The Rec Center #86
HELLO. Greetings to all of our new readers! Many of you are probably here because of Stephanie Burt’s fantastic New Yorker piece on fanfic (thank you, Steph!) so we’re going to do our best to continue being “terrifically literate” or even just adequately literate.
A quick guide for new subscribers: we generally stick to the same sections every week. We have “new stuff” for fandom-adjacent news and commentary, “older stuff” for vintage pieces, “tumblr & beyond” for our fave new memes, flamewars, fanart, etc, and “fanfiction” for our weekly recommendation lists. These are either written by us or by a guest reccer, or put together from reader submissions. Occasionally we run an explainer for a fandom or ship, so people can shout from the rooftops about their latest obsession! (Our current passion is the queer anti-colonial pirate drama Black Sails, BTW. We think we are surprisingly restrained considering that we are in DEEP.)
Sincerely yours,
Gav (geek culture journalist and podcaster) & Elizabeth (journalist, editor, and podcaster)
new stuff
“The Promise and Potential of Fan Fiction” by Stephanie Burt at The New Yorker
The aforementioned piece on fic, which centers on Francesca Coppa’s new anthology, “The Fanfiction Reader.” Burt writes of fic: “No clearer path from new writers to potentially interested readers has existed in the history of civilization.”
“How I Regenerated Along With Doctor Who” by Riley Silverman at SyFyWire
A beautiful piece by a trans woman who found resonance in the Doctor’s regenerations—especially the next one. “Feeling so intimately close to this character has meant the world to me, could even have saved my life. Now, knowing she’s on her way to being even more like me in just a few months is a strange but sort of fascinating feeling.”
“Why Joss Whedon’s alleged sex scandals may finally destroy his feminist image” by Gav at the Daily Dot
Joss Whedon’s personal life was big news this week, prompting a debate about whether his marital infidelities are relevant to his status as a feminist icon. In this piece, Gav explores why fans have a right to feel betrayed, and why his attitude to women has always been creepier than his public persona suggests.
“The Story of the DuckTales Theme, History’s Catchiest Single Minute of Music” by Darryn King at Vanity Fair
“Just recently I was playing with my band at a club,” says Jeff Pescetto, the theme’s original singer. “A group of guys from England walked up and said, ‘We heard your voice and knew right away that it was the guy who sings the DuckTales theme song.’ They were so excited to meet me. I just couldn’t believe they recognized my voice.”
older stuff
“An Archive of Their Own: A Case Study of Feminist HCI and Values in Design” by Casey Fiesler
We shared this in one of the earliest editions of The Rec Center, about 18 months ago, so this might be new to a lot of our readers. Highly recommended for fanfic fans who are interested in archives, HCI, and design.
tumblr & beyond
Clearly the only way to celebrate the eclipse is with gorgeous Sun/Moon fanart by japhers.
We love this collection of 20+ year-old homemade fandom badges. Nothing ever changes!
Someone drew fanart for the adorable story about Pacific Rim’s child actress calling Guillermo del Toro “Totoro-san.”
Your Very Important Black Sails post of the week: James Flint’s character arc as @dril tweets
fanfiction
I briefly considered changing this week’s theme to something more lowkey for new readers, but then I thought: No. To thine own self be true. So this week I’m reccing fanfic about robot/human relationships, ranging from an Asimov pastiche story about gender, to one of my ABSOLUTE FAVE Star Wars fics, a grim romance that leans into the non-biological personhood of Rogue One’s rebel droid K-2SO. — Gav
“all my life I wasn’t trying to get on a highway; I was wondering which way to go” by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel. 7K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: The Avengers; Ship: Phil Coulson/JARVIS
Backstory: Phil Coulson is the sensible and dad-like government agent who oversees the Avengers superhero team.
Summary: Coulson moves into Avengers Tower and befriends JARVIS, Tony Stark’s disembodied AI butler.
Rec: MCU fandom has an ongoing quest to ship every possible permutation of characters, and this fic makes a strong case for Coulson and JARVIS dating. JARVIS doesn’t have a corporeal body, but hey, they’ll make it work.
Content warnings: N/A
“Duty” by GarbagePlanet. 3K words, rated Explicit
Fandom: Alien: Covenant; Ship: Walter/Daniels
Backstory: Daniels is a human scientist on an interplanetary colony mission; Walter is an android crewmember on her ship.
Summary: basically just a sex scene lol
Rec: The Alien prequel movies are flawed but conceptually interesting, with a lot of weird sexual subtext and a fascinating role for Michael Fassbender’s android characters. In other words, a perfect recipe for fanfiction. This story is a characterful missing scene from Alien: Covenant, looking at the relationship that might have occurred between Daniels and the sweet-natured android Walter.
Content warnings: N/A
“Unorthodox Modifications” by Bright_Elen. 46K words, rated Explicit
Fandom: Rogue One; Ship: Cassian Andor/K-2SO
Backstory: Cassian Andor is an intelligence agent for Star Wars’ Rebel Alliance. K-2SO is his partner, a reprogrammed Imperial security droid with a biting sense of humor and a pessimistic attitude.
Summary: K-2SO discovers that droids can install “hedonic processors,” a modification that allows them to feel physical pleasure. He installs one, and it changes his life in ways he couldn’t imagine.
Rec: This could easily have been a simple porn story about a robot exploring their sexuality. It isn’t. Told mostly from K2’s perspective, it’s a thoughtful exploration of how a droid’s physical body affects their identity in different ways from a human. The relationship between K2 and Cassian is wonderfully well-characterized and moving, and fits with the darker tone of Rogue One compared to the other Star Wars movies. The author has an imaginative attitude to depicting a droid as a sexual being, and how K2 and Cassian would negotiate (or fail to negotiate) their changing relationships. Plus, as you’d hope from a story of this length, it strikes a nice balance between the main romance and more plotty elements connected with the ongoing war.
Content warnings: No warnings listed, but this fic is obviously about body modification!
“I am a Pilot of Precision” by lurrel. 3K words, rated Explicit.
Fandom: Rogue One; Ship: Cassian Andor/K-2SO
Backstory: The author helpfully provides all the backstory you need, which is a gif of K2 slapping Cassian in the face.
Summary: K-2SO slaps Cassian in the face during an undercover mission, and Cassian is...unexpectedly Into It.
Rec: I can best summarize this as a “miserable sex fic,” because Cassian and K2 are intrinsically miserable characters in a fucked-up situation, but they still fit together in a way that really works. Beyond that, the tags tell you everything you need to do: an explicit-rated fic about painplay and power dynamics.
Content warnings: N/A
“A Woman’s Touch" by Sath. 2k words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Isaac Asimov’s robot series; Ship: Gen
Backstory: I only vaguely remember Asimov’s robot books myself, but the main character of this fic, Susan Calvin, is a psychologist at a robotics company.
Summary: Susan Calvin investigates why an employee has attempted to steal a prototype “morale droid.”
Rec: This fic really doesn’t go where you’re expecting (or where I was expecting anyway!), and I appreciated the writing style a lot. It manages to capture that mid-20th century sci-fi short story feel, complete an attitude to gender identity that feels intentionally dated without being offensive.
Content warnings: N/A
FINAL THOUGHT
This time last year we did an extra-long rec list to mark the end of summer. This year we’ve decided to take Labor Day...literally.
We’re likely good on the Captain America front, but if you have another favorite about workers’ rights, please email us—elizabethandgav at gmail—or, even better, use our submissions form!
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)