Crackfic is, IMO, a matter of premise. Crackfic implies an initial premise that is implausible, if not impossible, a premise that's surrealist, even absurdist.
But, who decides what that is? Who says, "this premise is cracked, and this one, but not that one, that's just AU?" That's the issue that's come up whenever I've seen this definition discussed (as per my second 'point' in my post), that one woman's crackfic is another's AU. You say wingfic, for example, is, by definition, crack, but there are those who don't think so, who think it's AU, yes, but perfectly plausible in a SF universe where wild things happen in canon. Where's the list of crackfic themes? What committee decided which ideas belong on the list, and which don't? The "I know it when I see it" definition presumes that we all agree on what's cracked, and we don't. I know of a couple of writers who write what some might call crackfic, but to them, it's not crack, it's AU, and many of the fans of their stories think so, too. There are writers of 'out there' stories, those that you might class as crackfic rather than AU, who wouldn't thank you for labeling their story that way. Who calls it? Where's the stone tablet with the list of cracfic topics? The problem is, there isn't one. There are too many eyes in too many beholders to make that work.
There are also writers who very much intend for anything they label as crackfic not to be taken seriously, and they say so, in their notes--it's the reason they used the crackfic label. Their intent was what made the story crackfic, in their minds--Ces' story 'Haladoria', as previously mentioned, was one of those. The readers didn't see anything particularly cracked about the 'aliens made us pretend a master/slave relationship and have sex' premise; it's actually pretty common, and she wrote it really well. But she felt cracked, apparently, wrote it with that 'whee, crack! *blush*' feeling that some have brought up in comments, so she labeled it crack. The premise isn't out there, at all, for SF/SG-uni fandom--in fact, it's cliched. But the writer herself called it crackfic.
And I think execution can very much make a difference in what is crack and what is AU, because a premise that might originally seem cracked to some might be worked by the author into a story that's so spot-on in terms of characterization and plot that she turns the cracked into the plausible, makes a workable AU out of a wacky idea--was Shallot's mail-order bride story crackfic, or AU? You might say crackfic, but I say AU, when I consider the care she took to create a universe where this kind of thing could plausibly happen, and then gave us characters that fit both what we know and her, literally, alternate universe. So, if it's really a judgment call, if there is no consensus, then a definition that narrows it down to only "very out-there premise" doesn't really work.
That's where the difficulty comes in, because, for some, the definition seems simple, but, on further examination of discussions and writer practices and reader reactions--not so simple. Is the line somewhere between crackfic and badfic, or crackfic and AU? If it's about state of mind, then whose--the writer's, or the reader's? I think the whole concept is much too fluid to really pin down; I think it's one of those terms that's going to mean whatever the user wants it to mean.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2006-01-19 11:26 pm (UTC)But, who decides what that is? Who says, "this premise is cracked, and this one, but not that one, that's just AU?" That's the issue that's come up whenever I've seen this definition discussed (as per my second 'point' in my post), that one woman's crackfic is another's AU. You say wingfic, for example, is, by definition, crack, but there are those who don't think so, who think it's AU, yes, but perfectly plausible in a SF universe where wild things happen in canon. Where's the list of crackfic themes? What committee decided which ideas belong on the list, and which don't? The "I know it when I see it" definition presumes that we all agree on what's cracked, and we don't. I know of a couple of writers who write what some might call crackfic, but to them, it's not crack, it's AU, and many of the fans of their stories think so, too. There are writers of 'out there' stories, those that you might class as crackfic rather than AU, who wouldn't thank you for labeling their story that way. Who calls it? Where's the stone tablet with the list of cracfic topics? The problem is, there isn't one. There are too many eyes in too many beholders to make that work.
There are also writers who very much intend for anything they label as crackfic not to be taken seriously, and they say so, in their notes--it's the reason they used the crackfic label. Their intent was what made the story crackfic, in their minds--Ces' story 'Haladoria', as previously mentioned, was one of those. The readers didn't see anything particularly cracked about the 'aliens made us pretend a master/slave relationship and have sex' premise; it's actually pretty common, and she wrote it really well. But she felt cracked, apparently, wrote it with that 'whee, crack! *blush*' feeling that some have brought up in comments, so she labeled it crack. The premise isn't out there, at all, for SF/SG-uni fandom--in fact, it's cliched. But the writer herself called it crackfic.
And I think execution can very much make a difference in what is crack and what is AU, because a premise that might originally seem cracked to some might be worked by the author into a story that's so spot-on in terms of characterization and plot that she turns the cracked into the plausible, makes a workable AU out of a wacky idea--was Shallot's mail-order bride story crackfic, or AU? You might say crackfic, but I say AU, when I consider the care she took to create a universe where this kind of thing could plausibly happen, and then gave us characters that fit both what we know and her, literally, alternate universe. So, if it's really a judgment call, if there is no consensus, then a definition that narrows it down to only "very out-there premise" doesn't really work.
That's where the difficulty comes in, because, for some, the definition seems simple, but, on further examination of discussions and writer practices and reader reactions--not so simple. Is the line somewhere between crackfic and badfic, or crackfic and AU? If it's about state of mind, then whose--the writer's, or the reader's? I think the whole concept is much too fluid to really pin down; I think it's one of those terms that's going to mean whatever the user wants it to mean.