Read on Twitter
can't stop thinking about these tweets. the idea that "legitimate/meaningful queer literature" exists as a distinct category is hilarious. pair that with the idea that that alone is my "lineage"... and it becomes clear how deeply op misunderstands queer literary history.
an important part of my lineage as a queer writer & reader is queer pulp novels-- books that were sold cheaply and considered absolute drivel. the perception of pulp as "lowbrow" allowed queers to read and write stories that they were unable to before (at least in modern times).
some of those pulps were garbage! some were written by straight people who wanted to use queer identities to make a quick buck! and some were life-affirming and life-changing. (and the lines between these were *gasp* not always clear cut!)
I see fanfic as a medium that is very similar to queer pulp. Consistently looked down upon and derided, it is a place where queer creators are able to write and publish some of the most unique and powerful representation.
I find the idea that "queer kids shouldn't have to learn what it means to be queer through fanfic" absolutely HILARIOUS. as someone who LITERALLY RAN A SITE ABOUT QUEER BOOKS AS A TEEN, it wasn't until I started reading fanfic that I began to realize I was queer.
fanfic was utterly unabashed and unashamed. queers got to exist in it as full, complex characters, when so many novels (at the time) portrayed us as perfect angels or stepping stools for a straight character's growth. I needed that unabashedness.
thankfully, mainstream fiction has changed since then, and queers are more and more able to appear as fully-fledged characters. but I'm going to be honest. fan fiction is still where I'm able to see myself most frequently.
fanfic writers give zero shits about respectability. in fanfic, queers get to be weird, kinky, unhealthy, happy, mean, angry, beloved. we get to just fucking *exist*, without any judgement.
I needed to see that as a teen, and I need to see it now. Of course I want to see more of it in mainstream fiction too, and I have a few times, which is wonderful. But never to the extent that fanfic allows.
Fic is a genre that inherently pushes against the boundaries of respectability, that claims our right to exist in all our messiness and weirdness, that says that we don't have to hold any of ourselves back. What is more legitimately and meaningfully queer than that?
I love queer books. I love queer literary history. And I love fan fiction. Fanfic is a part of my lineage, one that I am damn proud to be a part of. It's a major part of what taught me to be the unabashed, unashamed queer I am today. I am so, so grateful for it.
