Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Fan Fiction & Poetry
Fan Fiction - Popularity Contest or Formula for Orthodoxy?
RouxB:
--- Quote from: louisev on August 15, 2006, 09:03:51 am ---How curious, Rouxb.... when I got here on the first page of the E &E thread you described yourself as a devoted reader of the Laramie Saga. I guess I'm confused.
--- End quote ---
Just back from vacation so catching up.
Why confused Louise? I am a devoted reader of the Laramie Saga-one of the first here to read it thanks to Leslie. I have read some absolutely beautiful stories by Fernly, Jeff S.-and others-that are not AU (dead Jack) and loved them. And I love the "happy ever after" because that is just how I am-I have enough reality in my reality. My thought, and excuse me if this is not what is being discussed, (said with juuusssstttt a pinch of tongue-in-cheek pissiness) from a reader perspective is that writers of AU are not necessarily trying to please their audience. My belief is that they are trying to preserve two characters and a relationship that they love. Is it predictable, lacking in imagination? Sure-lots of it. But, and I am quite willing to be wrong here, I don't see it as a premeditated attempt to become American Fanfic Idol.
That's just my happy ending mind-set. Oh, and I for one, don't give a poo about the plot elements as long as Jack is alive and not miserable at the end.
The original short story, and movie adaptation of it, are perfect for me and I would not see them changed in any way. They are what brought me here and were catalysts for change in my life. As I said, I had that sad, now I want some happy-I always want some happy.
O0
louisev:
My confusion, RouxB is your comments about not reading dead!Jack stories. Because the Laramie Saga is definitely a Dead!Jack story... that was the source of my confusion.
MaineWriter:
--- Quote from: louisev on August 23, 2006, 05:32:19 am ---My confusion, RouxB is your comments about not reading dead!Jack stories. Because the Laramie Saga is definitely a Dead!Jack story... that was the source of my confusion.
--- End quote ---
You know, Louise, I would not call your story dead!Jack. I may be arguing semantics here, but to me dead!Jack stories seem to be the ones where the focus on Jack is dying (often accompanied by a flashback or two of his life with Ennis). Another variation are the stories that "fill in the blanks" of the story/movie by providing more detail...but the inevitable end is still going to be that Jack dies.
In your story, yes, Jack is dead but the whole emphasis is different. His memory is treated with respect and he is an important character, in his own right, even though he is not there in his physical body. I suppose moving on!Ennis is the best descriptor (of the terms that people use) but that, unfortunately, implies that Ennis is moving on and leaving Jack behind. Yes, he moves on in your story, but Jack is certainly with him in his heart. Maybe we can call him Jack and Ennis finally united!Ennis since he has achieved an understanding of the love he shared with Jack and accepted it in his life, something he never did while Jack was alive.
Leslie
Marge_Innavera:
--- Quote from: louisev on August 16, 2006, 05:30:34 am ---While it is clear, and unavoidable, that the majority of fan fiction readers take the route of a "happily ever after Jack and Ennis", the commitment to an orthodoxy model means that this majority dictate what constitutes an "acceptable plot." One of the concepts is the concept of the "One true pairing" which means that the only pairing that is acceptable to be depicted, and the only one that makes the story "a real BBM fanfic" is a Jack and Ennis pairing.
But since Jack dies in the source story, the possibilities for writing in this pairing are limited to the period in which they were alive (infrequent meetings), or after Jack dies, which convicts Ennis to a life of lonely mourning. Not exactly a wide field for exploration of same sex relationships if one follows this model.
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The germ of the notion of the "one true pairing" is that once one has had a relationship with a soul mate, there can be no one else. Or, in Ennis' case, anyone else would be basically 'Jack Lite.'
But that isn't how human psychology works. Sometimes people do swear off relationships after a soul mate dies, especially if they're quite up in years although that isn't universal by any means. And generally, if a person Ennis' age (39 or 40 when the original story ends) foregoes other relationships they're either going to find some new center of their life: family, creative work, career, etc. or they're at risk for a downward spiral of depression and possible suicide. And a new relationship isn't necessarily a "replacement" for the soul mate, as if any human being can be replaced anyway. Marriages and other long-term commitments start up for all kinds of reasons and a huge amount of acreage of middle ground exists between a grand passion and decades of depression, isolation, sackcloth, ashes and alcohol. A second pairing can certainly include love and sincere commitment, and sometimes with the participants having learned and matured via the earlier relationships.
That whole question was brought up in the 'would Ennis commit suicide' thread, and it's certainly a high risk, how high possibly depending on his ongoing relationship with his daughters and possibly grandchildren if he never did meet anyone else. But it's by no means a done deal that Ennis would become a gay male Wyoming version of Queen Victoria wearing mourning for four decades.
--- Quote ---The fan fiction philosophy here is that if it is based upon or uses characters from BBM - then by all means write it and post it. My limitation in writing fan fiction stories is that I can't find it in me to rewrite Annie's ending of the story, and so therefore, Jack dies. Even though I have deeply enjoyed writing Jack flashbacks, and Jack-as-a-ghost in my first story "A Warm Wind Blows", somehow, the idea of resurrecting Jack or diverting the end of the story... eludes me to date.
--- End quote ---
There are quite a few AU stories I've liked so far, including Somebody New and Madlori's "Farmingdale" series; i.e., Human Interest followed by Two Crows Joy. Generally I do like the ones that keep the characters' background, though; can't quite get into the idea of Ennis and Jack on the Titanic, in 1930s Berlin, in Paris, etc. At present, I'm trying to read HI simultaneously with your Laramie saga, which means a lot of reading! :o What I do object to, and find destructively dogmatic and limiting, is the notion that Ennis in an alternate universe union with Jack or Ennis as a depressed alcoholic are the only "acceptable" alternatives. Insistence on the latter in particular sometimes has a distinctly vindictive cast to it.
Scott6373:
I think that folks have an affinity, based on their own life experiences, for either AU or cononical fanfics. I myself have found that I prefer the latter. As far as the question that the original thread asks, I most certainly feel that fanficdom is more a popularity contest based on formulaic orthodoxies that have been accepted widely as "the only way" to write J&E's story. There isn't much room for acceptance if the bullets that Leslie stated are followed to a greater degree.
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