oh no he didn't

[asimplechord]

OK, so I'm reading this m/m ebook, Lessons in Love, right? I mentioned it a couple of posts ago, for the "fictional book" entry of the 30-day meme.

Yeah. Being as two Fellows at Cambridge could lose their positions (or be sentenced to two years' hard time, like Oscar Wilde) back in that era, the sexual part of the relationship between the two main characters is developing slowly, behind closed and locked doors. Which I'm fine with. There's something about that era that, despite behind-closed-doors Victorian licentiousness, makes restraint sort of fitting, to me. Plus, part of the focus has been on the mystery of two murders in their college.

But. BUT.

In an effort to make progess with their physical relationship, one of the characters tells the other about his past, complete with abuse by other boys at his boarding school. And then. THEN. HIS FIRST LOVE. His first love was so perfect and wonderful that he volunteered at a soup kitchen, where he caught TB AND DIED.

I AM SRSLY SITTING HERE WITH A OMGWTF EXPRESSION ON MY FACE. Hey, hi, just when I was thinking that you WEREN'T badfic, this scene came along and changed my mind.

Comments

[mercurybard.livejournal.com]

BWHAHAHA...badfic, sneaks up and POUNCES!

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

Just when you let your guard down, it goes in for the kill!

[katieupsidedown.livejournal.com]

Have you read Maurice by E.M. Forester? Because it's sort of like what you're describing, but kind of classic and awesome.

Wiki entry- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_novel

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

I have! And I have the movie, because I went through a phase where I was in love with all Forester work and all Merchant/Ivory productions. I really really love that era, and I enjoy Forester's work. Maurice is eleventy-million times better written than this novel.

[katieupsidedown.livejournal.com]

Well, duh. :DDD I love movie Scudder, ngl.

Umm... I don't know a lot of other gay books. Swordspoint I guess if you haven't read it, although I think it's just about made the rounds of fandom. It is a really good book. I just wish the sequels were as good :|

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec. IDK, I just started looking at ebooks b/c I can read them on my phone, but it seems like the writing/editing quality is not so good. Not, you know, that this one was bad up to this point. But I've read a lot of really badfic-ish summaries and excerpts.

[vic-ramsey.livejournal.com]

HE CAUGHT THE CONSUMPTION FROM WORKING WITH THE HOMELESS AND DIED.
LOLOLOLOLOL. Damn that stealth!badfic.

I'm pretty sure I've seen that fic on patdslashseek.

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

From working with the homeless? Or from losing his spleen in a jailhouse fight? *cough*

[royalneptune.livejournal.com]

Oh my god I just died laughing, thank you. Don't you HATE when you've invested time in something like that, be it fiction or fan fiction, and then the blatant 'bad fic' smacks you upside the head? I want to quit when that happens but most of the time I keep reading out of weird determination.

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

I'm laughing now, but last night I was SO ANNOYED! Because I was half-way through, and it was a decent novel, and then BANG: bad fic explosion. I think I'm more willing to let one small badfic-ish thing slide in fanfiction than published fiction, because I feel like a lot of fanfic is *based* on cliches that easily slide down the slippery slope to badfic, but sometimes they catch themselves. (Of course, if something looks like badfic from the start, I'm not even clicking the link.)

I forced myself to finish reading, partly because it's really hard for me to not finish a book once I've started it, and partly because it had been okay up to that point, and I wanted to get to the whodunit. But I am not sure I'll be purchasing the next in the series.

[bloodygoodgirl.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha I'm pretty sure I've read that Panic fic. Sometimes you just have to shake your head. And then mock them on the internet.

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I can't even imagine how bad I'd feel if the author actually found me mocking them.