in which hurt/comfort is compared to a sofa

[cimorene]

so, i like hurt/comfort as much as the next person, usually.  i mean, that depends who the next person is, but i have something of a weakness for hurt/comfort, anyway.  i like it!  but i need to have it sold to me, just a little, which isn't, like, a criticism.  i mean, i want to buy it. 

let's take an anonymous something that i read once upon a time.  in this story you have the protagonist wounded, unconscious for what must be several minutes and bleeding out the entire time--even though the slash interest has been applying pressure to his wound for, presumably, a couple of minutes at least.  and despite this, he's able to get turned on because the aforementioned slash interest is straddling him, the better to apply pressure--to his bleeding abdominal wound.  which is, yes, still bleeding, although we're told that it's not bleeding very fast, that it's not that serious.  we do get a little bit of panic, and the protagonist telling himself he shouldn't be thinking those sexay thoughts while bleeding to death, but you know--that's not enough for me.

i know that writing h/c is really writing to a kink, and i'm willing to grant allowances on that basis.  but i need a slipcover of believability over my sofas and armchairs of kink, okay?  i still know that underneath it is made of nubbly, pilly, mustard-coloured fabric, and that the stuffing of shame is oozing out through the cat-claw rents of eagerness.  but i want to be able to sit on it and pretend it is actually upholstered in the respectable, clean, and solid-coloured twill of believability and coherent narrative. 

Isilya: I have a thing for prolonged and uncomfortable erections
cim: if they were mentioning how it was omgpain, and he had an uncomfortable prolonged erection that he didn't need, i could maybe buy it
cim: instead of acting like the bleeding wound is some kind of social situation that makes his arousal "inappropriate", but not any less likely.

 

a bleeding abdominal wound, in the world of the writer and the reader, is a social situation, because the bleeding abdominal wound is the slipcover, the plot, the coherent narrative.  the core of the story itself, the stuffing, is h/c, and has a lot more to do with themes:  caring, and partnership, and how relationships and people change under fire, and, well, comfort, and how nice it is when someone is hurt.  but let's not confuse our world with the characters' world, because in their world, the logic of the plot has to fit in with the logic of the universe.  for us, the hurt might be something we have to sit through before we can get to the comfort.  for him, i'd like the hurt to be real.  don't devalue the hurt!  because then you devalue the comfort as well!

and that concludes today's, um, installment of the meta through cracked-out interior design metaphors lecture series.

Comments

[isilya]

instead of acting like the bleeding wound is some kind of social situation that makes his arousal "inappropriate", but not any less likely.

STILL BRILLIANT.

Ahahaha. You know, I think sofas as fanfiction are a fabulous analogy. And now I now why I don't like short stories--I want something I can wallow on and stretch out across and be enfolded by its softly-padded cushiony bosom.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

you know, that's funny, though, because i do like short stories. i have to be in a certain mood to read a novel or novella. even though novella is my favourite length for, you know, FABULOUS fic, i like things that are more like, oh, 60-80k most of the time, for casual reading. you can swallow them at once but they're not uncomfortable--not ottomans! not folding chairs! i do want to be able to snuggle into the story's cushiony bosom--but sometimes i don't want to stretch out, like.

anyway, i maintain that you should make a post about story length and sofas!

[i-naiad.livejournal.com]

And now I now why I don't like short stories--I want something I can wallow on and stretch out across and be enfolded by its softly-padded cushiony bosom.

Oh, that is perfect. I stealing that to use from now on.

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

You are so metaquoted.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

less than three :).

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

And here I just found this icon that I made back in, er, 2003:

[cimness.livejournal.com]

omg! i had lost that! now i have 100 icons i can upload it again!

*SQUEEZES the purple sofa!*

[special-trille.livejournal.com]

for him, i'd like the hurt to be real. don't devalue the hurt! because then you devalue the comfort as well!

I can't stop agreeing with you, and it's becoming almost embarrassing. Also, I think I recognise that sofa.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

we have a mutual agreement club kinda going, don't we? but it's okay! we're not embarrassing, we're uh, we're cool!

i like my h/c with lots of subtlety. if it's subtle enough, sometimes, you can actually read it for the plot.

I think I recognise that sofa.

i didn't know you had visited wax! :O

[special-trille.livejournal.com]

what can I say? her milkshake brought me to the yard.

sometimes I tell myself embarrassingly bad h/c on the way to the bus stop in the mornings. this week however, it's been crazy AUs.

I tell you this because I want to nip this illusion of coolness in the bud.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

crazy AUs? *hollow laugh!* what about my crazy AU in, like, 1930s Deep Southern US, where mckay and sheppard are scientists belonging to the explorers' club and they're out on a little fishing/spelunking/fossil collecting/bat-watching expedition and a boat capsizes so sheppard's totally soaked, and then muddy, and the handkerchief knotted around his neck dries so the knot won't come out, and when mckay is trying to undo it there's so much sexual tension that finally sheppard shoves him over on the floor of the horse-drawn expedition buggy they have taken out into the field and blows him?

um.

...but we can PRETEND that we're cool.

[special-trille.livejournal.com]

OMG HANKERCHIEF PORN!

That's, I, You, Yes. YES.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

mmmmmh.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

*dies* The stuffing of shame!

