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You know what?
I'm gonna come clean: I Am A 'Shipper. ::covers eyes:: I am a pairing 'ho. True, I have a LOT of pairings that I love, but I read fanfic often solely because of the pairings.
This sometimes ashames me, because shouldn't I have outgrown this by now? 'shipping smacks of fangirling, and yet.
And. yet.
What is a 'world' but the space spun between two people? What is a universe but that spun out between several characters?
A world, a fannish universe, is a living backdrop, but inevitably the force of change through the world comes from the characters. By definition, I should say, the forces of change come from the characters; be they animal, human, divine, inanimate, or anthropormorphic.
(This is *me* we're talking about here, objects count as characters too ::winks::)
And thus, if a world, a universe, this setting for whatever story I'm interested in be hinged on the characters, is it entirely degrading or inherently wrong that I'm finding the stories I'm most interested in through the pairings?
I don't quite know myself.
I think, at the heart of the issue, is that this method of finding stories isn't 100% accurate 100% of the time, and that I'm probably missing many stories because of this method of filtering.
But, considering I have a limited amount of time to read fanfic, do I really want to chance how 95% of the stories with pairings I'm uninterested in I won't like, whereas there's maybe only a 10% chance of not liking a fic with a pairing I love? Should I really waste that much time slogging through fic that I *might* like 5% of the time, or instead just read the fic that I'd have a 90% chance of liking, even though I'd be giggling through a lot of bad writing while I'm at it?
I'm a pairing 'ho; and perhaps there a method to this madness...I'm *still* kinda ashamed of this as I think it tho, and trying to justify it to myself.
Then again, could it be compared to how if I don't like Cubism, then the best Picasso will never move me? Not sure.
Not sure.
Perhaps it also has to do with how, I think, it's viscerally hard for me to accept True Death in the fandoms that affect me most? I mean True Death in the sort of death that affects the underpinnings of what the fandom means to me, and this almost never means death literally. In this way, fandoms like Due South and HP have no True Death for me, there's no real way to cripple it in my eyes. But PotC has the freedom issue, or rather the *permanent* loss thereof (again, literal death does not count). OUaTiM's is the concept of leaving Mexico and it's warmth and color, to live stumbling amoung cubicles and faceless laughter. Trigun's the idea that Vash will ever completely give up, that he will not rise with the sun. Smallville's the idea that the Two will get sucked into this whirlpool of pain and misery *and* never grow into the brilliant, mythic legend that they *need* to be. And so on, where True Death means less the death of the characters themselves but rather the foundations and underpinnings of the worlds themselves.
What comes first, the chicken or the egg; the people or the worlds made of love and hate and joy and pain and color and background and noise spun out between them?
I don't quite know.
I'm gonna come clean: I Am A 'Shipper. ::covers eyes:: I am a pairing 'ho. True, I have a LOT of pairings that I love, but I read fanfic often solely because of the pairings.
This sometimes ashames me, because shouldn't I have outgrown this by now? 'shipping smacks of fangirling, and yet.
And. yet.
What is a 'world' but the space spun between two people? What is a universe but that spun out between several characters?
A world, a fannish universe, is a living backdrop, but inevitably the force of change through the world comes from the characters. By definition, I should say, the forces of change come from the characters; be they animal, human, divine, inanimate, or anthropormorphic.
(This is *me* we're talking about here, objects count as characters too ::winks::)
And thus, if a world, a universe, this setting for whatever story I'm interested in be hinged on the characters, is it entirely degrading or inherently wrong that I'm finding the stories I'm most interested in through the pairings?
I don't quite know myself.
I think, at the heart of the issue, is that this method of finding stories isn't 100% accurate 100% of the time, and that I'm probably missing many stories because of this method of filtering.
But, considering I have a limited amount of time to read fanfic, do I really want to chance how 95% of the stories with pairings I'm uninterested in I won't like, whereas there's maybe only a 10% chance of not liking a fic with a pairing I love? Should I really waste that much time slogging through fic that I *might* like 5% of the time, or instead just read the fic that I'd have a 90% chance of liking, even though I'd be giggling through a lot of bad writing while I'm at it?
I'm a pairing 'ho; and perhaps there a method to this madness...I'm *still* kinda ashamed of this as I think it tho, and trying to justify it to myself.
Then again, could it be compared to how if I don't like Cubism, then the best Picasso will never move me? Not sure.
Not sure.
Perhaps it also has to do with how, I think, it's viscerally hard for me to accept True Death in the fandoms that affect me most? I mean True Death in the sort of death that affects the underpinnings of what the fandom means to me, and this almost never means death literally. In this way, fandoms like Due South and HP have no True Death for me, there's no real way to cripple it in my eyes. But PotC has the freedom issue, or rather the *permanent* loss thereof (again, literal death does not count). OUaTiM's is the concept of leaving Mexico and it's warmth and color, to live stumbling amoung cubicles and faceless laughter. Trigun's the idea that Vash will ever completely give up, that he will not rise with the sun. Smallville's the idea that the Two will get sucked into this whirlpool of pain and misery *and* never grow into the brilliant, mythic legend that they *need* to be. And so on, where True Death means less the death of the characters themselves but rather the foundations and underpinnings of the worlds themselves.
What comes first, the chicken or the egg; the people or the worlds made of love and hate and joy and pain and color and background and noise spun out between them?
I don't quite know.
no subject
Hmmm. I can see what you're saying -- you fear, in some sense, missing some possibly wonderful experience because you choose to limit yourself. For me I think this may boil down to personal goals? If your goal is to keep yourself open to every possible experience for fear of missing something wonderful (at the risk of personal harm, in a reading sort of way), then reading everything possible is one way to do that, and it's up to the individual to balance the possible gain against the possible loss. However, I think it's possible to remain open to new possibilities without feeling the need to try everything that comes down the pike. I guess it's not an either/or sort of thing, for me. I quite happily limit in some areas, not in others -- as I suspect you do, too. And ultimately, I think holding oneself open, and vulnerable, to possibility, is a very different thing than indiscriminately holding oneself open to everything on the off chance that the next thing might be the Next Great Thing -- if that makes sense. ie, having an open mind isn't having no mind at all (which I'm not suggesting is what you're saying). So, I guess I understand that fear, but the undertones I'm getting (which may very well be reflections of my own buttons) are more like "I should be trying everything, for fear I might miss something." It's one thing to meet all the different possible soulmates, talk with them, look them over and see if anything intrigues you to get to know them further; it's another to jump in the sack with each one that comes along on the off chance that this one might be The One.
There's also what laizeohbeets' pointed out in that sometimes it seems almost unfair or elistist if you heavily 'ship. For me, 'shipping always brings to mind fangirls who scream "OTP" and shut down all other pairings. And then again you have the prejudice thing going...and I'm prejudiced against prejudice. ;)\
What I saw her say is that she's never thought someone was unfair or elitist for not liking a particular ship. She said basically what I was trying to say: I read what I like, because that's what I like, and something someone else likes may be wonderful, but if it's not what I like, or what I want, it's not going to be what I want to read, and I don't see how that's wrong, or unfair, or whatever, because I can't wrap my head around this implied obligation to keep myself so open that having preferences or tastes and using them discerningly to provide for my own entertainment and edification is somehow wrong.
I don't think it's elitist to have preferences, or to express them. It's perhaps in poor taste to then continue with "and if you disagree with me, or have a different opinion, you're below me." That's elitist, and it happens. But simply having the preferences and acting on them? That's just self-knowledge, to me.