Keep Hoping Machine Running (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thefourthvine) wrote2004-05-08 09:58 pm
thefourthvine) wrote2004-05-08 09:58 pm
Entry tags:
Fandoms I Have Loved 4: Due South
This was a tough FIHL to write, because I have a level of love for this fandom that is almost unhealthy. It's my safety blanket in a cold world full of torture and incest and character death; it's the fandom I turn to when I've just finished two Buffy stories and a long HP that started with the war and ended with a mass funeral. So it's hard for me to take a step back and look at this fandom through the eyes of a stranger, as it were, which is really pretty comical when I think about how recently I became a DS reader.
Before I embarked on DS, I got helpful hints from Fametracker's Gwenyvere1, but I know nothing about the actual show. I've never seen an episode and I'd never heard of the show before I started seeing the name on FF. It took me a while to figure some things out, including, notably, the whole Ray K/Ray V thing, and some of the theories I formed in the interim were as strange as – well, as strange as the canon truth, in this particular case. And canon truth is, generally, pretty strange in DS. Also – surprisingly – fairly grim. Because despite the humor that apparently filled the series and certainly fills the FF, this is not the world's happiest canon, folks. Let's just take a little look at the characters, shall we?
Ray Vecchio, OK, he seems to have known where his towel was. But Ray Kowalski is angry, sad, lonely. This is a guy who went undercover because no one would miss him or even notice he was gone, a guy who seems to have no friends and no life except what he borrowed when he became Vecchio. That, to me, is not the essence of humor. And Fraser? Fraser's worse. Fraser is in exile, in disgrace, and permanently in waiting – in waiting for his life. He's got Dief, and while Dief is certainly an excellent companion, that's it. Fraser doesn't have a family. He doesn't have friends. He doesn't even have happy memories, for god's sake. His closest long-term human relationship is with a dead guy who had no time for him when he was alive. His most challenging task at work is to be a statue. He lives in his freaking office. He's this intelligent, talented, kind man who has no one, nothing, and nowhere. In short, Fraser is possibly the saddest character I've seen outside of Ethan Frome. And when you put Kowalski and Fraser together - well, Russian novelists would be depressed by the possibilities inherent in these two. Ambrose Bierce and Jean-Paul Sartre would be depressed by them. (Though I doubt anyone would be able to tell.) This is one canon with all the angst you need - as in, for your lifetime - built right in.
So, hey, the backstories are downers. But somehow that just makes the FF better; I rejoice all the more when Fraser and Kowalski end up together. And I'm always impressed at how much humor and comedy and light-heartedness people can work into stories about these two.
If you don't know the canon, you can fake it with:
Kat Allison's Due South Fandom Intro on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
crack_van. This was the single most useful resource for me. (Once I found it. Which took a while, because I am remarkably dense.) Kat is writing for a FF-reading audience, and it shows. If you've read fan fiction but you've never seen Due South, this is the place to start.
Frequently Asked Questions about Due South. This is a gen site that answers a lot of questions; there's even a very brief summary of each episode.
Real Due South. Another gen site with incredibly detailed information. Need a transcript of an episode? It's here. Need to know how to survive in the Northwest Territories? It's here. Want to know everything there is to know about Ray Vecchio's car (a 1971 Buick Riviera that Kowalski and Fraser destroy – accidentally – by setting it on fire and then driving it into Lake Michigan)? Yup, here again. You talk about obsessive, folks – this site is it.
If you don’t know the canon, this won't help much:
You can also try to survive with just my summary. I wouldn't recommend it.
-The Characters-
CONSTABLE BENTON FRASER, R.C.M.P. is a demigod. Seriously. Because no mere human could be so perfect and yet have such a sucky, sucky life; you have to be, like, the son of Zeus and a mortal woman so beautiful she was cursed by Aphrodite to look like a caribou to end up in Fraser's brown leather boots. He has a magnetic attraction for women, but never has sex with them. He has unusual intelligence, but his primary job function is "statue." He has heightened senses and he lives in Chicago. See what I mean about his life sucking in ways that smack of divine planning?
