Osama bin Laden/George W Bush OTP

[chasingtides]

Having all this fandom stuff in the air and finding myself back in the boondocks with a great deal of time on my hands, I've been thinking about fandom. And reading. A lot. (Terry Pratchett's The Fifth Elephant is not to be missed, as my co-workers are learning from my lunchtime read aloud sessions.)

So, what else have I been reading? Mostly, my back issues of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine. I have fallen back in love with it. I started getting it in high school and it convinced my parents that maybe there were other people out there who read the same genre. Anyway, last night was reading the June 2005 issue. If you have it, go pick it up. Read Harry Turtledove's "Bedfellows," but avoid Marc Laidlaw's "Sweetmeats" if its right before bed and cannibalism bothers you as much as it does me.

Also, and this usually isn't said about published genre fiction, avoid "Bedfellows" if you are bothered by RPS.

Ooh. I went there.

This is about published and genre breaking RPS and fanfiction. (And about some damn good authors who know how to write.) I'm talking about Harry Turtledove and Neil Gaiman tonight. I'm talking about "Bedfellows," a bin Laden/Bush RPS, "A Study in Emerald", a Sherlock Holmes/Lovecraft crossover, and "The Problem of Susan," a highly controversial Narnian piece. Spoilers ahoy.

Personally, I think "Bedfellows" is made of win and awesome. Quick run down: W, an American political conservative who pronounces "nuclear" like "nucular," and O, a highly educated turban wearing Muslim terrorist of some renown, who have "been chasing each other for years" are in Boston to get married. As the story progresses, it becomes more and more apparent with the little details that W is George W. Bush and O is Osama bin Laden. They both talk about Abu Ghraib during the wedding. It also becomes apparent to everyone in the story and the reader that they are in love. Osama praises God that he has found such happiness, the judge remarks that she has never seen such devotion, and Bush gets a hard-on after "O grabs him, bends him back movie-style, and plants a big kiss right on his mouth." I think bin Laden tops.

As a general rule, I don't read RPS because it tends to squick me. However, "Bedfellows" is high quality slash however you look at it. I say slash because I think it is, in the most traditional sense. O and W, barely disguised (I mean, he used their real initials for the love of all things gay, male, and fictional) and, well, taking two men who are politically and religiously right and not fans of gay marriage, as well as being (as far as I know) straight, and making them gay for each other - that'd be slash. Wikipedia defines slash as: "It focuses on the depiction of sexual or romantic relationships between two or more characters, who are not necessarily engaged in relationships in the canon universe." That'd be "Bedfellows."



WARNING: HUGE SPOILERS. PROCEED WITH CAUTION. If you have not read "A Study in Emerald," you may want to go here for the PDF file because it is well worth reading and I'm about to totally ruin your reading experience. And I don't want to do that to you.




Both Gaiman pieces strike a little closer to the heart of all of the recent wank, actually. My apologies. I meant to keep this recent wank free. But I'm going to jump into pedophilia, bestiality, and copyright issues. Unlike "Bedfellows" which is sort of like that warm-and-fuzzy Harry/Draco you keep on your computer for when you're having a bad day, "A Study in Emerald" and "The Problem of Susan" are those ones that you read once and go "Oh my. Oh my." And then you might read it again because it is that good. But. It is also fairly unsettling.


"A Study in Emerald" takes place in what appears to be Victorian London by a narrator who appears to be Watson. Things, as per usual with Gaiman, are not as they appear. We are nearly a millennium in the future, at a time when the Old Ones rule over humanity, and our narrator is not our beloved Watson, but an unknown, unnamed ex-military man. Our Watson - and he is recognised by Gaiman, a significant happening - is really a killer. A killer of gods. Holmes and Watson, after killing the Old One prince of Bohemia, lead the narrator and his detective friend (Moriarty, I like to fancy, but we do not know) on a merry chase and in the end we learn how Holmes lured the prince to his death at Watson's knives: "If it is of any comfort to you, having learned a little of his recreational predilections, I had told him I had procured for him a girl, abducted from a convent in Cornwall where she had never seen a man, and that it would only take his touch, and the sight of his face, to tip her over into perfect madness. Had she existed, he would have feasted on her madness while he took her, like a man sucking the flesh from a ripe peach... The good doctor...was waiting for us with his knives." (Okay, maybe he's talking about eating her soul, but that sounds pretty sexual to me.)

