this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2023
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Socialist FanFiction

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A community for discussing any socialist fanfiction you're reading or writing!

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  1. Please only post fanficiton that showcase socialist values and messages (Other kinds of fics belong in https://lemmygrad.ml/c/fanfiction !)
  2. Don't post work that glorifies bigotry, even if it fits otherwise (no American patsoc shit basically).
  3. Don't harass authors who are kind enough to post their work; Learn to criticize gently, not flame, especially if it's a new author.
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  5. Follow all Lemmygrad site rules

Not a rule, but linking to and posting on A03 is preferred

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How can we write the best socialist fanfiction possible? (lemmygrad.ml)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Not in the general writing way, but in writing fics that best portray socialist values and messages (although I do think we should try and do writing workshops to improve the general quality of our writing as well!)

I've seen socialists express concerns before about the idea of fanfiction, in that many stories enforce the ideas of liberalism, like great man theory, and if you're going to change the story enough to follow socialist messaging, you might as well write your own stories with new IP.

I disagree, I like the idea of co-opting ideas that have captured the public's imagination (and honestly, a lot of fandoms mean a lot to me. I don't want to give it up to liberals lol). Also, I do think a little liberalism can still be ok, like great man theory, if the original story permits it. Naruto, for instance, as a story the power levels of ninjas who can use chakra vs those who can't means they can have an outsized influence on politics. So a question would be, could we balance that? Is it possible, or do we need to depower the characters?

Do y'all think we could come up with some guidelines to help people write socialist/socialist fanfiction that doesn't fall into this trap? Like, how best to analyze the world the original author has set up, and how to best describe the class relations, etc.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Let the Dialectics guide you Lenin. - Karl Marx in A New Hope

I thought the same thing as you before, especially when I started to watch Andor. As long as you keep in mind that the ideas the characters have come from their material conditions and avoid the trope of the benevolent ruler, I don't see much that could go wrong. Really interested in what others here have to say about it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

As long as you keep in mind that the ideas the characters have come from their material conditions and avoid the trope of the benevolent ruler,

...?

Could you please elaborate on what you meant here? I didn't quite get this, as a writer myself.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

It's pretty hard to write anything concrete that works for all possible works of fiction, but I'd say most of them are ill-suited to a character suddenly spouting ML-rhetoric. There needs to be some basis for the character's radicalization that is rooted in their material conditions. Harry Potter for example has almost no chance of achieving class consciousness, as he's quite privileged (and later on joins the wizard cops).

The benevolent ruler trope is just something I see often in fantasy, even if they mean well, it's just the reform vs. revolution argument.

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