Wherein Cam is amused at fic descriptions and ponders OTPs

[misscam]

So, a friend passed on a link and rather amusingly, I found various fics of mine rec'ed and described as "good but too old school, not in line with current producers' vision of D/R. Not shippy enough" and "Definitely of the brand of Doctor/Rose fic coming from the Old Skool, which tends not to see D/R as an OTP by any stretch. Which always makes for very, very *interesting* fic, if unsatisfying and occassionally annoying."

So after I stopped being amused being classified old school when I can count on one hand the number of classic episodes I've seen and having not been in fandom even a year, I got to thinking about OTP. And the thing is, I'm not sure I believe in OTP at all.

Yes, I believe in love. And I believe sometimes you find someone who seems ideally suited for you and it is genuine, heartfelt, I'd-die-for-you kind of love. However, under different circumstances and at a different time in your life when perhaps you never met that first ideal match, I think it's possible to meet someone else you might feel genuine, heartfelt, I'd-die-for-you kind of love for. Humans - or Time Lords, for that matter - adapt and change with the people we love. I don't think there's just one shot at love out there. However, once you found one of them, it could be the right one for the rest of your life and you don't need any others.

Rose meets the Doctor. In doing so, she changes. Later, he changes. I choose to see their relationship as love. But if they had never met, do I think they wouldn't ever have loved anyone else? No, I don't. In fact, I don't think Rose is the first one the Doctor has loved or will love. It doesn't demean their relationship to me, really. Just like it doesn't demean my love for my father that I also love my brother, you know? Love isn't a restricted quality.

Of course, you can have conflict with loving more than one and fidelity tends to be a good idea. Nothing's perfect. Certainly not love, which fucks you over and comes for repeats when it feels like. But it's still fascinating and human and neccessary. And sometimes, when you've found and lost it, the really brilliant thing is that you might get another shot.

So, I don't really believe in the soulmate OTP part. But I do believe in love. Quite a lot, actually.

Maybe that makes me another sort of old school.

Comments

[daera23.livejournal.com]

I have a theory on the reviewer. She's young.

In fandoms, there seem to be two crowds of writers - the teens and early college gals. And the ones who are in their mid-twenties, thirties and beyond. Now, I'm not saying the teens can't write good fic - I've read some fabulous fic some younger writers. But I think as an overall group they are like Rose, and they haven't lost their idealism yet. Hence the "not shippy enough" - they haven't learned the tease of restraint.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

There's one problem with that theory - namely, that an awful lot of the really batshit shippers seem to be women in their thirties or so. It freaked me out, to start with, because I originally agreed with what you had to say, but it's gotten to the point where it's starting to feel inevitable.

Of course, I haven't the faintest idea why this is so, it's just something I have noted based on my personal experience across a couplf of fandoms.

[daera23.livejournal.com]

hmmm. okay, I do conceed that the strange idealism of batshit shippers can exist at any age. after all, romance novels with Fabio covers and weepy romantic movies like Message in a Bottle have a huge audience . . .

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Like drak said, I know a lot of people in their 30s who are very, very OTP minded. I don't think it's necessarily an age thing. Could very well be a perspective thing, really.

Idealism could play in, though.