The Rec Center #70
Hello! It’s been...quite a week. Perhaps you are like me, worrying about the future of your ACA health insurance and tagging various members of Congress on social media with things like, “I WILL NOT REST UNTIL YOU ARE OUT OF A JOB.” :-) If you’re looking for a break this weekend, we’ve got plenty of distraction—a variety of fandom articles and Tumblr posts, some beautiful fanart, Gav’s review of a new Star Wars novel about Baze and Chirrut, and classic Hanson fic recs by Bethany—a true expert, since she runs the only Hanson fic archive active online right now! — Elizabeth
new stuff
“The Trouble With the Mets: A Superfan Reckons With Baseball’s Domestic Abuse Problem” by Morgan Leigh Davies in the Village Voice
Friend-of-the-newsletter Morgan Davies published a great sports fandom piece this week, struggling with her love of baseball vs. the sport’s shoddy handling of domestic abuse charges among star players.
“Brown bodies in white spaces: On meeting Riz Ahmed” by Preeti Chhibber at Blastr
Preeti Chhibber and Swapna Krishna co-host a podcast called Desi Geek Girls. They met Riz Ahmed at this year’s Star Wars Celebration, and Preeti shared a first-hand account of how much that experience meant to her.
“(Don’t) Meet Your Idols” by Allyson Gross at Fansplaining
Three recent boyband novels—Songs About a Girl, Kill the Boy Band, and Grace and the Fever—tackle the way fans construct (and deconstruct) their faves through fandom. In a guest piece for Fansplaining’s Medium collection, Allyson dives deep into all three.
older stuff
“#Serial: Fandom Community Meets Armchair Law” by Casey Fiesler
“Could fannish commitment to a theory and a real, high-stakes case be a bad combination?” This piece, which observes the fannish mystery-solving community that arose around the Serial podcast, is an interesting read a few years later, especially as true crime narrative podcasts grow increasingly popular.
the con or bust auction!
Con or Bust is an organization that works to send fans of color to conventions, either by covering costs or helping cons sponsor them. Their main source of funds is an annual auction, and it closes this Sunday, May 7th! If you want to help out a great cause while getting your hands on, say, signed copies of your favorite books (or galleys!), check out the full list of items. — Elizabeth
tumblr & beyond
Incredible Sense 8 fanart just in time for season 2: “Sensates Going to Their Sabbath” by Sleevia. It’s based off the painting of “Witches Going to Their Sabbath” by Luis Ricardo Falero, if you want to see them side by side!
The Star Trek Series Life Cycle
Gillian Anderson found out about the Spotify playlist meme.
The Yuri on Ice stage show involved specially designed suits for each character, and they’re soooo beautiful.
“i lik the bred”: fandom edition
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fanfiction
As a music nerd with no discernible musical talent, Bethany has been channeling a love of music into fanfic about boybands since her very first Backstreet Boys self-inserts at age 12. The year after that, she dove headfirst into the Hanson fandom—and has only come up for air a few times since. Now she runs the biggest (currently only) Hanson fanfic website out there. If you want more recs or just want to squee about Zac Hanson and/or Harry Styles, you can find her on twitter, tumblr, DW, and her website.
May 6th marks 20 years since a little orange CD came out of the “Middle of Nowhere” and changed the lives of countless teenage girls. Hanson were—and still are!—different from other so-called boybands. They wrote and played their own music, and they were earnest, weird, and arguably not conventionally attractive. After struggling with their record label during and after their sophomore release, they went independent and have now released six full length albums and numerous EPs. They’re going on tour this summer, and releasing both greatest hits and Christmas albums later this year. In addition to staying true to their music, they’ve mostly avoided scandal, but their fanfic-like real lives and brotherly banter still provide plenty to enjoy.
Just as Hanson have always been a little left of center, so have their fans. We've churned out tens of thousands of stories that range from the expected Mary Sues to dark alternate universes. There has yet to be a Hanson ABO fic, though—someone needs to get on that! The creativity of Hanson fans is what attracted me to the fandom in the first place, and these are just a few of my favorites from the last twenty years. — Bethany
“Devil Angel” by Aspen. 100K words, not rated (I would say E).
Ships: Taylor Hanson/Scott Moffatt, Zac Hanson/Dave Moffatt
Backstory: Hanson and the Moffatts run into each other at an airport, realize they’re sharing a hotel and become best friends...or in some cases, more than that. Soon after discovering some interesting feelings for each other, they realize someone is stalking them around the hotel.
