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

[thisisbone.livejournal.com]

Here via thete1.

I was asking in my post was for Supernatural fans to point me in the direction of fic and/or meta to make me see the slashy side of their relationship

I have read maygra's longer SPN fic, the stories in the False Comforts universe, and I think they are beautifully written and they convinced me of the potential for an erotic connection between Sam and Dean in the right circumstances. She didn't make it easy, I can tell you that, but by the time it got to the point where they became sexually involved, she'd laid enough groundwork and had it evolve so organically that anything else would have felt wrong.

That to me is the gift a good author brings -- where despite the divide between what we see on TV and what the author is telling us is "true" in her fic, we believe what she says because it's so well done.

I realize you don't know me from Adam, so take it all for what it's worth, but I resisted the False Comforts series for a long time, and now I've read it all the way through about four times. (http://wordsmiths.net/Maygra/#spn)

[thisisbone.livejournal.com]

I hate HTML. Sorry about that. :(

[ratcreature]

I realize you don't know me from Adam,

Well, I remember adoring your stories back in TS... :) And thanks for the rec, I'll definitely give the series a try.

[thisisbone.livejournal.com]

Well, I remember adoring your stories back in TS... :)

Really? That's so cool! Thanks!

And thanks for the rec, I'll definitely give the series a try.

maygra also has an "all audiences, no pairing" story in progress now. I'm getting ready to print it out to take with me on vacation. :)