Backstory: the ten-year-old Due South Canadian Shack meme is being revived. (You may know it better as the "trapped in a mountain cabin fanfic trope. But sexier. It's a sugar shack.) Why is it a Canadian shack? You'll recall that Constable Benton Fraser's actual home is a shack in the Territories. It's a nice place. So nice that it gets blown up, like, twice.

Anyway.

Staranise is not happy with this. "Shacks" is a bad, bad word for her. "Shacks" are what First Nations people live in. (Please note that reservation houses are often horrible because the Canadian Government is terrible to its people but that is another story.) They belong to poor people. They certainly aren't cabins. That's something entirely different.

She also has no idea what shacks even have to do with the thing she's complaining about. She reveals later on that she avoids Due South, and may be under the impression that the two cops in it are rich, because cops. But that's not going to stop her from having theories.

But the real problem is this: This meme will cause people to think that Canada is an unpopulated wilderness speckled with poor people and their shacks.

I have bad news for her about why she shouldn't worry what people think of Canada/Canadians: No one thinks about us period.

(Also: SHACKS. Better than igloos? y/n?)

Disclaimer: I posted a comment to this, to tell her where Benton lived. Then Ann talked me into posting this here.

...meaning politely, with excessive courtesy, and attempting to make as little noise as possible. But in the end, someone's still gonna have to launder the long johns.

And somehow, over a decade later, the wank is still all about the Rays.

First, belmanoir posts about, generally, the marginalization of Fraser/Vecchio shippers by Fraser/Kowalski fans, and why it's important to phrase things carefully, and be respectful of everybody's shipping preferences, and that "If you're concerned that something you're planning to post might be offensive, consider running it by a non-F/K shipper to get their opinion."

( Some highlights )

It's all very polite and thoughtful and considerate... maybe a little too polite and thoughtful and considerate. ignazwisdom is not impressed:

Honestly, DS fandom, you are one of the nicest groups of people around. That's usually a great thing. It makes the fandom very welcoming to newcomers. Sometimes, though, the obsession with being the Nicest People Ever gets a little bit out of control and actually starts to alienate people, including people who've been in the fandom for years.

...

But fans taking their toys and going home over incidents like that is totally old meme, so I'm more alarmed by the number of people nodding along and saying that yes, people should never talk about how they're not interested in Not-So-Popular Character A or Not-So-Popular Pairing B because that's hurtful to fans of Character A and Pairing B. (Or, whatever, people should think real hard before they say anything about a character or pairing lest it offend someone who likes that character or pairing. It adds up to the same thing.)

zvi_likes_tv ( has stuff to say )

Me, I'm just still bemused by the concept of DS fandom being biased against F/V shippers. THE REVOLUTIONARIES HAVE BECOME THE OPPRESSORS!

Dearest, beloved, Fandom Wank.

I know you were looking forward to great excitement today. Some of you said words to me that indicated you anticipated fiery 'judgement' upon those who remained fresh and dewey white, those you call n00bs.

Anyway, you got today instead.

Stop anticipating things, we'll just break your hearts.

Sincerely,

Sepia P. Magpie, Esq.



PS: Use this post to reflect on how you could be better people. Or just fuck around in the comments.

aukestrel rants about rec warnings in Due South fandom. She doesn't want to read Ray/Ray (or Ray?Ray, as she puts it, because she just can't see the pairing), so she wants clear rec-labels. Okay, fine. Lots of people don't want to read a particular pairing. This makes sense.

This? Not so much:

I prefer my F/K fantasy life. I've loved it for over six years now and I'm going to continue to love it for the foreseeable future.

So please... for the love of Dief and little green apples, would you think before you rec a fucking Ray?Ray story and don't actually mention that fact?

Also, when I defriend you, it's nothing personal. I'm tired of wading through seemingly endless paeans to the glory and rightness of Ray?Ray and recs for stories I have less than no interest in.

Wait, you know what? It is personal. Because I'll wade through endless paeans to Jsquared and Sam/Dean and even McShep without getting all het up. But Fraser's a crazy-ass emotional "for God's sake don't let her near Paul Gross!" connection for me and it hurts me when he's left out in the cold, out of character and just plain out of luck.

Neither does this

Alternate pairings mark the end of "something" (hegemony? group-think? comment-whoring? Tell us!)in a fandom? I did not know that!

There's more nuttiness in the comments,supposedly, but I can't brave them yet without coffee. Thanks to glossing2 for linking to the wank_report,and the mouse that posted it there for the heads-up.

In ds_discourse (a discussion community for Due south) aingeal8c makes a post about Benton Fraser's omgsotragic past.

While people don't have a problem with most of what she says, they object to her statement about season 3/4 not really being canon in her mind.

He lost his mother at the tender age of 6 (‘Victoria’s Secret’) and if you believe S3/4 canon (‘COTW’) then his mother was murdered by a close family friend (I still think illness or injury would have been more plausible but that’s just me).

People take the time to correct her on the meaning of canon. Several times.

She responses to most of those comments.

Some choice bits:

We have Stella/Ray Vecchio never marry because it isn't said point blank.


We have comparisons to Dallas and Star Trek Voyager

We have a denial of the joy that is RayK/Fraser Come on they ride off into the sunset together, how is their relationship not canon! Not that I have anything against RayV/Fraser. I'd just rather have Ray/Ray/Fraser

And what wank would be complete with out the apology/retraction post that isn't really one.

It's all pretty polite but this is as wanky as this fandom gets these days. Now I'm sure there were some prime wanks turning the days when Ray Vecchio was replaced by Ray Kowalski

ETA: Aingeal8c f-locks her journal.

Don't you hate it when the best wank was in deleted posts and you never even got to read it? Sigh. But surfing some 'friends of friends' journals, I found the trail of what looked to be some most excellent wank. Seems buzzwords posted a 'Due South' story to [Unknown LJ tag]. Here's the author's description of his story:

"Here's the story that started it all, a charming due South tale called "Fall of the Sparrow." According to most, you don't have to have actually watched the show to actually understand this story."[sic]

Note the lack of watching the show is considered worthy of emphasis- this will be important in a moment!

So, the story is posted to ds_slashfiction (and subsequently deleted, taking the 'wank' with it), and it appears some folks responded by saying that while it was well written, it didn't seem particularly in character. Then, someone did a bit of digging in Buzz's journal and found this post where he says mostly, I don't know the characters I'm writing about and suggests to him that actually watching the show might help with the characterization issues.

A (now deleted) kerfluffle ensues and then buzzwords posts again saying that he's leaving (this whole post is now deleted as well, but Buzz quotes his goodbye post here. I REALLY wish I'd seen the wank that then flowed. But I didn't.

The fallout can be summed in two main journals (one on each side), and really, the posts are surprisingly calm and well reasoned and non-wanky or flamey. The only real wank I see is in the faint whiff of the wank that was and in the completely different takes on the situation you get from reading. (Well, there's a bit more wank than that, but I'll let you pick it out yourself.) Friends of Buzz take on brooklinegirl's lj and a clarification by justacat on her journal.

There's a little spill over about Fanfic critique, but really, this is almost metablog stuff.

Still, the whiff of 'wank that was' is strong, so I thought I'd pass it along for what it's worth. Also, people who don't watch the show writing fanfic about it strikes me as a little wanky, but that may just be me.

Now, I'm late to work. Hope this brings a little funny.