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Realism, Keller Debate, and Rodney the Fag

  • Mar. 30th, 2009 at 4:30 PM
toomuchplor: (shep shirtless)
So, a lot of the lovely readers leaving feedback on my last story are saying something to the effect that it seems "realistic" in one sense or another. At first, I thought maybe this was because some of my past offerings have involved straight-making machines, gates that take people's clothes off, and chemicals in the water supply that make everyone pair off and start breeding. But then I thought about it some more, and realized, as I told [livejournal.com profile] lamardeuse, that probably people are reacting to the number of references I made to bums and poo. What could be more realistic? This is clearly a case where being mentally 6 years old has actually made people think of me as somehow more "adult". Ha.

What I didn't intend to do, having been somewhat out of touch with fandom for a while, was to wade into the apparent battleground that has evolved around the character of Jennifer Keller. While I didn't really love the character (except for about 5 minutes when it looked like she was going to make Ronon smiley and sweet), I didn't especially dislike her either, and I honestly didn't really know that there's been an ongoing division among SGA McSheppers about how to treat Keller in post-series fic. I suppose this fic, though not planned as such, is my own position statement with regard to her; and having written her and Rodney out of my mind, I don't actually plan to write McKeller ever again.

I know you have all read [livejournal.com profile] toft_froggy's 1950s girls' boarding school AU (and if you haven't, you should, dammit!) but I've been thinking about how great it would be to have a boys' boarding school AU, now that we know all about John's moneyed heritage. Maybe it should be set in England in the 1930s and Rodney could be a student one or two forms below John so he ends up being his fag (I kid you not, this is an actual English boarding school term) and having to clean John's study to his exacting standards and make him toast and warm his bog seat before John uses it every morning. (And okay, I'm lifting 99% of this from Roald Dahl's Boy, you know) And wee!Rodney would be so delightfully resentful and his big mouth would keep getting him in trouble with John and John's peers and John would make a big show of how he had to punish his fag with a caning and John would close them both in his study and slap his cane against a cushion and roll his eyes because it's not like *wanted* to beat Rodney. And near the end of the year, after they'd gotten to be sort-of-friends (but secretly, because John is so much older and cooler), right before John is about to leave school and head off to Cambridge -- then he'd corner Rodney and with blushy seventeen-year-old cheeks and ears, he'd kiss him on the mouth and tell him not to let the other blokes push him around. And then, it would be 1939, and Rodney would be working on developing British fighter planes and he'd bump into John, who was a newly minted officer in the RAF, and Rodney would be all grown up and pretty as hell and John would be serious and handsome in his starchy uniform, and -- and...

Okay, I'm calming down now. But wouldn't that be great? Someone go and write it. It sounds like too much work for me.

Comments

ext_21822: (Default)
[identity profile] perardua.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 30th, 2009 10:59 pm (UTC)
And then, it would be 1939, and Rodney would be working on developing British fighter planes and he'd bump into John, who was a newly minted officer in the RAF, and Rodney would be all grown up and pretty as hell and John would be serious and handsome in his starchy uniform, and -- and...

Dear God, it's like you've been rummaging around in my subconscious.
[identity profile] toomuchplor.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 31st, 2009 04:06 am (UTC)
Dear God, it's like you've been rummaging around in my subconscious.

*peers around* It's nice in here, I like it!
[identity profile] allyndra.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 30th, 2009 11:03 pm (UTC)
Oh, oh, oh. I would read the hell out of that. Yes, I would.
[identity profile] toomuchplor.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 31st, 2009 04:06 am (UTC)
Hee! Good to know, if the muse (and the will to to interminable research) ever strikes!
[identity profile] villainny.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 30th, 2009 11:10 pm (UTC)
*WANTS*
[identity profile] toomuchplor.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 31st, 2009 04:07 am (UTC)
*g*
[identity profile] amberlynne.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 30th, 2009 11:33 pm (UTC)
And then, it would be 1939, and Rodney would be working on developing British fighter planes and he'd bump into John, who was a newly minted officer in the RAF, and Rodney would be all grown up and pretty as hell and John would be serious and handsome in his starchy uniform, and -- and...

Oh you big awful teeeeeeeeease. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
♥ ♥
[identity profile] mecurtin.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 30th, 2009 11:43 pm (UTC)
omg, your *icon*!! Katy, you should stare at amber's icon a lot for inspiration.
[identity profile] toomuchplor.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 31st, 2009 04:08 am (UTC)
*stares obediently*

You have me well trained now.
[identity profile] toomuchplor.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 31st, 2009 04:08 am (UTC)
Doesn't everyone *know* what happens next anyway? There's angst and boylove and forbidden 1940s romance and then either John's plane gets shot down or he returns safely and they live gaily ever after! *g*
[identity profile] mecurtin.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 30th, 2009 11:42 pm (UTC)
Reporting for duty, ma'am! *cracks whip suggestively*
[identity profile] toomuchplor.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 31st, 2009 04:08 am (UTC)
Haha! Go forth and read up on English boarding schools and fighter plane production in the RAF in WWII!
ariadne83: cropped from official schematics (Default)
[personal profile] ariadne83 wrote:
Mar. 30th, 2009 11:47 pm (UTC)
I'd read it. And obsess over it.
[identity profile] toomuchplor.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 31st, 2009 04:09 am (UTC)
Hee. I don't know if I have it in me, honestly. But if someone else did it, I would totally read that too!
[identity profile] emrinalexander.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 31st, 2009 01:34 am (UTC)
That's boarding school/into WWII thing is one of my favorite J/R possible stories. It lives in my head with a bunch of other unwritten scenarios, and I do have a lot of fun imagining Rodney stomping around feverishly developing plans for better fighter planes, and then going through a thousand deaths while John is off swooping around in the air during the Battle of Britain.
[identity profile] toomuchplor.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 31st, 2009 04:11 am (UTC)
It lives in my head with a bunch of other unwritten scenarios, and I do have a lot of fun imagining Rodney stomping around feverishly developing plans for better fighter planes, and then going through a thousand deaths while John is off swooping around in the air during the Battle of Britain.

