March 1, 2024

The Rec Center #426

Hi all! This week we have articles about adult Disney fandom, the infamous Dune popcorn bucket, and (by Elizabeth!) two pieces on different ends of the fanfic bookbinding spectrum, along with some Avatar: The Last Airbender fanart, multifandom gen fic recs, and more! — Gav

 

new stuff

“Lots of People Make Money on Fanfic. Just Not the Authors” by Elizabeth at WIRED
If you’ve seen talk of the “Dramione illegal fic-selling situation” this week and thought ??, we’ve got you covered. On pirates binding physical copies of fic for profit, the current pull-to-publish wave, and how the rapidly widening audience for fic is pulling it further from *fandom*.

“The Emerging Art of ‘Fanbinding’” by Elizabeth (sorry so much Elizabeth!! It just happened this way haha) at Atlas Obscura
For a far more cheerful read about physical copies of fic and fannish community-building, Elizabeth’s latest AO column is about the Renegade Bindery, a ~3,000ish-member collective that shares fanbinding resources and binds as a part of the non-monetized fandom gift economy. Definitely check them out if you’re at all interested in trying fanbinding yourself!

“It’s Not Just That Sexual ‘Dune’ Sandworm. People Are Obsessed With Collecting Popcorn Buckets” by Miles Klee at Rolling Stone
Very special Dune ones aside, movie tie-in popcorn buckets have proliferated in recent years. A new bit of collectable merch for fans; a less thrilling trend for theater workers.

“The “Disney adult” industrial complex” by Amelia Tait at The New Statesman
“Whether Disney adults are embarrassing or enchanting is largely a matter of opinion. What is missing from endless comment sections is the fact that they are a creation of the Walt Disney Company—a character constructed just as carefully as Elsa or Donald Duck.” An analytical look at Disney’s corporate stranglehold over childhood nostalgia.

 

 

older stuff

“Sports fandom deepened my friendships and gave me the superpower of small talk” by Simone de Rochefort at Polygon
“I learned about Formula One in the same way I learned French after moving to the country at 15: I don’t remember it happening. The same thing happened to friends that I introduced to the sport. I lured them in with photos of handsome race car drivers, and suddenly they were texting me about tire compounds and pit strategy.”

 

tumblr & beyond

Avatar: The Last Airbender fanart by soncee

“let’s not forget that I learned how to cook grilled cheese from a kiribaku fic”

An anecdote from a Star Trek fan encountering m/m zines for the first time at a convention in 1984.

“The §35 Willy Wonka experience has officially opened in SimCity”

what is fandom if not a proud opportunity for hypocrisy.

a warm hello to this all-time ridiculous critique of Black Sails

 

fanfiction

After a month of shippy fic during Femslash February, we’ve got a multifandom mix of genfic this week! Thanks so much to everyone who sent in a rec. — Elizabeth

“A Room With A View” by hollimichele. 5.5K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Temeraire
Recced by: Chestnut_pod
Backstory: What if the Napoleonic Wars, but with talking dragons in addition to ships? Talking, troublesome, free-thinking dragons?
Rec: Set relatively late in the series, this fic fills a gap in which the ferociously clever dragon Perscitia decides to follow Wellington—yes, that Wellington—onto the Continent as his strategist. She is young and a little naive, as well as a great thinker, and the fic watches the, er, scales falling from her eyes as she interacts with human women and comes to understand the obstacles before her. It’s a lovely bit of characterization and a great gap-filler.
Content warnings: N/A

“The Third Option” by Uncertainty_Principle. 221K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Spiderman, Marvel
Recced by: overnewoverlords
Backstory: “A retelling of Homecoming where Ben dies and May was never there. Peter becomes Spider-man as a true kid of the streets. Responsibility is not a choice; but heroism is.”
Rec: It’s such a powerful exploration of trauma—some horrible things happen to Peter, and you can feel their weight in every scene from the movies that’s reshaped by Peter’s pain and fear, echoes of abuse that will never leave him just as Ben’s words never can. At the same time, every interaction with Ned and Iron Man is an absolute *delight*, and you can see Spiderman and the kid from Queens inside Peter Parker in spite of it all.
Content warnings: Rape/non-con and child abuse

“The Whole Glass of Water” by ladyblahblah. 8K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Recced by: noblecharley
Backstory: Derek Hale’s life as a born werewolf was good until high school, at which point it became one literal nightmare after another, until his early 20s when the show begins and he’s the v reluctant ally/mentor to the newly bitten werewolf main character. After additional tragedies in the first few seasons of the show, this story says what if Derek accidentally finds himself adopting a cat and by caring for it, learns to care about his own life?
Rec: This story is so gentle and sweet, despite the somewhat dark premise of taking a vaguely suicidal character and having him adopt a cat which might otherwise be put down. In recognizing his cat doesn’t need to earn affection and care and nice things, he slowly comes to acknowledge those facts about himself, as well.
Content warnings: Suicidal thoughts

“However Long Forever’s Gonna Last” by elissastillstands. 16K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Critical Role (Exandria Unlimited and Calamity)
Recced by: Dissent-in-the-hivemind
Backstory: After taking the Spider Queen’s crown, and while working to free Ted from the Astral Plane, Opal starts getting nightly visits from Zerxus Ilerez.
Rec: It’s a beautiful epilogue to both Critical Role’s EXU and Calamity, and takes two fantastic characters and asks, what if they became friends? It also features the best use of canon dialogue to explore textual parallels that I have ever read in a fanfic.
Content warnings: Canon-typical violence

“The North Remembers” by qqueenofhades. 603K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: A Song of Ice and Fire
Recced by: casapazzo
Backstory: Hey, remember how season 8 of Game of Thrones was rushed and the ending very, uh, bad? This picks up from the "A Dance of Dragons" novel (roughly season 5 of the show) and completes the story of Starks, Lannisters, Targaryens, and the rest of Westeros from there.
Rec: A very satisfying and thorough completion to the sprawling canon. Although based on the novels, works even if all you know is the show.
Content warnings: Consistent w/ canon: graphic violence, rape, death

And a vid!

“Boy” by DayIn3. 2:16, rated Teen.
Fandom: The Hour
Recced by: Gin/myrmidryad
Backstory: The Hour was a two season long BBC show about a fictional news programme broadcast in the mid-fifties. Season two was very focused on vice, police corruption, and exploitation of women in a club run by a mob boss. “There are always men signing something. Men talking deals, men in whispered conversations, men passing money to other men.”
Rec: I rewatched The Hour recently and went looking for fanvids afterwards, and this one absolutely blew me away. It’s all about the women who work at El Paradis, especially Kiki Delaine, set to the song Boris by BOY. It’s sinister and dark, and I can’t stop rewatching it.
Content warnings: Violence

 

 

FINAL THOUGHT

FYI, the browsing period for the Fandom Trumps Hate fanworks auction (with a record number of fan creators participating this year!) began yesterday, and you can start bidding on Tuesday! — Elizabeth