Acyclone said it quite well, as did many others, but I have to have my go at it.
I did want to give a quick thanks to Carol, though, as it’s been quite some time since I’ve been fired up and passionate about something, and certainly longer since I’ve been passionate about L&C. (Even though this horse has been flogged to death and past it. Poor thing.)
First, addressing Framework:
So LR does this mean you might be open to a small section of Other Than LnC Superman based fiction?
I know it has been raised before but if we had such a place it would be a logical place to put stories set against the LnC but where Lois or Clark is a minor player.
And yes I did say Clark because one of the other things that sets LnC apart is that Clark is a staring character, not a background mask.
First off, I didn’t see Labrat sign off as a boards admin, so anything she said was surely her own opinion and not that of the collective group who run the boards and are in charge of such decision-making.
But that’s beside the point.
The point is that this is a L&C fanfic forum, not a forum for all types of Superman fanfic. I didn’t follow all of what was said in the subject thread regarding the request for an “Other” section on the boards, so I’m not sure what points were hashed out there. But let me requote what the boards FAQ states:
The Lois & Clark Fanfic Message Board (MB) is specifically for fanfic about the series Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman, starring Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain, which originally ran on ABC from 1993 to 1997. Stories about any of the characters from the show, or their associated universe, are welcome.
“Any of the characters” means that I could write a completely Perry-centric story, with Lois and Clark as minor players, or even have L&C not in it at all. But my story has to be about L&C Perry with the characteristics that we saw on the show, the history, that sort of thing – a gruff man with a southern drawl who loves Elvis and whose marriage with Alice is on the rocks.
Just because Lois and/or Clark aren’t “major players” in a fanfic, doesn’t mean that it’s not an L&C story. And it certainly doesn't mean that I love them less or don't believe in that "mythic love".
Which brings me to Carol’s question:
But surely there has to be more to a fic to warrant the label "L & C" fic than just the use of the characters from the show? Were it as wide open as that, then I'm guessing that most Smallville fanfics would also qualify as L & C fic. The only exception would be those stories which focus on Chloe, and even then, it could be argued that such a story would be a crossover.
Clearly, there is much of L & C that is open to interpretation, but surely there is something intrinsic makes L & C, well, L& C?
Yes, there is. There are a lot of things. It’s the CHARACTERISTICS of said characters that make them solely L&C characters, rather than Superman movie characters or Smallville characters or what have you.
It
is as wide open as using any character from the show, and that doesn’t make Smallville fanfic L&C fic. It’s not the names Lois Lane, Clark Kent, or even Lana Lang that make the characters fit into fandom; it’s the characteristics which writers have given them in their various incarnations.
If I write a story about Clark and he happens to be a bit bumbling and a lot nerdy and considers himself to be Superman above Clark, then I’m writing about Clark in the movieverse. If I write a story about a Clark who thinks of himself as Clark Kent, first and foremost, and has a wry sense of humor and got his Superman suit from his mother when he was just shy of thirty (as opposed to from a crystal cavern in the middle of nowhere, a gift from his dead birth father), then I’m writing about L&C.
It’s not just
one aspect of L&C that makes it L&C, at least not for most fans.
Sara (who, to be clear, isn't posting as a boards mod, either)
