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When culture seeps into your fanfic unbidden....
Just got totally thrown from an SGA fic. I think the writer was Chinese, or maybe Japanese. I quite liked the character voices, and the premise sounded fun, but I've grown picky as I've gotten on in fandom years: little things bug me.
You know how it is. When you're new to a fandom, you'll READ IT ALL. So long as it has a trace of what you're looking for, you can suspend disbelief on just about anything. But as you continue in fandom, your tastes refine, you have certain interpretations you prefer, you're no longer so hungry for your favorite pairing that you're willing to overlook minor plot holes, and "darn it, John could never pull off that climbing maneuver because he wears a wrist band! How could the writer forget about the wrist band?!!!!"
Yeah. A shade picky.
The issue in the story I tried was very small, but crucial to the plot: characters went through performance reviews and got demoted.
Yes, but-but--in American companies, people tend to be fired rather than demoted. Businesses fear an employee they demote: angry employees stir up resentment, hack databases, and send company secrets to Wikileaks. US corporations are so paranoid about employee ire that they'll turn off employee access codes, key cards, and passwords before they're let go, and abruptly lead employees to the door within an hour of their being fired. In the rare case someone really is demoted, it's dressed up as a promotion (often with more money in exchange for less power). This is called failing upward.
Well, okay, I was willing to hold my nose at the incorrect cultural assumptions. I've certainly done the same in my HP fics. Moving right along, let's enjoy the story....
Then came the reason for the demotion: the IOA explained they preferred employees who were in stable relationships. It was the basis for the entire plot.
Huh. I.. that's just ... I couldn't imagine it happening here.
I tried to steer around this obstacle to a promising story. Okay, SGA is a fandom for paper thin excuses to get John and Rodney together. I love ridiculous excuses to get them together. Quantum mirrors? Sure! Off world bars--are there any fics with off world bars?--sex pollen, AMTDI, Dr Z playing yenta? Yay! An AU where Rodney's a railroad engineer and John's a bandit? I heartily approve of them all.
But no dice. I couldn't buy this one.
You see, it's a very Asian (sounds Japanese perhaps?) concept, for employers to care about the stability of employees' personal lives. Now in reality, American employers do care, but legally they're not allowed to. So it's subtle on this side of the pond. You'd never be told you were hired or fired or promoted (demoted is generally Not Done) based on anything but your job qualifications: that's just begging for a lawsuit. But if you're not at the company picnic with your wife, don't join the company softball team, don't go to the athletic club or the golf course or the happy hour everyone else attends, you find you're an outsider pretty quick. And when promotions and firings are going on, the one who's a "buddy," who's on the inside, is the one that succeeds.
Hey, I know. I could pretend that (unwritten, in the background of this story) the IOA has been taken over by China, which has been fighting to get more influence over the Stargate program for yeeeeeaaaaars (which we know from SG-1 canon). All I have to do is imagine the spluttering confusion and indignation among the Americans about "demotions" and the aspersions on their personal lives, and then...
... Rodney would become a ticking time bomb and lead the scientists' revenge against the IOA. Which still undermines the premise of the story. Which I would totally read.
Darn. I tried. This fandom old age pickiness, tsk.
Any recs? I'm really in the mood to visit SGA. I even wrote a John/Rodney kiss drabble, posted somewhere around here.... McShep post-Valentine's Treat (named by Gaffsie, and it works).
ETA: Friends-who-know peg this as totally Japanese.
You know how it is. When you're new to a fandom, you'll READ IT ALL. So long as it has a trace of what you're looking for, you can suspend disbelief on just about anything. But as you continue in fandom, your tastes refine, you have certain interpretations you prefer, you're no longer so hungry for your favorite pairing that you're willing to overlook minor plot holes, and "darn it, John could never pull off that climbing maneuver because he wears a wrist band! How could the writer forget about the wrist band?!!!!"
Yeah. A shade picky.
The issue in the story I tried was very small, but crucial to the plot: characters went through performance reviews and got demoted.
Yes, but-but--in American companies, people tend to be fired rather than demoted. Businesses fear an employee they demote: angry employees stir up resentment, hack databases, and send company secrets to Wikileaks. US corporations are so paranoid about employee ire that they'll turn off employee access codes, key cards, and passwords before they're let go, and abruptly lead employees to the door within an hour of their being fired. In the rare case someone really is demoted, it's dressed up as a promotion (often with more money in exchange for less power). This is called failing upward.
Well, okay, I was willing to hold my nose at the incorrect cultural assumptions. I've certainly done the same in my HP fics. Moving right along, let's enjoy the story....
Then came the reason for the demotion: the IOA explained they preferred employees who were in stable relationships. It was the basis for the entire plot.
Huh. I.. that's just ... I couldn't imagine it happening here.
I tried to steer around this obstacle to a promising story. Okay, SGA is a fandom for paper thin excuses to get John and Rodney together. I love ridiculous excuses to get them together. Quantum mirrors? Sure! Off world bars--are there any fics with off world bars?--sex pollen, AMTDI, Dr Z playing yenta? Yay! An AU where Rodney's a railroad engineer and John's a bandit? I heartily approve of them all.
But no dice. I couldn't buy this one.
You see, it's a very Asian (sounds Japanese perhaps?) concept, for employers to care about the stability of employees' personal lives. Now in reality, American employers do care, but legally they're not allowed to. So it's subtle on this side of the pond. You'd never be told you were hired or fired or promoted (demoted is generally Not Done) based on anything but your job qualifications: that's just begging for a lawsuit. But if you're not at the company picnic with your wife, don't join the company softball team, don't go to the athletic club or the golf course or the happy hour everyone else attends, you find you're an outsider pretty quick. And when promotions and firings are going on, the one who's a "buddy," who's on the inside, is the one that succeeds.
Hey, I know. I could pretend that (unwritten, in the background of this story) the IOA has been taken over by China, which has been fighting to get more influence over the Stargate program for yeeeeeaaaaars (which we know from SG-1 canon). All I have to do is imagine the spluttering confusion and indignation among the Americans about "demotions" and the aspersions on their personal lives, and then...
... Rodney would become a ticking time bomb and lead the scientists' revenge against the IOA. Which still undermines the premise of the story. Which I would totally read.
Darn. I tried. This fandom old age pickiness, tsk.
Any recs? I'm really in the mood to visit SGA. I even wrote a John/Rodney kiss drabble, posted somewhere around here.... McShep post-Valentine's Treat (named by Gaffsie, and it works).
ETA: Friends-who-know peg this as totally Japanese.