The Rec Center #65
Hello! Our guest reccer this week is a real Rec Center success story: 1degosuperego was led back to Harry/Draco after more than a decade away by this very newsletter, and she brings us her favorites from the 2016 H/D Erised LJ fest. We’ve also got our usual collection of articles, tumblr posts, and, as Gav rightly puts it, some “truly unique” Winter Soldier fanart. — Elizabeth
new stuff
‘Buffy’ cast reunites for 20th anniversary photoshoot at Entertainment Weekly
This photoshoot/interview series is ubiquitous this week, and is essential reading for Buffy fans (unless you are Elizabeth).
“Does Marketing to Fan Communities Help or Hurt Fandom?” by Allyson Gross at The Learned Fangirl
When brands and creators try to appeal to fans—or attempt to join their conversation—and how that can go very wrong.
“An Incomplete Game Feel Reader” by Brendan Keogh
A collection of writing about “game feel”: “We have historically intellectualised videogames as hard configurative systems while downplaying the fact that the reason we really play a videogame is because it feels real good within our soft meaty body. Videogames are a carnal pleasure.”
“Mrs. Potts confronts the enchantress who cursed her and the other servants” by Amy Collier at McSweeney’s
A deleted scene from Beauty and the Beast.
“ENCHANTRESS: I swear that wasn’t intentional. Probably some curse algorithm involving aptronyms. I’m ever so embarrassed.”
older stuff
You may have seen the news that Comics Alliance is now “on hiatus”—almost definitely the end of the site—and its writers are out of a job. :-( If you’ve loved their work over the years, we recommend spending the weekend revisiting their archives. Start here: Jon Erik Christianson’s conversation with Hannah Blumenreich, creator of “Spidey Zine” about her love of fanworks. (She recently had her first official Spider-Man comic published by Marvel, as a short story in Amazing Spider-Man #25!)
tumblr & beyond
Some... truly unique Winter Soldier fanart from sarsaparillaswords.
An exhaustive flowchart that chronicles the order of events across all episodes of BBC Sherlock.
Hugh Jackman used to teach gym class to this red carpet interviewer.
“on fanfic & emotional continuity”—a wonderful post with great new additions
A cute X-Men fan comic by Miranda Harmon!
fanfiction
This week’s guest reccer is 1degosuperego. You can scream about Drarry, Yuriotabek, and Gryles with her on tumblr.
Harry/Draco was my first ship, but I took a break of about fifteen years from the fandom before getting back into it this past year via this very newsletter and some well-timed recs from my friend (and JJBA obsessive) Eliz Simins. There’s just so much H/D fic out there—although it’s an excellent problem to have!—that it gets overwhelming, which is why finding trusted sources can come in handy. This past December was the fourth year of H/D Erised, a Livejournal gift exchange fest, conducted anonymously with a big reveal at the end, that some of my favorite authors have written for in past years. I did the hard work to pick some of the best of this year’s crop of stories. — 1degosuperego
“Antediluvia” by zeitgeistic (faire_weather). 56K wrods, rated Explicit.
Backstory: The gang, blackmailed out of England by the Ministry of Magic, sets up shop in DC to help the US government deal with ecoterrorism from American Merpeople.
Rec: zeitgeistic does an amazing job at world-building the “Magically United States.” Extra points for a nuanced portrayal of Narcissa Malfoy, and, oh god, Draco's bearded hipster of an American cousin.
Content warnings: Mentions of past abuse and deaths related to terrorism.
“On Open Wings” by dicta_contrion. 15K words, rated Teen.
Backstory: Harry finds an injured bird, and wouldn't you know but the best veterinarian—either magical or muggle—is Draco Malfoy?
Rec: If you also love sad!Draco, or Draco and Luna being friends, you’ll love this quiet story from one of my favorite authors in the fandom. I found myself wanting thousands more words about Draco and Harry’s backstory.
Content warnings: N/A
“Boom Clap (The Sound of My Heart)” by femmequixotic, noeon (noe). 39K words, rated Explicit.
Backstory: In a new take on the eighth year trope, Harry, Draco, Hermione, Blaise, et al are back at Hogwarts as teaching fellows, and Harry and Draco have a lovely friendship going ... until they don’t anymore.
Rec: By the numbers: 1. always here for sassy portrait!Snape, 2. never enough of tattooed!Harry, 3. truth or dare is one of the best tropes?, 4. a very sweet side plot around two gay Hogwarts students.
Content warnings: Mentions of homophobia
“Lumos” by birdsofshore. 41K words, rated Explicit.
Backstory: I’m not going to lie to you here, this is a story about Harry and Draco rooming together during eighth year and the word “wank” is used over 40 times.
Rec: I just had the dumbest grin on my face while reading this—enemies to lovers gets me every time. You don’t need me to tell you this story has the most kudos and hits of any story in this year’s collection.
Content warnings: Possible initial dubcon, ymmv??
Random bonus rec that’s not from H/D Erised but that's under-read IMO:
“Strange Bedfellows” by hurt_mod, ravenclawsquill. 30K words, rated Explicit
Backstory: Draco’s developed an addiction to Dreamless Sleep, and Harry helps him taper off it.
Rec: Two of the best H/D tropes are Harry being annoyingly overeager to help others and Harry and Draco slowly developing trust in each other. We get both of those here in spades. Bonus points for ~Ministry drama as Draco gets ready for a big speech at work.
Content warnings: Many mentions of substance abuse!
FINAL THOUGHT
This week’s final thought is: Yay, the new Doctor Who companion is a lesbian! Elizabeth and I both harbor a pretty cynical attitude toward Steven Moffat’s recent creative output, but it’s definitely cool to see a mainstream family show like Doctor Who feature a queer black woman in a lead role. — Gav
FINAL FINAL THOUGHT
If you’ve been dragging your feet on taking Fansplaining’s fanfiction definitions survey, TAKE IT NOW. :-) What are the boundaries of “fic”? Do you have strong feelings about the Aeneid? It’s your moment to shine.
Have a favorite one-off rec? Please send it our way! We’ll use it in a future list. Other fanworks—comics, vids, etc—are strongly encouraged as well.
If you liked this, please share it with your friends! https://thereccenter.substack.com/. And find us on social media: Gav (twitter/tumblr) & Elizabeth (twitter/tumblr)