February 9, 2024

The Rec Center #423

Hi all! This week we have articles about Sarah J. Maas fandom and the Britney Spears museum, along with some Batman fanart and multifandom fic recs for the second week of Femslash February! — Gav

new stuff

“Here’s How ASCII Barbie Came to a Screen Near You” by Amanda Hoover at WIRED
The ASCII theater broadcasts famous films rendered in ASCII letters and symbols directly into your terminal—last week they screened Barbie, Hereditary, and Citizen Kane. But is it a transformative enough project to avoid the wrath of the film studios?

“At the Britney Spears House Museum” by Emmeline Clein at The Paris Review
“Remember Britney begging us for a sign? She asked us to hit her in the same song, and we might have taken her too literally. I wonder who she was serenading: God, an ex, or us, her future fans, styling ourselves saviors?”

“Midnight Maas: Inside the after-hours release party where otters, Swifties, and ex-Bookstagrammers celebrated Sarah J. Maas’s House of Flame and Shadow.” by Emma Alpern at Vulture
An in-person report from an extremely enthusiastic book fandom.

older stuff

“Love and Lattes” by Alexandra Lange at Dirt
“Our desire to participate in public life, and our yearning for unexpected encounters, has only increased, while the number of spaces in which to have either has shrunk.” On the appeal of the coffee shop AU.

tumblr & beyond

Batman fanart by dragonpyre

we’re sorry but the boat was indeed very much named The Terror.

“are you really asking me if a network television show from the mid-aughts had canonical gay incest in it”

luv a hard-hitting political blockbuster.

“I don’t want to write fic that’s ‘good’”

an absolutely stunning childhood self-insert LOTR fanfic

fanfiction

Femslash February: Week Two! You can read all the fics recced in Week One here. And thanks so much to all of this week’s reccers! — Elizabeth

“to never be afraid again” by eurydicees. 47K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender; Ship: Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Recced by: Fei
Backstory: Mai and Ty Lee are two side characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender, both of whom are Azula’s sidekicks but also polar opposites personality wise. Ty Lee is extremely outgoing where Mai is more withdrawn, and the way they respect each other in the show despite their differences is so compelling.
Rec: The prose in this fic is absolutely gorgeous, and the premise is fantastic. I love how the author shows their love and loyalty to each other without having them say it aloud.
Content warnings: N/A

“Deep in the Tree, All the Locks Click Open” by Tam_Cranver. 89K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: The Old Guard; Ship: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Nile Freeman/Quynh | Noriko
Recced by: kaydee
Backstory: The Old Guard is a queer action movie about a team of immortals. In this fic, the basic premise of the characters and their immortality remains, but the fantasy-fusion AU setting includes elements of Ladyhawke and Jane Eyre, as well as its own fascinating system of magic.
Rec: This is a wonderful, deeply engaging AU dive into the main character of Nile Freeman, and every one of the other immortals and side characters are just as richly drawn. Absolutely nails characterization while building a fantastical world all its own, and the femslash is phenomenal.
Content warnings: N/A

“Fire & Flowers” by b1uebear. 1.1K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008); Ship: Padmé Amidala/Satine Kryze
Recced by: anon
Backstory: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (the 2008 version) is an 3D animated show that attempts to make a galactic-scale war into fun for the whole family. Padmé and Satine are both career politicians who end up "fridged" (killed off for their love interests’ angst); in this AU story, they’re in a relationship together instead, avoiding their own terrible fates but not the terrible fate of the whole galaxy.
Rec: This story, told from Satine’s PoV, is a perfect AU snapshot: a single scene that made me grieve for her, coo over her loving relationship with Padmé, and still see hope for her in the future (even against all the odds stacked against them).
Content warnings: Grief, loss of hope, infants

“Highlight of My Lowlife” by ProseApothecary. 15K words (part of a 54K-word series), rated Teen.
Fandom: It (Movies-Muschietti); Ship: f/f Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Recced by: hownowredclown
Backstory: The It movies are about a group of kids who are hunted by a demonic clown in their shitty small town in 1989 and then have to come back to their hometown to kill it (or It) in 2016 when they’re 40. These fics have no clown in it, but the shiftiness of the town and their lives is preserved (oh, and half the characters are girls now).
Rec: Young Rory and Penny skewer me with their specificity; the author is always great but this fic absolutely murders me because they feel like the kind of girls that I grew up with (and was). It’s hilarious and earnest and angsty, just like puberty is, and if you were a young lesbian with a crush on her best friend and a suspicion that everyone could see the “dyke” written on your forehead every time you looked at her, this is required reading!
Content warnings: Homophobia, internalized homophobia, dead animals, violence, underage drinking, bullying, abusive parents, misogyny

“mist of grief on the river waves” by yuehaipavilion. 99K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game); Ship: Ganyu/Keqing (Genshin Impact)
Recced by: stifledlaughter
Backstory: While Genshin Impact is a fantasy video game, this is a modern Bodyguard/Idol AU where two characters once knew each other when they were teenagers, and had an undefined ‘something’ between them that never got resolved when Ganyu left to pursue music. Now they have to be professional while reconciling their unfinished business of their past.
Rec: Unlike a lot of bodyguard AUs, the plot doesn’t focus so much on external threats/violence as much as the inner lives of the characters, who make real mistakes, have messy and real emotions, and are just trying to figure it out. I also liked the platonic relationships in this and how they are equally as nuanced and messy as the romantic relationship exploration.
Content warnings: References to fan stalking but nothing super serious, some drinking

“Double Down” by chasesstarlight. 6K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Ocean’s 8; Ship: Lou Miller/Debbie Ocean
Recced by: breathedout
Backstory: Debbie is a recently-paroled con artist out to score big, and Lou is the partner in crime with whom she obviously has some kind of intense history (not explored in the film). They team up with six other women to rob the Met Gala.
Rec: This prequel fic offers a “how they met” story that’s pitch-perfect in line with the fun, twisty, carousing spirit of the film. And features fake dating on a cruise ship; what more could you want. The author captures extremely well both Lou’s wry “oh Debbie, no” energy, as well as Debbie’s manic, gregarious “DEBBIE YES!” vibes.
Content warnings: Nothing you wouldn’t find in a PG-13 heist film

FINAL THOUGHT

You may have heard that Bluesky opened to all this week! We just wanted to remind folks that we’re on there (and both generally using the platform the way we used Twitter in Times Past): gavia.bsky.social and elizabethminkel.bsky.social. — Elizabeth