Anyway, he's a Mountie, which means every sex scene he's ever involved in will feature one of the following.
DIEFENBAKER is, I suspect, not just a demigod, but an actual god - the god of sarcasm and inappropriate eating habits. (It should come as no surprise to anyone that he is my favorite character.) He's incarnated at the moment as an incredibly adorable deaf half-wolf, but he reads lips in five languages, just so you don't forget he's really divine. And he's more devious and manipulative than any human three-year-old, just so you don't forget he's also a canine.
RAY VECCHIO is not a god of any kind. He was a Chicago police detective and Fraser's first Ray until he decided he was more suited to the profession of Mafia clothes horse. Don't worry about him. We won't be dealing with FF involving him until the advanced course.
STANLEY RAYMOND KOWALSKI is not a god, although some DS fans will tell you otherwise. He's actually a litmus test. If he's called "Stanley" or especially "Stan" in FF, it's crappy FF (unless Vecchio is talking). He's also the world's least likely Chicago police detective and the world's most persuasive advertisement for hair gel. Kowalski likes dancing, candy, experimenting with his hair, working under the covers, and Mounties. Is anyone surprised that he regularly won "Most Gay-in-Canon Slash Character" every year until Lord of the Rings came out?
SERGEANT ROBERT FRASER, R.C.M.P. (DECEASED) has achieved every parent's dream: he's found a way to continue to interfere in his child's life from beyond the grave. He's just trying to help, but in the process he makes his son act like a lunatic. This is the essence of the parent-child relationship, as far as I can tell.
-The Plot-
Crimes happen. Ray, Fraser, and Diefenbaker strike out on the trail of the criminals. Disasters happen. Ray and Fraser are endangered in wildly bizarre ways; Diefenbaker rolls his eyes and mutters under his breath, wolf-style. Arrests happen. Ray and Fraser exchange manly embraces and go out for pizza; Diefenbaker makes sure he gets half. The end.
Look, I've never seen the show, OK? If you want to know the actual plot, you'll have to ask someone else. But fear not; you'll never need to know it to read the FF; in this fandom, the writers supply their own plots. Novel idea, is it not?
Where to start with Due South fanfiction:
With Fraser/Kowalski. (For the record, the other somewhat common pairings in this fandom are Fraser/Vecchio and Vecchio/Kowalski. F/V features a big nose and pretty much has to end unhappily; it is not recommended for beginners. V/K is, well, kinky, just for existing. And just as you should try basic sex before you get out the riding crop, the razor blades, and the shower attachments you can only find in internet stores, you should try F/K before you get out the Ray/Ray.)
To reduce confusion, I suggest you start with longer F/K set during the run of the series; this fandom has a lot of post-series stories, and many of them are excellent, but you should see how the characters were before you see where people are taking them after the end.
Where I Started: Broadway Hotel, American Way, and The Teeth of the Hydra, by Resonant. These were my first three stories in the fandom (and what a way to start it was; by the third story, I was ready to marry Resonant and Due South), and this is the order in which I read 'em – you might want to start with Hydra, actually. Three nice, plotty stories, some funny, some angsty, that totally introduce you to the joy that is Kowalski/Fraser and DS.
If You Want to Go Right to the Heart of the Fandom: Juggling Act, by speranza. For me, this story really sums up the fandom – it's got pathos, humor, improbable situations, and clowns. And masturbating birds, and anti-animal-rights terrorists, and...well, just read it. Which is what I always end up saying about the best stories in this fandom, and that's why this is the heart of DS for me.
If You Want to Go Right to the Therapy You'll Need If You Pick up Another Fandom: Eight Sessions, also by speranza. This story has enabled me to being more people into DS than any other, and I'm not one to argue with results. It has, again, the perfect balance of angst and humor (studies indicate this is approximately a 1:3 ratio, in case you're curious), and it features some of the best therapy sessions you'll ever, ever read.
