Fish Recs

For my policy on things such as spoilers, warning, and ratings, please [see my policy post].

Here's a bit of meta on the topic of RPF and some fic recs.

RPF (real person fanfiction) kind of freaks me out. I know that the stories are fake, made up, pretend. That they're based off of the public persona and then filtered through the author's brain. I know all of this. It doesn't stop it from being really weird for me to read RPF-- the back of my brain is screaming the whole time: this is a real person. I suppose it's related to the part of my brain that had issues with me initially reading fanfic written in universes with actors (I've never had issues with fanfic where the canon is solely textual-- they're the canon author's mental playthings and now they're ours because we've read the books too. Regardless of if we write about them, we were going to be thinking about them anyways, so may as well put the words on the page. *derails this discussion* nb: this is not discussing the *legal* complexities of fanwork)-- because actors actually exist! And one of the things that can squick me out when reading fanfic based on live-action canon is too-true physical description (especially in a sexual context... When CharacterA is lusting after CharacterB's wrists or elbows or whatnot, there's the voice in the back of my brain going 'ummm, real person!')-- it simply feels like an invasion of privacy to me. So generally I've steered clear of RPF. But as I'm sure you know, even if you are avoiding reading something in fandom, you'll run across it eventually and then just sort of randomly read it.

But I have discovered that there's a few ways I can read RPF and not be squicked out by it:

1. If I have no idea who the real people are, this bothers me less-- because then (as far as my mind knows) this is simply a fictional story with fictional people set in the present-day. (But then I do the canon-osmosis thing and then it sometimes starts being weird again.)
1. The story has to stand entirely on it's own without knowing the 'canon'.
2. If the rating is somewhere around PG-13-- keep the sex off-screen and keep the laudatory physical descriptors minimal-to-nil-- because then it feels less voyeuristic.
1. If there is explicit-ness in the story, I'll likely skim over it or skip it entirely, so it cannot be crucial to plot.
3. It's a cross-over into something clearly not of the real world-- Buffy/Angel, Farscape, Stargate, etc., etc., etc., because then it's clearer to my brain that the entire thing is fiction and thus I can treat the RP as fictional people. (Oh is there an RPF/Valdemar or Pern crossover anywhere? Because the reactions of the RP could be awesome!)
4. If it uses a plot device that I love. Because I'm willing to venture into scary RPF-land for the sake of a damn good trope. (Some day I might well list the plot devices I love, but this entry is long enough already.)

Hmm, *ponders* evidently this translates roughly to 'I'm okay with RPF when I can pretend it's original fiction'.

To my surprise, I've come across RPF fics that I can read without hitting the back button. I haven't really been looking for them, so I don't know how exactly I've found these, but all's well that ends well! And if you know of other good RPF fics that you think might meet some of these criteria, then let me know :)

RPF fics I like despite being wigged out by RPF:

( SGA RPF/SGA crossover, 1 fic/podfic )

( Supernatural RPF, 1 fic )

( 6 American Idol RPF fics, including 1 podfic and 1 cross-over with Merlin )

[Originally posted] at fish_echo on 6 March 2009.