The Rec Center #46
Another grab-bag of fic recs this week! :) Along with some badass Furiosa fanart, a rather mixed review of Fantastic Beasts, and more. — Gav
new stuff
“Why “The Walking Dead” Has Become Fanfiction’s Muse” by Bim Adewumni at Buzzfeed
On the off chance that anyone in fandom hasn’t read the wonderful Bim Adewumni’s new fanfic article: HERE U GO.
“Review: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” by Gav at the Daily Dot
I had a very mixed reaction to this movie, because while it’s entertaining and the magical creatures are very cute, the main characters are kind of...vacant? Most of their characterization comes through the actors rather than traits written into the story. Also, there are some pretty glaring plot holes in the central conflict about magical secrecy, and the all-white cast remains a serious problem.
old(er) stuff
“Finding Hope in a TARDIS: Violence, Racism, and Headline Fatigue” by Angelique Roche at Black Girls Create
“I give my friends TARDIS’s because it connects people through time and space.”
tumblr & beyond
Imperator Furiosa by caffeinetooth. (Who else is channeling her rn?)
“Timber” by bessyboo. Luv this wonderfully energetic fanvid for all seven Star Wars movies.
“Why do American comics have this thing where they seem to emphasize way too many random words that don’t make any sense”—An Explanation.
fanfiction
Another grab-bag from our readers (plus Gav), and you guys have been lifesavers over the past few weeks while I’ve been distracted by the entire country/world being on fire. As always, please keep ’em coming, especially fics you’re finding comfort in, whether they provide an escape or a call to arms. The form is here, or write us directly. — Elizabeth
“a city built on water” by deputychairman. 13.6K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Star Wars: The Force Awakens; Ship: Finn/Poe
Recced by: CleverManka
Backstory: I’m not really sure what to say here. Surely everyone knows this fandom, if not the ship? [Ed note: I wanted to include the “themes” here, which are usually only for our reference, because they feel relevant right now —ELM] There’s a lot of plot and politics (and very little Poe—just a warning) before things heat up. This is Deputy’s amazing catharsis fic (as much as there could have been one) after Brexit.
Rec: I wouldn't call this gritty or angsty, but it takes a long time for our heroes to finally get together, and it's a realistic view of possible post-rebellion life with both sides present. I love Deputy's Leia, who figures prominently in the story.
Content warnings: N/A
“Rose Hill” by justsotv. 40K words, rated M.
Fandom: Glee; Ship: Faberry (Quinn/Rachel)
Recced by: Mia
Backstory: Glee used to be the fandom with most fics, but has lost the lead. Since the show is over there are almost no new fics, but this is the best of the few new ones!
Rec: It’s an AU taking Rachel and Quinn to a historical fiction setting, and besides the great chemistry they have, the story is VERY historically accurate.
Content warnings: D&S undertones
“Seems far from Home, Seems Farther From You” by girl_wonder. 4.7K words, rated Teen.
Fandoms: Doctor Who/SGA crossover; Ship: Gen
Recced by: starwire
Backstory: This takes place just after the Year That Wasn’t in Doctor Who, so Martha is recovering from traumatic experiences that everyone else in the world doesn’t remember, obviously the solution is to go to another galaxy.
Rec: This is Martha Jones as the beautiful and strong character that she is, it doesn’t pass the trauma that she experienced, but how she takes that and uses the steel she found as her foundation. Thrust her into SGA and it is just utterly fantastic and the perspective she brings is delightful.
Content warnings: N/A
“Lesbian and Gay Figures in Magical History: No. 6 John Segundus” by rubyofkukundu. 10.5K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell; Ship: John Segundus/John Childermass
Recced by: Gav
Backstory: As a post-canon fic about two secondary characters, you may not be able to follow this if it you haven’t read the book or watched the TV series, BUT it may work as an original story? Segundus is an academic magician, while Childermass is the working-class former servant of another magician (Norrell), and has since become a magician himself.
Rec: A fun and tonally appropriate Segundus/Childermass story, partly told through a modern literary/historical analysis of some letters between the two characters. There’s also a more traditionally fanfic-y sequel, and both are a delight!