Before I embarked on DS, I got helpful hints from Fametracker's Gwenyvere1, but I know nothing about the actual show. I've never seen an episode and I'd never heard of the show before I started seeing the name on FF. It took me a while to figure some things out, including, notably, the whole Ray K/Ray V thing, and some of the theories I formed in the interim were as strange as – well, as strange as the canon truth, in this particular case. And canon truth is, generally, pretty strange in DS. Also – surprisingly – fairly grim. Because despite the humor that apparently filled the series and certainly fills the FF, this is not the world's happiest canon, folks. Let's just take a little look at the characters, shall we?
Ray Vecchio, OK, he seems to have known where his towel was. But Ray Kowalski is angry, sad, lonely. This is a guy who went undercover because no one would miss him or even notice he was gone, a guy who seems to have no friends and no life except what he borrowed when he became Vecchio. That, to me, is not the essence of humor. And Fraser? Fraser's worse. Fraser is in exile, in disgrace, and permanently in waiting – in waiting for his life. He's got Dief, and while Dief is certainly an excellent companion, that's it. Fraser doesn't have a family. He doesn't have friends. He doesn't even have happy memories, for god's sake. His closest long-term human relationship is with a dead guy who had no time for him when he was alive. His most challenging task at work is to be a statue. He lives in his freaking office. He's this intelligent, talented, kind man who has no one, nothing, and nowhere. In short, Fraser is possibly the saddest character I've seen outside of Ethan Frome. And when you put Kowalski and Fraser together - well, Russian novelists would be depressed by the possibilities inherent in these two. Ambrose Bierce and Jean-Paul Sartre would be depressed by them. (Though I doubt anyone would be able to tell.) This is one canon with all the angst you need - as in, for your lifetime - built right in.
So, hey, the backstories are downers. But somehow that just makes the FF better; I rejoice all the more when Fraser and Kowalski end up together. And I'm always impressed at how much humor and comedy and light-heartedness people can work into stories about these two.
-Helpful Links for the dS Newbie-
If you don't know the canon, you can fake it with:
Kat Allison's Due South Fandom Intro on
crack_van. This was the single most useful resource for me. (Once I found it. Which took a while, because I am remarkably dense.) Kat is writing for a FF-reading audience, and it shows. If you've read fan fiction but you've never seen Due South, this is the place to start. Frequently Asked Questions about Due South. This is a gen site that answers a lot of questions; there's even a very brief summary of each episode.
Real Due South. Another gen site with incredibly detailed information. Need a transcript of an episode? It's here. Need to know how to survive in the Northwest Territories? It's here. Want to know everything there is to know about Ray Vecchio's car (a 1971 Buick Riviera that Kowalski and Fraser destroy – accidentally – by setting it on fire and then driving it into Lake Michigan)? Yup, here again. You talk about obsessive, folks – this site is it.
If you don’t know the canon, this won't help much:
You can also try to survive with just my summary. I wouldn't recommend it.
-The Characters-
CONSTABLE BENTON FRASER, R.C.M.P. is a demigod. Seriously. Because no mere human could be so perfect and yet have such a sucky, sucky life; you have to be, like, the son of Zeus and a mortal woman so beautiful she was cursed by Aphrodite to look like a caribou to end up in Fraser's brown leather boots. He has a magnetic attraction for women, but never has sex with them. He has unusual intelligence, but his primary job function is "statue." He has heightened senses and he lives in Chicago. See what I mean about his life sucking in ways that smack of divine planning?
Anyway, he's a Mountie, which means every sex scene he's ever involved in will feature one of the following.
- A detailed description of removing his Mountie suit, proving the writer did her research.
- A careful avoidance of the whole Mountie-suit issue, proving the writer doesn't want to spend her time with weird belts and weird pieces of leather and weird underwear (which sort of makes you wonder what she's doing in FF, no?).
- Benton Fraser off-duty, in jeans and a Henley shirt, proving that the writer doesn't have a Mountie-suit fetish. This is less common than you'd think. Real Mounties must live in constant fear of ravishment.
