slashgen or preslash

[jmtorres]

I wish people didn't feel like everything needed a pairing label. Also, just because you're slashing them in your own head, it doesn't necessarily come out that way in fic: Cas being a stalker is kind of canon, it's not necessarily a pairing thing. I say this because I am getting sort of frustrated at reading things that are supposedly a particular pairing and then nothing pairing-like happens. I've started getting excited at seeing NC-17 in the labels not because I'm particularly interested in reading about them having sex but because it means I can fairly reliably expect them to be having an actual relationship and not just burgers. Not that I'm not up for cute burger-eating fluff, but it's gen and it's misleading to claim it's not.

*sigh*

Comments

[elspethdixon]

a useful "I would like slash subtext, thank you for telling me I can find it here".

*nods* When it comes to certain fandoms and pairings, I definitely have a preference for slash-friendly gen. And I always like it when I know an author shares my shipping preferences. Even gen can be written through the lens of an OTP -- shipping is about more than overt sex and romance. It's also about which character serves as another character's emotional lynchpin. And reading genfic where the wrong character is Character's A Most Important Person, or where there's obvious UST between characters who's relationship is enjoyable when platonic but would be squicky to you-the-reader if sexual (because the characters are siblings and you have an incest squick, or because mentor/student relationships squick you, or some other specific-relationship-dynamic squick, or because you'd really like to never be made to imagine character X having sex) can be as jarring as reading something where there's a textual, consummated romantic/sexual relationship that you don't ship.

Whereas gen that has a nice helping of slashy subtext in the flavor you prefer is often just as satisfying as fic with actual sex scenes.

[lotesse]

Oh yes this. I think I've used "romantic gen" before to describe this - I assume that readers will figure from the other header info if it's m/m or m/f or f/f. But - as a reader! - I want a word for it, because so often that's what I really want.