To start this post off correctly: This is building on an extremely important discussion going on about a recent
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spn_j2_bigbang fic that used the recent Haitian earthquake as a backdrop to a love-story between two white characters, with racist caricatures of Haitians and thoughtlessness about the entire history of Haiti and its people. If this is the first you’ve heard about it: please do go and read this
round-up post first before contributing to this discussion. In my mind, this is distinct but connected issue related to it and one that comes second to that first discussion linked above.
So last night during my ongoing insomnia (seriously, 3:30 am-5 am, lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking, musing, and composing this post in my head, I figured I might as well write it and post it.
*stretches rusty meta-muscles*
So, to start off: questions that come to mind or that have been raised:
- Is it appropriate to use real life tragedy or conflicts in your fanfic?
- Can we (as fans) create stories referencing or situating themselves in locales or situations where there’s been a history of systematic oppression, natural/humanitarian disaster or conflict without reinforcing this system or continuing to hurt other people? How can we achieve this?
- Is fanfic a fundamentally inappropriate or unsuitable vehicle to use for discussing these issues?
To be clear: I want to note the difference between stories like
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gatorgrrl’s fic and other stories like a
Medecins Sans Frontieres post-Haitian earthquake Chris Pine/Zachary Quinto story I’ve just heard about yesterday, or
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tevere’s
Generation Kill AU set in East Timor. In the former case, when you examine the content found in that fic, there’s no excusing the thoughtless racism and privilege. In the latter cases, I think it’s fair to say it’s more of a gray area and one that I’m going to spend the next 3,000 words analyzing.
(Yeah, if you want to go to the bathroom now, or get a snack, I understand)
I’ve come to the tentative conclusion that it
is possible write about these issues within fandom. Other people may disagree and I acknowledge and understand their view, particularly in light of the ratio of success vs. failure in previous attempts in dealing with these issues. But I’m uneasy with undertones that seem to me to indicate a knee-jerk reaction in some quarters of this discussion in saying that we should never use fanfic as a vehicle to explore these topics. If fandom has used problematic representations relating to sexuality, race, ability, etc in the past and transformed them positively in instances where that mainstream culture can’t or
won’t, I fail to understand why conflict or tragedy cannot be transformed in a similar way.
(As a caveat to this next part: I’ve hesitated whether to posting this paragraph but I think it’s pertinent to understanding how I’m approaching this topic and my views, and my hope is that it's not coming across as an attempt to get the “look – I’m not racist, I
understand” pat on the back.)
I’m currently finishing the last part of a Masters degree in Peace and Conflict Studies. I’ve spent this last year reading and researching genocide, mass killings, rape as a tool of war, media and propaganda as a tool to desensitize a population to the point of committing atrocities against their neighbours, racism and colonial legacies, apathy and “othering” from the “West”, the myriad problems associated with the liberal peace tradition and its efficacy in post-conflict countries… I’ve been on research trips to Israel, Palestinian Territories, Bosnia, and Croatia and spoken with people who have lived through these situations. I’ve been constantly challenged on my assumptions, and prejudices and if I’m honest with myself, I’d say I still have a long way to go at times. I’m only reading/studying/researching these topics and my interaction is always going to be from that privileged outsider position.
However, I’ve been told throughout my course, that does not negate or invalidate my ability to interact with these sources but it
does inform how I should approach it, if I wish not to be another cog in an unequal global system. I’ve been told countless times that I should be engaging with these topics – but in a way that acknowledges where I come from and my own experience and limitations.
I haven’t been able to participate much in fandom this year but at the same time, I haven’t turned off my fannish brain this year. And in some ways, I’ve turned to fandom for the same things I always have – to flail about hot boys and girls, to enjoy a storyline that push my narrative kink, to talk to fellow fans that understand OMG, that was SO AMAZING, wasn’t it??? *glee* There are days when I want to read about or watch teenage vampires wrestle with modern day life, and con artists pull off impossible hi-jinks. There are days when I want to read about or watch people gleefully blow shit up, backstab each other over petty matters, make stupid choices in love and embarrass themselves so much that
I want to crawl under the bed with them and never come out.
