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May. 2nd, 2005 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rusty_haloI realized that Brian/Michael hits the same kinks for me as Sirius/Remus.
Seriously, aren't those couples, like, so similar?
Best friends who are just a little too close to be just friends. Known each other since they were very young. There's the wild, brilliant, fucked-up one, and the steadier one who keeps his friend grounded.
You can totally see Sirius wanting to protect werewolf-Remus, becoming an animagus to accompany him, just like you can see Brian wanting to protect Mikey from bullies or whatever. And you can totally see Remus or Mikey being there for Sirius or Brian when they'd otherwise have totally lost it from having to deal with their fucked-up families. And Sirius and Brian totally hit the same character kinks with me, that arrogant brilliant fucked-up asshole type.
Right?
Christ, I'm comparing Queer as Folk to Harry Potter.
I spent an inordinate amount of time reading QaF fanfic this weekend. My brain hurts from all the badfic. *sob* And I DESPISE shipper agenda fics. BRIAN AND JUSTIN ARE NOT INTENDED BY FATE TO BE TOGETHER 4EVA OMG!!!!11!!
It's weird to watch how writers twist canon to fit their agendas. Did you know Brian never really liked Michael at all, and only hung out with him because he felt sorry for him, and now that Brian has Justin, Michael's just an irritating nuisance who only shows up every once in a while to whine?
Yeah, I didn't either.
I could tolerate the Brian/Michael stories better, since I actually like those two together, and I think they make more sense. But I really didn't find a single good one that wasn't a high school flashback. They all basically go like
"One day Brian realized that he had always been in love with Michael, but had been too afraid to admit it. Michael, of course, felt the same. Brian admitted that he'd been an emotionally closed-off jerk, and he promised to always be open about his feelings forever and ever. So they dumped Ben and Justin, and Brian he swore that he'd always be faithful to Michael, and then they had the hottest sex ever, and got married, and exchanged rings, and bought curtains. The end!"
This is really only slightly better than the Brian/Justin fic, which goes nauseatingly like
"Brian realized that he and Justin were FATED BY THE STARS to be together. So he admitted that he'd been an emotionally closed-off jerk, and he promised to always be open about his feelings forever and ever. (Michael was annoyed, but no one cared because Michael was just an annoying twit that Brian had never really liked anyway.) So Justin graciously forgave Brian, and Brian swore that he'd always be faithful to Justin, and then they had the hottest sex ever, and got married, and exchanged rings, and bought curtains. The end!"
And I try hard not to vomit.
But anyway. The best story I read so far was "The Importance of Being Brian" by Julad. All of Julad's stories are good and worth reading. Unforunately they're Brian/Justin.
Honestly, I don't think I can ever read another Brian/Justin story. Reading so many this weekend has left me with a reflex of nausea at the very thought. It sucks, because I want badly to read Brian fic. But I really can't stand Justin at all. I hate that he's so annoying and intrusive and whiny and that he's constantly trying to change Brian. I like Brian just the way he is, thanks. I'm reading these stories thinking "my god, Brian, get the hell away from that creep, don't fall for his bullshit, don't change yourself for him, ewwwww ewwwww ewwwww!!"
I found the one thing that I'll read no matter how badly it's written, though. Brian in high school, preferably with Michael around. Because, no Justin, and also, fic writers like to water Brian down and make him talk about his feelings (uuuugh), which is completely implausible, but if you imagine he's high school age it's slightly more plausible. And when you put him with Michael, it's even more plausible. Plus, high school Brian is just so delightfully fucked up, what with his badass attitude and his hideous family and Michael the only thing keeping him from losing it. :)
Seriously, aren't those couples, like, so similar?
Best friends who are just a little too close to be just friends. Known each other since they were very young. There's the wild, brilliant, fucked-up one, and the steadier one who keeps his friend grounded.
You can totally see Sirius wanting to protect werewolf-Remus, becoming an animagus to accompany him, just like you can see Brian wanting to protect Mikey from bullies or whatever. And you can totally see Remus or Mikey being there for Sirius or Brian when they'd otherwise have totally lost it from having to deal with their fucked-up families. And Sirius and Brian totally hit the same character kinks with me, that arrogant brilliant fucked-up asshole type.
Right?
Christ, I'm comparing Queer as Folk to Harry Potter.
I spent an inordinate amount of time reading QaF fanfic this weekend. My brain hurts from all the badfic. *sob* And I DESPISE shipper agenda fics. BRIAN AND JUSTIN ARE NOT INTENDED BY FATE TO BE TOGETHER 4EVA OMG!!!!11!!
It's weird to watch how writers twist canon to fit their agendas. Did you know Brian never really liked Michael at all, and only hung out with him because he felt sorry for him, and now that Brian has Justin, Michael's just an irritating nuisance who only shows up every once in a while to whine?
Yeah, I didn't either.
