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Apr. 9th, 2006 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icarusPet peeve time!
I confess, kids in fanfiction bug me.
It's not that I don't like kids. We get along just fine, kids and I. It's just that there's a certain -- certain... people write the kids like they're extensions of their parents.
They look like their fanfiction parents.
They act like their fanfiction parents.
They have similar talents as their fanfiction parents.
They aren't treated as if they are OCs, when really, they ought to be.
Why are they written this way?
Folks, the human method of procreation is designed to mix and match our DNA in such a way that we have a random slice of our parents' genetic code. In addition, that randomization expresses different dominant and recessive traits. Additionally, while I do not believe in Tabula Rasa (no insult to the fine fanfiction writer of that name) I do believe that our experiences do have an impact. There is no way that the fanfic kid's experiences are the same as their parents, so their personalities are going to be radically different.
Why the hell do people go ga-ga over fanfic kids who look or act like their fanfic parents? I'm not into the ga-ga over kids thing anyway, kids are just people as far as I'm concerned, but there's something troubling in the fact that writers forget this fact.
I actually brought my MPreg Reunion to a screeching halt over this issue. Someone sent me a photomanip of what the baby (which I never promised would ever exist) would look like, combining traits from Ron and Draco. Augh!
An entire chapter of that story was devoted to creating kids that were real people and not just one-dimensional extensions of the fanfic parents. Ron's four kids were not cute. Not a single one was like Ron. His youngest little girl was pampered and hurting and a little angry over his divorce, demanding his attention when he was trying to talk to Harry. Ron couldn't control his two oldest -- he was too mellow a parent -- and the third middle child was bright, quiet, and simmering with resentment. They had little lives of their own, and they were pretty miserable.
When Draco's daughter turned up, you were going to find a rigidly correct little stick, wan and smothered by the expectations of her Dad. She didn't have Draco's feisty rebellious spirit so the same parenting that led to Draco's constantly forgetting his father's advice and battling Harry turned her into a virtual paper doll.
But I couldn't battle the kid-lovers. They wanted Ron and Draco's kid to be just like them, ignored the real kids, and panted after the baaaaaby.
Sometimes I strongly suspect that people love babies because they can project their own image of who that person is onto them. Which is precisely why I like young kids over babies: when they're that tiny it's hard to tell who they are.
I confess, kids in fanfiction bug me.
It's not that I don't like kids. We get along just fine, kids and I. It's just that there's a certain -- certain... people write the kids like they're extensions of their parents.
They look like their fanfiction parents.
They act like their fanfiction parents.
They have similar talents as their fanfiction parents.
They aren't treated as if they are OCs, when really, they ought to be.
Why are they written this way?
Folks, the human method of procreation is designed to mix and match our DNA in such a way that we have a random slice of our parents' genetic code. In addition, that randomization expresses different dominant and recessive traits. Additionally, while I do not believe in Tabula Rasa (no insult to the fine fanfiction writer of that name) I do believe that our experiences do have an impact. There is no way that the fanfic kid's experiences are the same as their parents, so their personalities are going to be radically different.
Why the hell do people go ga-ga over fanfic kids who look or act like their fanfic parents? I'm not into the ga-ga over kids thing anyway, kids are just people as far as I'm concerned, but there's something troubling in the fact that writers forget this fact.
I actually brought my MPreg Reunion to a screeching halt over this issue. Someone sent me a photomanip of what the baby (which I never promised would ever exist) would look like, combining traits from Ron and Draco. Augh!
An entire chapter of that story was devoted to creating kids that were real people and not just one-dimensional extensions of the fanfic parents. Ron's four kids were not cute. Not a single one was like Ron. His youngest little girl was pampered and hurting and a little angry over his divorce, demanding his attention when he was trying to talk to Harry. Ron couldn't control his two oldest -- he was too mellow a parent -- and the third middle child was bright, quiet, and simmering with resentment. They had little lives of their own, and they were pretty miserable.
When Draco's daughter turned up, you were going to find a rigidly correct little stick, wan and smothered by the expectations of her Dad. She didn't have Draco's feisty rebellious spirit so the same parenting that led to Draco's constantly forgetting his father's advice and battling Harry turned her into a virtual paper doll.
But I couldn't battle the kid-lovers. They wanted Ron and Draco's kid to be just like them, ignored the real kids, and panted after the baaaaaby.
Sometimes I strongly suspect that people love babies because they can project their own image of who that person is onto them. Which is precisely why I like young kids over babies: when they're that tiny it's hard to tell who they are.
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Date: 2006-04-09 10:09 pm (UTC)oh yeah, just look at the Barrymores or Baldwins. Your environment has an awful lot to do with where your interests lie and how your talents will express themselves.
I love, love, love Shallot's Hypatia (daughter of John and Rodney in "A Beautiful Lifetime Event"). OTOH, I don't particularly like mpreg. Shallot's worked because of the technology, and I was already familiar with the concept of uterine replicators. And it was more about them discovering their relationship, and less about the baby.
My own daughter entered the world with an opinion. She expressed it early and often, with much encouragement from me, and 16 yrs later, is still doing so. The first morning she was on this planet, my DH was entering the room for the first time that day. She was lying on my chest, head turned away from the door. He knocked, started entering and said, "how're my girls?" She did a *push-up* and turned her head toward him before lowering herself back down. WE were dumbstruck. This is not normal for a baby less than 24 hrs old. Our pediatrician thought we imagined it.
She also is very musical, sensitive, dependent like dad, and tends to be the responsible caregiver with the sex-positive outlook, like mom. She's a girly-girl, loves pink, and doesn't mind camping. I'm a tomboy, hate pink, and think dressing up is fun once in awhile. She's got a touch of my SAD, but nowhere near as much as her brother, and in her baby pictures, she looks like me. Nowadays, she looks more like Julia Roberts.
Babies are people. They act and seem more like regular people when their parents encourage them to be themselves. If they don't get that encouragement, it takes a lot longer for their selves to shine through. So in fanfic, a kid who is really a Mary Sue, or really a parental clone will never ring true. Icarus, don't let a subset of under-experienced readers dictate what you write. Tell your stories. I've seen enough of your stuff to know that you have good stories, and will always have an appreciative audience. (and I haven't even read the one you are referencing, ::G::)
I know you don't know me, I only friended you to keep up with "Out of Bounds," expecting to unfriend when you finished, but I've been enjoying your posts so much, I may stick around.
~goldy
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Date: 2006-04-10 01:37 am (UTC)MPreg gets weird because a lot of it focuses on the mechanics of a man getting pregnant and often feminizes him to a bizarre degree.
And it was more about them discovering their relationship, and less about the baby.
Exactly! In a way she wrote something similar to what I was aiming at in Reunion, though her story was about bringing John and Rodney together, while Reunion is about messy relationships -- Ron and Draco's complicated relationship (split up, then coming back together ten years later), their divorces, and the mix of kids they already have and class differences and... oh, it's a mess. The MPreg is supposed to be another wrench in the works, but Shalott and were on the same track in the focus on the relationship between the two men.
Icarus, don't let a subset of under-experienced readers dictate what you write. Tell your stories. I've seen enough of your stuff to know that you have good stories, and will always have an appreciative audience. (and I haven't even read the one you are referencing, ::G::)
That's really nice of you. I got frustrated with the MPreg readers and back-burned the story, though the main reason it remains unfinished is, well, distraction. After all, I started writing Percy, and then Stargate SG-1, and then....
Icarus