Jen Riddler's "The BS Factor" (essay)
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| Title: | Jen Riddler's "The BS Factor" |
| Creator: | Margie |
| Date(s): | January 10, 2001 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | The Sentinel |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Jen Riddler's "The BS Factor" is a 2001 post by Margie at Prospect-L. It is used here on Fanlore with the author's permission.
Regarding Spoilers
No specific spoilers in this (although some get close at the very end), but a lot of major general ones throughout. I truly feel that this is a story that works better without warnings/spoilers -- so if you're the sort of person who *needs* warnings to be comfortable reading a story, do a search for it from the main archive page and check the warnings that were added later when the archive started using warnings. If you're the sort of person who just doesn't mind being warned/spoiled, though, skip the rest of this post until you've read the story, and read it cold...
Some Topics Discussed
- the fic by Jen Riddler called The B.S. Factor
- story warnings
- reactions to a story written early on in canon, and then re-reading that story later
- the value, and desirability, of a fix-it written by someone else
- fanon, the changing tone of fiction in a fandom, and the reading experience
From the Essay
"The BS Factor" was posted during second season, just a few months after Senad started up, and it's a story that *everyone* who was in the slash fandom when it dropped read and still remembers. And no one ever talks about it. Ever. (Well, until it suddenly showed up on a list right when I was going to start talking about it <g>)
So it was a surprise to me, on IRC a few nights ago, when someone said, "Yeah, and remember when Jen Riddler posted The BS Factor?" *Wham*, I was right back feeling everything I felt when I first read that story. This was posted before warnings were required in this fandom; hell, it was posted before we had *SXF*, back when Senad covered both fic and discussion. The entirety of the warnings on it were:
> MA- Mature Adults only. Contains m/m sex, violence and strong language.
So, basically, I read it absolutely cold (which made the experience that much more powerful, and therefore that much better [in its own way]).So I started wondering if it would still be as powerful today.
I do know that in one sense, it *can't* be; the story was written during early second season, and blew away everyone I know of who read it; IIRC, Senad had one of its first big blowups over that story. <g> People were stunned, shocked, angry, upset. It was... intense. Intense because you came away from it *believing* it -- hating that you believed, but believing. I doubt that anyone reading it now, after knowing what happens in the rest of the series, can even come close to that reaction. But at the time -- my god. It was *real*. There was *nothing* in canon to suggest that the story Jen had written couldn't happen.
It was real enough that all these years later, I was blown away again just remembering it.
I also remembered that someone (I can't for the life of me remember who) wrote a "fix" for the story. I found out I'd never read that, because someone gave me the plotline after I mentioned that I wanted to read BS Factor again and I didn't recognize any of it. Makes sense, though, because I *do* remember wondering at the time why anyone would try to "fix" such a wonderfully powerful story. It might not have been *pleasantly* powerful, but any attempt to soften it would by default weaken the entire premise -- and I was still wallowing happily in my stunned blown-away-ness. Hell, I *still* can't imagine reading the "fix" story.
So here I sat, after remembering all of that, wondering if I should read The BS Factor again. Part of me really didn't want to, for two reasons. First, because I didn't particularly want to go back to that place I was the first time I read it, and second, because I was afraid it wouldn't put me back to that place I was the first time I read it. Conflicted, who, me? <g>
And I was right about the second fear, in part. I knew what was coming so there was no moment of shocked realization at what had just happened, which was a big part of my initial reaction to it. Also, reading it I kept getting mildly sidetracked by the things that today are overworked fanon, although at the time they were fresh and new and didn't bother me in the slightest; quite the contrary. There were a few other things that caught at me, too -- some writing bobbles, some Australianisms that just didn't belong. Nothing major, but combined, it was enough to keep me from being as wholly sucked into the story as I was the first time around. (Of course, the first time around, I was sucked in to that degree where you don't notice the cat yelling at you that there's no food...)
On the other hand, knowing what was to come, I could appreciate even more the way Jen wrote it, with passages that on first read say one thing, and on second read say something very different: things like Blair's reaction to the shooting near the beginning; Blair's note-taking throughout. The tension was less because I knew what was coming, but started earlier because I could see the groundwork she was laying.
So. Does it stand the test of time for me? Yes. It's still a good story. I can still see it as branching off from first season, and it's still a powerful alternative look at first season. But the shock has faded, both because I knew going in what would happen and because I *know* now that Jen's world isn't a real reflection of the TS universe.
One other thing that has softened the effect of it is the evolution of the fandom itself. A little fandom history, for them as weren't here then: in the beginning (I feel like I should be using capital letters for that...), Sen fic was universally hhjj. It's still a fairly hhjj fandom, but darker threads have woven their way though since then. But at first, there simply was no darkness. Every story that dropped was going to have a happy ending, *somehow*. So all the way through the first read of this story, I was waiting for the rabbit to be pulled out of the hat. And waiting. And waiting. And at the end I sat there saying, "Oh my god, Oh migod, omigod." It was the very first hint we had that the TS universe didn't necessarily have to be sweetness and light. Came as a bit of a shock. <g>
I'm curious if people reading it cold for the first time now, having come later to the fandom or at least having read more of the fic and seen four years' worth of eps, rather than half a season's worth, reacted the same way, just *expecting* everything to work out for the guys, or whether they were always sort of aware that it might turn out at least a bit like the way it did.
And to put more specific story comments in this, I *love* the way she structured this, taking the reader from a happy, light-hearted, playful place to a place of such bleak despair. You don't see any shadows at all in the beginning, until you realize later on that you just *interpreted* them as light. She lays the groundwork so *well*, right down to Jim being the only one to ever say "I love you".
More than that, I love how she made it a story about love, even while it was a story about betrayal. The way Blair didn't realize he was trapped, too, until it was too late, was wonderful. It's the only thing that makes me not hate the story -- partner betrayal is not high on my list of things to read, and it's hard to imagine a more complete betrayal than this. But Blair betrayed *himself*, too, and somehow that works for me.
This one is still, most definitely, a keeper.