Terrible, Horrible, Motherfucking Amazing Stories I Have Loved

[strina]

So the recent kerfuffle about owning your awesome got me to thinking about the disclaimers we put forth on a daily basis, and particularly the disclaimers I put forth when I talk about some fanfiction.

Look, I don't like badfic; almost no one does. But there's a whole range between badfic and "goodfic" that gets tangled up in embarrassment and "I know it's terrible, but...", and that's idfic/drawerfic. Winged hermaphroditic super-abused superpowered Harry falls in love with his middle-aged professor (who likes to call him "little one" in a vaguely fetish-y way), is forced by Voldemort to have sex with that professor, erases the guy's memory of his "shame", and then turns up pregnant. And there's angst and misunderstanding and then they inevitably have the baby and the happy-ever-after. That is not a story with scads of literary merit. It's not the story I'm going to rec to all my friends, or use to pimp someone into the fandom/pairing. It's not the best thing I've ever read. But guys, I MOTHERFUCKING LOVE that story (and yes, it is totally an actual story). It is DELICIOUS. And so is the Xander-centric time travel gangrape mpreg fivesome story I've read 30 times and can quote from memory. So is the Hermione pwns everyone and takes over the country and has a harem fic that I've never read, yet would dearly like to.

Because "good" stories often have to temporize, to maintain reality and your suspension of disbelief and the dynamics of the canon. But idfic says fuck that, let's turn this shit up to ELEVEN and SEE WHERE IT GOES. That's amazing! I love that! Fanfic is, at its purest, an expression of love, and just because it's usually held to some standard of objective good doesn't mean it always should be.

So, you know, dear writers of idfic: Don't be ashamed. Take them out of the drawers and set them free. I guarantee someone out there is going to MOTHERFUCKING LOVE them.

Comments

[saekhwa]

All I have to say is AMEN TO THIS.

[strina]

I totally want more people to say fuck literary merit, THIS IS THE STORY OF MY HEART, WHO WANTS SOME? Enthusiasm is sexy!

[wrabbit]

Here via my network and I just want to say: +EleventyOne

But guys, I MOTHERFUCKING LOVE that story (and yes, it is totally an actual story). ...Dude, can I read it?

[strina]

Unwanted, HP, Harry/Snape. It is INSANE/AMAZING. Warnings for body issues, dehumanising abuse by the Dursleys, and fuck or die.

[cypher]

Just saw this on my network and I MOTHERFUCKING LOVE this post. ♥

I've been trying to convince myself to be braver about doing just this, and it is awesome to happen across a post encouraging it. ^^

[strina]

LESS SHAME, MORE AWESOME for everyone!

It's like, I can see the point of the disclaimers, Unwanted =/= Death Eater Takes a Holiday; I just wish fandom would develop a neutral/positive way to denote that.

[the_wanlorn]

NGL, most of the fic that I write is idfic. I get to the point where I'm just like "YOU KNOW WHAT, I could make this good, OR I COULD MAKE IT SOMETHING THAT I WILL FUCKING LOVE" and, usually, my desire to be adored by fandom is not as strong as my desire to write ridiculous shit that makes me happy.

[strina]

But see, your ridiculous ring pop/exploding birds shenanigans make everyone happy!

[scaramouche]

Very often I find myself squealing like a banshee and clapping like a seal because of glorious glorious idfic that hits your happy buttons SPOT ON. There are very few highs that can compare.

[strina]

Exactly!

[sineala]

Man, I love idfic so much. There was this awesome gigantic series of Sentinel fic in which there is an Evil Organization that trains Guides or Sentinels or whatever and they kidnap Blair and brainwash him, and then Jim gets him back because he can feel his heartbeat or they have a bond or something, but then there's magic healing sex to fix the brainwashing. But! Somehow Blair runs away and gets captured again and they brainwash him *again* (because I guess it, uh, didn't take the first time), and then somewhere there's hallucinations and tattooing. And they all live happily even after.

(And sometimes there's idfic I will totally rec/pimp with. My absolute favorite Pros story is a gay circus acrobat AU (with, you know, a lot of The Catch Trap in it), so there you go. I think mostly I try not to write idfic, but I love reading it.

So, uh, word. :)

[strina]

See, that's the thing: If it doesn't hit your id, it's weird and possibly creepy (there are totally pairings/fandoms where I can read the goodfic but the prevailing flavor of idfic). But if it does? IT MAKES YOU HAPPIER THAN ANYTHING ELSE. Because not only are these awesome things happening that you've always wanted to happen, here are people who also thought that way! Fulfills a desire/de-stigmatizes or implies at least a limited social acceptance of a desire.

