March 22, 2024

The Rec Center #429

Hello everyone! This week we have pieces on film archives, Purim, and fandom creativity, plus guest reccer ahoymultiships, who really lives up to her name with a variety of crossover fic! — Elizabeth

 

new stuff

““It’s a Silent Fire”: Decaying Digital Movie and TV Show Files Are a Hollywood Crisis” by Gary Baum and Carolyn Gardina at The Hollywood Reporter
An alarming story for film and television fans about preservation worries in the entertainment industry: “You have an entire era of cinema that’s in severe danger of being lost.”

“Purim’s original queen: How studying the Book of Esther as fan fiction can teach us about the roots of an unruly Jewish festival” by Esther Brownsmith at The Conversation
A very interesting piece that uses modern fanfiction as a lens to look at the writing of the original story of Purim, which is this weekend.

“Bewitched, Beaded, Bejeweled” by Eunice Braga at fan/work
The first post in what looks like will be a great new fandom newsletter (sign up!), on embracing fannish creativity regardless of skill level.

 

 

older stuff

“In celebration of Goku, a Latino icon” by JP Brammer at the LA Times
“There, nestled among a chibi Frida Kahlo purse and a calavera, was a figure from my childhood, rendered in polyresin the way a Catholic saint in my abuela’s house might have been: Goku.”

 

tumblr & beyond

(x)

oh so you love spider-man do you?

click here for an indisputably unique and unpleasant mental image involving gollum and yoda.

some thoughts on Mycroft Holmes and autism.

“an extensive, richly detailed fanon that completely fucking sucks”

 

fanfiction

ahoymultiships started her fandom life loving mostly canon ships, and took a left turn into good storytelling rather than specific ships dictating what she read (thus her username). This led to her discovering random-ass meow-meows (affectionately derogatory) from different fandoms through favorite authors and their bookmarks respectively. She famously wrote an essay for an ex, explaining why Kurt (Glee)/Harry (Harry Potter), while being from different universes, fit like puzzle pieces (thank you for coming to her TED Talk). (She’s also written some of her own, including the aforementioned Glee/HP fic, which is not on AO3.)

Crossovers do not necessarily need a canon reason to exist, and can be as easy as characters from different fandoms frequenting the same coffee shop, but having a canon reason makes it interesting for readers who do know the specific universes. This could be two fandoms being set in the same city/country/era, two characters going through very similar experiences (and thus being able to bond), or two groups of characters that would get along so well that their universes have to coincide (of course).

The amount of character detail you need for reading such works is mainly based on your need for canon information. YMMV, my experience has been that if I started watching the show/movie, it had to do with my level of interest versus needing to watch it to understand the fic. (Funnily enough, I found out from my friend recently that something I thought was canon to Criminal Minds was actually fanon.) — ahoymultiships

“For All That We Are” by MoreHuman. 2.6K words, rated Teen.
Fandoms: Veronica Mars; Schitt’s Creek; Ships: Patrick Brewer/David Rose, Logan Echolls/Veronica Mars
Backstory: David “hung out” with Trina and Logan when younger and richer, with both SC and VM universes still being canon.
Rec: It’s a short yet perfect fic. Logan’s confusing feelings about Patrick is so real, and I'm all about traumatized characters getting the comfort that they deserve—Logan could absolutely use some Schitt’s Creek love, in my opinion.
Content warnings: Author lists mentions of past violence, suicide, and drug use

“Under the Sea” by Magi_Silverwolf. 2.3K words, rated Teen.
Fandoms: Harry Potter, Criminal Minds; Ship: Gen, Harry Potter & Spencer Reid
Backstory: This is a mostly stand-alone fic in a series set around Harry Potter and Spencer Reid, with a playground containing both Harry Potter and Criminal Minds characters. This is set post-war in the Harry Potter universe, with Harry needing a break from the magical universe, and showing up at Georgetown University.
Rec: I love characters who upend the normal habits of other characters and show them new ways to live their lives. This is a great setup in that direction.
Content warnings: Referenced unhappy childhood in this oneshot (author’s warning); the series as a whole has a lot more warnings (individually stated in each fic’s tags)

“do it all again (think you’re my best friend)” by shuofthewind. 32K words, Not Rated (est. Mature to Explicit).
Fandoms: Daredevil; MCU (specifically Thor); Ship: Darcy Lewis/Matt Murdock
Backstory: Darcy goes to the same Law school as Foggy and Matt, and they are BFFs. Darcy is a bad-ass mofo, and Matt doesn't have any powers, with everyone being hella sassy.
Rec: shuofthewind is one of my absolute absolute favorite authors. I’ve reread all of her stuff at least twice. Some of them are hella painful, with this containing some of the pain. This fic, however, has so much fluff to be a cloud on top of the pain, and it’s lovely.
Content warnings: Author lists mental illness (depression) and discussion of it; also emotional manipulating/abuse, some gaslighting, alcoholism, slurs of LGBT+ identities (especially lesbianism and asexuality).

“Assistant to the Consulting Detectives” by idyll. 19K words, rated Teen.
Fandoms: Teen Wolf, Elementary; Ship: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Backstory: The summary states how they collide—Stiles is going to NYU and ends up working for Sherlock and Joan. NYC tends to contain a lot of supernatural elements, which obviously intersects with Sherlock's cases. (I also recc’d this once before!)
Rec: Stiles is one of those characters that I can think can enter most universes and make them better (yes, I identified with him a lot, why do you ask?) and specifically in this universe, he meshes so perfectly that I can believe a show could be created about these universes crossing.
Content warnings: Author lists BDSM overtones

“Chuck Roast” by galwednesday. 5K words, rated Teen.
Fandoms: Captain America (Movies), Leverage; Ships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer
Backstory: Bucky is a food critic and Eliot Spencer wants constructive criticism on his food. ’Nuff said. [This story makes more sense if you read the previous work in the series, but the actual crossover is in this work.]
Rec: This is one work where I did know both fandoms before I started reading the work, and I loved how in-character the chaos was. Also, the first work is a reference to a Tumblr prompt AU.
Content warnings: Misunderstood kidnapping attempt

“The Age Of Alton” by copperbadge. 5K words, rated Gen.
Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Good Eats; Ship: Gen
Backstory: This is a beautiful chaotic AU series where a lot of the Marvel characters are chefs and the shenanigans of the same. The crossover is explained in the fic, but its basically chef twitter explodes so Alton Brown has to be there.
Rec: It is such a character-driven wonderful series I've re-read multiple times, but specifically this one, because the description of food, Kamala being discovered (before I knew of Ms Marvel!), and exploding food, oh my!
Content warnings: N/A

 

 

FINAL THOUGHT

That’s all, folks! Have a lovely weekend! — Gav