Fic Rec

[seekingferret]

naraht wrote this amazing fic for fictional_canon_fest, and I want to rec it to everyone.

For the uninitiated, fictional_canon_fest is an exchange dedicated to fic for 'fandoms' that only exist within the canon of another fandom: Fillory in Lev Grossman's The Magicians, Robert Templeton novels in the Lord Peter Wimsey novels, the Escapist in Chabon's The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier and Clay, "The Murder of Gonzago" in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ghost Soup Infidel Blue in Yuletide fandom, etc... It's a daunting challenge, since you generally have very little canon to work with, and these works largely exist to serve other storytelling purposes.


naraht wrote "The Study of Questions, which is just absolutely glorious. (The title is from Auden, of course) I don't want to spoil you for the combination of fandoms- since they're all fictional fandoms, it's not really all that important for you to know the original 'canon' going in. But the blend of historical humor and penetrating, insightful character moments is really terrific.

As you all know, I love stories that ask questions about where our faith comes from and what sacrifices one has to make for that faith. By connecting Luke to the Biblical Luke, naraht takes the story in a really unusual direction, especially when we get to the part with the tentacles, but the whole thing really works.

Comments

[spiralsheep]

I rly appreciated naraht's fic and your write-up. Thank you.

I only wish The Escapist comics had their own fictional canon, possibly about either Kavilier and Clay or Michael Chabon.

[spiralsheep]

P.S. And while I've never read Moby Dick, I have read Moby Dick According To Unwritten (with bonus Frankenstein's monster) so maybe I should start a com for metafictional_fictional_canon_fest?

[melannen]

.....it's funny because I'm, like, halfway committed to actually running an exchange like that after yuletide, via discussions in Tag Wranglers chat. <_< Maybe somebody in yulechat will do it instead and I won't have to!

[seekingferret]

Yeah, it was mentioned in yulechat as being your idea. Probably I should have fully committed to the bit by crediting you as the mod of the exchange, but felt funny doing that without your approval.

[melannen]

Raising my hopes! (you can retroactively credit me as mod if you want. :P)

You can tell yulechat that if anyone wants to run it without me, I say PLEASE

[elanya]

I really appreciated how many levels you... and Luke... could take the tentacles on.

[zandperl]

Damnit, I need to study, not look up whether fanfic exists for the BSG religious texts.

Does it count if it's pseudohistorical within the series, such as myths and legends which are based on reality? (E.g., Wheel of Time previous ages.)

Does it count if the original author wrote additional material about it him/herself? (E.g., Vanyel's story with in the Valdemar series.)

[seekingferret]

Ask melannen- she's the one who modded the exchange.