But in some ways, my interaction with fandom has changed: there are days where I also want to read or watch the other aspects of human nature: the heart-wrenching decisions people make in times of conflict, of their desire for revenge, of dealing with grief, of dealing with unfair legacies that they never asked for or wanted. Sometimes these situations are occurring in canon locales where there has been tragedy or conflict, others involve characters who in canon have ties to these areas or direct experiences. One of things that I’ve been wrestling with this year is whether I can, or even if I
should, use fic ideas that are related to the knowledge I’ve gained this year.
I don’t think you should only write what you know. Sometimes fanfic reflects fantasy situations. Sometimes fanfic reflects real life situations. I don’t think you can privilege one over the other and say, no, there are some situations you should never write about or some places you should never set fic in, and indeed in some cases, I think it’s actually contributing to systemic problems by NOT discussing them or by declaring that these places are off-limits for fandom discussion (as racism and sexism have often been in the past), contributing to further marginalization. But in terms of how you engage with what you don’t know and especially in terms of race, ability, gender issues, etc, there’s a responsibility to make sure you’re not failing or perpetrating the cycle. And if you do fail, you need to acknowledge the hurt you’ve caused and make amends.
But then again, in studying peace and conflict, I’ve come to appreciate the pro-active stance, where you can avoid the conflict before it happens by 1) taking the time to understand what exactly you’re dealing with, 2) acknowledging other views, particular those who are or have been affected by these issues and 3) knowing where you (and your writings/characters) stand in relation to wider context.
It’s not as simple as never writing about PoC in countries outside of North America or setting our locales only in the global North. Or in thinking that it can never be done right. It’s also not as simple as condemning a fic full of racist assumptions (although that's an important step). I think we can respectfully write about these places and issues in ways that acknowledge agency, universal human experience and that break the mold from a normative narrative to a narrative that furthers understanding. It’s not a
simple task to do this, and the stakes are high if you fail, but then again, the best stories, the ones that you carry around for days, in my experience are the ones that acknowledge this risk and succeed despite/because of it.
….
As a practical experiment, this last part is basically me testing my conclusion by looking at some of my own recent fic ideas, noting the faily-aspects in them and seeing how I could make them not so faily, looking at what I need to consider if I am going to write a story involving a conflict/disaster narrative. This is also a result of grad school: talk about the theory/lit review and then use case examples to illustrate. Hopefully it works! If people want to talk about their own experiences in addressing this issue, please do! And of course I welcome comments/critiques on any aspects that I may have overlooked.
1) AU ficsTo be honest, I think this is where you can get into the most trouble. There are so many details because you’re transplanting an entire canon into a conflict or disaster narrative when it may not had any connection before to it and may have had a wildly different tone. To reconnect these strings all together in a coherent, respectful fashion is going to be difficult because it’s easy to forget details that might not have occurred to you because of your privilege.
Example: I recently watched a documentary called “
Shooting Robert King”, (excellent film by the way – definitely recommend) and there’s this one scene (actually, part of it is in the trailer) where the main character immediately reminded me of Ray Person in
Generation Kill. And the idea of a War Reporter GK AU jumped into my head.
Ray Person, a recently graduated photographer, who wants to win a Pulitzer by the age of 30 and is just young and cocky enough to think he’s going to get it by photographing the Balkans conflict. But once there, the situation on the ground isn’t exactly what he pictured…How it could go wrong: Easily. Not bothering to know jack-shit about the conflict/humanitarian disaster you’re sending your characters into, or its effect on the local population. For example: in this War Reporter AU, say I set it in Sarajevo in 1993 and I think it’s important to have a local fixer feature prominently in the narrative, which all foreign reporters typically have while in a war zone. Do I introduce an original character here? What is his or her role in this story? Are they a fully-rounded character, or is their only purpose in the story to be a reactant to the main characters? Alternatively, what if I made Brad the fixer? Then not considering the wider context of
who you’re changing in the AU becomes the issue here. Is there a difference between Brad, the Bosniak (nominally Muslim) fixer vs. knowing that Brad is canonically Jewish, and knowing from research that Sarajevo has a small Jewish community, most of whom stayed during the entire siege of the city? But even that has layers to look at: because Brad being Jewish vs. Brad being a Bosniak Muslim is going to inform how I write his character’s motivations. What kind of assumptions or failings am I making if Poke is the fixer? His ethnic background is Hispanic/Native American, am I erasing his identity by assigning one from the Balkans – by choosing a CoC to take on the role of a local instead of another canon white character, what am I indicating here? Is there a way to justify this decision for the narrative?
