thefourthvine | I wanna know what love is; I want you to show me.

Older fandoms, you confuse me so. The story I'm reading right now has piercing gazes, searing gazes, cuddling, comforting, lengthy descriptions of eyes that change color (Green! Hazel! Gold! No, I'm not kidding - really, gold, and this isn't the right fandom for him to have been implanted with a Goa'uld.), marriage proposals, men of action sharing their feelings in astonishing detail and with great (sometimes searing) honesty, a guy telling another guy how beautiful he is, holding hands, kissing, and two adult men (of action!) with extensive disposable incomes living together and sharing a bed.

And it's gen.*

I am patiently waiting for the mutual declarations of eternal love while hugging (or crying; I'd totally take crying) in the rain. Then, and only then, will I be able to stop reading.

So, does anyone have a story from an older fandom to recommend to me? You people have mostly been at this longer than me - surely you've got some nice gen or slash story favorite from a pre-LJ fandom that you could link me to. Gen or slash welcome - especially gen that I can read as gen. Seriously. Save me from myself. And this story. I am just bewildered, here.

-Footnote-

* Another gen story in the same fandom (but by a different person) features a noted canonical horndog turning down NSA sex with a beautiful woman because he's in love with someone else - that someone being, of course, the guy who is his Entirely Not Slashy Totally Hetero Life Partner. (It also had a paragraph about their great and abiding love, and the Totally Hetero Life Partner isn't even in the story. Nor is there any explanation of why the THLP would want his "friend" to turn down the sex - I mean, seriously, it was just presented as "this is what you do when you're in love with your THLP, forswear sex and cleave only unto him, but in a straight and manly way." I guess I am just not straight enough to understand that.) And the author's note contained a diatribe against slash. Oh, my people.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Heh. I have to admit my first thought was Sentinel, but the eye colors are wrong. *g* I would guess Pros, but I don't think I've every read anything quite so OOT in Pros.

There's actually a genre name for those kinds of stories: smarm. I don't know if anyone uses the term anymore—I haven't heard it since Sentinel fandom's heyday—but it used to be very commonplace.

I would guess Pros, but I don't think I've every read anything quite so OOT in Pros.

HAHAHAHA. Really?

Admittedly, I don't think I've ever read any Pros gen. But the slash is...a flashback to my days in Sentinel, turned up to 11.

Well, I meant on the gen side of things. I don't remember any smarm in Pros. It was either true gen (often written by guys) or it was slash. Possibly OOT slash, but definitely unabashed slash. *g*

I have to admit my first thought was Sentinel, but the eye colors are wrong.

I know! Now I feel all cheated. Where are all the stories about Blair's changing, golden eyes? TS fandom, you were supposed to prepare me for all known tropes and cliches, and you have FAILED ME.

There's actually a genre name for those kinds of stories: smarm. I don't know if anyone uses the term anymore—I haven't heard it since Sentinel fandom's heyday—but it used to be very commonplace.

I've heard it used fairly often, but to be honest, I never really understood it until last night, when all my fan fiction instincts were like, "Okay, the sex/fade to black goes HERE." And then the characters just kept on holding each other or discussing their feelings. Or they went to sleep. In the same bed. In a totally non-sexual way.

In the interests of furthering your education on the subject of smarm, here's an interview with well-known Sentinel smarm author Martha.

And here's Martha's fic page.

I think I read Plank, back in the day, but smarm was unsatisfying for me because while I love all the affectionate stuff, I want the porn that comes after, too, so smarm was only giving me half a fix.

see, and smarm was never a problem for me (unless it was one of those smarm stories that is all OMG WE ARE NOT EITHER TOTALLY SEXUALLY IN LOVE SLASH IS EVIL AND WRONG OMG HOW DARE YOU IMPLY THAT ABOUT MY STORY YOU...YOU...YOU...IMMORAL SLUT!) because about 98% of the time I am totally uninterested in the porn bits.

see, and smarm was never a problem for me

...and I read this just after linking TFV to one of your Einstein's Folly crossovers - the one where Blair's saying "I have lost my cock, and I am in mourning." I think I remember the story that prompted it, too - it was this long, long, tortured thing with shower scenes and flowery descriptive passages and the narrative tension was like late Wagner: it stretched until it broke, but did not resolve.

No, I mean it was never a problem for me to read smarm as smarm, because the lack of NC-17age didn't bug. That didn't mean I didn't find it remarkably silly most of the time. :)

I remember what happened (yes, this was 1999) when

jacquez read a little bit too much smarm one time. This happened, as I recall.

For me (this was earlier on, before I'd met up with better writers - or delurked, for that matter) smarm was the impetus for moving on to slash. The writers - the ones who weren't writing complete and utter fluff, I mean, and that means the H/C ones - kept on upping the angst quotient each story, because the same hit wasn't doing its job. And I was reading the one where Kirk goes blind and can't be captain any more, and Spock and McCoy are passionately and nonsexually assuring him that he's still their BFF, and I decided that really, in the scheme of things, gay sex would be both less out of character and less traumatic.

The writers - the ones who weren't writing complete and utter fluff, I mean, and that means the H/C ones - kept on upping the angst quotient each story, because the same hit wasn't doing its job. And I was reading the one where Kirk goes blind and can't be captain any more, and Spock and McCoy are passionately and nonsexually assuring him that he's still their BFF, and I decided that really, in the scheme of things, gay sex would be both less out of character and less traumatic.

I... might need this comment framed. In needlepoint.

mmm. it's kind of long for a sampler... unless you put it on the outside, like a border, framing a picture. but in that case, to get a really *good* effect, you should be looking at a wall-sized tapestry featuring teh hawt butt-secks....

-bs

oh my god did that word bring back memories. Sentinel memories, to be exact. yeesh. it's been how many years, and i look back on some of the stuff i used to think was soooooo amazing, and just cringe. we've come a long way since then, thank gods. *g*

I wanna know what love is; I want you to show me.

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