Comments | beatlesslash: Fanfiction: Guessing Game

selenak in beatlesslash

Fanfiction: Guessing Game

May 01, 2012 06:55

Title: Guessing Game

Disclaimer: Nothing is real, nothing to get hung about.

Pairing/characters: Paul McCartney/Robert Fraser, John Lennon/Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney/Maggie McGivern, Marianne Faithfull, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Linda McCartney.

Rating: Between PG 13 and R.

Summary: "Robert represented to me freedom." Paul's ( Read more... )

paul/other, john/paul

Comments 5

kinkthatwinked May 3 2012, 00:45:54 UTC

Wow. You made me fall in love with this character, and I barely remembered his name from the Beatles bios.

I don't even know where to start. As usual, all the characters are as fleshed out as they need to be, even the minor ones. Love the respect to historical events, including the rumors. You brought up a familiar insight about those homoerotic wanking circles, and then turned it into a turning point both for Paul and the story. I really liked seeing him go through this self-exploration (not too much soul searching, because, you know, it's Paul) and discover new levels of understanding. I loved how it really just brought into sharper focus what was always there with him and John. And you don't say for sure if the big event with John was just acid or something more, do you? Nice tease.

Couple of things: in Chapter X, "But you still catch yourself staring at his tighs before you realise what you're doing." And Chapter XI, "Tara Browne, who is good company if none too bright, which in this context is a plus in you book." It ( ... )

selenak May 3 2012, 07:57:12 UTC

*gratefully edits typos*

Robert Fraser intrigued me in the books, what with such statements from Paul as "The most formative influence for me was Robert Fraser. Obviously the other Beatles were very important but the most formative art influence was Robert (...) (T)here's a vacuum where he used to be" and the one I used in the summary, "Robert represented to me freedom". Yet as far as I know, nobody ever tackled that relationship, fanfic wise. So when I started writing Beatles fanfic, the first thing I actually did was a short John pov on the relationship, The Treachery of Images, but I didn't get around to examine it in depth fictionally until the queer_fest prompt provided an excellent spur to do so.

(The comment has been removed)

selenak May 4 2012, 07:10:26 UTC

They shaped each other. But of course with that much closeness you're bound to ask "what else am I?", sooner or later, in different ways.

pnutter January 13 2013, 07:13:56 UTC

Nice take on Paul's relationship with Robert Fraser. Very visual, great characterizations. I remember reading about John warning Paul off about traveling alone to Paris with Fraser and how it would look since Fraser was so openly gay and all. Paul was defensive, maybe a little too defensive, and said that he was secure in his masculinity and he didn't care what people thought. It was like 'I think he doth protest too much' That maybe Paul secretly wanted an opportunity to experiment a little, or at least the excuse to try something new...drugs, sex, whatever. And Robert Fraser could supply him both it would seem. I've always wondered what might have happened if Paul had had a little of that bi-curious propensity that so many of the rock stars of the free sex and drug fueled sixties seemed to generate. Mick Jagger, Janis Joplin and John Lennon to name a few. Maybe if Paul had been a tad more open minded along that line things really may have been different between him and John. I think it's that question that is the very heart ( ... )

selenak January 13 2013, 13:54:00 UTC

Maybe if Paul had been a tad more open minded along that line things really may have been different between him and John. I think it's that question that is the very heart of John/Paul slash.Honestly, I doubt it would have made any difference. I mean, provided the author is good, I can buy any fanfic scenario between "they did it on a daily basis" and "they never ever touched each other in a non-platonic manner". In real life, I tend to assume they didn't have sex, but if someone finds John's lost diaries tomorrow with an unmistakable entry about having had sex with Paul in it, I wouldn't be suprised, either. Because, as I said: with or without sex most of their problems would have been identical. Sex would not have solved anything for them. (It never does.) (Which btw is one of the reasons why their relationship fascinates me. I tend to ship only couples who are interesting independent from whether or not there was/is a sexual component to their relationship.) All their personality traits would still be there - John's need for ( ... )