[jitkajaylor]

My fics basically start out with "Hey, that's an awesome chessboard, prime!K&S should totally play against nu!K&S" which devolves into a possible entry for Big Bang, holy shit. So yeah, I totally get the concept of fic out of nowhere that makes you smile for no real reason other than it's awesome!

Oh, geez, I haven't read that HP fic in forever ... and what is this Xander fic you speak of?

[strina]

The future is what we make it, Xander/Angel, Xander/Angel/OMCs, past Xander/Faith, weird and random pairings in the epilogue. Superpowered Xander admits that he came back and changed the timeline and oh yeah, he's pregnant. With many babies. Warnings for character death, noncon, torture, castration, character bashing, and really very purple sex scenes. Honestly, the post-apocalyptic world is my FAVORITE, even if, y'know, half of them are dead. There're logistics, which is totally my fic-kink?

[asitor]

I love this whole entry and kind of want to make out with it. Make out with you for it? Just make out period? Whatever. Anyway, LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE.

[strina]

...Sometimes, you are my favorite. ♥

here via metafandom

[nemonclature]

Fanastic post. You've reminded me of the fun in fandom, I'd forgotten after all this drama surrounding Gabaldon. Sure fanfic can be really well written and brilliant blahdiblah. But yes, crack!fic is also awesome!

I want to go write something batshit insane now!

Re: here via metafandom

[strina]

Sometimes you just somebody to sprout some motherfucking wings already, right?

DO EEEEET.

Here via metafandom :)

[acrimonyastraea]

hee! I was getting really tired of some of the rants on fanfic rants, so I love this post. Yay!

I feel like this tends to be more accepted in anime/video game fandom than book, American TV or movie fandoms. Maybe because animated characters feel less real? I have no idea.

Re: Here via metafandom :)

[strina]

I agree! I think it may at least partially be more accepted because of omake, a kind of "if the creator can make them act OOC/break the fourth wall/generally dance like puppets, why can't I?" attitude. It also seems to be more accepted in musician RPF, especially if it deals with "canon AUs" like music videos/conceptual photo shoots.

Also here via metafandom

[verbosewordsmith]

So much yes to this post. Obviously I've read my share of bad fic and awesome fic that is significantly better then most things that get published, but there's that whole category of cliche/crack/generally batshit insane fairly well-written fic that isn't badfic, but isn't exactly good fic, and is awesome/interesting/fun. I love that kind of fic and didn't really have a word for it. Idfic works and is an excellent way of describing it.

Also, regarding the prevalence of idfic in musician RPF: so much yes to that. I fell into bandom about a year ago after years and years of Harry Potter and one of the reasons why I've stayed is because so much fic is awesome AUs where anything goes.

It's a really fun fandom, because a lot of it is what would generally be considered a cracktastic AU but it's written as a "real" fic which is kind of unusual in my fandom experience, but also really awesome.

I think part of why it's so popular to write far-removed-from-canon AUs in bandom is that the fourth wall is a tattered sheet at this point. The people we're writing about know what fanfic is, have read it, make jokes about it and in two cases, have commented on it. Writing something so far removed from reality might help people put a little distance between reality and fiction. Also, there's a whole culture of writing whatever the hell kind of fic you want (it's pretty often some kind of idfic) and people being really supportive of that/encouraging people to write more high school/tv show/Old West/space opera/pirate/urban fantasy/domestic tentacled aliens with babies/duck/spy parody/vaguely Victorian AUs.

Re: Also here via metafandom

[strina]

I totally picked the term up from ninhursag; she has a community for het idfic where the ladies get to do the comforting/rescuing/saving the day (it is, in a word, AWESOME).

Did you see hradzka's and (I think) thefourthvine's connected posts on what makes a good AU fandom? It was mentioned somewhere that bandom was especially fantastic for them because while some canons have characters/situations that are inextricably linked (Oz was the best example), RPF has a cast of characters that can be entirely divorced from their situation and still be recognizable.

RPF in general seems very "follow your bliss!" to me; possibly because it was considered perverted/taboo for so long in the wider fandom community? Small/tight fan communities seem much more live-and-let-live than the big ones like HP, and RPF was a tight community by necessity for a long time (so it seems; I confess, I didn't hit RPF fandoms until most of that had blown over).

