Heee, that bit about changing Dana to Dan really brought me up short! I mean, of course you're right-- you can't just substitute male for female. So while I love Silvia Kundera's argument that H/D is implicit-- or at least possible-- in canon because 'what would you think of Draco's behavior if Harry was a girl'-- most definitely, the interactions between boys/boys & boys/girls are different. However, an argument could be made that slashing messes with gender/sex boundaries (which it does, albeit indirectly), because in a meta way, it's going against the 'heteronormative' behavior exhibited in the source.... And it might help to see characters' behavior from the pov of the opposite gender and play with that in order to throw some things into contrast, but in the end, it seems dodgy, as if sexuality itself was heteronormative and homosexual desire just sort of 'borrows' it, or even any kind of normative (homonormative, at least in that M/S example!).
I think the people who treat Sirius/Remus as canon are what we like to call 'tinhats', so I mean-- there's no reason to treat them seriously. I'm sure there are people who say Frodo/Sam is canon and that Jim/Blair (from the Sentinel) is canon, and you know, there are people who say Jim/Spock is canon (and they bring out interviews with Roddenberry and everything-- it can be done). Basically, you can perceive it that way all you want, but for it to be canon, it'd have to be stated in the source so that you could -prove- it to other people.
So basically-- those people are wrong, end of story. Interestingly wrong & worth analysing-- but wrong, because that sort of thing (a love-affair or sexual relationship) ought to be provable.
The Blaise/Marcus slash... I know what you mean in that it sounds like slash to me too-- but I think that's because you borrow the universe & context more than the characters. So it's fanfic (kinda, if it's well-written) and it's two boys, so there's no other term for it -but- slash. However, it's probably a subtle sort of cross-over and/or collaboration... anyway, it's just a different 'type' of fic, y'know? It might pass by most people's radar for that sort of thing, but that doesn't mean it's the same :>
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I think the people who treat Sirius/Remus as canon are what we like to call 'tinhats', so I mean-- there's no reason to treat them seriously. I'm sure there are people who say Frodo/Sam is canon and that Jim/Blair (from the Sentinel) is canon, and you know, there are people who say Jim/Spock is canon (and they bring out interviews with Roddenberry and everything-- it can be done). Basically, you can perceive it that way all you want, but for it to be canon, it'd have to be stated in the source so that you could -prove- it to other people.
So basically-- those people are wrong, end of story. Interestingly wrong & worth analysing-- but wrong, because that sort of thing (a love-affair or sexual relationship) ought to be provable.
The Blaise/Marcus slash... I know what you mean in that it sounds like slash to me too-- but I think that's because you borrow the universe & context more than the characters. So it's fanfic (kinda, if it's well-written) and it's two boys, so there's no other term for it -but- slash. However, it's probably a subtle sort of cross-over and/or collaboration... anyway, it's just a different 'type' of fic, y'know? It might pass by most people's radar for that sort of thing, but that doesn't mean it's the same :>