So? Just the fact that the vast majority of slash is utter crap doesn't mean you should never read it. And yes, the percentage of crap slash is higher than the average percentage of crap fanfiction in general, but it's not 100%. Being intolerant of slash just because it's slash is like a gay person being intolerant of het relationship in fiction: stupid.

 

Dude, aren't you the one who recommended Worldmaker? Your story recommendations are, shall we say, ass-sucky.

 

I've read the entirety of the Sacrifices Septology.

It's shit. Simple as.

It's a chore to read. An almost physical struggle. An uphill climb. A repetitive plot which doesn't advance in 3 million words. The issues that are being struggled with in year 1 are the same issues being struggled with in year 7. There is no character progression. At all. There are multiple character "breakthroughs" after which you think "finally, enough with that shit already". But then the author goes straight back to the previous plot point.

The author is a one-trick pony, and that trick is extreme angst.

The writing is literally dripping with overly emotional melodrama. The characters are all ridiculously one-dimensional and many of them are caricatures who behave in very unlikely ways.

The magic is crap and full of gimmicks. Further, it's contradictory. By virtue of birth Harry apparently should be able to wtfpwn most wizards via overwhelming them with his power. And yet we often see him in conflict with non-Lord-level wizards.

The magical creature plot is the same boring Harry "friend to all creatures" Potter. Newsflash: I don't care about goblins or centaurs or house elves.

Every story drags on far too long with so much filler it's unbelievable. The climaxes are always protracted and so lack any sense of urgency, except the urgency the reader feels just to get to the end of this crap already.

And on top of all that, it's slash.

 

The fuck it doesn't.

As soon as a fic says "slash," I don't read it. As soon as a fic says "Harry/multi," I don't read it. Same for Harry/Cho, Neville/Luna, Harry/Daphne, Harry/Gabrielle/Fleur (most threesomes, really). These stories have proven, time and again, to be utter shit 9 out of 10 times. Any slash or stories with the above-metioned pairings that I've read have been exclusively through recommendations made here, by senior members or those who have consistently made above-average recommendations.

 

I am not sure if this extends to a majority of readers but one of the most common comments I have gotten about reading is that the reader puts themselves in the place of the main character (or villian) and basically goes through the story acting as that main character. I am a hetrosexual male and while that might not exclude the possiblity of finding another male who I would kiss, hug, and preform sexual acts with, I find it difficult if not impossible to imagine myself liking another man in a sexual way. Following my first statement I am one of the people who act as the main character while reading, and being that I do not possess the adequate imagination for enjoying another man I would rather jam my fingers in a door before reading slash. This is my personal reason for being more than a little intolerant of slash, which is that I have yet to enjoy reading it.

 

That's actually interesting question - do gay people hate non-slash fics?

I don't read slash, because it's slash. I may be tolerant toward gay relationships in original books, but that doesn't mean I have desire to read fanfics where Harry wants to do dirty things with Draco, Snape or any other men, no matter how well written it is.

 

Slash is not something I would enjoy reading, even if the story is written well.

It is tolerable if done to non-centric characters that I don't particularly care about, like having Dean come out as gay, so long as it's not brought up often. I don't see the need to have any character suddenly be gay, but whatever. People write whatever they like.

But never, under any circumstances, will I ever enjoy reading Harry's thoughts and feelings about how enjoyable it is while ploughing Malfoy's ass. Be it first person or third, good grammar or bad.

Edit: If fanfiction was written for a novel with a gay main character, and people wrote fanfiction where they changed all the gay characters into straight ones, then yes, I am quite sure het stories would bring about the exact same rage.

 

Ouch, I sense blood in the water, here.

Please, be patient with me on this post: I suck at articulating points.

Bobert: Or, maybe it's because I find it as a whole a complete and unrealistic perversion of the characters in question?

It would be different if there was any inclination, any sign of Harry having a different orientation in the books. This would at least allow for a realistic possibility of Harry and Draco being 'buddies'.

There are none what-so-ever. The entire series (minus a few chapters) is written entirely in Harry's point-of-view, and there are no signs at all of either he or Draco (the latter being from the observed interactions between the two) batting for the other team. Hell, Cho and Ginny. 'nuff said.

It also takes 'two to tango'; if one character was gay and the other not, it'd still kill the pairing idea stone dead with unrequited love. See Albus and Grindle.

Now, as for your desperate "BUT IT'S AN A/U!" lifeline.

