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icarusI was brewing a post (and lost it) about how the mono-focus on Don't Ask, Don't Tell in SG-1 fanfic obscures the reasons why the heck Jack and Daniel would ever hop into bed. All other emotional undercurrents are abandoned in favor of solving a logistical problem:
"Aliens Made Us Do It"
"Stranded On An Alien World"
"Jack and Daniel Sneak Around"
"Jack Angsting Over Being Attracted To Daniel"
"[fill in name here] Reacts To Finding Out About Jack/Daniel"
Etc.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell becomes this telephone pole that all fics get wrapped around. It creates the cliches.
It is a problem. You can't avoid it. But if a story is built around mere logistics, the result is superficial.
That's not to say there aren't a lot of damned good stories with exactly these themes. But the limits we're finding are the result of letting the policy determine - and doom - the plot.
Having lived in just such an ultra-structured and highly proscribed society, I can tell you that this kind of injunction isn't what drives people.
Don't view the Don't Ask, Don't Tell as a rule imposed by an outside force. What makes that rule so powerful? It's Jack's own committment to the military and what the military means to him that drives it. The good reasons he feels are behind that policy make it a force in his life. His reasoning will be different from the military's, because he will have owned that policy.
Jack's feelings about Don't Ask, Don't Tell will be in line with his feelings about the military as a whole. Thus, he's far more likely to go for it when things are ugly and corrupt than when he's on a hero upswing.
Then there's Daniel. Why is there an assumption that just being attracted to Jack is enough for him? Daniel is one hell of a complicated man, driven as much by his ethical beliefs as by his gonads. Why would he risk a friendship he obviously values for something potentially short-term? More than that -- would he believe that it's the right thing to do? For Jack? If cares about what's right for some obscure alien world, wouldn't he care even more if it's his friend's welfare at stake?
Here's a story (not the only example) that avoids the trap of being driven by the logistical concerns, and you can feel the power of it. What a difference that makes.
One Bare Hour by Dorothy Marley
It's NC-17, and she idealizes first time sex more than I would (though I've had first time encounters like that, this could only happen like this if Jack had done this before). But, assuming that, there's an emotional undercurrent driving this story that's a lot deeper than most SG-1 fanfic. I'd like to see more of that.
The key to avoiding the cliches is to dig deeper into the characters' motives. And to not let the logistics of Don't Ask, Don't Tell write your story.
There was something Peter DeLuise said about the Beneath The Surface episode, that the flaw in writing a story about characters losing their memory, is that the logistics of remembering forces the story into a predictable pattern.
He's right. The same goes for the Don't Ask, Don't Tell issue.
"Aliens Made Us Do It"
"Stranded On An Alien World"
"Jack and Daniel Sneak Around"
"Jack Angsting Over Being Attracted To Daniel"
"[fill in name here] Reacts To Finding Out About Jack/Daniel"
Etc.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell becomes this telephone pole that all fics get wrapped around. It creates the cliches.
It is a problem. You can't avoid it. But if a story is built around mere logistics, the result is superficial.
That's not to say there aren't a lot of damned good stories with exactly these themes. But the limits we're finding are the result of letting the policy determine - and doom - the plot.
Having lived in just such an ultra-structured and highly proscribed society, I can tell you that this kind of injunction isn't what drives people.
Don't view the Don't Ask, Don't Tell as a rule imposed by an outside force. What makes that rule so powerful? It's Jack's own committment to the military and what the military means to him that drives it. The good reasons he feels are behind that policy make it a force in his life. His reasoning will be different from the military's, because he will have owned that policy.
Jack's feelings about Don't Ask, Don't Tell will be in line with his feelings about the military as a whole. Thus, he's far more likely to go for it when things are ugly and corrupt than when he's on a hero upswing.
Then there's Daniel. Why is there an assumption that just being attracted to Jack is enough for him? Daniel is one hell of a complicated man, driven as much by his ethical beliefs as by his gonads. Why would he risk a friendship he obviously values for something potentially short-term? More than that -- would he believe that it's the right thing to do? For Jack? If cares about what's right for some obscure alien world, wouldn't he care even more if it's his friend's welfare at stake?
Here's a story (not the only example) that avoids the trap of being driven by the logistical concerns, and you can feel the power of it. What a difference that makes.
One Bare Hour by Dorothy Marley
It's NC-17, and she idealizes first time sex more than I would (though I've had first time encounters like that, this could only happen like this if Jack had done this before). But, assuming that, there's an emotional undercurrent driving this story that's a lot deeper than most SG-1 fanfic. I'd like to see more of that.
The key to avoiding the cliches is to dig deeper into the characters' motives. And to not let the logistics of Don't Ask, Don't Tell write your story.
There was something Peter DeLuise said about the Beneath The Surface episode, that the flaw in writing a story about characters losing their memory, is that the logistics of remembering forces the story into a predictable pattern.
He's right. The same goes for the Don't Ask, Don't Tell issue.
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 10:28 pm (UTC)I think I missed this memo. ::sighs::
no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 11:08 pm (UTC)The trick is to zero in on the characters rather than trying to write a plot that works around the issue.
In a way, this might make the issue bigger, it might it more central. But it won't control the story. I think. Because characters are unpredictable, the way they respond to any situation is totally unique.
So maybe we don't need to orchestrate a plot that upends Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Maybe the characters will do it on their own, for their own reasons. We just have to find out what those reasons are.
Icarus
no subject
Date: 2004-12-23 07:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-23 05:17 pm (UTC)Icarus
no subject
Date: 2004-12-23 08:27 am (UTC)Mosh
no subject
Date: 2004-12-23 02:00 pm (UTC)The little window's shut - I have company coming over this afternoon - but check with
Icarus
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Date: 2004-12-23 02:04 pm (UTC)Send it over in the next few minutes and I'll give you a one-paragraph once-over.
Let me see... my beta for my LotR stuff was
Icarus
no subject
Date: 2004-12-23 03:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-23 03:40 pm (UTC)Icarus
no subject
Date: 2004-12-23 04:48 pm (UTC)Icarus