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

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Well this is tough, because the ones that come to mind immediately are incest-slashy. I still highly recommend maygra's "False Comforts" series, (3 arcs total, but the first is the least incesty of the bunch). I've recc'd two other longer fics, but again-- both Wincest.

There's so much good SHORT gen stuff, including witchofthedogs's Law of Diminishing Returns (http://www.livejournal.com/community/supernaturalfic/109022.html). She also is working on a Gen series, Not In My House (http://www.livejournal.com/community/supernaturalfic/34405.html) but it is not yet complete.

And then there's the standalone, Rattlesnake Smile (http://www.livejournal.com/users/jaguarcaine/532.html) which is (I think) written by one of the few male fans of the show. It has a really different style, and is just sharp as unforgiving knives. Highly recommend it.

I guess.. you gotta learn to love the Wincest, or short Gen pieces, or write your own if you want more Gen episodic Supernatural stuff. Sorry.

[ratcreature]

maygra's "False Comforts" series sure gets recced a lot. *g* I've started reading that one, though so far I've only read the first story which isn't incest yet. And I've actually read the gen stories you mention and liked those quite a lot.

Unfortunately since I don't write fanfic at all, I won't be the one to expand the Supernatural fanfic corpus with gen epics... But the show is young yet, I'm sure others will. :)

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

maygra's "False Comforts" series sure gets recced a lot.

She really is an incredible writer, far beyond the usual realm of fanfiction stuff. A Writer with a capital "W."

And I mentioned dhvana's "Demon Country" series, which someone recc'd below as well.

The MOTW ones tend to be rather short standalones though. Also, in short Gen's I should have recommended whipper's connected drabble series (there are several in supernatural_fic).