Good meta on Restraint

[darkemeralds]

yourlibrarian has posted a thoughtful piece on Restraint and its place in the Real Person fanfic continuum.

She examines some of the ways in which John and Tristan do and don't hew to the "canon" of J2, and I have to say, she caught everything I intended and few things I wasn't conscious of. She also identifies a range of Alternate Universe categories and asks the question of whether Restraint and other AU Real Person fic can or should make the leap into "print" as published works with the serial numbers filed off.

I enjoyed the post and the discussion in comments (I probably also broke a cardinal rule by leaving a comment of my own!) and I thought other people might be interested in it. It's worth a read.

Comments

[tehomet]

I enjoyed that post too, thanks for the link.

I love that idea of filing the serial numbers off. It's a hot story (in more ways than one)!

Secretly between you and me, the main reason I want to publish it is to give a sliver of hope to my fantasy of having it made into a miniseries. :D How hot would that be?

NOM! :D

[darkemeralds]

I don't know where the phrase "filing the serial numbers off" first arose in connection with fanfic-to-profic, but I only encountered it for the first time less than a year ago, and I've been conscious ever since of wanting to maybe file off Restraint's serial numbers.

Several people have commented that they couldn't bear to see other actors play John and Tristan, but personally (as much as I love those two and their public persona), I couldn't bear to see them in the roles. Neither of them could carry it off, and I'd much rather see Real English Actors in the roles. Don't know who, but two boys from Texas just couldn't do it.

[(Anonymous)]

What an interesting post. And right on time since I just finished the story last night. I'm so glad I know you because it makes me feel less stalkery when I tell you how deeply I loved that story. You put a lot into that story and I took a lot out of it.
your librarian made the excellent point that you worked in what we know of their characters in a way that melded perfectly with their society. Man, I admired the hell out of that--folks who have no idea who these boys are can enjoy the characters of Tristan and John, and those of us who do know can enjoy how what we know of them fits the story so well.

I would go on and on, but MR's PC is a horrible thing to be on, and I'm only using it because I wanted to say thank you a million times. We'll talk later. :)

roxy

[darkemeralds]

Thank you so, so much. It is such a thrill to know that those characters resonated in some essential way with the J & J we "know" and love.

I hope you get your computer fixed or replaced soon-soon-soon, because the internet needs you!