Jews in Fanfic

[mofic]

I imagine we have a number of fanfic authors in this community. I'd love to hear how folks deal with Jewish issues in writing fanfic, if at all and any related thoughts on the topic

Comments

[nyssa23]

I'm a fairly new writer of fic but am very interested in exploring the spiritual lives of characters, particularly Jewish/possibly Jewish/crypto-Jewish ones. Besides my work for daysofawesome this past year, I have written one non-holiday House/Wilson piece, " Betrayal," in which Wilson thinks of Tritter as a golem.

And yes, I do think we as Jews bring something very special to fic-writing and reading, since we're *supposed* to examine text and to question it and to figure out how to apply the lessons contained therein to our lives. And if we indulge these habits for fun *and* study, so much the better! ^_^

[astaria51]

I feel like as Jews, we often have different perspectives on normal cultural events. So I don't feel like I need to write about people being Jewish, or whatnot, to bring a Jewish perspective of the world to my stories. Or even to stories that I read. That's just my perspective, no matter what.

And obviously, a different perspective is good. The mere experience of hearing about Jewish practice or cultural concern deepens fanfic as a genre. But I also think we bring something to fanfic as writers/readers.

That said, when there are Jewish characters for me to play with, I often play with them -- my Buffy fic was more likely to have Willow being Jewish as I experience it (I joke that I am Willow: I'm a cultural/secular Jew, bisexual, and for a long time was Wiccan - now am more pantheistic).

And definitely, the idea of writing Supernatural fic with a Jewish bent would be interesting - they're often so Christian-oriented even though half of what they're doing would come off pagan to a strongly-Christian viewer (sooo: my brother sees

[astaria51]

As a side note, this of course doesn't cover original fic, just fandom. My original fics almost always include some kind of Judaism, whether secular, religious or not - because, of course, that's my life experience.

But, somehow, it's okay in fic to make noncanonically gay characters gay but not noncanonically Jewish characters Jewish. So...there's that. LOL.

[mofic]

But, somehow, it's okay in fic to make noncanonically gay characters gay but not noncanonically Jewish characters Jewish. So...there's that. LOL. I write m/m slash and I think that we should follow the same rules for both. It's okay to write something about a character that is not shown in canon, but it's up to the author to make it believable. If the character appears to be heterosexual (or at least sexually/romantically involved with a woman), then the slash writer who chooses to write him as gay (and not all slash depicts self-identified gay characters just as many real life MSM do not identify as gay) needs to deal with that. And there are lots of ways to do that - he might be intentionally deceiving because he doesn't want it known he's gay, he might be self-deceiving because he thinks he can get over being gay, he might not yet realize he's gay. All of those things happen with real life gay men and all of them can be credibly written into fiction

[marag]

I've written two stories in which I portray Robin (of Batman and...) as Jewish. One was a throwaway joke piece and the other was a bit more serious. Since his religion is never identified in the comics, as far as I can tell (and I've read a good chunk of the comics he's appeared in!), I figured it was safe.

I...I wanted to play with the character a bit, I guess. Making him Jewish in the silly piece was purely a way to give him a nice Jewish Bubbe to pester him about settling down, but in the second, I wanted to use his not-very-Jewish background to look at what he does. I didn't completely succeed, but that was my goal.

[roga]

I don't think we bring something to fanfic "as Jews", other than perhaps a deeper understanding of some of the Jewish characters (those we identify with, if at all), and to fellow readers, a set of shared references that make us feel closer to one another, as a group. If I see a Jewish character in a TV show, I automatically feel like I share something with them, even if culturally and religiously we have nothing in common. In the same way, if I read Jewish references in fics, I'll feel... a special kind of kinship, I guess, with the writer and the character and the other people whom I see commented on the fic with same observations that I did. It's fun, it's another kind of togetherness besides being fans of the same show - but I don't see anything inherently Jewish about the writing itself. (But I'm an atheist, so, you know, I don't see anything inherently Jewish in the way I do anything... I couldn't define "Jewish thought" or "Jewish philosophy" if I tried

[wickedgoodgrrrl]

This particular discussion comes close to one I've wanted to have for a few years in my own fandom: _Uchuu Senkan Yamato_ and "Star Blazers". For those of you who haven't seen this, it was a nuclear-bombardment-by-aliens apocalyptic space operatic anime (*inhaleexhaleinhaleexhale

[vilakins]

In my major fandom, set at least 1000 years in the future, religion has been outlawed. I did manage to have one of the characters celebrate a mutated version of Hanukkah in a Christmas challenge story: I have it that festivals and belief have been preserved and handed down by the Deltas (worker under-class) in a mish-mash of confused tradition. I could link but it's not a well-known fandom.

[wickedgoodgrrrl]

Nonetheless, I'm intrigued by your "not a well known fandom"; it makes me think you're a fan of Huxley's _Brave New World_, as I am. And I have no clue what that ship is in your avatar but it made me go "OOOOO! SHINY!" Any chance it's from 1970s era Saturday morning kid vid?

[vilakins]

It's 70s/80s era evening British SF (they said it was family fare but it was very dark) which I fell for in 2001 when they showed reruns here. Federation society has a grading system nicked from Brave New World and soma also features in the notorious drink "adrenaline and soma". It's Blake's 7 and is the only fandom I feel driven to write for because I was so unhappy about the ending and general treatment of my Delta, Vila.

I read much more widely in fanfic though and watch a lot of current shows. I just don't feel like writing for them. :-)

The ship is indeed shiny. I think it's the most elegant spaceship in SF. I mourned it.

Blake's 7

[wickedgoodgrrrl]

Maybe it doesn't come off as a well-known, but what little I've read of on the subject suggests Blake's 7 fandom ranks in size and age (it's been around a while!) with classic Star Trek fandom.

[skywardprodigal]

If I'm a writer, and I know that my character is Jewish I have to look (or not look) at how I deal with it, especially depending on how that has been dealt with by other writers and creators whether or not that's canonical.

Like, I look at Amanda Grayson (Spock's mother in Star Trek) and see her as Jewish based on a Star Trek novelization penned by Barbara Hambly (iirc) in the many years between the airing of the original series and TNG.

Perhaps X-Men movieverse fanfic doesn't deal with the Jewishness of various characters, but in the comics that would come up and there're many stories that touch on the cultural and religious aspects of being Jewish for various characters.

If you're looking for fanfic that deals with the jewishness of some characters, it may be helpful to look at archives devoted to mutants and heroes such as Kit Pryde, Bobby Drake, Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver), Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch), and Erik Magnus Lensherr (Magneto). Wanda and Pietro are Magneto's children, who's foster mother is Rom. Kurt Wagner, who