This is hilarious, but oh so true. I really don't like H/C myself, precisely because it's rarely done well. To me it always feels very forced rather than just something that happened to happen to the characters.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i guess i usually like it in spite of the fact that it's rarely well done, because i agree, people usually don't bother with the slipcover--it's as if they're thumbing their nose at the people who aren't deep in the kink--it's not FOR you! it's only for us, the people who don't care if it makes sense! and that's a shame, because i think it can really work for the abovementioned themes when it is done well--when someone takes the time to make it seem more natural, to make both hurt and comfort believable and real, to put on a plot that you could actually pay attention to if you wanted! ...and with a *lot* of subtlety.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* There's stuff like that in every genre (I think of really hardcore shipper fics for pairings that really need an explanation; Snape/Harry where they're already in a fluffy loving relationship, for example. No one but a SS/HP shipper is going to buy that, but that's okay, because the author isn't writing for non-shippers), but some seem to do it more than others. Or maybe it's just that the more well-written H/C is not immediately recognisable as such, whereas the stuff that's really obvious is because the author is just piling it on and not really caring about anything but the hurt and comfort.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Or maybe it's just that the more well-written H/C is not immediately recognisable as such, whereas the stuff that's really obvious is because the author is just piling it on and not really caring about anything but the hurt and comfort.

oh! you know... that's a good point. i'll have to think about that some more!

because i know i have heard myself say things like something wasn't really h/c, but it had an "element" of it, or a "hint", or a "faint flavour", and... why is that not h/c? is that not like the high school english teacher who tried to tell me that fahrenheit 451, because it was intelligent and about an idea and not just spaceships, was not science fiction but merely speculative fiction in a futuristic setting?

hmmm. *goes off to think*

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Also might be the difference in setting off to write an H/C fic (which those who really like that kink would be doing) and writing a fic that just happens to have some hurt and comfort.

It's like, with mpreg, which is an extreme form of H/C, the fics that outsiders always tout as good examples of mpreg, are the ones where the authors are trying to write a story that includes men getting pregnant. Most often the authors themselves are not fans of the genre. But to those who are fans of the genre, the best fics are not necessarily the same, because they want those things that go along with the guy getting pregnant. They want the whole mpreg package.

[helzebel.livejournal.com]

Random person from metaquotes here, just wondering - how is mpreg an extreme form of hurt/comfort?

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

A lot of H/C, even more than other genres of slash, feminises one partner (while his big, manly lover comes to save him). Having one guy actually get pregnant is an extreme of that. There's a lot of emotional trauma usually involved in finding out he's pregnant, and of course the physical side as well. It all provides ample opportunity for comfort.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

and it also intensifies that "us against the whole UNIVERSE" element of h/c where the comforter is the only possible/plausible/appropriate source of comfort (usually also artificially induced, like by being stranded somewhere when a medical emergency occurs) which necessitates the comforter kinda stepping up to the plate and everybody drawing together in the face of adversity.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

A lot of the wingfic fits in this category, too. The partner is the only one who understands the one who's suddenly sprouted wings.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

or in sga, centaurfic.

no, i am sadly not kidding.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

dot dot dot

[cimness.livejournal.com]

yes, exactly.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I linked this in chat and Ruth reminded me of Boytaur (http://boytaur.net).

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[morningfine]

I'm mostly thinking how appropriate it is that you went ahead with the sofa rather than the armchair.

(Read: SOFAAahahahaaaaaaaa!!!1 ::thud::)

Oh and word and all that, of course.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i was NOT thinking anything like what you are thinking about sofas! how shocking! okay, well, it might've crossed my mind. a little.

actually i was thinking about sofas, though. i was coveting a shiny red ikea sofa. (wouldn't this (http://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/43081_PE138558_S3.jpg) be greeeeeeaaaaat (http://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/24284_PE109118_S3.jpg) for slashmeets (http://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/36913_PE128258_S3.jpg)?)

[morningfine]

Only a little, okay. Don't protest too much.

Sofas #1 and #3 make me whimper. The first one more than the others. Oh, Ikea, don't tempt me so!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

yeah, but no danger cause it's VELVET and... furry animals. now, the last one is pretty cheap. i mean, we've actually seriously considered that one three times now.

sofa

[devon.livejournal.com]

That third sofa is a perfect example of the reason that I hate Ikea. The first one is tolerable, though. I have my crazy, over-stuffed, patterned-velvet couch of doom at my new place - it dwarfs the tiny livingroom. Modern furniture just gives me hives.

Anyways, I like a bit of hurt/comfort, but I don't want the hurt to be *too* serious. Not like lemon-eating hurt. Maybe it's just not my kink.

Re: sofa

[cimness.livejournal.com]

lemon-eating, no, but man--was that even h/c? i think the problem in a huge number of bad h/c fics is the hurt being too severe, that is, the hurt being a thing that in reality would be too severe, and then having it trivialised. of course a realistic treatment of post traumatic stress disorder would be even more unpleasant to read, but if they don't want to deal with it they shouldn't be claiming PTSD for their victims in the first place. it's incredibly irritating to read someone who's been raped or whatever and suddenly they have magical, life-affirming sex with the Healing Cock of the Scottish Highlands and are okay.

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

We actually have that third one in our apartment here (in black). It's actually pretty darn comfy, as long as one has throw pillows for each end.

[norah.livejournal.com]

i need a slipcover of believability over my sofas and armchairs of kink, okay?

Aha. Ahahahaha.

*loves*

[cimness.livejournal.com]

if only you could get a real slipcover with just some dedicated thought and writing, as opposed to a bunch of money. then the actual nubbly mustard sofa would be a lot more presentable...