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Between the bars
(Note: This focuses heavily on actorfic, rather than bandfic and other RPF, which I'm really not involved in, and which I think probably springs from a different place entirely.)
That aside, I think the appeal of RPF probably comes from, and operates on, three different levels:
1) As an extension of canon, and from viewers' desire to believe that what we're seeing is real on some level. This is primarily, if not exclusively, a shipper desire: we want to believe that the people we're seeing fall in love on screen are actually in love, that's it's more than just playing pretend. This kind of RPF often follows lines of on-screen shippiness; shipping Peter/Claire, and writing Milo/Hayden. It lends an extra dimension to what we see on-screen, validates our ships, plays with what we're presented and changes it through context. It also works with non-shippy fic; picking up on-screen dynamics, and extrapolating or explaining them through fic. More than anything, I think this kind of RPF is more concerned with the fictional canon than with the "real world" canon; it's a way to comment on the fictional canon, a way of looking at what we see on-screen and exploring that in a different, but not dissimilar, way than writing FPF backstories/character studies/deleted scenes.
2) As a form of OOC, or a very extreme AU. It's a way to get these two people - or at least, people who look very much like them, and who may share some essential character traits - together in a different way from canon, or in a way canon doesn't allow. We're writing about people who look like the characters, but in a different time and place, without all the baggage and difficulty that comes with getting together two people who were never meant to be together, or who simply have too much between them that we'd rather not deal with. At worst, this can produce OOC, pure wish-fulfillment RPF, where actual relationships and personalities are ignored in favour of, essentially, playing with dolls who look like our favourite actors/characters, but it doesn't have to; and again, I think this has a lot more to do with fictional canon than real world canon.
3) From the real people and relationships themselves, and how we perceive them (or would like to perceive them). Can be similar to the first instinct, except that this comes less from our interest in/commentary on fictional canon, and more from our interest in the people behind them. This might come from reading interviews with the actors, or learning more about them - maybe you think it's really interesting that Jason Behr and Katie Heigl were dating while working on Roswell, and wanted to see how that would affect them playing siblings on the show. Maybe the actors on your show are all really close, and you wanted to see them hanging out together and having fun. Maybe it's a total crack!fic impulse - say somebody's male character was hitting on (straight) George O'Malley on Grey's Anatomy, but in real life T.R. Knight was interested in the (straight) actor, and, like, hilarity ensued! Or what if Nathan Fillion strained his voice yelling "TRAAAAAAP!" in Serenity, and for the rest of the day Joss Whedon and the rest of the cast took horrible, horrible advantage of it? This is where I think most RPF genfic comes from, and while it can also be shippy, it isn't shippy because of on-screen shippiness; it's the form of RPF most concerned with the actual real person canon, rather than the fictional canon that surrounds it.
I'm probably missing some stuff, and like all fanfic meta, YMMV. Incidentally, my![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
prettylightsfic fic is totally the third type, and I hope my recipient likes it, because I'm actually really looking forward to writing it. It's also the first RPF I'll ever have written, which may make me a horrible person, but I think it's going to be fun.
Now, off to keep typing up my BSG crack!fic of doom, which is finished but still sitting in my notebook. It would be so much easier if I wrote directly onto my laptop, but I have this thing about writing on actual paper, so this is just what I have to deal with when I end up writing twenty pages' worth of fic.
That aside, I think the appeal of RPF probably comes from, and operates on, three different levels:
1) As an extension of canon, and from viewers' desire to believe that what we're seeing is real on some level. This is primarily, if not exclusively, a shipper desire: we want to believe that the people we're seeing fall in love on screen are actually in love, that's it's more than just playing pretend. This kind of RPF often follows lines of on-screen shippiness; shipping Peter/Claire, and writing Milo/Hayden. It lends an extra dimension to what we see on-screen, validates our ships, plays with what we're presented and changes it through context. It also works with non-shippy fic; picking up on-screen dynamics, and extrapolating or explaining them through fic. More than anything, I think this kind of RPF is more concerned with the fictional canon than with the "real world" canon; it's a way to comment on the fictional canon, a way of looking at what we see on-screen and exploring that in a different, but not dissimilar, way than writing FPF backstories/character studies/deleted scenes.
