueless about her own feelings. This time she’s in college with Tai, and the story takes a delightful F/F twist.
Content warnings: N/A
“The Code” by randomizer. 3.6K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Galaxy Quest; Ship: Gen
Recced by: penna_nomen
Backstory: Galaxy Quest was a movie about actors in a sci-fi series who are mistaken for real space explorers by a group of aliens who reach out to the actors for help. This story is set after the movie, when the aliens are concerned about a reboot of the show with different actors.
Rec: This is a fandom that’s ripe for metafiction, and the story totally delivers! It provides humor, hope, kindness, and a positive take on fandom. There are specific references to AO3, with the actors reading fic for inspiration, and it turns into a love letter to fandom.
Content warnings: N/A
“open like a hinge” by idrilka. 37K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: The King: Eternal Monarch; Ship: Lee Gon/Jo Yeong
Recced by: Vil
Backstory: The King: Eternal Monarch is a Korean drama set in two parallel universes: the modern-day Republic of Korea and the fictional modern Kingdom of Corea, which follows the adventures of time-travelling, universe-hopping King Lee Gon. This story is set post-canon and focuses on Lee Gon’s bodyguard, Jo Yeong, and his developing relationship with the King.
Rec: This is an incredible exploration of Jo Yeong as a character; not only does the author nail the character voice, but they also give him the kind of depth the drama only hinted at but never explored in detail. His relationship with Gon is exquisitely developed and the pining is out of this world delicious.
Content warnings: N/A
And we’ve combined the two recs we got for this fic!
“my wife doesn’t know I hench, the evil sex ray made my employees do it, and more” by whetherwoman. 2K words, rated Teen.
Fandoms: Ask a Manager (advice column), Hench (book by Natalie Zina Walschots); Ship: Gen
Recced by: Swords & Spindles, madanimalscientist
Backstory: madanimalscientist writes: Alison Green’s beloved workplace advice column crosses over with superhero/supervillain tropes, and provides excellent workplace advice for heroes, villains, and henches alike
Rec: Swords & Spindles writes: Excellent workplace advice for those employed by supervillains, in the exact style of the popular Ask A Manager blog.
madanimalscientist writes: It crosses over one of my favorite books with my absolute favorite advice column and pulls it off beautifully. The questions are very in-character for the universe, and they get Alison’s voice down perfectly—best fic of Yuletide 2022 in my opinion! (having read Hench isn’t required to enjoy the fic—that said, I highly rec the book as it’s absolutely amazing).
Content warnings: N/A
fanfic, i simply do not believe rochester would establish a safe signal for jane eyre to use if she felt uncomfortable when he went down on her for the first time, sorry
— 5 bees for a quarter (@ahfivecents) January 2, 2023
FINAL THOUGHT
That’s all, folks! Happy New Year! And for fans of Star Wars and/or costume design, please enjoy my latest Behind the Seams video essay, analyzing the brilliant costumes of Andor. — Gav