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Quantity not quality?
Jul. 23rd, 2014 06:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
faradI was drawn into this essay as it seemed to be a continuation of another discussion about tropes in m/m fiction; it is, tangentially, on that topic, but more about something that reminded me a lot of the discussions we have in this fandom about the fanoning, particularly in ATF. Some of this author's points are interesting, and have me musing. Her basic argument, constructed about tropes in romance fiction, is that it's not a particular one thing that grates on us as readers - her example is that the title and position of 'duke' are used often in Regency Romance, almost as a default for the male 'lead' character - but its overuse - as she points out, there were only 27 dukes during the Regency period, so regency romance readers today think this a far more common title and position that it was. She does a lovely break down of how on reader could possibly read 27 Regency romance books with this knowledge and accept it, but that after a point, it becomes overkill.
Making it relevant to us is the use of certain characteristics for each of the seven in, for the sake of ease, ATF fic. The first few stories one reads with Vin as a junk-food eater and Ezra obsessed with his Jaguar and Chris yelling at everyone for every little thing are amusing. For those of us looking for characterizations closer to canon, by the time you get to the 25th or 30th story using these characterizations, the shine has worn off.
Kaetrin, the author of the piece, goes on to discuss the right of an author to continue to write the stories with dukes and other tropes, and she's right, of course; it's not an author's 'fault' that the author wants to write in the trope. And as with most tropes, there are readers who will be interested in reading them. But writers should perhaps be aware that readers can become over-indulged in certain tropes which will make their stories less appealing to the 'market at large'.
In the m/m - slash vein, two tropes that were discussed particularly and are ones also seen in fandom are the 'Gay for You' trope - the het guy who 'turns gay' for his male lover/soulmate - and the 'Out for you' trope, where a person who's been in the closet finally comes out in order to be with his lover. I think we see a goodly amount of this in the fandom, particularly in C/V fiction (and again, an over-indulgence?)
These are discussed in more detail in the "M/M Roundtable: a Guide for the Perplexed" that was the parent discussion for Kaetrin's essay, in the comments particularly. This roundtable is interesting not only for the trope discussion but also for conversations in the comments addressing the ever-popular question of why we write m/m.
Anyway, some interesting ideas in these two essays, for anyone interested.
Making it relevant to us is the use of certain characteristics for each of the seven in, for the sake of ease, ATF fic. The first few stories one reads with Vin as a junk-food eater and Ezra obsessed with his Jaguar and Chris yelling at everyone for every little thing are amusing. For those of us looking for characterizations closer to canon, by the time you get to the 25th or 30th story using these characterizations, the shine has worn off.
Kaetrin, the author of the piece, goes on to discuss the right of an author to continue to write the stories with dukes and other tropes, and she's right, of course; it's not an author's 'fault' that the author wants to write in the trope. And as with most tropes, there are readers who will be interested in reading them. But writers should perhaps be aware that readers can become over-indulged in certain tropes which will make their stories less appealing to the 'market at large'.
In the m/m - slash vein, two tropes that were discussed particularly and are ones also seen in fandom are the 'Gay for You' trope - the het guy who 'turns gay' for his male lover/soulmate - and the 'Out for you' trope, where a person who's been in the closet finally comes out in order to be with his lover. I think we see a goodly amount of this in the fandom, particularly in C/V fiction (and again, an over-indulgence?)
These are discussed in more detail in the "M/M Roundtable: a Guide for the Perplexed" that was the parent discussion for Kaetrin's essay, in the comments particularly. This roundtable is interesting not only for the trope discussion but also for conversations in the comments addressing the ever-popular question of why we write m/m.
Anyway, some interesting ideas in these two essays, for anyone interested.