I could tolerate the Brian/Michael stories better, since I actually like those two together, and I think they make more sense. But I really didn't find a single good one that wasn't a high school flashback. They all basically go like
"One day Brian realized that he had always been in love with Michael, but had been too afraid to admit it. Michael, of course, felt the same. Brian admitted that he'd been an emotionally closed-off jerk, and he promised to always be open about his feelings forever and ever. So they dumped Ben and Justin, and Brian he swore that he'd always be faithful to Michael, and then they had the hottest sex ever, and got married, and exchanged rings, and bought curtains. The end!"
This is really only slightly better than the Brian/Justin fic, which goes nauseatingly like
"Brian realized that he and Justin were FATED BY THE STARS to be together. So he admitted that he'd been an emotionally closed-off jerk, and he promised to always be open about his feelings forever and ever. (Michael was annoyed, but no one cared because Michael was just an annoying twit that Brian had never really liked anyway.) So Justin graciously forgave Brian, and Brian swore that he'd always be faithful to Justin, and then they had the hottest sex ever, and got married, and exchanged rings, and bought curtains. The end!"
And I try hard not to vomit.
But anyway. The best story I read so far was "The Importance of Being Brian" by Julad. All of Julad's stories are good and worth reading. Unforunately they're Brian/Justin.
Honestly, I don't think I can ever read another Brian/Justin story. Reading so many this weekend has left me with a reflex of nausea at the very thought. It sucks, because I want badly to read Brian fic. But I really can't stand Justin at all. I hate that he's so annoying and intrusive and whiny and that he's constantly trying to change Brian. I like Brian just the way he is, thanks. I'm reading these stories thinking "my god, Brian, get the hell away from that creep, don't fall for his bullshit, don't change yourself for him, ewwwww ewwwww ewwwww!!"
I found the one thing that I'll read no matter how badly it's written, though. Brian in high school, preferably with Michael around. Because, no Justin, and also, fic writers like to water Brian down and make him talk about his feelings (uuuugh), which is completely implausible, but if you imagine he's high school age it's slightly more plausible. And when you put him with Michael, it's even more plausible. Plus, high school Brian is just so delightfully fucked up, what with his badass attitude and his hideous family and Michael the only thing keeping him from losing it. :)
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-05-03 03:26 pm (UTC)This is something I'm always arguing with myself about: to what extent do I need fiction to validate my own existence?
My immediate response is that I don't, of course not, how very pathetic.
But then I think about being a kid in suburbia, and seeing no options outside the college -> marriage -> kids -> death route, and hating it, and feeling utterly out of place, and wanting to die because life had no point and why bother? And how it meant the world to me to find role models who offered other options--how I honestly wouldn't have known there were other options if I hadn't seen them (coming to NYC and hanging out with musicians and going to college and taking gender studies classes and seeing people successfully living outside the norm).
So role models are important, right? I mean, that's how we form understandings about pretty much everything, from the time we're born; we model our understanding of the world on what we observe. And fiction is really important--think of all the stuff we learn through narrative!
And it's like, in a weird way, something can't exist to you if you aren't aware of it, if you can't imagine it. I mean, if you can't imagine, can't picture a single example, of a woman living happily alone and single for her entire life, you're going to assume that every woman wants marriage and babies, right? Because that's all you've EVER seen. (I had this issue, with a friend of mine. I said "I don't want to get married and I don't want to have kids." She said "Yeah, you really do." And no matter how often I said I didn't, she refused to believe me, would even try to trip me up in conversation and get me to admit that I really wanted a man. And I don't. It was pointless, and part of what killed our friendship. [And I think she wanted me to "admit it" out of her own desperate need for validation, but that's another story.])
I think this is one thing QaF deserves credit for, actually, because until it aired, gay people on television were tragic AIDS sob stories or style consultants for straight people. It's important that QaF shows a diversity of gay people living for themselves, not for straight people, and not dying for it. But yeah, it doesn't go nearly far enough.
I had a professor for a gender studies class who was always pushing her theory that the focus of the current culture wars is shifting from a gay/straight dichotomy to a family/not family dichotomy. The idea being that it doesn't matter if you're gay or straight as long as you're married and monogamous and living in suburbia (*cough*Mel&Lindsay*cough*). And that by focusing the gay rights struggle on gay marriage, the mainstream gay rights movement is buying into this paradigm of what counts as a legitimate way of living. Trying to fit themselves into the existing paradigm, "prove" that they can be just as mainstream as the mainstream.
It would be a much bigger struggle to say, y'know, we're Brian Kinney, we don't buy into monogamy and marriage and suburbia, we live our own lives the way we choose, and that's just as valid. That there's not One True Way of Living. (I could go into this whole other rant about black and white thinking, inability to see ambiguity or multiple options....)(And also which is not to say that it's WRONG for gay people to want to get married and live in suburbia--if you want it, you should be allowed to go for it--but that it's not the ONLY legitimate way to live, or the MOST legitimate way to live, or whatever, it's just one of many options.)