DIEFENBAKER is, I suspect, not just a demigod, but an actual god - the god of sarcasm and inappropriate eating habits. (It should come as no surprise to anyone that he is my favorite character.) He's incarnated at the moment as an incredibly adorable deaf half-wolf, but he reads lips in five languages, just so you don't forget he's really divine. And he's more devious and manipulative than any human three-year-old, just so you don't forget he's also a canine.
RAY VECCHIO is not a god of any kind. He was a Chicago police detective and Fraser's first Ray until he decided he was more suited to the profession of Mafia clothes horse. Don't worry about him. We won't be dealing with FF involving him until the advanced course.
STANLEY RAYMOND KOWALSKI is not a god, although some DS fans will tell you otherwise. He's actually a litmus test. If he's called "Stanley" or especially "Stan" in FF, it's crappy FF (unless Vecchio is talking). He's also the world's least likely Chicago police detective and the world's most persuasive advertisement for hair gel. Kowalski likes dancing, candy, experimenting with his hair, working under the covers, and Mounties. Is anyone surprised that he regularly won "Most Gay-in-Canon Slash Character" every year until Lord of the Rings came out?
SERGEANT ROBERT FRASER, R.C.M.P. (DECEASED) has achieved every parent's dream: he's found a way to continue to interfere in his child's life from beyond the grave. He's just trying to help, but in the process he makes his son act like a lunatic. This is the essence of the parent-child relationship, as far as I can tell.
-The Plot-
Crimes happen. Ray, Fraser, and Diefenbaker strike out on the trail of the criminals. Disasters happen. Ray and Fraser are endangered in wildly bizarre ways; Diefenbaker rolls his eyes and mutters under his breath, wolf-style. Arrests happen. Ray and Fraser exchange manly embraces and go out for pizza; Diefenbaker makes sure he gets half. The end.
Look, I've never seen the show, OK? If you want to know the actual plot, you'll have to ask someone else. But fear not; you'll never need to know it to read the FF; in this fandom, the writers supply their own plots. Novel idea, is it not?
Where to start with Due South fanfiction:
With Fraser/Kowalski. (For the record, the other somewhat common pairings in this fandom are Fraser/Vecchio and Vecchio/Kowalski. F/V features a big nose and pretty much has to end unhappily; it is not recommended for beginners. V/K is, well, kinky, just for existing. And just as you should try basic sex before you get out the riding crop, the razor blades, and the shower attachments you can only find in internet stores, you should try F/K before you get out the Ray/Ray.)
To reduce confusion, I suggest you start with longer F/K set during the run of the series; this fandom has a lot of post-series stories, and many of them are excellent, but you should see how the characters were before you see where people are taking them after the end.
Where I Started: Broadway Hotel, American Way, and The Teeth of the Hydra, by Resonant. These were my first three stories in the fandom (and what a way to start it was; by the third story, I was ready to marry Resonant and Due South), and this is the order in which I read 'em – you might want to start with Hydra, actually. Three nice, plotty stories, some funny, some angsty, that totally introduce you to the joy that is Kowalski/Fraser and DS.
If You Want to Go Right to the Heart of the Fandom: Juggling Act, by speranza. For me, this story really sums up the fandom – it's got pathos, humor, improbable situations, and clowns. And masturbating birds, and anti-animal-rights terrorists, and...well, just read it. Which is what I always end up saying about the best stories in this fandom, and that's why this is the heart of DS for me.
If You Want to Go Right to the Therapy You'll Need If You Pick up Another Fandom: Eight Sessions, also by speranza. This story has enabled me to being more people into DS than any other, and I'm not one to argue with results. It has, again, the perfect balance of angst and humor (studies indicate this is approximately a 1:3 ratio, in case you're curious), and it features some of the best therapy sessions you'll ever, ever read.
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(I started writing before I'd seen any of the show, and my early stories are chock-full of fanon, which makes me twitch now. Did you know there's an episode where Fraser says "What the hell" and almost has sex with a woman who he knows is engaged? In a sleazy motel, no less. Canon is full of surprises.)
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The whole Victoria arc is nothing short of brilliant.
