STARGATE: Fic Rec "(Rarely) Pure And (Never) Simple" by pepper-field

[campylobacter]

One of the most transforming effects of having a Tumblr blog is getting to know Amanda Tapping fangirls who are also Sam/Jack 'shippers.

It's like a weird AU where I almost feel like a Unitarian at a Baptist Tent Revival because none of the names I'm used to seeing in the Jack/Daniel or Daniel/Vala communities are present or familiar at first, but then I find myself surprised to have actually written my first Sam/Jack, just as some Sam/Jack 'shippers tolerate the Jack/Daniel squee and start noticing the unsubtle HoYay between Jack & Daniel. :U

It's such a relief (as a survivor of the crossfire in the 'shipper vs. noromo wars of The X-Files fandom) to discover a community of Stargate fans who perv over the whole damn team -- Classic SG-1 as well as New!Team. So there does exist a corner of the Stargate fandom where it's not a traumatizingly wanky place where fans fight like 3-year-olds over which pairing should be the only one to exist, because really, WTF is that about?

(Rarely) Pure And (Never) Simple
by pepper_field
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 1410
Pairing: Sam/Jack
Summary: This wasn't a situation she'd ever expected to relive.
Reason for Rec'ing: pepper_field 's story is based on the crack premise that Sam is a virgin, linked from a really funny fanfic meta by rowan_d  about some of the Samantha Carter & Helen Magnus stories that overlook rather obvious features of the characters.

Comments

[gingasaur.livejournal.com]

I love everything about this post. I love that I'm in it! I love that most of the shipper wank has been weeded out by time, I guess, because the people I've met here so far have been extremely ship tolerant. I really cannot imagine fighting with anyone over the validity of anything. It's all valid and let's hurry up and party the hell down.

I used to be so rigid and inflexible about shipping, not in a, "I'm right, you're wrong," kind of way, but in a, "That's not canon and I refuse to read it," kind of way. I can't even imagine doing that now. Half the fun of Stargate fandom, I've found, is relishing the crack ships and the hoyay that is e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. I mean, it's just. Somebody posted a gif of Jack adjusting Daniel's glasses in the elevator the other day, and I was struck by how TOTALLY AND UTTERLY GAYBONES IT WAS. It's like. You'd just. You'd have to be blind.

Mostly, I'm just glad this show is easing me out of all my porny comfort zones. Boys kissing still doesn't really do a lot for me, but at least now I'm in a place where I can give it a chance instead of screaming, "kyaaa~ grosssss!" And what little Jack/Daniel I've read has actually been kind of beautiful. Men can be intimate and sensitive?! WHOA THIS IS BRAND NEW INFORMATION. My conservative Catholic upbringing has been crying its eyes out for a while now and I've never felt better.

That fic was hysterical and I'm still reeling from the surprise virgin!Sam fic I stumbled across the other night. I just. I don't. I can't. Why. Why. Why do people do these things to my darling Samantha. Flames on the side of my face.

[campylobacter.livejournal.com]

Heeee!

I debated whether the drop your username, but I wanted to focus on Pepper and Rowan and I really meant this to be a short rec but I got carried away and it became mini Fandom Meta + Rec.

The Noromos of The X-Files fandom slung around a LOT of canon elitist rhetoric to defend their position, but of course they got Joss'd in the last season and in the 2nd movie. So YAY to post-series Stargate fans who get to enjoy "closed canon" without all that 'ship war baggage or the Canon Purist baggage, because that kind of nitpicking is best reserved for WHY DO ALIENS SPEAK ENGLISH and not "Sam would never fall in love with Janet", because canon itself explored AUs where Dr. Carter married Colonel O'Neill, Sam shacked up with Martouf but broke it off & then had a baby with someone else, Jack & Hank never divorced their wives, and Daniel & Vala were a devoted couple for 50 years.

If the show's writers can play with 'ships, then so can the fans. CANON ELITISTS STOP WAGGING FINGERS AT ME.

OMG when Jack pushes up Daniel's glasses in the elevator, Jacob gives Sam a "Are you sure you're not in love with a gay colonel?" look that KILLS ME. Poor guy didn't understand OT4. ;D

Of course, character assassination in fanfic is an entirely different matter. Sam does not giggle shyly every time Jack says something sarcastic; SHE FLINGS IT BACK in the nicest, subtlest way possible. Sam does not wallow & pine when Jack closes himself off emotionally; she Stays Calm and Does Science.

