Cool topic, Helga. I've been reading Yvonne's thread and found myself agreeing with some comments there, but couldn't speak up because I'm not a writer.
I, too, read fanfiction in several fandoms; I have been doing so for years. In fact,
Lois & Clark is probably the fandom I've come to the latest in terms of reading fanfic.
I am admittedly a shippy person, so most of the fanfic I read focuses on a particular couple I like in each fandom. In that way, I guess the fics I read are somewhat similar across the different fandoms. The love theme is almost always there. (Heh, what can I say, I'm a hopeless romantic.
)
However, I do find that the other themes do vary across fandoms. The couples obviously have very different histories and the characters very different personalities, so situations that may be appropriate for some couples will most certainly not be so for others.
For example, I realized a few months ago, reading a thread in I think this very forum, that the theme of cheating, on which I've read quite a bit in other fandoms, is practically taboo in this fandom, at least in relation to Lois and Clark (Lois cheating on someone else
with Clark is apparently more palatable, I guess for obvious reasons.
). It has been mentioned several times in the other thread, and you've brought it up as well: there are indeed a more limited number of themes normally explored in this fandom than in others. Happy endings also seem to be more of a prerequisite here than elsewhere. I think part of it is that Lois and Clark and the love between them are placed on such a high pedestal by fans, by virtue of their iconic status. I understand how writers can feel constrained by the narrower scope, but as a reader, I fully embrace it. L&C is my comfort fandom. I think that above all, Lois and Clark's relationship is such a
hopeful one, and theirs is a world I'm glad to escape into and immerse myself in for a few minutes or a few hours when reading fics. I can fully bask in the angst because I know the sun will be shining just around the corner.
The community is another thing I love about this fandom. The regularly updated, excellently managed archives, the helpful forum members, the responsive writers... I've never come across a more welcoming fandom. And the treat is that the pool of amazingly talented writers just keeps growing, almost ten years after the show went off the air. That's pretty unbelievable to me, and all kinds of awesome.
I'm attracted to other fandoms because I like the characters in them, too. Some of the couples I ship are very different from Lois and Clark, some with tons more baggage, and part of me is endlessly fascinated by the kinds of stories springing from that. On the whole, however, this fandom has more things going for it than the others I read in, and I don't think I've found more pleasure in reading and rereading fics than I have here.
And just to go OT for a moment, because I saw that new comments had been added as I was typing... Sara, have you been to
Black & White & Read ? I've only read maybe five fics from there, as I'm nowhere near as big a shipper of GG's Lorelai and Luke as I am of Lois and Clark, but my understanding is that quality fics generally get posted there.
