about Supernatural fanfic...

[ratcreature]

I'm not feeling particularly fannish about Supernatural, but I have watched most episodes, thus while I was bored I looked around for Supernatural fanfic to read. I was mostly interested in gen, and while of course I knew that there's Sam/Dean slash I was actually surprised how common it is, from my first impressions even more widespread than gen (though I could be wrong about that). And I just don't get it. Personally I just have a hard time seeing Sam/Dean slash.

It's not that I'm particularly squicked by sibling incest, but the story has to somehow work harder to make that kind of thing work than other pairings. Not only because it has to make me buy that they would act on a sexual attraction despite incest taboos, that is similar in a way to other "relationship obstacles" in romance stories, but because it has to make me buy that there would be attraction in the first place. With most pairings I can buy that the author simply has a character feel attraction, inappropriate or not, and then the story goes from there, but for me (and I suspect most people) thinking about close family members with whom you grew up with, like your own siblings or parents and sex together is, well, sort of icky. Not just incestuous sex, but even the fact that your sibling or parent has sex with anyone, that's the kind of thing you don't want to contemplate in much detail. At least I don't, and I suspect I'm not alone in that.

I tried reading a couple of Sam/Dean stories, but they seemed to be much like regular slash in the way that it assumes that the reader buys the possibility for attraction between the guys in the first place. I don't quite get what makes this plausible for Sam/Dean shippers just from watching the series, and yet it seems very common. Which leaves me puzzled. I looked whether there was an essay on this pairing at ship_manifesto to provide me with some insight, but there doesn't seem to be one yet. So does anyone know of any Supernatural meta that would explain to me where the Sam/Dean shippers are coming from?

Comments

[thete1.livejournal.com]

I'd say... I think if we look at the last five-six years of tv fandoms, and compare it to the ten-fifteen years before that? We'd find a lot more incest pairings in the former. Canonically *and* fanonically.

You're right, though, that brothercest -- and sibling hetcest, though to an intriguingly lesser degree -- are considered 'safer.' Less fucked-up. It makes me... want to do another poll. Which I won't. BUT SOMEONE SHOULD. Um.

Oh God, don't let me do another meta post before I answer these COMMENTS...

[thelana.livejournal.com]

I think at least in fadom it's about breaking more and more taboos. I still remember the very first slash stories in the X-Files fandom. When there was big drama around "OMG, what is slash? Why would anybdoy write it? It is morally ok to write it? Is it morally ok to like it?". At this point slash has become a commodity. Then came the RPS trend, again with "What is it? Is it morally ok to write it? Is it morally ok to like it?". Incest might just be the most recent wave of people wanting to be more and more daring.

And the truth is that a lot of people thinking that them being more radical and breaking more taboos automatically makes them smarter or deeper somehow.

Another angle is of course incest in "real" literature. In school I had to read dozens of turn of the century and ealier German authors and they were full of incest stories or things that the literary critique interpreated as incest longings (Kafka for example or Max Frisch's "Homo Faber" about accidental father/daughter incest; considered a modern classic). Plus it helps that one of my most recent most favourite scifi books, Jeff Noon's "Vurt" features a full fledged brother/sister sex relationship that is the core motivation for the hero (well aside from the sexually ambigious hero worship of the group leader, but that's a different story).

Oh God, don't let me do another meta post before I answer these COMMENTS...

Wheeee, Te meta is always good :D

[kyrafic.livejournal.com]

Another angle is of course incest in "real" literature.

God, yes. The amount of incest lit I read in college ... Graham Swift's Waterland comes to mind especially. And of course I'm blanking on everything else, but there was quite a bit. I think that probably dulled my squick!factor, but also made me expect fandom's brand of incest to be treated in the same really grim, bleak way it shows up in books.

[ratcreature]

but also made me expect fandom's brand of incest to be treated in the same really grim, bleak way it shows up in books.

I think that's unlikely to happen though, especially if the incest is the main paring in a fandom and it's more of a "buddies" than an "enemies" slash set-up like in Supernatural. It's true that there's some grim and bleak fanfic, but in my experience the overwhelming amount of slash is romance with happily ever after at least as an option, no matter the amount of angst the characters have to get through before. And that even for pairings like Harry/Snape or Harry/Draco. or look at the existence of Mulder/Krycek curtain!fic... ;)