Love and Unlove in Fanfiction
Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 8:36 am
Some thoughts on Dreams, and Love, and Koslow's fairy tale...and fanfiction imitations thereof.
I think you know, my friends, that I am a creature who loves to ask "Why?" So I have been pondering things I notice about myself and others. I've also been pondering tendencies in this fandom to "normalize" not only the Beast but also everything else in the story, the Beast's underworld, the Beauty, the Beauty's upperworld, etc. And, yes, Beauty tends to get downgraded too, for I sense just as much misunderstanding about her materially wealthy way of life as I do about Beast's material poverty. The "normal" being recreated in fanfiction and general fan conversation is the province of America's social mythology: the ideal of the American Dream, the ideal of what respectable "ordinary" people are and aspire to, the advertised and marketed model of the perfect American specimen. I won't offer a critique of these myths here (fear not, ha ha). I only wish to share my conclusion that Koslow's mythology fought a valiant battle to live and breathe in the cracks between the larger mythical structures of my country's culture.
The "Why" I've puzzled over lately is this: Why do I experience such visceral negative reactions to these trends in fandom?
Today, my answer is this: Because the assumptions underlying these fandom trends deny the Dream. They deny the message of Koslow's story. They insist, through myriad posts and stories and arguments, that Love in its deepest and purest forms DOES NOT exist. CANNOT exist. That the characters of the show did not experience such Love. Then they proceed to reiterate the culturally approved boundaries for "love," holding up meager substitutes for what Koslow and his miraculous band of storymakers gave the world. The message of the substitutions: This particular example is all there is of love; this is the only view of the characters that is acceptable; this is the only fragment of the Dream worth dreaming.
I have felt anger because I know this message is false. I reject each denial of the Dream, regret each truncation of these characters, retreat from unlove as I would from poison. I know "corrective" abridgements of the Dream may seem quite a pleasant poison to other people, as with so many drugs and processed food choices and chemical conveniences in our world. But pleasant side effects do not make a poison less toxic. So I feel anger against an injustice of the heart, astonishment at such ready acceptance of a lie.
Today, however, I am thinking that a new emotion I wish to feel and meditate upon...is pity. Not pity in the sense that American English often uses the word, as a synonym for contempt. Rather, pity as a quiet recognition of brokenness or deprivation in someone's life. I know that Love, REAL LOVE, and TRUE BEAUTY, just as they are depicted in Koslow's B&B, can and do exist. Love does not need to be fixed, redirected, or normalized to be satisfying or actual, whether in Koslow's fantasy or in real life. I am discovering pity for elements in fandom who celebrate an ignorance of Love's complete reality. Pity for those who glorify that poverty of imagination which immunizes the soul against full engagement with beautiful Dreams and ideas. Pity for those who rely on stereotypes and prejudices as guides to understanding the world and themselves. People are so hungry for Love, yet they become ensnared in the belief that Love only appears in certain guises, under such-and-such conditions. I keep coming back to Diana Bennett's line: If all you're willing to see is what you've seen before, you're gonna miss half of what's going on. The act of "normalizing" this story is the act of forcing it to assume a shape one has already seen before, rather than allowing it to rejuvenate one's imagination in the direction of fresh possibilities. "Normalizing" recreates the story into a shape it was never meant to hold. It shows us what unlove looks like...but claims it's showing us Love. That is so scary to me. I hate being lied to. Especially by people who don't know they are cultivating and promoting a lie.
The psychology author Peck wrote that when people fail to engage with Love it's because they believe it is too much work. Not worth the effort. And also that people are by general inclination lazy. People's laziness makes them sick in mind, body, and spirit. And the sickness causes suffering in their lives and in the lives of others. Perhaps. Mostly, I think we do what we can, whenever we can, to live as well as we can. Yet even reading people's best attempts to live and love and dream as well as they can, I cannot abide witnessing an amazing model of wellness denounced as a model of faulty Love and "corrected" in subsequent writing. It just hurts me too much.
I'm thinking that is why I have a very few favorites in the vast fanfiction annals, enjoy a few lighter pieces here and there...and deplore the rest of fandom's storytelling. I remain eager for nourishing fanfiction, and open to explorations of the fairy tale that ask and answer questions within regions of the Dream I am less familiar with. The toxic waste, though? I just can't swallow any more.
