The Rec Center #77
Welcome to a special—no, VITALLY IMPORTANT—Black Sails edition of the Rec Center! Along with our usual selection of fic recs and fandom news, Elizabeth & I have put together a primer for Black Sails, a TV show that ought to have a massive fandom.
It’s a deeply compelling historical pirate drama with intense political themes and lots of queer characters, and we HIGHLY recommend it, for reasons discussed extensively below. — Gav
new stuff
“Anti-Fans and Political Public Spheres” by CarrieLynn D. Reinhard at Playing With Research
An interesting academic exploration of anti-fandom, eg people united in a group to hate-watch or post snarky memes about something.
“How fan films shaped The Lego Movie” by Christophe Haubursin at Vox
“The film was an animation feat built on the legacy of homemade projects.”
older stuff
“Interview: ‘Her Universe’ founder Ashley Eckstein” by Carly Lane at The Mary Sue
Female-fandom-focused clothing company Her Universe celebrated its seventh birthday this week. In this interview, its founder talks about why and how she started the company and how it continues to grow.
tumblr & beyond
Kirk/Spock wedding fanart by vipadafai.
Shipping ships!!
“Hannibal is like a slow burn fic that hasn’t updated in a year.”
Which of the Black Sails characters would fuck a clone of themselves? An impressively accurate breakdown by princessprouvaire.
black sails!!!!!!!!! ⚓
Gav: Black Sails is an 18th century pirate drama that aired for four seasons, wrapping up in April this year, and we are both OBSESSED. It’s ostensibly a ~prequel to Treasure Island (Elizabeth didn’t know this for at least a season so it’s not necessary to have any knowledge of that) with historical and original characters as well. Season 1 is a little sexist and COULD be (wrongly) mistaken for a sex-and-violence show, which may explain why Black Sails didn’t catch on at first—both as a fandom, and with mainstream critics. But from s2 onwards, it’s a masterpiece. If it had received more media attention after s1, I think people would be listing it alongside Hannibal and the Leftovers as one of the best shows of the past few years.
It’s a political drama with plenty of romance and action, intentionally playing with pirate genre tropes. About a third of the main characters are queer. It’s also VERY emotionally compelling, following several different viewpoints, with a grizzled pirate named Captain Flint as the central character.
Flint is violent, charismatic, and obsessively driven to ~save the pirate town of Nassau in the Bahamas. Nassau is run by a merchant’s daughter named Eleanor Guthrie, and she & Flint want the town to remain independent from the British Empire. To do this, they plan to steal an infamous haul of Spanish treasure, the Urca Gold. Other lead characters include real historical pirates like Anne Bonny and Calico Jack, plus Long John Silver and others from Treasure Island, and new fictional characters like Max, who begins her role as a sex worker, and later becomes a political fixer.
Black Sails is ultimately about the struggle over “civilization,” which the British Empire attempts to assert over Nassau and the pirates through slavery, capitalism, and the violent rule of law. The main characters all have different visions of how they can escape this fate through theft, violence, or manipulation. It’s wonderfully well-written from a structural and characterization POV. A perfect balance of machiavellian politics, queer romance, and sea battles.
So, now I’ve given this (far too long) explanation: Elizabeth! Why do you love Black Sails?
Elizabeth: Ohhhhh my God how can I sum it all up? There’s too much to say. Part of the trouble is that I really want to get into it, but there’s so much I can’t discuss without giving stuff away. I wasn’t super turned off by the sexist elements of s1—exploitative would be the word I’d use—but I wasn’t immediately hooked. At all. It’s a very slow and careful set-up (that improves upon rewatching, I can confirm, when you understand everyone’s motivations) but you don’t realize how careful it all is until s2...which...we can’t discuss because spoilers.
BUT. Here is a brief paragraph about why I love Black Sails. 1) Captain James Flint 2) Pirates generally, and like, actual depictions of piracy, which at the turn of the 18th century, anyway, was less about physical fighting and more about reputation and negotiation 3) Boats/ships/the sea 4) Anne Bonny 5) This is a postcolonial text, and I think one of the reasons I wound up studying postcolonial literature in college was part of the reason I love fanfiction—the critical lens and/or texts themselves go in between the lines of “history,” wrest them open, and refashion the narratives set by the colonizers. Not only that, Black Sails *explicitly* talks about this, constantly. It’s like, the number one theme: who gets to write narratives, and how they’re written. And the idea of “civilization” as built on narrative—and on what (or who) is excluded.
ALSO NOT TO MAKE IT ~INTELLECTUAL ALL THE TIME I ALSO HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT THIS SHOW, LIKE EVERY FEELING EVER. I rewatched a particular episode at the end of the second season this week and even though I know what happens (I am not over it guys) I still forgot to breathe every time a certain set of characters were talking.