[seriousfic]

This is why I read PWPs: Being split between "hotness!" and posting to Badfic Quotes.

[strina]

I am pretty sure that porn that turns you on and makes you laugh? Is the BEST PORN.

Also here from metafandom!

[lady_ganesh]

And sometimes, even if the fic doesn't hit your buttons completely, the sheer joy and ridiculousness shines through. It's like watching a good B movie.

Re: Also here from metafandom!

[strina]

Yes! If I can tell the author loves it, I want to love it, too, a kind of "your shit is crazy, but it's awesome watching you have fun with it" thing.

[azephirin]

Here from Metafandom, and, man, I really want to read that Hermione fic! If it doesn't actually exist, I might have to write it. :)

[tears_of_nienna]

I'm sorry, I thought I might have something intelligent to say about the post and YAY CRACKFIC, and then I saw your icon and I laughed so loudly I startled my housemate.

So much love!

--The girl who quoted Sedgwick in about 75% of her undergrad papers.

Here via metafandom.

[were_lemur]

Idfic is such a great descriptive term!

When I started posting my 46 chapter James Bond/Alec Trevelyan hurt/comfort/brainwashing/mind-games epic, there was that sensation of OMG I am putting way way WAY too much of myself on the screen for everybody to look at. I even put in my author's note that I'd freaked myself out.

It's scary, but kind of freeing (in the "nothing left to lose" kind of way.)

[cesy]

Yes, there are definitely times and places for ridiculous id-fic, and sometimes it's good to celebrate it. \o/ Thank you for reminding us of that.

[fizzyblogic]

Here via metafandom, and I just wanted you to know, your post changed my mind. Until recently getting into a new fandom, idfic never did anything for me — I'm the awful kind of picky reader who clicks out of a story if the characters aren't speaking exactly as they would in canon (unless it's an AU and there's a good reason for, say, characters who make a point of avoiding profanity suddenly swearing like a sailor; or British characters talking like they're American or vice versa) let alone canon inaccuracies &c &c — and then I hit on a set of characters who could be time-travelling winged pregnant superheroes and I would lap it up gleefully. Sometimes it takes one particular fandom to hit your idplace, and sometimes you need awesome meta about how great idfic is to say to yourself "Self, quit stopping yourself from clicking on fic in that fandom, WHO CARES if it's a ridiculous AU and somebody gets pregnant, IT'LL BE AWESOME". So thank you. :D

[seperis]

I love this post so much I want to frame it.

[sorchar]

I call it "guilty pleasure fic" but personally? I FEEL NO GUILT AT ALL. Bring on the mpreg and the guys who call their lovers "baby boy" and the emo angst!

[pfg]

Oh, man. I had the misfortune of reading this weekend a very entitled little post about how "You can't DO that type of A/U for this fandom Even though your fandom is made up of grown men dressed up in batsuits, ffs, because it's WRONG and you ARE MISSING THE POINT OF THE FANDOM ENTIRELY IF YOU DO!!!"

(wherein I spent the rest of my weekend rolling my eyes and complaining in AIM about how someone was very WRONG on the internets.)

So, basically, I needed this post to wash the riduclous out of my mouth. It was awesome. :)

[kitewithfish]

Dammit, this is basically why I read the majority of Sentinel fic.

(Adding to circle, btw. )

[strina]

TS is so cracktastic in general that the idfic is AMAZING; there's one (the title of whick I'm blanking right now) that I keep in a special folder on my computer because I re-read it every time I stumble back to Sentinel fandom. Blair ends up leaving Cascade and joining another police dept. and then comes to Cascade as a consultant and no one seems happy to see him and it's all angsty and underappreciated-woobieness before the inevitable happy ending.

[ordinarygirl]

A bit EPICLY LATE to the party, but...

You make me want to write certain stories that I've never ficced but always had in my head. The Lost Boy who's actually a little girl, and a princess to boot. A Supernatural/Torchwood crossover where Sam and Jack do it like bunnies, and Jack's love saves Sam from going evil or some shit. Rose Tyler is secretly a Time Lady under a malfunctioning chameleon arch, which is how their genetics matched up enough for them to have a sprog, born in the parallel world, who then comes back to her mum's world, joins Torchwood (what's left of it), is badass, and eventually runs off with the Doctor to have happy shiny fun adventures in time and space.


...the stuff my brain comes up with but I would NEVER EVER WRITE, y'know?

[sykira]

This is a post that keeps on giving. Thank you so much for it, it's glorious!