"The Problem of Susan" is made more problematic because of the Aslan-Jesus issue. So when Aslan-Jesus has mad sex with Janis-Lilith... Yeah. Google "The Problem of Susan." In short, Gaiman deals with the issue of Susan not getting to go to heaven for loving nylons and parties. And he does it well even if it is also a piece I don't recommend as bedtime reading. Gaiman succeeds at discussing the problem, if not solving it. He writes, "I doubt there was much time for nylons and lipsticks after her family was killed," and "A god who would punish me for liking nylons and parties by making me walk through that school dining room, with the flies, to identify Ed, well... he's enjoying himself a bit too much, isn't he?" I did feel that the crazy Janis/Aslan porn was a bit much, but Gaiman was making a point. Er. And the eating of little girls. Probably necessary for the Aslan = villain section of the plot, but disturbing nonetheless.

So what? Well, Turtledove's piece got some press (as can be seen here). A number of people were unhappy with the idea of Terrorist Number One jumping the president and the president being okay with that. Apparently, there was talk of legal action against FSF? I'm not surprised. But it never happened. And I think that's even more awesome, even if I normally find RPS squicky.

As for Neil Gaiman? He proved that "real" writers can write fanfiction, even on copyrighted works (hello Narnia) and get away with it. Just don't use names. And they can get away with writing about illegal sex, too. (Not that Gaiman is a stranger to this "A Life in Early Moorcock" (from Smoke and Mirrors) features a teacher having sexual relations with his male students and "Keepsakes and Treasures" (from Fragile Things) features a more sinister illegal sex - a disturbing (for various reasons) man who hires prostitutes who at the very least look like they are twelve, if not actually being underage ETA: who says he likes to have sex with nine year old girls (I just re-read the story).)

All of these are highly controversial. All of these are highly popular.

I will end by saying that I did notice that both Turtledove and Gaiman made monumental efforts not to use names in their pieces. In "A Study in Emerald" only Watson is named. In "The Problem of Susan" Susan's surname is Hastings, not Pevensie, though it has been noted by those geographically wiser than myself that Pevensie Bay is near Hastings Bay, and Edward has simply become Ed. "Bedfellows" uses simply O and W.

Perhaps what I'm trying to say in a very round about way is that we aren't alone. Perhaps what I'm trying to say is that we didn't invent the wheel and neither did they. Or maybe I'm saying something else entirely. I'm just a writer. You're the interpreter.

[Poll #995111]

Comments

[rabidfangurl.livejournal.com]

But does she weight as much as a duck?

[chasingtides.livejournal.com]

Well, I failed floating on my back in swim class. Does that tell you anything?

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

I got hypnotised by the ticky.

[oboros.livejournal.com]

thanks for sharing!

[foldingstar.livejournal.com]

Actually, I really enjoyed this post. :)

[kerravongenius.livejournal.com]

Bush is straight? Blair is going to be devastated.

[chasingtides.livejournal.com]

True.

But he says he's straight. And that's what I'm talking about.

[alias_sqbr]

You didn't have an option for "That's pretty much what I thought already, but expressed all good and stuff" :) (I have some rather incoherent thoughts on the subject here)

I personally would like to see more analysis of fanfic which includes published stuff like that rather than just briefly mentioning it as part of an "Why fanfic/RPS/etc is a valid artform" argument then moving on, which is what seems to mostly happen.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Another vote for this option!

Although I hadn't read the stories--I've just finished the .pdf of "A Study in Emerald" and loved the moment when Dynamics of an Asteroid is mentioned and I realized the detective was Moriarty (after suspecting he wasn't Holmes)--and I loved the literary anslysis you've done.