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

[thelana.livejournal.com]

Honestly, no :)

I don't really read too much in the fandom, and if I do, it's probably more likely to be short porny pieces. I'm just not that attached I guess.

It's just what I gathered from the lenght of the fic, the descriptions and some recs that I got. Plus there seem to be plenty of places where Wincest isn't welcome that seems to be active enough by themselves.

Maybe somebody who is more in the fandom could help you out. :)

[marinarusalka.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I've seen very few MOTW-type stories in the fandom -- and I've been aggressively looking, too. Most of the ones I have seen have been on ff.net. Most of the gen fics I've read have been relatively short and more character than plot-driven. Can't say much about the length or subject matter of the Wincest fics, since I avoid them.

From looking at the listings on sn_newsletter, it seems that right now there's a close to even split between the number of slash and gen stories being written (het is the big loser here). OTOH, the spn_gen community has 13 members, while sn_slash has 326.

Here are a few gen stories I've read and enjoyed:

Recoil (http://www.livejournal.com/users/dotfic/7606.html) by dotfic. 9-year-old Sammy has a monster in his closet

They Say It's Wonderful (http://www.livejournal.com/users/trollprincess/895674.html?mode=reply) by trollprincess. An AU, but it captures the feel of the show really well.

Grass Don't Grow (http://www.livejournal.com/community/supernaturalfic/37602.html) by lithium_doll. An actual MOTW fic! Really fun, too.

Piggy (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2692077/1/) by P.L. Wynter. Another MOTW fic, from ff.net. Could use an editor, but still a fun read.

There are others, but I don't have the links handy now.

[ratcreature]

Thank you for those recs!