Pros Slash Proliferation Challenge - Day Five
Sunday, 1 April 2007 09:43 amSo my zines and my stack o' fic are all packed up, except for what's in my luggage, and when I was rummaging for something to read last night I picked up Professional Dreamer. As usual it made me laugh out loud, wonder why in the world I could like a fic that's not really about Bodie and Doyle, and then fall in love with them just that little bit more all over again.
So what is it (about some) AUs? People seem to either love them or hate them, although it often depends on the AU and the writer of course. I thought I wouldn't like them, but then I read a couple, and realised that I was still reading about the same something that I love about "ordinary" Pros slashfic, that it was still them. Done well, there's the same magic of the characters, their reactions to things, their aliveness and their amazing relationship with each other...
SPOILER FOR PROFESSIONAL DREAMER (Skip this bit if you've not read it yet!)
Take Professional Dreamer - even though Andrews knows that Doyle is a character he made up, we still get this:
He got a wet cloth from the bath and put it over the young man's forehead, trying to decide what to do. He should call an ambulance, he supposed, although he had no idea what he would tell them. That a madman burst into his flat claiming to be a character from a novel, took a shower and then passed out on his carpet?
The idea of this being a practical joke had evaporated with the faint. That wasn't acting, and neither were the bruises. Whatever was happening here was serious.
So it was back to the nutter theory. But looking down at the defenseless face, he found it strangely difficult to call for someone to cart him away to the funny farm. Perhaps it was no more than ego, but it was oddly flattering that someone would choose one of his characters to adopt in his madness. And Philip couldn't quite dismiss that first rush of adrenaline he had felt when he recognized this as his Ray Doyle.
Poor, mad boy that he was, he was still so amazingly close to everything Philip had envisioned as Doyle. Even more curious, all the things he hadn't even thought of were here now, fleshed out and total. He hadn't invented the chipped tooth in front or the uneven cheekbone, but now that he saw them, it was Ray. His Ray. And the mental picture he had unconsciously cherished for years was suddenly solid and wonderfully real. Even if Philip called for the ambulance and they took him away in a half hour, this would now and forever be his image of Ray Doyle. (Professional Dreamer by Pamela Rose)
There's something there - "his Ray", and it permeates the whole story, and it's wonderful. Is it the idea that Andrews (Bodie, of course!) has had a vision of Doyle in his head the whole time, that we know he's in love with even if he doesn't, just like in Pros? That we're in on the inside joke? It wouldn't be half as wonderful a story about two other characters (although I know it's based on a movie which I've never seen, so perhaps I shouldn't say that!) But it fits so well with our lads...
Larton is another one for me, though I shouldn't like it. An Aga Saga with Bodie mad about horses, and Ray wandering around with a cat over one shoulder? How the hell could that work? But somehow, for me, it does.
( More AU moments )
So what is it (about some) AUs? People seem to either love them or hate them, although it often depends on the AU and the writer of course. I thought I wouldn't like them, but then I read a couple, and realised that I was still reading about the same something that I love about "ordinary" Pros slashfic, that it was still them. Done well, there's the same magic of the characters, their reactions to things, their aliveness and their amazing relationship with each other...
SPOILER FOR PROFESSIONAL DREAMER (Skip this bit if you've not read it yet!)
Take Professional Dreamer - even though Andrews knows that Doyle is a character he made up, we still get this:
He got a wet cloth from the bath and put it over the young man's forehead, trying to decide what to do. He should call an ambulance, he supposed, although he had no idea what he would tell them. That a madman burst into his flat claiming to be a character from a novel, took a shower and then passed out on his carpet?
The idea of this being a practical joke had evaporated with the faint. That wasn't acting, and neither were the bruises. Whatever was happening here was serious.
So it was back to the nutter theory. But looking down at the defenseless face, he found it strangely difficult to call for someone to cart him away to the funny farm. Perhaps it was no more than ego, but it was oddly flattering that someone would choose one of his characters to adopt in his madness. And Philip couldn't quite dismiss that first rush of adrenaline he had felt when he recognized this as his Ray Doyle.
Poor, mad boy that he was, he was still so amazingly close to everything Philip had envisioned as Doyle. Even more curious, all the things he hadn't even thought of were here now, fleshed out and total. He hadn't invented the chipped tooth in front or the uneven cheekbone, but now that he saw them, it was Ray. His Ray. And the mental picture he had unconsciously cherished for years was suddenly solid and wonderfully real. Even if Philip called for the ambulance and they took him away in a half hour, this would now and forever be his image of Ray Doyle. (Professional Dreamer by Pamela Rose)
There's something there - "his Ray", and it permeates the whole story, and it's wonderful. Is it the idea that Andrews (Bodie, of course!) has had a vision of Doyle in his head the whole time, that we know he's in love with even if he doesn't, just like in Pros? That we're in on the inside joke? It wouldn't be half as wonderful a story about two other characters (although I know it's based on a movie which I've never seen, so perhaps I shouldn't say that!) But it fits so well with our lads...
Larton is another one for me, though I shouldn't like it. An Aga Saga with Bodie mad about horses, and Ray wandering around with a cat over one shoulder? How the hell could that work? But somehow, for me, it does.
( More AU moments )