Gav: I freely admit I have already rewatched That Episode, and I haven’t even finished the show yet. This is THE most rewatchable show I’ve ever seen, and I ordinarily don’t rewatch any TV without several years between viewings.
And yes: CAPTAIN! FLINT! I love him so much. I loved him the instant he came onscreen. Terrifying and untrustworthy, but with a deeply compelling backstory that gets revealed later on. He’s the kind of character who can do utterly despicable things, but I still side with him at all times.
I also love the storytelling theme you mentioned, which ties into how pirates used intimidation tactics by building a personal ~brand. Like, that’s why we still know about Blackbeard and Anne Bonny and Jack Rackham today! They had great marketing! Ships surrendered as soon as they saw their pirate flags in the distance!
Flint is openly conscious about crafting this kind of persona, partly through intimidation and partly by being a masterful public speaker. And most of the other characters are either trying to create some image around themselves, or they’re driven by another kind of ~story. The British Empire is all about “civilization,” and the pirates are all chasing after the Urca Gold, which is never just described as “a big pile of gold.” It’s either introduced through an elaborate pirate yarn about the gold’s backstory (because no one has actually seen it), or it’s discussed as a symbol of what it could do for Nassau, or for a character’s future.
Elizabeth: The best thing about what’s transpired here is were like, “let’s do a lil explainer” and it’s turned into a MILLION-WORD ESSAY about the themes of the show all the while skirting around all the themes we can’t discuss because we don’t want to spoil anything.
Here is one thing I will say: hand in hand with the postcolonial lens, the show is deeply political, and directly engages with queerness, gender, race, class, disability, and more. The “civilization” theme—Gav once beautifully described “civilization as panto villain” in this show, and it’s true and a delight to recoil and hiss when anyone brings up the concept—is one of exclusion, often, as is historically true, along these various intersectional axes. Highly recommended in particular on the queer rep front—as Gav said, a third(?) of the characters are canonically queer, which gives us a diversity of perspectives and subsequent choices. There are multiple poly relationships as well, which, again, offers up a diversity of perspectives, choices, and negotiations (again, no spoilers, argh, this is torture).
ALL THIS BEING SAID, this is not a happy show. I just spent 20 minutes unsuccessfully hunting for a quote from the showrunners about walking the fine line between tragedy and misery in a drama, and I think they succeed without tumbling into gratuitous torture porn. But, like, it’s not...cheerful. At all. Some characters get happy endings but others do not. Every character has *a lot* of trials and tribulations. And it’s relatively graphic: a lot of battles, some sexual violence, depictions of torture, and depictions of slavery and the slave trade. Violence is integral to the show, and if that’s not for you, I’m not sure I could recommend Black Sails in good faith. Septembriseur received an ask about this—could the asker skip violent scenes?—and I think gives a great answer, as well as a breakdown of specific content warnings. It also can be a bit emotionally taxing? Like
All this and WE LOVE IT SO MUCH, ahahahaha help.
SOME THINGS WE’VE WRITTEN ABOUT BLACK SAILS SO FAR (THERE WILL BE MORE):
Gav wrote some meta about the s2 finale, which you CANNOT READ unless you’ve seen it! Massive spoilers!
Elizabeth on fandom, narratives, and Black Sails in particular (which contains vague spoilers for the finale, but she warns clearly to stop reading when she starts talking about it)
Gav has been livetweeting the series as she watches (very spoilery)
We will be reccing fic! Just FYI. Elizabeth is the only one who is reading any right now and is still not sure how to rec the specific things she’s enjoying without giving away MASSIVE spoilers lol
VIEWING INSTRUCTIONS:
Available on Amazon in the US & UK, and Hulu (s1-3) and on Starz directly, obvs, in the US
You need to watch all eight eps of season 1! It’s full of thematic background for later seasons, and important Flint characterization.
You can skip scenes in s1 if you think they’re a bit male gaze-y. That being said, s1 is otherwise still very good! It’s not “bad TV,” it’s just less good than the ABSOLUTE GENIUS of seasons 2-4.
As previously mentioned, s1 is a whole different thing upon rewatching! Still.
AVOID SPOILERS. We’re serious. Don’t look at the Black Sails tags on Tumblr. Don’t look at fic. If possible, mute or block Black Sails keywords!
Once again: AVOID SPOILERS!!
Finally, prepare yourself for a lot of Emotions. Good luck!
