Ghostbusters, fannish joy and shipping and writing (or lack thereof)

[cimorene]

We saw Ghostbusters and loved it (obviously). Everyone in the theater laughed a lot, but I and the young dude on the other side of me from Wax laughed the most.

I don't actually feel a strong push towards the fanfic (such as typically emerges in response to subtext and plotholes), but I do feel the most positive about it of anything I've felt fannish about in a while.

Except that I definitely ship Holtzmann and Patty, and I'm in the minority. That doesn't happen to me often, and usually when it does I can just read the alternative, except I really can't ship Holtzmann and Erin, and I really don't know why. Assorted thoughts:

• I bet I wouldn't care this much if they were dude characters. I could read it anyway.



• Is it because Erin isn't my type, even though I actually liked her character?



• I definitely saw it onscreen. I just wasn't into it. It wasn't unconvincing to me or anything.



• I mean, actually you could wholly plausibly put Holtzmann with any of the other three, or pretty much any other woman...



• I just liked her and Patty, maybe.



• I was already charmed by the friendship of the actors from the publicity tour stuff that had come out before I got to see it. That's a great ship. Maybe that's why, just smushing the RPF and FPF together.



• It probably is.



• But I'm not sure shippy fanfic is what I want to read even though I ship it, because it seems unexciting beside the memory of the movie. This could just be the Pratchett Problem (or more saliently, the Wodehouse problem): the let-down of fanfic that isn't as funny as the source, but it's quite hard to be as funny as a really GOOD comedian, because it got popular/famous because of being better than most other people at it.



• Gen-driven fandoms don't seem to get nearly as far, though, do they? And even if it was gen casefic, that wouldn't necessarily make it satisfying (see the funniness issue). Look at X-Files and Star Trek gen.


There's a lot of visual and physical elements to the comedy too, so even if something was equally amusing it still couldn't be in the exact same way.

The only thing I've felt vaguely stirred to write or plan fanfiction for in AGES is the mmf ot3 in the 2013 Swedish series based on Maria Lang's classic crime novels. (Series is on Netflix in Finland titled "Maria Lang: Crimes of Passion" and is new to our streaming services, but aired previously here and in Britain at least, because calathea saw it a few years ago and had the same thought.) (I mean to read these and perhaps check out her other novels but I haven't got around to it yet.)

I don't have any sort of ideas or creative urges about Ghostbusters fic, just a strong sense that Yes, There Should Be More of This in the World.

Comments

[rosaw]

I loved Holzman and Patty, too. I think Holzman's flirty with Erin was just to see her squirm. I love Patty. She and Holzman owned it for me. \o/

[stranger]

Another vote for Holtzmann with anyone. It made a recent dental visit much more entertaining when my new dentist showed up as a fair approximation of Holtzmann. However, no ectoplasmic shenanigans were involved.

The movie (especially the post-credits scene) implied ongoing supernatural phenomena, so sequel stories, preferably with wit, verve, action, and possibly Sigourney Weaver, are very much on the table. Say: Holtzmann inadvertently dates Zul. Hijinks ensue.

[devon]

I really loved the movie. I had read a very lackluster review, but that person was on crack and saw a different movie than what I saw. I loved all the characters, but I could have done with a little less of Erin's awkward lusty moments.

I guess I'd ship Holtzmann with Abby instead of Erin. I mean, they're already exuberant BFFs, right? But, yeah, Holtzmann definitely stirred up my rare romantic/lusty interest in women.

I found a couple of stories, but I haven't read them yet. Here's the page where they were rec'd:
http://bluemeridian.dreamwidth.org/459059.html
(she gets a bit overexcited about stories that don't click for me, but they're usually worth checking out, even if I don't finish them.)

[torachan]

I was really surprised to see Erin/Holtzmann was the most popular ship. I could see pretty much any combination of the characters, but just from the film itself my strongest impression was for past Erin/Abby and current Holtzmann/Abby, but both of those are teensy tiny ships (I think Holtzmann/Patty may actually be the second most popular, but everything is dwarfed by Erin/Holtzmann).

I've read a few fics and bookmarked a bunch for later, but nothing really grabbed me just from the summary. (And the couple I did actually read so far were okay, but I've already forgotten what they were about.)

[cimorene]

I agree! I mean, Erin/Abby and Holtzmann/Abby both seemed more plausible than Erin/Holtzmann. Emotionally, anyway. And I think people shipping Holtzmann/Patty are probably mostly influenced by the friendship you see on the publicity tour. I actually have skimmed through the headers in the whole fandom a few times and all the new Patty/Holtzmann ones on AO3 every few days, but I haven't found anything that grabbed my interest yet. It wasn't bad, it was just kind of... eh? Didn't really hit the buttons from canon, maybe?

[cimorene]

My parents have a little crew that gets together on Fridays to watch sf media and eat snacks and one of their friends saw it first and told them it was "fun but not funny". Idek what that is supposed to mean, but I'm definitely going to remember it and probably blurt out something about it if I ever meet this guy. And while it's not like I distrust my own sense of humor, I wasn't the only person laughing! Everybody thought it was funny! And if that ISN'T funny, then what part of it unamusingly fun? Side-eyeing this so hard.

"It was funnier than the original actually, although maybe not by much," was what Wax and I both said when he said this, to which my dad suddenly bursts out that "nothing could be funnier than the original Ghostbusters" because it was "a perfect movie". 😒 Apparently this is a new opinion of his because it was hardly his favorite movie when I was growing up. He wasn't even motivated enough to try to get a copy of it, and I could name 10 comedies he talked about, quoted, and suggested rewatching more often... ugh.

Anyway, I've been going through the Holtzmann/Patty tag every few days exhaustively and skimming through the headers of the most-read and most-bookmarked stuff from the rest of the fandom, but I haven't found anything I wanted to bookmark yet, although I haven't found anything that was actually BAD, and little that was even as bad as mediocre. It's all competent that I've seen (which is pretty rare for something I'm not reading from recs these days!) it's more that it's mostly made up of prompt ficlets that don't go anywhere and really short pieces so far.

[cimorene]

I think I want it to be mostly comic and probably to always have a subplot about whiny misogynists. It just won't feel like canon otherwise!

[cimorene]

Yeah, there could also just be an element of 'combine your two favorite characters' with this pairing, actually...

[stranger]

I might have to look up some of the publicity tour, if it's on line. Surely everything's on line? Smushing the FPF and RPF might be a good approach. (I was fascinated by how LotR fandom developed on both sides at once.) In the movie, the comedy style trumps any kind of romance, even Erin diving into a hellmouth for Abby, which would usually mandate a slash interpretation all by itself. And Patty/Holtzmann sounds intriguing.

[cimorene]

even Erin diving into a hellmouth for Abby, which would usually mandate a slash interpretation all by itself
Agreed. In fact narratively that ship has the best foundation! I've seen a couple stories and I think I've read two of them, but nothing really substantial yet.

I think the easiest way to find stuff from the publicity tour would be to search for something like "kate mckinnon leslie jones" on Tumblr, assuming Tumblr search is a thing that works for you, but if you are interested in all of it you could probably just surf YouTube clips.

[torachan]

I definitely thought it was funnier than the original.

[bluesbell]

I would read your Maria Lang ot3 fic! I wish they'd made more episodes of the series.

[cimorene]

Even ONE reader is enough if it's the only thing you can personally drum up enthusiasm for!! But I have to check out the books first.

I wondered about that too, since ML wrote so many books. Maybe they just ran out of money? Or maybe the others were about different sleuths... or the Swedish viewing public didn't like them? Or one of the main actors got too busy, or something.