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I suppose I'll have to report back here after I've actually watched Due South. Or do a FIHL update. (I'm already seriously considering doing a FIHL update for LotR and TS, just so I can do character summaries. Because I am basically pathetic.)
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And, yes, Ardent is determined to spread the Due South joy to all. Which is a good thing, right?
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And yes...spreading the Due South joy is a *great* thing!
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God, no! Must - fight - new - fandom. Must - not - ask - for - links.
I will resist. I will. I must.
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Umm, you may not be asking for links but I'm going to send you a couple anyway. This first one is for a story called "The Better Gadget Affair," which has brought more than one person into the fandom for the first time:
http://file40.net/file40s/gadget.html
The other story is one that was written by Kellie Matthews. If you like her DS stuff you'll like this. It's up at the new archive, so you can find it here:
http://www.chromeandgunmetal.com/chrome/archive/0/safeharbor.html
Go. Read. Then when we send you DS eps we'll send you a few MFU eps as well and you will be seduced. :-D
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Eternity in an Hour:
http://www.ravenswing.com/~keelywolfe/hour.html
And if you like this story check out the rest of her stuff:
http://www.ravenswing.com/~keelywolfe/uncle.html
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And thanks for the links; I'm enjoying 'em. (Even though you are, you know, evil and tempting and drawing me into a new fandom and all.)
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Speaking of tempting. Send me your physical address to bluster at hamilton.net and I'll send you season 3/4 of Due South and include a few MFU tapes to continue the seduction. I know Ardent offered to send you some, but she's been pretty busy at work and I happen to have a spare set of DS tapes sitting around.
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There are lots of us DS fen over here in UNCLE. It's a very nice place to be!
(btw, I am really enjoying your posts!)
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(And thanks!)
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I once read a web page that clocked Due South canon swearing (though, this being an American TV show, the swearing in question is "damn" and "hell"), and I noticed that Fraser not only got in the occasional "hell," he says "son of a bitch" twice. I was impressed. Go Mountie! (The almost-sex with the engaged woman actually sounds so, so Fraser to me. He can reproach himself for having wanted to sleep with her, yet he didn't actually get laid. Fraser's theme song should be "No One Is to Blame." I'm thinking here of the line that says "You can feel the punishment but you can't commit the sin.") Although, of course, that could be total fanon; I fully admit that I've never seen the Real Fraser.
And one page I've been wanting to find, but haven't been able to, is canon v. fanon, like the page I found for The Sentinel. That's always a fascinating read, at least for me; since I learn the shows by reading the fan fiction, I love finding out what I shouldn't have, um, absorbed.
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No, no shame--we are a small but proud contingent! I like to think of us as very...flexible. Intellectually double-jointed. Equal opportunists. Maximizers of the Mountie's enjoyment.
But, damn, we really need to get you copies of the show. 'Cause, y'know, yummy slurpy goodness.
I'm sort of convinced that Stella/Vecchio is Meant.
I love this--this is sooo right--which is perhaps one of the reasons that while I adore Vecchio/Fraser and fling myself recklessly and repeatedly into the mosh pit of Ray/Ray, I can also embrace the Kowalski/Fraser OTPness. I mean, it's like the slot machine gives one final whirl in CotW and everything just tumbles into place for everyone, all kinds of happily ever afters happening. It's just very satisfying.
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Can I put "intellectually double-jointed" on my resume?
I mean, it's like the slot machine gives one final whirl in CotW and everything just tumbles into place for everyone, all kinds of happily ever afters happening. It's just very satisfying.
Too right. Which is why the persistent tendency, in FF, to kill off Ray K and Fraser either during the CotW episode or immediately after really gets to me. Let them have their happy ending, dammit! (Although I've rec'd a CotW death story myself; some of them are damn good. Just, you know, wrong. But if I really worried about wrong, believe you me, I would not be reading FF.)
And that's also why, in my secret internal universe, Stella and Ray V stay together. Lots of authors have them divorcing, and I don't know why. Because, you know, Meant.