There’s a Black Sails podcast called Fathoms Deep, which has episode-by-episode discussions, plus interviews with cast and crew.
fanfiction
Another grab bag! Lots of non-pirate things if that’s actually what you’re after this week. (I’m not going to question you but WHAT COULD YOU WANT MORE THAN PIRATES???) Thanks, as always, to everyone who sent in a rec. — Elizabeth
“Short Street to Kicklebury” by notbecauseofvictories. 1.6K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Discworld; Ship: Sam Vimes/Sybil Ramkin
Recced by: Orangistae
Backstory: A series of short vignettes about how Captain Samantha Vimes of the City Watch got married to Her Grace, Lady Sybil Ramkin, the Duchess of Ankh.
Rec: A genderbent take on a relationship that doesn’t always get much attention in the books, this fic is sweet, funny, and proudly political in a very Pratchettian way.
Content warnings: N/A
“Healer” by Fahye. 4.5K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Harry Potter; Ship: Padma Patil/George Weasley
Recced by: anon
Backstory: Padma learns magical healing, muggle medicine, and how to cope with grief.
Rec: The writing itself flows like poetry, and also comes to a beautiful, surprising, ending that settles in the heart like a chaste kiss from a mother.
Content warning: Dealing with death
“Dimensionally Challenged” by Amy. 53K words, rated Explicit.
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spiderman; Ship: Spike/Xander Harris/Peter Parker
Recced by: Gryvon
Backstory: Willow and Giles mistakenly summon Spiderman into the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe.
Rec: This is a crossover that seems like it shouldn't work but it somehow does and it’s amazing.
Content warnings: N/A
“Proud to Speak My Heart” cylobaby27. 14.6K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe; Ship: Darcy Lewis/Pepper Potts
Recced by: Anna
Backstory: Darcy’s life has finally started to settle down after aliens first crash-landed on Earth, and she starts a job at Stark Industries. Then she gets distracted that Pepper never stops working and she always wants to help a workaholic.
Rec: Really sweet and character-driven rare pair!
Content warnings: N/A
“The Expiation Expedition” by IntelligentAirhead, obstinateRixatrix. 41K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Voltron Legendary Defenders; Ship: Keith/Lance
Recced by: sainatsukino
Backstory: Basically Voltron is an anime about five teenagers who fight an evil space empire in giant Lion robots that combine into a bigger robot man, and their lives are truly that ridiculous. Oh and also there’s a space princess and her space butler.
Rec: The fake married story that we all wanted. I’m new to this fandom, but I found this story sweet and funny and very in-character for everyone. Also the writers have a very distinctive, sarcastic narrative voice that’s hilarious.
Content warnings: N/A
Plus a bonus vid that didn’t make it into last week’s SPACE list because Elizabeth is an idiot:
“Starships” by bironic. 3:36, rated PG-13.
Fandom: Multifandom; Ships: Gen
Recced by: anon
Backstory: This vid is a multifandom celebration of spaceships and spaceship crews set to the perfect, upbeat Nicki Minaj track. The clips are drawn from a whole bunch of your favourite space canons.
Rec: The thing I love about this vid is how insanely *joyful* it is. This is a story about people loving being in space, flying ships, getting into fights and scrapes and chases and and and. The editing really lets the narrative shine through great clip choices and pacing.
Vidder’s notes: sci fi action, swear words and makeouts. *Physical note for camera movement (shaking, spinning, tilting), flashing lights and some fast-cut sequences.
FINAL THOUGHT
OK we’ve already hit you with a wall of pirate text but I have a few more words and these are LESS ENTHUSIASTIC. I wanted to talk briefly about this piece by Amanda Hess in the Times. It’s about the new webseries FANtasies, in which RPF about YouTubers is acted out by the actual YouTubers. So like...the article itself is good; it’s far more generous than I would have been, but the critical parts are spot-on, particularly the final paragraph, where Hess pinpoints a lot of the things that bother me about what’s going on here.
Many people seemed dismayed by the very concept of having RPF acted out by its subjects—if the phrase “Caitlin Moran at the BFI” invokes a special kind of anger for you, you know what I mean. On that front, I’d just say that community norms across fanfic spaces vary wildly. This sort of thing is a literal nightmare to me, as a fan, but many other fans have different feelings about fan/creator interactions, monetizing fic, etc, especially when we’re talking about Wattpad. Just something to keep in mind, in light of all the “no one in fandom wants this!” comments I saw around this and other projects that obliterate the fourth wall—with fans’ permission.
What bothered me was the words of the showrunner:
Which like...obviously some fanfic is absurd and some is not logical. But c’mon, folks. As I said in the previous paragraph, fans can do whatever they want with their work, including handing it over to be ~lovingly mocked. But I would be less bummed out by the idea of this show if I felt like the people making it understood or truly respected fic or its writers. I want to feel like if this is happening, people’s work is in good hands—not the butt of a joke.
I’m curious to see where this goes, and I’m curious to see if this is a harbinger of things to come. And, as always, I’m curious about your thoughts, so please let me know if you have any feelings! — Elizabeth
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)