Sometimes I wonder if fanfic authors are watching the same show I'm watching. Are they recycling "Saved By the Bell" fic and substituting names?

[anna-sg1.livejournal.com]

It's such a relief (as a survivor of the crossfire in the 'shipper vs. noromo wars of The X-Files fandom) to discover a community of Stargate fans who perv over the whole damn team -- Classic SG-1 as well as New!Team. So there does exist a corner of the Stargate fandom where it's not a traumatizingly wanky place where fans fight like 3-year-olds over which pairing should be the only one to exist, because really, WTF is that about?

THIS! I discovered these people, too. It is ~amazing. Especially when you don't have to watch what you say so you don't ~offend someone or inadvertly start wank or whatever.

[campylobacter.livejournal.com]

YES. Ugh, I hate feeling as though I have to censor my squee/snark over a pairing. If I wanna make a light-hearted crack about Sam/Vala or Daniel/Teal'c or Jack/Thor, it's just disturbing when someone lacks a sense of humor and goes EWWWWW ABOMINATION I AM OFFENDED.

Maybe some people ENJOY being offended? I dunno.

[anna-sg1.livejournal.com]

I think it's more that some people enjoy the drama and the attention PLUS I'm pretty sure some of them love the ~righteous rage they get into while defending/imposing their point-of-view.

It's not just about the pairings, recently everytime someone mentions the phrase 'strong female character' there's a million comments and stupid fights and whatever. :/

[thothmes.livejournal.com]

I am (as my body of work makes pretty clear) a Sam/Jack shipper. My experience in this fandom is that there is some pretty heavy anti-Jack/Daniel fan wank by Sam/Jack shippers, and some pretty heavy anti-Sam/Jack fan wank by Jack/Daniel shippers, as well as a certain number of gen fans who need to be warned, but are fine with shipping if they can avert their eyes at the proper time fic, but that the nice fans who far outnumber the wanker!fans, recognize that fandom is about the squee, even if it isn't their choice of squee. There is also a pretty large body of outgoing genial multi-shippers.

This is the way it should be. Folks should be able to find squee where they see it, and enjoy it without being disparaged for it.

That said, there's a body of Jack/Hailey fic out there that kinda squicks me on cradle-robbing grounds (and I have a daughter dating a man who is 16 years her senior, and a dad whose wife is 15 years his junior, and Sam and Jack are clearly also a bit May-December, so I'm not particularly trigger happy on this issue). But it's her squee, so I hit the back button when I wandered there by mistake. I defend the right of others to enjoy it.

Read any good Heimdahl, Ba'al, Anise OT3 lately? ;)

[campylobacter.livejournal.com]

OMG There's Heimdahl/Ba'al/Anise pr0n somewhere?

Man, your whole reply brings up a LOT OF FEELINGS. Well, that and my original post, too. I had to step back and do mindless fangirling on Tumblr, to even come back to discussing this, because OMG, the XF fandom infighting really *almost* broke me and put me off fandom.

There are some folks on my F-List who are vocal about hating all slash, or hating just m/m slash, or being squicked by het, or just a certain pairing, or just not willing to even joke about or discuss anything that's not "Gen" when they're actually using Gen as a euphemism for Noromo. And what I can't understand is WHY. I've seen only 2 legit reasons to support such viewpoints:
1. "Not interested in Jack/Daniel because Jack reminds me of my dad; I can't perve over my dad." (Totally understand this because I can't write McShep or Daniel/Cam until I get over how much Sheppard & Mitchell remind me of my brother.)
2. "Not interested in Sam/Janet because femslash doesn't do it for me." (Totally legit; I find that furry porn doesn't do it for me, and I'm not inclined to make the effort to enjoy it.)

Jack/Hailey? Okaaay folks… have fun with that.

In any case, LABELS ARE FTW, but I sure do wish warnings for character bashing, homophobia, slut-shaming, and misogyny were standard.

This has been a reply. *deep breath*

[thothmes.livejournal.com]

OMG There's Heimdahl/Ba'al/Anise pr0n somewhere?

Alas, not that I've wandered across (or I would have linked, and let you decide if you wanted to go there). I picked it out of thin air as a rare paring. But I'd totally read it and chuckle if there were. If you find it, lemme know, and if I find it I'll let you know. If I had more free time I'd get to work on the icon to promote it!