Let me say here and now, by the way, that "the mosh pit" is a fantastic description of Ray/Ray, far better than my own over-extended kink metaphor. I absolutely plan to steal it in the future. Just so you know.
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:;g:: And I laugh here because I am guilty of enjoying the not-so-happy endings for these two as well. I am guilty of wanting to write them. Banish me to a desert island and I will demand
And that's also why, in my secret internal universe, Stella and Ray V stay together.
You know my favorite Stella/Ray V? "Kowalski is Bleeding."
Me, I tend to have two secret internal universes. And I'm boring--my universes don't vary: it's either one or the other, I can't seem to wrap my head around multiple incarnations. There's my Kowalski/Fraser, Vecchio/Stella version of the world where everyone lives happily ever after. Vecchio/Fraser that pre-dates Kowalski/Fraser is optional. And by god, it's a great place to live. ::g::
But I do have a taste for the bittersweet, so there is my other secret internal universe, the Ray/Ray universe, and in that universe there are unhappy endings and disillusionments all around. In that universe, Vecchio/Fraser never happened, Kowalski/Fraser went to Canada and couldn't make it, and Vecchio/Stella did a crash and burn somewhere in a bowling alley in Florida. All in the service of the Ray/Ray vibe.
But I have a limited imagination: those are the only two ways I can imagine it happening. Vecchio and Fraser, sure--before Kowalski shows up. Never can I imagine Fraser choosing Vecchio over Kowalski (though I suppose there's an argument for a compromise Vecchio/Fraser post Kowalski/Fraser, in much the same way Ray/Ray is a compromise post Kowalski/Fraser). Ray/Ray, sure--but only after the Kowalski/Fraser relationship has gone south--I can't imagine Kowalski choosing Vecchio over Fraser. For me, the joy of Ray/Ray is in the compromise, the bittersweetness, the ghost of might-have-been.
Let me say here and now, by the way, that "the mosh pit" is a fantastic description of Ray/Ray, far better than my own over-extended kink metaphor. I absolutely plan to steal it in the future. Just so you know.
Well, I like it. There's a craziness, a no-holds-barred, reckless feeling to a lot Ray/Ray. Seems to fit. ::g::
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The universes I can accept for dS:
Fraser/Kowalski: this is the happy ending universe, the one I truly want to believe happened. In this world, Vecchio and Stella are happy together down south, and Fraser and Kowalski are happy together up north, and there's just general rejoicing.
Fraser/Vecchio: I can buy this one, but as you said, it has to be pre-Kowalski. And I enjoy light stories and short stories with this pairing, but for me they are always tinged with the knowledge that it ends badly. There's just no way around that. And I can't see this pairing happening after F/K, if things end badly, because I can't see Fraser thinking of this as anything but a substitute, a second-best, and I don't think he would settle for that, or do that to his best friend.
Vecchio/Kowalski: this can happen, in my world, in a number of ways. You're right about Kowalski not choosing Vecchio over Fraser and Vecchio not going for Kowalski over Stella, so the consolation-prize universe you described (where they get together after the canon pairings fall apart) makes a lot of sense. But I also enjoy one night stands with this pairing; I can't see it for any of the other major pairings, but these guys seem to be able to work the "one crazy night" thing. So I enjoy stories that bring them together for, like, an hour or two at some point before CotW. (After that, and it's got to be the consolation-prize universe.) I particularly enjoy, and this is sick, stories that pair V and K before Fraser happens to either of them - where they meet as younger cops, or even before they become cops. The knowledge that the K-for-V substition is coming makes those liaisons so, well, interesting. Especially when they don't end well.
Oh, god. I just wrote a freakin' essay on who should fuck whom in a television series I've never seen. This is a symptom of a major mental disorder, isn't it?
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Hmmmm. Sounds like a fun project ...
(IIRC, the reason he doesn't get laid is that they're interrupted, not because of him saying "no" at the last minute. I shall have to watch it again...)
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Yet more evidence for my theory that Fraser's life is sucky from divine interference. Things just go so wrong for that man.