2) As a form of OOC, or a very extreme AU. It's a way to get these two people - or at least, people who look very much like them, and who may share some essential character traits - together in a different way from canon, or in a way canon doesn't allow. We're writing about people who look like the characters, but in a different time and place, without all the baggage and difficulty that comes with getting together two people who were never meant to be together, or who simply have too much between them that we'd rather not deal with. At worst, this can produce OOC, pure wish-fulfillment RPF, where actual relationships and personalities are ignored in favour of, essentially, playing with dolls who look like our favourite actors/characters, but it doesn't have to; and again, I think this has a lot more to do with fictional canon than real world canon.
3) From the real people and relationships themselves, and how we perceive them (or would like to perceive them). Can be similar to the first instinct, except that this comes less from our interest in/commentary on fictional canon, and more from our interest in the people behind them. This might come from reading interviews with the actors, or learning more about them - maybe you think it's really interesting that Jason Behr and Katie Heigl were dating while working on Roswell, and wanted to see how that would affect them playing siblings on the show. Maybe the actors on your show are all really close, and you wanted to see them hanging out together and having fun. Maybe it's a total crack!fic impulse - say somebody's male character was hitting on (straight) George O'Malley on Grey's Anatomy, but in real life T.R. Knight was interested in the (straight) actor, and, like, hilarity ensued! Or what if Nathan Fillion strained his voice yelling "TRAAAAAAP!" in Serenity, and for the rest of the day Joss Whedon and the rest of the cast took horrible, horrible advantage of it? This is where I think most RPF genfic comes from, and while it can also be shippy, it isn't shippy because of on-screen shippiness; it's the form of RPF most concerned with the actual real person canon, rather than the fictional canon that surrounds it.
I'm probably missing some stuff, and like all fanfic meta, YMMV. Incidentally, my
prettylightsfic fic is totally the third type, and I hope my recipient likes it, because I'm actually really looking forward to writing it. It's also the first RPF I'll ever have written, which may make me a horrible person, but I think it's going to be fun.Now, off to keep typing up my BSG crack!fic of doom, which is finished but still sitting in my notebook. It would be so much easier if I wrote directly onto my laptop, but I have this thing about writing on actual paper, so this is just what I have to deal with when I end up writing twenty pages' worth of fic.
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Great post!
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I'd theorize (based on my very limited and fishbowl view of things, so please add salt *g*) that dvd commentaries and various convention appearances probably have a lot to do with this third category. Because that's where you get the actors who play your favorite characters joking and playing with each other in a way maybe you've always hoped your favorite characters really interact.
And I also theorize that there's a certain element of... presentation I think is a good word, to the interplay. I mean, the actors are trying to sell their product, they know fans like the onscreen relationships, and so they play up their friendship with each other. Not that they're lying at all it's just... playing to the audience which is what actors do.
Heh, I'm not sure I'm making any sense but I do think there's a bit of a feedback loop going on. Joe Flanigan jokes about his relationship with David Hewlett, it gets a big laugh, so he does it again and then Jason Moma runs with it and on and on. (Seriously, this makes so much sense in my head. :D )
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Oh, I definitely think so! Not only are they often fairly intimate - and like you said, feature the actors "playing up" to the camera in a sense - but they're probably most peoples' best source of knowledge about what the people and relationships may really be like, or at least their first idea.
And yeah, there's definitely some presentation involved, and sometimes you can even see through that. For my money, I really like it when the actors insult each other, because then you know they're really friends; when one person keeps going on about how awesome someone else is, it can occasionally come off as "... and I'm paid to say this."
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Oh, I totally agree. The snarkier the better. ;) I remember reading somewhere that the generally used euphemism for "do not like" was "they're so professional!".
Also... LOL at your icon. :D