yaoi = my anti-drug ♥.

[dreamwitch]

Another day, another rape scene between two people who're in love in a yaoi manga. Oddly enough (or not) it doesn't bother me; it would bother me in a fanfic, and probably (no, definitely) in a regular story, but yaoi has its own rules.

That said, I don't think the concept of 'yaoi-land', where things happen by 'yaoi-land' rules, is a very good explanation. While yaoi is certainly stylized, I don't think stylization alone explains the way you either do or don't play by its 'rules'. I mean, you'll notice that there are some fangirls who never get used to it-- who'll always comment about how unrealistic the 'rape with no consequences' (or other) scenarios are, and how it offends them and how they're just not into it and/or cannot forgive it, etc. The majority of fangirls seem to accept the characters going over the top (the semes into sadism and/or willful negligence, though sekritly they really care, and the ukes into extreme submission and/or a state of victimization, though sekritly they like it) as 'wacky yaoi hijinks'. Me, on the other hand... well.


It strikes me that I really go on and on about lack of realism in (non-crack) fanfic at times, characterization-wise, but I accept 'all that and a golden goose' in yaoi, so I wonder why. It seems like my tolerance trajectory follows the opposite path from my fanfic days-- with fanfic (in any fandom), I start off devouring everything, and through a process of elimination, ended up enjoying virtually nothing by the time my image of the characters really solidified. With yaoi manga, on the other hand, I started off carefully enough, and right now I can't even recall the time when I had standards (but I assume there was such a time), though if I actively 'turn it on', I still think critically about what I read & have definite preferences for mangakas and mangas based on subtlety, realism, art, and so on.

In theory, I enjoy the silly cracky over-the-top romantic stuff-- the stuff of both yaoi and fanon!-- but in practice, I cannot 'let go' and enjoy really stupid stuff if it's about characters I already know. I mean, I'm perfectly ok if a character in yaoi has golden skin and purple eyes, but if Draco suddenly gets magical Veela purple eyes and golden skin, especially in a 'canon-based' fic, you better believe I'll be pissed. Alternatively, reading an original YA fantasy novel where the protagonist has red hair and purple eyes just makes me hope they can justify it without making me ill. :>

I guess my desire for realism really is all about context; in some ways, I even feel strongly that people over-apply real-world standards to fantasy stories of one sort or another (world-building fantasy, romantic fantasy, sexual fantasy), though my general preference is for gritty, believable fantasy where you can taste the blood and sweat. Even so, I'd get overwhelmed and depressed if that's all I read. In general, I want believable characterization when you take these particular characters into account; in original yaoi manga, you can make them as over-the-top as you want 'cause you're not using someone else's basis and inviting comparison. In slash fanfic, the characters you have to make internally consistent have to be consistent with the canon as well as the fic itself. That's a big difference.

Like, even in yaoi, I'll dislike a manga if it's not internally consistent; that's really the trick-- I don't care if it leaves out 'real-world' consequences, but it better have believable consequences within its own little universe, no matter how mild or cracked out they may be. In original fantasy stories and slash fanfic, I don't need 'real-world consequences' either, and in fact may also find them jarring (depending on execution), but internal consistency is non-negotiable. If I feel that 'real-world consistency' and internal consistency (with both the story and any given canon) are not equally represented, then I'll value internal consistency over the real-world type every time. Bottom line, if you want real-world consistency, the best bet is to write your own story from start to finish, rather than 'rewriting' anything, even in your mind; the biggest reason is that if you mess with the original version too much, it IS your own original fic, for all my intents and purposes, at least.

And, personally, I support rebellion through creativity, but like, uh... 'full' rebellion or 'full' creativity? I'm not sure how to put it. I think I view fanfic type endeavors as largely playing in some else's sandbox; not quite shared-universe style writing the way comics are, but close. If I wanted a full-scale commentary on someone's world or characterization or ideas, I'd write my own fic. Well, that's just me. And mind you, when I said 'full-scale'... this a grey area, of course; not like you need to follow 'authorial intent' to play in someone else's sandbox, but at some point the rubber-band snaps. In other words, there's definitely flexibility but at the same time it's a limited flexibility. Any given character or world can only take so much messing with before it loses elasticity and breaks down; that's why people like Naomi Novik write 'Master and Commander' slash where one of them is a dragon as an original novel, I guess. :)) In some ways, if you take a truly 'fantasy-land' yaoi manga and try to make one of the characters into a real-world American gay man, you may as well turn him into a dragon, hahahahalfkjslkfjaslkfjaslkfj I feel I ought to mention that of course I realize that the 'limit' of elasticity and/or believability is different for each reader, generally; no duh. Otherwise, I guess no one would like some of the stuff that gets adoring fangirls in H/D fandom hahahfalksfjalkj BUT I'M ONLY TALKING ABOUT MYSELF :))

All the people complaining about lack of followthrough are also ignoring the fact that the manga may indeed have it, just not the followthrough they would define as 'realistic'. They're projecting their idea and/or experience of what 'always' happens onto these characters, and likely as not, if they just stuck on that 'superior' behavior pattern onto the story, it'd look misshapen and wrong. It seems to me that asking 'what would two theoretical people who vaguely resemble these characters do if they lived in the 'real world' and in America', because that's probably what most of the (self-proclaimed) bitter fangirls are thinking. I mean, if they were those two theoretical people, they wouldn't be the characters. My insistence on 'characters first!!', which often translates into realism for H/D fanfic, seems to translate into adherence to 'the rules' as expressed by that particular yaoi manga; if I like a story, I like it to be as much 'itself' as possible, and some vague simulacrums of the characters doing something else in some reader's simulacrum of reality does nothing for me.

That said, speaking of me personally, I prefer yaoi mangas without fluffy non-con, because as I said, I prefer more gritty mangas (unless we're talking really hot non-con, but generally this involves it not really being non-con and just the uke crying 'no! stop! wait! ah! ah!' which they ALWAYS do, pretty much). Besides that, I really am also desensitized. In any case, I'm not particularly invested in the fluffy non-con aspect of things; it's more I'm curious why I'm dismissive of the 'omg I'm sick of fluffy non-con in yaoi!!' people whereas I'm one of those type of critical readers in slash fandom. Certainly, I'm not against critical readings by any stretch; it's just that it seems especially pointless in yaoi, maybe...? If anything, I feel people overstate the degree of prevalence of the non-realism in yaoi manga; if you wanted to avoid that sort of thing entirely, with some careful reading practices, you can. I wouldn't go around complaining about H/D fic (...much) if it was that easy to read something to my taste, or indeed if there was much of anything to my taste to start with, hahahfalksjflaksjfalsk.

Also, it's one thing to critique a halfway serious story in a serious manner, and another thing to do so with an obviously fluffy/romantic fantasy type story in the same way. It'd be like reading a Veela fic and being like, 'omg I HATE VEELAS, THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL EITHER HARRY OR DRACO IS A VEELA!! GAR! D: D:' :)) There's this element of '...yes, obviously' to the whole thing, so it's just stupid. However, critiquing the conceits in a story that has more of a pretense to it, that's like one's civic duty as a citizen of fandom, hahalfsakjflsak. Or not. >____>;

Comments still disabled because I must do.....stuff. A lot of stuff. D: D: lakfjalskjf