Content warnings: N/A
“All They Had Not Lost series” by Quizzical. 72K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Harry Potter: Ship: Harry/Ron/Hermoine
Recced by: Kaleb
Backstory: Harry Potter is...come on, you know Harry Potter right? Well this is an established Ron/Hermoine relationship where they invite a grieving and depressed Harry into their relationship.
Rec: For one thing, hurt/comfort is a very seductive story technique and this story does it well, but moreso I like how it deals with difficulties and trials the three of them face due to the nature of their relationship.
Content warnings: (backstory) character death
FINAL THOUGHT
OK, so I’m still working up to thinking coherent thoughts about fandom (or participating in fandom), but one thing I have been thinking about relates to this:
Perhaps you’ve also seen the backlash against people using books like Harry Potter and the Hunger Games to talk about this election on social media in the past week. These people are dicks. They could be doing something useful like donating to the ACLU or organizing protests or calling their Congressional representatives and urging them to block the creation of, as I saw it put earlier, “David Duke’s dream cabinet.” But instead they’re taking time out of their lives to mock people who find strength in fictional worlds. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As Alanna rightly points out, these stories aren’t pulled from thin air: they are allegories based both on human nature and on history. And anyone who’s studied or participated in fan activism knows that these stories can lead people, especially younger people, to work to enact real change. And yeah, Harry Potter shouldn’t be the ONLY book you read—thinking of that tweet I saw that “the House Un-American Activities Committee sounds like Harry Potter language,” c’mon guys, work with me here, don’t do this. But the heroes we get in these stories, the tough decisions they make, the moral courage: all that will be important if we want to fight in the coming days, weeks, years.
For me personally, I’m thinking a lot about why we need these stories, and I’m increasingly feeling like always focusing on the heroes can be a bit misleading. We read and write stories about these struggles not just to show people fighting the bad guy, but to show us how the bad guy gets made, and how we all create the system in which he can flourish. We voted Saxon, didn’t we? To me the scariest part of the entire Harry Potter universe is Dolores Umbridge and everything in the Ministry that surrounds her—the denials, the control of the press, the terrors she imposes under the cover of business-as-usual, the way so many people in the Ministry are complicit in everything that happens.
Sooooo. Sorry to get grim, but like...Don’t stop reading these books. Don’t stop learning lessons from them. Don’t stop drawing inspiration from them. And if anyone tries to mock you for taking them seriously, tell them to fuck off. Because none of these books or movies or shows, set on far-flung worlds or infused with magic, are that distant from our own. They’re written by humans, after all. — Elizabeth
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The Rec Center #46A—An Apology
Hi Rec Center Readers,
We’re writing with an apology: a reader has flagged us that one of the guest recs in this week’s letter, “Rose Hill” (from the Glee fandom), is a historical slavery AU. There were no warnings in the guest rec, nor any indication that that’s what it was about. We would apologize for this under any circumstances, but especially at this abysmal moment in American history, when so many of our readers, particularly those from marginalized groups, are feeling vulnerable, anxious, and scared.
We apologize to anyone who was unwittingly hurt by clicking through to this story. We had no idea of its content, because neither of us had read it ourselves (or even clicked on it beyond ensuring it was a working link). On weeks when we're too busy to find multiple recs, or are running lists for fandoms we're unfamiliar with, we rely on recs from readers. (A note from Elizabeth: while picking these, I deliberately left off any stories that warned for things like racism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination, as well as things like post-apocalyptic AUs, because of the current state of this country. I picked them based on pairing and fandom, trying to get a mix of slash, femslash, etc. Clearly not investigating further was a mistake.)
Fandom relies on a system of mutual trust with tagging and warning, and since adding a “content warning” field to our submission form, we’ve been pleased to see many guest reccers have taken it to heart and robustly warned for the benefit of potential readers. But we’re ultimately responsible for any story that winds up in the letter without proper tags, and we’re going to try to ensure that this doesn’t happen going forward. We want this to be a space that all our readers can trust.
Once again—we're so sorry, and we're going to be more careful in future.
Elizabeth & Gav