*nods* Yes, that's definitely how it goes.

I seem to recall, in Boy, something about how it was vaguely miraculous that Roald Dahl (somewhere over 6' tall) got to be a fighter pilot as the cockpits were wee back then and you had to be under 6' to even fit. I'd have to reread and remember how that worked. My own (6'5") grandfather wasn't permitted to train as a pilot in WWII in the RCAF for the same reason, actually.
[identity profile] toomuchplor.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 31st, 2009 04:11 am (UTC)
Uh, and the *point* of that digression was that John would be too tall too.
[identity profile] grey-bard.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 31st, 2009 10:55 am (UTC)
Well, only for the little fighter planes. The bombers and so on had larger cockpits - although still not large enough for your grandfather. So maybe he wasn't dogfighting, but still flying and dodging?
[identity profile] toomuchplor.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 31st, 2009 01:47 pm (UTC)
Could be... maybe I could go all Memphis Belle and have Rodney and John be co-pilots of a big bomber plane.
[identity profile] emrinalexander.livejournal.com wrote:
Apr. 1st, 2009 12:59 am (UTC)
If we figure that John is just a smidge under six feet tall, he could probably squeeze into a fighter of the time, but if he's any taller, it won't work. Once you mentioned the height thing, it struck me that there are some tall pilots, but not many (I know of at least one Navy fighter ace who is over six feet tall. I'm not sure how they cram him into the plane *G*).

But BOMBER COMMAND is even more fraught with danger, lovely, lovely danger, interspersed with bombing missions and sheer terror. I think the average life expectancy was something around six to 12 weeks. The average pilot's age was about 21.
runpunkrun: amelia earhart sitting on the nose of her plane, text: like icarus ascending (on beautiful foolish arms)
[personal profile] runpunkrun wrote:
Apr. 1st, 2009 02:16 am (UTC)
You know, when I make posts about wonderful stories other people should write...I usually get stuck writing them myself. *cough*

What I MEAN is, someone should DEFINITELY get on that boys' boarding school AU.

[identity profile] toomuchplor.livejournal.com wrote:
Apr. 3rd, 2009 04:56 am (UTC)
What I MEAN is, someone should DEFINITELY get on that boys' boarding school AU.

Oh, I can wait forever for someone else to do it, no worries. *is incredibly, annoyingly patient*
(Anonymous) wrote:
Apr. 3rd, 2009 02:29 am (UTC)
it seems "realistic" in one sense or another. At first, I thought maybe this was because some of my past offerings have involved straight-making machines, gates that take people's clothes off, and chemicals in the water supply that make everyone pair off and start breeding.

Well, when you put it like that...

:)

Seriously though, I think I was one of those people and if you force me to think about it and articulate what I meant, I suppose what I meant is that your take on McKeller is not very different from mine: thus your treatment of it seemed pretty realitic to me.

Wow, this nearly sounds reasonable. Superficially, at least. Er.

*unused to being able to make sense when replying to a question*

Re: the boys boarding school AU? Do iiiiiit! Doooooo iiiiit!

I do appreciate the fact that it would be a lot of work, but if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Life is so hard...

(Anonymous) wrote:
Apr. 3rd, 2009 02:44 am (UTC)
Oh and thank you for referring to the 'chemicals in the water supply' one because I had missed it!

So bonus point for mentioning it now and providing a convenient link, but minus point for not posting an announcement on the sga_noticeboard: I do not want to take potshots or criticise a hard working author, but Public Service Announcements such a new fic from you are what the sga_noticeboard is all about...

Tsk tsk tsk!

*virtual finger wagging is occurring in your direction*
[identity profile] toomuchplor.livejournal.com wrote:
Apr. 3rd, 2009 04:07 am (UTC)
*g* Do you mean for "Something in the Water"? My god, I wrote that one about two years ago now! Too late for the noticeboard for sure! I did post about "Waiting For My Real Life To Begin" on the noticeboard, though! I really did!
[identity profile] toomuchplor.livejournal.com wrote:
Apr. 3rd, 2009 04:08 am (UTC)
Re: the boys boarding school AU? Do iiiiiit! Doooooo iiiiit!

I do appreciate the fact that it would be a lot of work, but if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Life is so hard...


Hee... I just don't know if I could devote the amount of research energies needed, given that my poor beta for the most recent fic had to bully me into researching CURRENT facts for accuracy. Thanks, though, I'm very glad the realism of McKeller worked for you in any case!
[identity profile] lilyfarfalla.livejournal.com wrote:
Apr. 3rd, 2009 06:17 am (UTC)
Oh, straight-making machines! *sighs fondly*

I also totally heart the idea boys boarding school + RAF plane builders and pilots. I cannot help worrying about wee!Rodney and how inevitably one of the other boys would decide to punish him, and oh, so much YOUNG ANGST. Surely someone will produce this great work!?
[identity profile] toomuchplor.livejournal.com wrote:
Apr. 4th, 2009 05:14 am (UTC)
I cannot help worrying about wee!Rodney and how inevitably one of the other boys would decide to punish him, and oh, so much YOUNG ANGST.

*g* And don't forget the pretteh little blonde boy that he'd be! Poor John would involuntary get a spanking fetish.

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