Rec: I know the author has pretty much disowned this fic, and I can see why, considering how poorly edited it is. But despite that, it’s pretty much the Urtext of late 90s boyband slash.
Content warnings: Underage sexual content
“Embers” (or on AO3) by Ahestele. 147K words, rated Teen.
Ships: Taylor Hanson/Eminem
Backstory: Eminem, better known as Marshall in this fic, is a high school hockey player who needs tutoring from a figure skater who just so happens to be Taylor, and things happen.
Rec: Ahestele absolutely nails the dialect and atmosphere. The pairing seems like it shouldn't work, but it really, really does.
Content warnings: Underage-ish (the characters are in their late teens)
“Falling” (and the sequel, “Farther In”) by Sarah Lee. 65K words, not rated (I would say M).
Ships: Gen
Backstory: It’s set in the late 80s, so Zac is literally a toddler, and the boys have just escaped their fictional abusive mother when the fic begins and they meet the woman who will eventually become their foster mother.
Rec: They really bear no resemblance to the real Hanson, but the characters are so well developed. The plot is like an episode of Law and Order: SVU mixed with a Lifetime movie, but in the best possible way.
Content warnings: descriptions of child abuse, drug abuse
“The Innocents” by Paola. 220K words (in progress), rated Gen (but there is some sexual content that warrants a higher rating)
Ships: Isaac Hanson/Taylor Hanson, Isaac Hanson/Zac Hanson, Taylor Hanson/Zac Hanson, Taylor Hanson/Jesse Spencer
Backstory: Set a few years in the future in a world where the US and Canada have become one country, the story centers around three brothers who were raised in a cult where relationships between same sex siblings aren’t really frowned upon. They stage an escape after Isaac and Taylor realize Zac is being tortured (“cleansed”), and that’s just the beginning of their saga.
Rec: I loved dystopian stories, so this one is right up my alley. Paola has put so much thought into the world she has created for this fic, from the cult aspect to the governmental intrigue, that this is one of the few Hanson fanfics I would honestly want to see as a published novel.
Content warnings: incest, descriptions of sexual content that isn't always consensual, descriptions of past torture
“The Quiet One” by Krystal. 150K words, not rated (I would say T or M).
Ships: Taylor Hanson/Original Female Character
Backstory: Taylor recovers from being kidnapped and having his vocal cords removed.
Rec: This fic handles Taylor (and his family’s) recovery with such grace and humor. It also includes poor attempts at sign language, the world's ugliest dog and a rose tattoo on Taylor’s hip.
Content warnings: vague references to the aforementioned kidnapping and surgery/torture, but nothing explicit
FINAL THOUGHT
Star Wars published an official Rogue One prequel novel about Baze & Chirrut, and it came out this week! (For previous notes on why these two characters are so great, check out my ship primer and our later rec list of Baze/Chirrut fanfic.)
Guardians of the Whills takes place shortly before Rogue One, exploring Baze & Chirrut’s life on Jedha under the Imperial occupation. It’s a grim war story about making difficult moral decisions in impossible circumstances, and I loved it! If you’re a fan of these characters, I highly recommend it for more background on their life and relationship. And since we’re onto a kind of Baze/Chirrut mini-theme here, I thought I’d add some bonus fandom recs as our Final Thought. — Gav
Avatar: The Last Airbender art by Ameorry Luo, with Chirrut as an airbender and Baze as "a reluctant earthbender who mostly uses a dao but will 100% drop a boulder on you if you hurt Chirrut."
“Every Good Thing” by erebones. 72K words, rated Explicit.
Backstory: Fusion AU that combines elements of Star Wars worldbuilding/politics with a quasi-modern setting. It takes place on Jedha, long after the Temple of the Whills was destroyed, with Baze as a tattoo artist specializing in traditional Jedhan body art. Chirrut is an academic with an interest in martial arts and the history of the Force, and they meet when he commissions a tattoo.
Rec: I haven’t really read a fic like this before, beginning as a coffeeshop-style AU (albeit with a tattoo parlour instead) and gradually developing into a political sci-fi story in the same vein as Rogue One itself. Baze and Chirrut are very well-characterized and their romance feels appropriately middle-aged, if that makes sense? Like, they fall in love but it’s quite mature and settled. Meanwhile the younger characters like Jyn and Bodhi are more like normal 20-somethings than in the movie, because they haven’t been through the same trials, yet they still make similar political choices when faced with danger from the First Order. This story also does some really interesting things with Jedha and Jedhan cultural identity after the Imperial attack, which was one of my favorite themes in the movie (and in the new Baze/Chirrut book, in fact.)
Content warnings: N/A
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.
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