Talk:Real World Events in Fanworks

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Talk 1

I've suggested this page a few times (see: http://fanlore.org/wiki/Talk:Historical_AU) because it's something that keep on popping up across various fandoms. This is a bit jumbled since I'm still thinking this through. (Is there a better forum than the DW comm to discuss potential pages?)

As a sample, we have:

  • J2 and the Killing Fields in Cambodia.
  • J2 and Haiti.
  • Hetalia fic about the tsunami in Japan.
  • Hetalia fic about the shootings in Oslo.
  • Bandom Holocaust AU
  • Served in Combat.
  • 9/11.
  • Promts (and fills?) where H50's Steve is a member of the team that takes out Osama bin Laden.
  • There are probably Western AUs that make use of the "Noble Savage" trope.
  • SPN/Paul Bernardo fic (FFA post)

There are lots of examples, but I'm not sure how to actually write up an article without being offensive or hurtful. Some of the above examples are really old; is it right to drag them out again?

Questions of who can write about what events, and after how long. What about people who use fic to help process events they are affected by?

Relationship with canon. Hetalia is a big one when it comes to this question. X-Men's Magneto is a Holocaust survivor. Many examples of characters who served in combat. How American TV shows and movies choose to have their characters deal with 9/11 (didn't some comic companies publish special 9/11 issues?)

Fics using historical events often used for h/c or romance. Would a different genre be less offensive? --Anenko 04:41, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

Really good, complex discussion about this issue: Fanfiction as vehicle where the J2 Haiti fic is the jumping off point, but there's some good discussion of some other examples. I go on at length with what I'm some people would find a surprising opinion that the setting was not the problem with the J2 fic. (Also, given the recent challenge, I was planning on making a page about the J2 fic, but first I have to figure out what to call it, since naming the page after the fanwork seems not at all appropriate. Plus I can't recall the title. --facetofcathy 14:09, 23 July 2011 (UTC)
Oh, and for a totally non-fannish but still pop culture take on the issue, David Mitchell talks about when history becomes something you can joke about in this bit [discusses and employs rape culture imagery]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJqEKYbh-LU--facetofcathy 14:14, 23 July 2011 (UTC)
Is this supposed to be a page about all types of fanworks or just fanfic? If it's just fanfic, the page should be named differently. If it's all types of works, there are also vids that use real footage (news reports, WW2 material, etc.) and there all the Downfall parodies. --Doro 14:31, 23 July 2011 (UTC)
Fanworks in general. Fandom has enough offensiveness to go around! All my examples were from fics, because that's where my primary interest lies. I wasn't aware that there were fanvids that used RL footage (RPF excluded, obviously). The fanficrants (flocked) post about the Hetalia Oslo fic mentioned that there was fanart about the plane crash that killed many Polish politicians. And then there's the cosplay issue. Yeah, there's plenty to go around :( --Anenko 16:39, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

Another link dump: http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/304632.html Has some excellent pull quotes and a long discussion about imperialism/colonialism pov etc. In reference to Pro SF, but I think very relevant.--facetofcathy 11:35, 3 August 2011 (UTC)

Hesychasm's post about the killing fields story: http://hesychasm.livejournal.com/257429.html Which links to the story, which links to the author's apology.--facetofcathy 19:30, 9 August 2011 (UTC)

You might like to clarify the time frame. Relatively few people object even to comedic fictional portrayals of WW1 such as Blackadder because all combatants are now deceased, f'rinstance. Not sure where the cut-off should be. Espresso Addict 21:17, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

Some Possible Examples

  • Mourning is a multimedia zine with fiction about 911.
  • Written very shortly after a real-world event is "San Ysidro: 90 Minutes at McDonald's" by L.A. Carr (Simon and Simon) in the zine Sweet Justice #1, published in 1985. Publisher's summary: "All Rick and A.J. wanted to do was to stop for a Big Mac... but the date was July 18, 1984 and James Oliver Huberty had gone hunting for humans."
Feel free to add your examples to the page itself. I'm adding all mine to the talk page because I'm more than a bit terrified of phrasing things wrong and causing someone pain. Heh. Eventually, someone should work on the actual page. --Anenko 16:26, 12 October 2011 (UTC)
Feeling terrified of offending as well, of messing up and being insensitive in some way... I also thought that maybe getting a list of examples in one place would make an outline look a little clearer? --Mrs. Potato Head 16:31, 12 October 2011 (UTC)
I think it's a good idea to collate and discuss here. Another example might be Gabrielle Lawson's Oswiecim, a widely praised ST:DS9 novel set during the Holocaust. It was written before I entered the fandom, though, and I don't know whether the immediate reception was different. I'm blanking on the good Doctor Who example I was thinking of, sadly. Espresso Addict 21:39, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

Topic Removal

I propose removing the Judaism and Fandom, Race and Fandom, Social Justice from the See Also in the template as these are ongoing, more general topics, rather than specific occurrences. --MPH 02:16, 14 December 2023 (UTC) Edited: "... specific events [rather than "specific occurences"]. But I may be reading the focus of this page incorrectly. --MPH 02:19, 14 December 2023 (UTC)

That makes sense to me. These aren't events. If any of these pages have a section on a specific real life event and how its treated in fanworks, then we could linked to that section. From skimming the three pages, I don't believe any of them have a section dealing with a real world event, so I think the three links can be removed. --Auntags (talk) 22:16, 14 December 2023 (UTC)
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