Interview: Louise Brealey/Molly

[boji]

In the Observer today, Louise Brealey does a brief interview where she talks about Molly loving Sherlock, her take on twitter and how fans basically write porn.

And I'm not kidding. From the interview I give you:

There's this whole world of fandom. What's fascinating is that they [the fans] write these stories about the characters. I initially thought they were just stories but they're not; they're basically porn.

After the first series, I was looking online to see what people thought of Molly and what came out was this story in which Molly got nipple piercings and had sex with Moriarty. At which point, I stopped reading.

The rest can be found here.

Comments

[wrabbit]

:(

[katekat]

man it's tough to read that. Especially because she seems like a really interesting woman. Fandom is it's own country, you know? she's effectively done a very historically British thing to do - gone to another country and called our rituals shameful, but doesn't realize it.

[boji]

man it's tough to read that. Especially because she seems like a really interesting woman.

Yeah. I had a real 'ouch' moment reading that. In part I'm conflicted reading what she says because pwp fics are a huge part of fandom (a huge part of the gifting/friendship side of fandom too) but they're not truly indicative of the talent and the creativity.

There are fics out there, in other fandoms, that are better than cannon. There are stellar crossover fics. There are gorgeous pieces of work.

It just happens that fans push the pwp forward to actors and I imagine google does too. And then there are vids that get better billing in the mainstream media which really makes me hurt for fic.

Mind you, it could be worse. I could be the writer of the aforementioned fic, in which case I'd feel that there wasn't a duvet large enough to hide my head under.

eta: which would of course be my problem/hang-up. Said fic may be beautifully written, hot as hell and really worthwhile.

[katekat]

And see, without being acquainted with the way fandom operates, she just has absolutely no idea that there are differentiations between genres of fics, you know? like i can absolutely see the Molly piercing fic being part of a kink meme or kink bingo, which is highly politically active about why and how it celebrates kink as a deeply feminist and activist endeavor, but if you didn't know that... well, it just seems weird.

I do actually like the fourth wall and feel uncomfortable when it's broken, so if it were me i'd probably be right there with you under the covers... not that it would stop me from creating though!

[kylara]

The Molly piercing fic was part of the LJ kink meme sherlockbbc_fic. It was the first Molly fic out of fandom -- I was actively looking for Mollyfic at the time and it was the only one for quite a while to pop up on any site, at least. Since Brealey was looking for anything to do with Molly too, I'm not surprised she found that one.

boji: It just happens that fans push the pwp forward to actors and I imagine google does too.

I've seen that happen in other instances, but just for clarification: in this case no one pushed the fic toward the actor. It was hiding innocuously in a the midst of a kink meme, and then innocuously on the author's journal.

Brealey tweeted about reading the fic at the time. Fandom talked about it and some shared a few tweets with Brealey, and the author apologized directly. Brealey encouraged her to keep writing. While it was a very interesting event, I prefer the fourth wall too -- if only so fandom can have fun without worrying about being judged.

[boji]

The Molly piercing fic was part of the LJ kink meme [livejournal.com profile] sherlockbbc_fic. It was the first Molly fic out of fandom

Thanks for this clarification, I appreciate it. This makes for a nice piece of fanlore.

I do think that fandom requires the fourth wall to be as rich and diverse as it is, because anything goes - and on the whole I applaud that.

What I did like in the interview was the way LB talks of twitter bringing tv closer to live performance, or giving it the immediacy of theatre.

[katekat]

I had a feeling it was - thanks for clearing that up.

The thing that makes me sad here is that the fanfic author felt she had to apologize for it? Because while Brealey is certainly entitled to her opinion, so is the fanfic author.

if only so fandom can have fun without worrying about being judged.

i wholeheartedly and completely agree with this statement like, so, so much.

[eumelkeks]

Welcome to the internet?

[sylvaine]

Is there no celebrity that sees fandom as anything other than weird fetish porn? :( (Not that there isn't porn! And not that porn isn't awesome! But, you know, fandom is so much more, and it hurts me every time when I see yet another celebrity shame it.)

[molly_o]

I'm guessing celebrities who were familiar with fandom as fans, before they became celebrities, are more positive about it.

But I suspect, if your first exposure to fandom is erotic writing about yourself, it's really hard to get past your initial reaction and see it more neutrally.

I try to imagine myself in that situation, and honestly, I don't know that -I'd- be able to get past it, if I weren't already familiar with fandom.

[sylvaine]

Yeah, I suppose you're right. (Although I have trouble imagining myself *not* being in fandom... *g*)

Maybe I just wish that a) the first exposure wouldn't always be the porn (because dammit, there is plenty of gen out there.) and b) journalists wouldn't insist on always asking those questions... her reaction is justified, but I'd just rather not *know* about it, you know? (Fourth wall I miss you. ;___;)

[katekat]

I wasn't necessarily expressing surprise, just a kind of disappointment that fandom is always seen in such fractured parts.

And that's absolutely great that you've drawn your lines and feel very comfortable with them - that's the fantastic part of fandom too.

OTOH, just because you add it to your disclaimer/description doesn't mean someone isn't going to come along, read it, and not be pleased with it. Considering that a practice of disclaimer/description is part of fandom reading habits, someone who isn't familiar with fandom might not even know how to read a warning and get what's included in it.

And just because you don't post fic you feel uncertain about doesn't mean that fandom works that way for everybody - especially stuff that is on a kink meme. That's part of fandom too.