Links on fandom’s latest racefail

Signalboosting in case anyone’s missed it: amazonziti has been compiling links related to the J2 racefail story and its fallout.

Her first post is here and contains links to an initial summary of the situation and the early reactions.

Her second post is here and contains more good links as well as some good meta about the misuse of terms like “safe space” and “silencing” by members of privileged groups who are uncomfortable with being criticized. Some of the posts linked are profoundly important in light of the derailing and tone arguing that’s been going on. If you don’t have time to read them all, she’s starred her favorites.

I’m posting links because I don’t really feel comfortable writing meta about this–I think the best way I can respond right now is to read and think, and to signalboost as a way to encourage other privileged people to do the same.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.

SPN Fic Rec: The Red Series by Big Pink

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=3525

I just finished reading big_pink’s Red series. It consists of six stories, conveniently available in PDF form via her website.

I just have to rave, because this is some of the best fiction I’ve ever read, fan- or no. It’s like she honed in on the most profound, emotionally powerful aspects of the series, and used these fics to delve deeper than the show ever went. She writes beautifully about family, loss, grief, and love.

She also creates incredibly well-researched and vivid environments for each story, from loggers and protesters in the Pacific Northwest, to a high school in Niagara Falls, to an old silver mine in Nevada, to a shantytown in Nebraska during the Great Depression. Plus, she writes a variety of fabulous three-dimensional female OCs (if you’re looking for a primer on how to write a female OC without wandering into Sue territory, read these). They are also very well-plotted, well-paced, and snappily written.

I think my favorite was the last one, The New Deal– it’s basically about how Sam and Dean deal (or fail to deal) with Dean’s impending death in S3. It could so easily have fallen into angsty tropes, but instead she uses imagery and symbolism to create something more evocative and thought-provoking than I’ve seen from fanfic in a long time.

(Now I’m off to read her standalone stories.)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.