Does it need a more specific label? What is it being distinguished from?
Heh. Yeah, we can go overboard labelling our fic, it's true. We like our categories, subcategories, genres, subgenres, pairing labels, warnings, etc. But I appreciate that the library keeps the teen angst on one bookshelf and murder mysteries on another, so I don't have to wade through one to get to the other.
Sexual behavior outside of canon is being defined here as "slash", which suits me well enough When you're talking about source material produced in serial form, what is "outside of canon" can change from week to week. Categories need to be somewhat static, and so we have to choose the element that doesn't change (much), which is gender. A male character is most likely going to stay a male (unless we're talking genderbender) whereas who he's going to be paired off with may change from episode to episode, from Book 1 to Book 7.
When you're dealing with something as massive as fandom, you can't rely on "canonical nooky" to describe Pairing A/B -- instead you say Pairing A/B is "slash" or "het" whether or not it's canon (because it could become canon next year, or it was canon but was ret-conned, or there's controversy whether it's canon or not, etc).
There are definitely a lot of flaws in our system, but for the most part it works and is sufficient for our needs. And as veejane says in this comment (http://truepenny.livejournal.com/481287.html?thread=3451399&format=light#t3451399), it would take a LOT to overhaul the system.
One way this happens, of course, is "bad writing". Does it happen deliberately and successfully often enough to need its own label? This label already exists, believe it or not! It's called badfic. There's unintentional badfic, which can be cringe-inducing or a guilty pleasure, and intentional badfic, which when done well can be fantastic.
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momijizukamori
Re: Ignore my previous comments!
Date: 2006-12-19 07:13 pm (UTC)Heh. Yeah, we can go overboard labelling our fic, it's true. We like our categories, subcategories, genres, subgenres, pairing labels, warnings, etc. But I appreciate that the library keeps the teen angst on one bookshelf and murder mysteries on another, so I don't have to wade through one to get to the other.
Sexual behavior outside of canon is being defined here as "slash", which suits me well enough
When you're talking about source material produced in serial form, what is "outside of canon" can change from week to week. Categories need to be somewhat static, and so we have to choose the element that doesn't change (much), which is gender. A male character is most likely going to stay a male (unless we're talking genderbender) whereas who he's going to be paired off with may change from episode to episode, from Book 1 to Book 7.
When you're dealing with something as massive as fandom, you can't rely on "canonical nooky" to describe Pairing A/B -- instead you say Pairing A/B is "slash" or "het" whether or not it's canon (because it could become canon next year, or it was canon but was ret-conned, or there's controversy whether it's canon or not, etc).
There are definitely a lot of flaws in our system, but for the most part it works and is sufficient for our needs. And as
One way this happens, of course, is "bad writing". Does it happen deliberately and successfully often enough to need its own label?
This label already exists, believe it or not! It's called badfic. There's unintentional badfic, which can be cringe-inducing or a guilty pleasure, and intentional badfic, which when done well can be fantastic.