"[W]hy do you hate "shipping?" What makes it so uncreative?"This question was put to me in a recent thread in the devART literature forums. I wrote a rather comprehensive answer to that question, and now for the sake of posterity I am posting it in a journal to save myself the hassle of writing it over and over again. The next time this subject comes up, answering will be as easy and linking them here:
While it's one thing to build on the
Ship Teases of the original writers (I get just as frustrated by
Will They or Won't They? moments as anyone else, and I can see where someone might want to pick up where they think a writer let them down), it's another matter all together to just slap two random characters together because you think they look "hot together."
Love is an extremely personal thing. You can't just fall in love with
anyone. A person's attractions, both sexual and emotional, are a huge part of their psychological makeup. Being in love is more than just rainbows and roses 24/7. It's a merger of two souls, and even the most compatible people have their points where things don't quite match up, and work has to be done to bridge those chasms. And when you disregard the deeper, more realistic aspects of love, it shows you don't really understand the emotion at all.
Falling in love is like building a jigsaw puzzle and finding two pieces that go side by side. Shipping ignores all this and crams two pieces together, regardless of their matching up or not. It throws characterization out the window. For serious storytelling, a fictional character has to be treated as realistically as a flesh and blood human being, otherwise they're not a character at all, they're a sock puppet. How would
you feel if someone wrote a story depicting you in a relationship with someone with whom you're not compatible? With a family member? With someone you hate!?
I treat fan fiction with the same seriousness as original stories.
Even Shakespeare wrote "fan fiction." The only difference is that you're working with characters created by someone else and not ones of your own creation. When that is the case, you must be extra careful to treat the characters with respect, because you're only borrowing them. How would you feel if you wrote a story about two best friends who are like brothers to each other, poured your heart and soul into it and eventually got it published... and then a few years later found a story some kid wrote with those two blood-brothers having sex?
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I generally dislike how people tend to sexualize *any* kind of relationship. Can't two guys be really good friends (or enemies?) without having it away in the bushes every five minutes? And is it just me, or is that when you try to explain this to someone that "ships", they tend to get really uppity and accuse you of being homophobic?
Because it is way better than the stuff you've written here.
If you "treat fan fiction with the same seriousness as original stories" how about having freedom of speech. Which is possibly somewhat important.
Personal opinions and personal ideals should not enter into decisions within a society or community, that's called a dictatorship.
Not trying to start any sort of argument with you or anything, I just wanted to let you know what the problem that most of us actually have with this is, since I think the strange accusation about freedom of speech distracted from the real issue.
Rupert Murdoch isn't "obliged" to put right wing biased content on his front page and features, but he does, and that's 50% of the reason he is currently being investigated by the Leveson Inquiry.
Ring any bells to someone else we're currently talking about?