How it could go right: Asking myself: Is it too soon to use this situation? (hint: if it hasn’t been out of the news cycle yet, it very likely is not the conflict to use.) Asking myself: why have I chosen
this conflict/locale? Do I have particular knowledge of this area? Do I have people who have first-hand knowledge who can direct me/advise me f I’m getting things wrong? Also: Research, research, research. It’s easy to bypass endless links of information, and choose instead to go to Wikipedia to get a basic background and then start writing my masterpiece. Avoid this, do research and it’ll save me from embarrassing and potentially faily mistakes.
Where it can go right: See:
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tevere’s fic
Sixteen days in September.
2) Canon situated in a conflict/developing country situation- One of my requests for Yuletide these last three years has been a
Blood Diamond fic. Not an unproblematic source, by any means.
BACKSTORY. FUTURE-FIC. Basically, I'd love anything that extends the storyline of the movie forward or back. In particular, I want to know more about Danny Archer and Maddy Bowen, more than the glimpses we saw in the film. Danny/Maddy is a plus if you move forward in time. I am also totally open to a re-interpretation of the ending in regards to Danny surviving. ;) The only stories I've read about Blood Diamond have been on ff.net, so I'm sure anything you'll come up will be miles better than then Danny/Mary Sue fic I've found so far.I’m cringing a little at this now, not because it’s a completely horrible prompt but there are many, many pitfalls where a story based around it could go wrong.
How it could go wrong: By being solely the story of Maddie/Danny’s twu luv, and their happily-ever after. Using the trauma of what they’ve been through in Sierra Leone as hurt/comfort while ignoring the wide socio-political implications (which the film itself highlights) of the region and their own actions there. Completely ignoring Solomon and his family’s part of in their story. Using Solomon only as tragic figure or stand-in for the entire conflict.
How it could go right: By not ignoring Danny’s background as a white Zimbabwean and the racist legacy it contains. By taking the time to examine Maddie’s motivations for coming to Africa in the first place. By integrating Solomon into the story without using racist stereotypes and making sure he has agency of his own. By furthering the relationship between Solomon, Danny and Maddie. By not backgrounding the entirety of the conflict in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast or ignoring the role external intervention/outside powers played their part in contributing to the conflict. By having Maddie and Danny interact with local actors who don’t necessarily see them as altruistic heroes.
Generation Kill is another good example where I think it’s important to look at the overall picture when considering writing in the fandom. To be honest a lot of GK fic, especially Brad/Nate stories set in Iraq that background a lot of the dynamics found in the mini-series in favour of teh porn don’t interest me and strike me as slightly problematic. However, those are my own views and as long as these stories don’t have out and out racist/colonial bullshit being advanced in the story, people are free to write what they like, and I’m free to not read them.*
*
On that note of Generation Kill, I’m also going to take a moment to mourn the lack of Tony “Poke” Espera fics. I get that he might be a bit difficult to write but he’s an awesome character! Also, there used to be a few Walt/Gabe stories and those seem to have been completely overtaken by Ray/Walt. Yes, Brad, Nate, Ray and Walt are awesome (white) characters BUT. Where’s the love for Gabe, Espera, Rudy, and other CoC in the cast? Are they not equally awesome?3) Characters with problematic back-storiesSpecifically, I’m thinking of the television spy genre in this case but it can apply to others, definitely. I adore
Burn Notice as a frothy eye-candy and escape show. I enjoy Fi as a character but there’s been always something about her backstory that’s bothered me. It wasn’t until a discussion in class one day where we discussed the IRA and a friend from N. Ireland made the point that he’s sick of how the IRA has been treated in pop culture these last few years, saying that members of the IRA, real or fictional, have been legitimized in fiction lately and assigned a narrative that plays down/reduces the harm they’ve caused in the conflict in the region.
