Nah, it wasn't all -- I was talking about me specifically. As I mentioned, I was an insular kid, and had not been exposed to a lot of buddy movies because most of them are action movies, which isn't a genre I was very interested in. Ditto with the literature -- I realize many ficcers are well-read, but how many of your average Legolas/Aragorn teenyboppers will have read any of the authors you listed? :) While I'm probably in the minority, I doubt I'm the one one who was like that, and thus threw in romance because I thought it was expected. (BTW, for time-frame reference, Buffy was still two or three years in the future. Remember, I started fanfic back when I was thirteen. It was very much the Stupid Kid Phase. :)
To focus on something YOU said, the buddy pairs you listed (Hank-Bobby and Buffy-Willow) were both same-sex. Despite the preponderance of slash nowadays, I think it's telling that there's not a lot of really close m-f buddy pairs in media -- or at least, not any that can't or won't eventually turn into romances at some point (or, like Zoe and Mal, are prevented from becoming such by an episode placed there specifically to deny romantic attraction, which I thought was hillarious ;). Hell, even Spike-Buffy turned romantic -- at least, on one side of the equation. It's 7:30 am right now, so maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought one of the points in Dex's original post was the bizarre tendency to turn all close m-f relationships into romantic ones. That doesn't explain the slash couples, of course, but there is a good chunk of het on the net, so. *G*
I confess, I haven't really talked about the (obviously important) wish-fulfillment factor because I never had that phase or impulse, and thus have a lot of trouble relating. I've never read romance novels for fun, never really been interested in reading them, and don't read 'ship fic unless I really, really like the author. Nothing about seeing ANY two characters get together like that appeals to me unless it's written in an exceptional manner -- my standards are actually much higher for romances because I'm pretty indifferent to the entire genre. I think the reason I'm attracted to buddy-fic is because that, more than romance, is where I get my wish-fulfillment in (and also the fact that I think psychological interaction is inherently fascinating, but hey); I've always been much more preoccupied with getting good, solid friends around me than going on dates and getting a boyfriend. But then, I am a freak of nature. :)
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Re: To concentrate on a part of your arguement...
Date: 2004-01-13 05:47 am (UTC)To focus on something YOU said, the buddy pairs you listed (Hank-Bobby and Buffy-Willow) were both same-sex. Despite the preponderance of slash nowadays, I think it's telling that there's not a lot of really close m-f buddy pairs in media -- or at least, not any that can't or won't eventually turn into romances at some point (or, like Zoe and Mal, are prevented from becoming such by an episode placed there specifically to deny romantic attraction, which I thought was hillarious ;). Hell, even Spike-Buffy turned romantic -- at least, on one side of the equation. It's 7:30 am right now, so maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought one of the points in Dex's original post was the bizarre tendency to turn all close m-f relationships into romantic ones. That doesn't explain the slash couples, of course, but there is a good chunk of het on the net, so. *G*
I confess, I haven't really talked about the (obviously important) wish-fulfillment factor because I never had that phase or impulse, and thus have a lot of trouble relating. I've never read romance novels for fun, never really been interested in reading them, and don't read 'ship fic unless I really, really like the author. Nothing about seeing ANY two characters get together like that appeals to me unless it's written in an exceptional manner -- my standards are actually much higher for romances because I'm pretty indifferent to the entire genre. I think the reason I'm attracted to buddy-fic is because that, more than romance, is where I get my wish-fulfillment in (and also the fact that I think psychological interaction is inherently fascinating, but hey); I've always been much more preoccupied with getting good, solid friends around me than going on dates and getting a boyfriend. But then, I am a freak of nature. :)