I don't hate slash. I just don't happen to see Jack and Daniel or Sam and Janet that way, although I certainly see why others might. And people who see it should be able to write it and read it and squee about it. I've seen people write Jack/Daniel very beautifully and very convincingly, enough to make me wish that I didn't have a little voice in the back of my head that whispers "But that isn't the way it is!" all the way through each fic. Clearly the problem is with my reader/watcher glasses, not with the writers or the fic. I am well aware that some of the best SG-1 fic out there is Jack/Daniel, and that I am missing half (or more) of the fun.

Which makes it all the more important for those whose glasses are less tinted than my own to be able to enjoy to the fullest. Fandom is about enjoying the show.

but I sure do wish warnings for character bashing, homophobia, slut-shaming, and misogyny were standard.

I wish refraining from the above were standard, along with stereotyping, tokenism, misanthropy, and leveling - you know, when people can't handle characters whose salient characteristics include excellence, and they have to bring those characters down or reduce them, because excelling is not "realistic" - and other similar things. Alas there are so many ways in which our society makes it easier to label, to divide, to dehumanize, and to hate, and because humans, for all we like to think of ourselves as advanced and cultured, are still basically tribal apes and as such are prone to these errors.

When I write, I try to think in the terms the actors think. The people playing Anubis, or Apophis, or Kinsey have to understand how their characters believe in what they are doing/saying, even if the viewer finds it abhorrent as they root for the team. For the actors, even the vilest of the vile has to have a humanity, a point that touches us.

Man, your whole reply brings up a LOT OF FEELINGS.

I'm sorry. All better now? I never want to be a cause of stress! I was trying to express my appreciation for the plurality of fans who understand squee and encourage it, while acknowledging the sad fact that even in such a nice fandom, there are those who need to act out. I wanted to emphasize the rule (nice) over the exception that proves it (the narrow-minded).

CAMPY FOR ALL THE AWARDS!

[scifigirliegirl.livejournal.com]

Campy:

One of the many MANY reason's I love you is for what you have just stated. Fandom is for squeeing. OTP's are for squeeing. I believe everyone should have their squee and not be put down upon for it.

The only thing I don't enjoy is the incestuous otps (Sanctuary fandom has a few...*shudders*) but then again...I don't like it so I don't read. Plain and simple.

And as for SG-1...I believe the proper OT-would be OTTEAM! Because they are ALL so awesome, and you can see how much each member LOVES and I mean really REALLY LOVES each other and the entire basis of an OTP, OT3, OT4, OT5 is love.

But hey...that's just me. And thanks for the FIC REC! *dives into ficcage*

Re: CAMPY FOR ALL THE AWARDS!

[campylobacter.livejournal.com]

ACK! ::smish:: Replying late because this whole subject makes me EMO. Hope you enjoyed Pepper's story -- it's an "oldie", but publish date shouldn't diminish its awesomeness.

So yep, I'm here for the squee, too because it IS VIRAL and I love to catch a new thing to hnnngg over.

Not into incest pairings, either. I confess to being curious about Luke/Leia twincest in the Star Wars fandom, but only in the abstract, as it's a taboo trope that runs through ancient mythologies (George Lucas being the Campbell fanboy that he is).

Writers who don't have Team = OTP as the Muse for their stories risk misunderstanding what most readers enjoy in the Stargate franchise. ::coughSGUcough::

[magnavox-23.livejournal.com]

I love you for this post!

Jack/Sam has never been my OTP, but there are some truly amazing and heart warming J/S fic out there, and I used to beta for a number of prolific ship authors back in the day. What I love about Stargate is that there is real potential and the subtext is *there* for a whole slew of pairings IMO (alternate realities/clones etc not withstanding :P) And I think that being able to accept and enjoy that variety brings a whole other lovely experience to fandom.

As for legit reasons to baulk at or find ones self unable to enjoy a fic would be as you described above - under age, incest & I've mentioned this before and back when I first got into fandom secrets that CJ/Teal'c with hair looks too much like my dad, I can't do it, I can't see him that way, it squicks me. :P And we're all going to naturally have differing takes on the characters, so much so that at times you come across something that is just too OOC, too unbelievable, and with spaceships, aliens, time travel etc, that's saying something...I think. :P