Candidly,
Zara
I think you know, my friends, that I am a creature who loves to ask "Why?" So I have been pondering things I notice about myself and others. I've also been pondering tendencies in this fandom to "normalize" not only the Beast but also everything else in the story, the Beast's underworld, the Beauty, the Beauty's upperworld, etc. And, yes, Beauty tends to get downgraded too, for I sense just as much misunderstanding about her materially wealthy way of life as I do about Beast's material poverty. The "normal" being recreated in fanfiction and general fan conversation is the province of America's social mythology: the ideal of the American Dream, the ideal of what respectable "ordinary" people are and aspire to, the advertised and marketed model of the perfect American specimen. I won't offer a critique of these myths here (fear not, ha ha). I only wish to share my conclusion that Koslow's mythology fought a valiant battle to live and breathe in the cracks between the larger mythical structures of my country's culture.
The "Why" I've puzzled over lately is this: Why do I experience such visceral negative reactions to these trends in fandom?
Today, my answer is this: Because the assumptions underlying these fandom trends deny the Dream. They deny the message of Koslow's story. They insist, through myriad posts and stories and arguments, that Love in its deepest and purest forms DOES NOT exist. CANNOT exist. That the characters of the show did not experience such Love. Then they proceed to reiterate the culturally approved boundaries for "love," holding up meager substitutes for what Koslow and his miraculous band of storymakers gave the world. The message of the substitutions: This particular example is all there is of love; this is the only view of the characters that is acceptable; this is the only fragment of the Dream worth dreaming.
I have felt anger because I know this message is false. I reject each denial of the Dream, regret each truncation of these characters, retreat from unlove as I would from poison. I know "corrective" abridgements of the Dream may seem quite a pleasant poison to other people, as with so many drugs and processed food choices and chemical conveniences in our world. But pleasant side effects do not make a poison less toxic. So I feel anger against an injustice of the heart, astonishment at such ready acceptance of a lie.
Today, however, I am thinking that a new emotion I wish to feel and meditate upon...is pity. Not pity in the sense that American English often uses the word, as a synonym for contempt. Rather, pity as a quiet recognition of brokenness or deprivation in someone's life. I know that Love, REAL LOVE, and TRUE BEAUTY, just as they are depicted in Koslow's B&B, can and do exist. Love does not need to be fixed, redirected, or normalized to be satisfying or actual, whether in Koslow's fantasy or in real life. I am discovering pity for elements in fandom who celebrate an ignorance of Love's complete reality. Pity for those who glorify that poverty of imagination which immunizes the soul against full engagement with beautiful Dreams and ideas. Pity for those who rely on stereotypes and prejudices as guides to understanding the world and themselves. People are so hungry for Love, yet they become ensnared in the belief that Love only appears in certain guises, under such-and-such conditions. I keep coming back to Diana Bennett's line: If all you're willing to see is what you've seen before, you're gonna miss half of what's going on. The act of "normalizing" this story is the act of forcing it to assume a shape one has already seen before, rather than allowing it to rejuvenate one's imagination in the direction of fresh possibilities. "Normalizing" recreates the story into a shape it was never meant to hold. It shows us what unlove looks like...but claims it's showing us Love. That is so scary to me. I hate being lied to. Especially by people who don't know they are cultivating and promoting a lie.
The psychology author Peck wrote that when people fail to engage with Love it's because they believe it is too much work. Not worth the effort. And also that people are by general inclination lazy. People's laziness makes them sick in mind, body, and spirit. And the sickness causes suffering in their lives and in the lives of others. Perhaps. Mostly, I think we do what we can, whenever we can, to live as well as we can. Yet even reading people's best attempts to live and love and dream as well as they can, I cannot abide witnessing an amazing model of wellness denounced as a model of faulty Love and "corrected" in subsequent writing. It just hurts me too much.
I'm thinking that is why I have a very few favorites in the vast fanfiction annals, enjoy a few lighter pieces here and there...and deplore the rest of fandom's storytelling. I remain eager for nourishing fanfiction, and open to explorations of the fairy tale that ask and answer questions within regions of the Dream I am less familiar with. The toxic waste, though? I just can't swallow any more.
Candidly,
Zara