I could write a long, brickload of text both debunking this lifeline and supporting it for possible grounds for a Harry/Draco pairing, but all in all it comes down to the extremity of the A/U involved and what the author/authoress would do when it comes to plausibly developing their Harry (eg, him becoming a hard and jaded bastard with a noble streak if he was betrayed by everybody). With that frame of mind being used in order to justify a slash pairing in a storyline, you could also have Harry growing up to be sexually attracted to cats or goats. (Watch out Prof' McG!)

Another fictional example: I could of grown up in a city instead of the country side, if my parents had decided to -on a whim- move, but I'm still pretty confident that despite the choices I'd of possibly made in such a timeline, I still would be a heterosexual male with no inkling of going out and raiding another man's 'backdoor'. It would also mean that the decisions and circumstances that I've made in this lifetime that have shaped my hobbies, passions and interests to make who I am now today wouldn't of existed, so even though the other me would share my name, family history and everything physically, he still wouldn't be me, just like how it wouldn't be Harry, but someone with his face.

All in all: slash with Harry as we know him (and if we didn't know him, he wouldn't be Harry) = unfeasible and unrealistic. More chance of Hermione suddenly wanting to hump library books.

 

I'm going to stop trying to defend the story, because it's obviously pointless, but let me ask Taure:
You're telling me you spent... 125-150 hours reading something that you absolutely cannot stand reading? Salute, comrade.

 

Well, it shows that he's dedicated?

 

I really can't understand this. That story has more plot holes than swiss cheese. It's as if it is written chapter wise without care what happened before.

---------- Post automerged at 01:21 ---------- Previous post was at 00:43 ----------

I'm intolerant of slash not because of some gay relationships but because it destroys the character's substance, not to mention the way character relationships are shown in these stories. You can see it even for non slash stories written by slash writers as I know a few cases where I always get this vibration that something is just wrong in how interactions between males are written.

I'm even supporting the theory that the massive amount of slash on fanfiction sites isn't helping the gay movement at all because it at least generates massive loathing for the *writers* on my side

Quite ironic actually when most of these writers are either hormonal challenged fangirls or older weird married women with some pedo fetish and not gay people. If that doesn't tell you that something is seriously wrong with slash I don't know.

Anyway, the moral of story is that anybody who connects slash hating with gay hating anti liberal bigoted people just missed the train. I'm simply bigoted against character raping, either in slash, bashing or most harem stuff.

P.S. Just look at the Supernatural genre, would be a great crossover opportunity with HP and besides a few stories in the early times it's 99.9% slash invested and now pointless to even look if there's an interesting story. I'm pretty sure this slash wasteland is also the reason why none are written anymore and I would say that's truly sad.

 

No, it's not. Unless they're intolerant of heterosexually paired fics set in a fandom where the characters are canonically gay, in which case it actually is the same thing. Draco Malfoy is a canonically straight character. Harry Potter is a canonically straight character. Major character changes are required to make either one gay. No changes are required to make these straight characters straight.

 

You might not be able to sense it yet, but I'm sending my hate at this post so strongly, I've gotten a nosebleed.

 

Remember to use a tissue.

 

Anyway, back on topic

Go read By the Divining light and it's sequel by nmb.

 

Anyway, back to the derail:

I'm not sure if the "we don't like slash because it's not in-canon" sits well with me. It's always seemed to me that this argument is made by people who dislike slash trying to rationalise it after the fact. And it really doesn't work very well when you're sitting on a board dedicated to improving Harry's character to be more badass.

I think it's best to just bite the bullet and say you don't enjoy reading it, and that you don't/can't identify with a protagonist with a different sexuality to yourself.

 

It's not just sexuality. When the protagonist does something extremely stupid (self-sacrifice himself for people who almost hate him, not bitchslap Hermione when the bitch's bossy, etc.), I usually end up frustrated and clicking ctrl+w.

As for slash, it's usually gay smut written by 14-year-old female virgins. Isn't that reason enough?

 

I'm not sure if you have an adequate sample size to say that. How many slash fics have you actually read?

Over the years I've probably only read ~30 or so, but I'd say probably less than half had sex scenes.

Not sure how that's related, but sure. If you can't identify with a character you don't enjoy reading.

 

This. People need to come out and say they don't like to read homosexual stories or can't relate because of that. People need to stop trying to be so PC and just be honest.

Otherwise they'll keep coming up with reasons and people like Taure will keep shooting them down.