See, in
Burn Notice, Fiona is ex-IRA, a bomb-maker and weapons expert. Now, that doesn’t automatically make her an irredeemable, evil character, not in the least, and there’s been enough characterization that she’s not presented as Miss-Goody-Two-Shoes either and she’s often presented as amoral compared to Michael and Sam. Still, she’s presented as being on the “good side”. But, if you know anything about the history of the IRA and how they used explosives/bombs in their campaigns, you might blanch a bit at Fi’s cavalier attitude to explosives and wonder about
how she used to use her expertise in the past. As the show is on USA, set in Miami and frequently doesn’t really register on the ‘reality scale’, Fi’s IRA background is really just skimmed over. Now, just because it’s skimmed over on the show, doesn’t mean that you can’t explore it in fanfic. I think you can explore similar stuff with Michael’s background too. And Sam’s, for that matter.
Example: I have a half-started fic called “Five Wounds that almost Killed Michael Westen and One that Didn’t”, which is backstory for Michael and has him in Afghanistan, West Africa and Colombia. I have a ficlet about Fi, before she met Michael, dealing with her motivation for joining the IRA and why she was drawn to explosives. There’s any small ways these fics could go off the rails but again research and appropriate gravity to the subject matter should avoid most of them.
Leverage Not so bad as
BN but there’s been times when there are throw-away mentions about Eliot’s background and I’m like… ooh, I
want that story about how he was in Serbia. Hardison mentions hinky times in Pakistan – Eliot was there in Pakistan, what was he doing? Yes, in the context of the show perhaps it darkens the tone to go into that much detail, but again, it’s canonically part of the character’s background and fanfic is meant for this kind of background story, y/n?
Oh, here, I also want to note that we as fans don't
have to go into a character's background in every story and make it heavy but if we
choose to do so: know what you're talking about.
NBC’s
Chuck is actually where I’ve just gone: Oh. Oh no. They didn’t. They did. *cringe* In terms of Casey’s background, where he’s been in charge of/participated in a few Central and South American coups for the NSA. Now, you can write a
Chuck fic in a darker vein that addresses these issues but for me… I’m not sure I could or would want to do that. So… sometimes I pretend it’s in an alternate reality where there was a lot less horrible fallout from those scenarios.
4) Using sci-fi/fantasy milieus to create parallels to real scenarios Possibly the most popular option in terms of addressing serious issues, with mainstream fantasy/sci-fi ie.
Battlestar Galactica,
Caprica,
Heroes,
True Blood, etc all attempting to do this, with varying degrees of success. There have been many successful fanfics that have done this as well. Still, pitfalls to avoid: cheap tactics like having the characters talk about the issue from a racist/clueless POV – looking at you,
True Blood. Also, if you’re bringing up issues such as genocide, it’s important that your fic not treat them flippantly and your characters understand the gravity of the situation. Genocide is still genocide, even when it is robots (Cylons) committing it against humans, which is why the tone of
BSG isn’t quite the same as…
Stargate Atlantis, for instance.
Example: Last summer, I was bingeing on new
Star Trek fics. I was also starting my course’s reading list, reading about the history of UN peacekeeping, and the successive generations of conflict resolution, and how it changed and evolved over the years. Sometime in July, between reading about Cold War politics affecting peacekeeping missions, and the failure of UN troops in Srebenica and Rwanda, I made the connection of: “Oh, so Star Trek is nominally an allegory for the Cold War. And the Federation could equal the fictional equivalent of the UN." Given that the most recent film actually involves a genocide, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to put the crew of the U.S.S Enterprise in a situation where they have to respond to another situation like it in terms of acting to prevent the murder of millions of people. But what if they were constrained this time by politics, such as a truce between the Klingons and the Federation? How would Kirk, Spock, Uhura and the rest of the crew react? Would they break the truce, or do they follow the rules of the Federation? I have about 7,000 words of that story, beta-read and everything but I’ve set it aside for quite a few months and re-reading it now… okay, I completely forgot to incorporate any POV in my fic from the people/species who are about to be wiped out. Yikes, MAJOR FAIL for what I want to say with this fic. *facepalm* Although because this fic is set in a fictional universe, I could probably get away with not writing their POV without anyone calling me on it. But that’s not the point, anyway… so, need to fix that aspect if I post this fic.
Frig, this went LONG. Um, thanks for making it this far though. Thoughts, comments, criticisms?
