Those who do not learn from history are *seriously* fucked in the head.

[tzikeh]

Yes, my children, it's slash fiction set during the Holocaust. You know--THAT Holocaust. The Holocaust that helps two white boys to find true love.

From her warning:

"This piece of fiction is not 100% historically correct, nor did I ever intend it to be. Below is an image of Auchwitz (sic) gates, not because this is set there but because of the words upon those gates. I did not write this to be disrespectful to anyone--"

Ah, intent. How very, very much it does not matter.

"-- nor did I write this just as an excuse for slash."

Of course you didn't, dear.

"I put everything I had in to writing this and wracked my brain for weeks trying to get it perfect."

She worked so *HARD* that we should ignore how vile it is. Why does that sound familiar?

"If you do not wish to read a fiction surrounding this subject, even though there are warnings, then do not scroll down. Do not tell me I am sick and disrespectful. If you feel the need to post about how wrong and twisted and disrespectful I am, please join fuckyou_mcr and stay out of this post. This post is for people to appreciate my writing and I will accept any constructive critisism on my writing (emphasis mine)."

Someone wanna screen-cap this romantic romp through the Shoah Show before she locks it down?

(thanks to nestra for the heads-up)

Comments

[movies-michelle.livejournal.com]

So, she didn't write it just for slash, but she didn't feel the need to make it historically accurate, either. What, pray tell, was the point, then?

Dang it, I no longer have a facepalm icon on LJ!

[misspamela.livejournal.com]

...I've got nothing. And is it weirder/worse that this keeps happening with real people? I can't help imagine that Frank and Gerard would be fucking horrified if they ever saw this.

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

I - WHAT? AGAIN? DID WE NOT LEARN FROM THE J2 HAITI BUSINESS THAT APPROPRIATING CULTURAL TRAGEDIES FOR THE PURPOSE OF WHITE-PERSON PORN IS A BAD PLAN?

BRB, headdesking forever.

[penwiper26.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA what?

That's...special.

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

Oh, this gem. I didn't read the fic, but I did read the warnings (emphasis added) reposted elsewhere:

Beating, abuse, non important character death, scientific experiments, starvation, physical and emotional damage.

You know...all those non-important people who actually died in concentration camps, in their millions. Camps where captured American soldiers, even gay ones, would NEVER have been incarcerated.

I am offended as a human being, as a queer person, and as a historian!

I actually joined mychemicalslash so I could comment on the (unlocked) mod post where the mod defended the fic. I was appalled that nobody else was taking issue with the mod's defence of the fic (and especially her statement that "The story was properly disclaimed").

I ended up having an unexpected debate with the author, if anyone's interested in hearing more from her in slightly more reasonable tones:

http://community.livejournal.com/mychemicalslash/4850829.html

She knows all about the Holocaust, you guys: her partner studied WWII in high school! And anyway, she is "a very good writer" and any criticism is totally unjustified.

[zephiey.livejournal.com]

Got it as a pdf with 22 comments.

Want it?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Oh holy FUCK.

Um... can I add the warnings to my main post? Because... "non-important character death" is OBSCENE.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

holy crap. Um, yeah, why not. tzikeh oot thechicagoloop deet net.

[lanning.livejournal.com]

Oh, fuck, she put it up again? She'd taken it down the last time I looked. There's a cap here.

This is a new low in the history of fannish fail. Disgusting.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I remember a terrific DS9 Garak/Bashir set in Auschwitz, Gabrielle Lawson's stunning, 300,000-word Oswiecim (http://glawson.stormloader.com/os1.html), which I cannot recommend enough (and perhaps I should state that several members of my family died there.) You can set a fic anywhere - but you have to be seriously talented to make it work. I have not clicked through to this fic, and the warnings seem rather dire, but I rather wish we didn't reproduce the recent pile-up.

Yes, please?

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Indeedy. shezan at gmx dot net.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Okay, it looks like Jorge Semprun she ain't...

[shezan.livejournal.com]

She's changed it to "non-main character death".

Really, I would have thought we could be a tad more grown-up. This is badfic, and the author's defence of her talent is at best ridiculous. But as a Jew and a member of a family very much involved in this and many other aspects of WWII, I refuse to go all hysterical. Unlike many elements of segregation and colonialism, the Holocaust is very well documented. Obviously the author is not a denier, the only type which really disgust me. Let her be, she is an insignificant mosquito harming no-one.

[nestra.livejournal.com]

Nope, we learned nothing! Just like we learned nothing from the story set in Cambodia a few years ago.

I have this whole argument worked out in my head with her. It does something like "Domestic abuse and incest are general events. The Holocaust is a specific event. They are not comparable. This is like fictionalizing the story of woman whose husband beat her and then using a picture of her with a black eye to illustrate your story."

But it's not worth the effort. Those who know that already know it, and those who don't won't be willing to understand.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

You and I just disagree on this. I'm Jewish as well, though I lost no family in the Holocaust. I do not see it as about Judaism but about using a horrific tragedy as nothing more than a vessel that helps the most privileged persons in our society have a romance. I think it's disgusting, and it doesn't matter if it's set in Haiti, or Somalia, or the Holocaust, or anywhere that there has been a nightmarish disaster, a genocide, or anything equally awful.

[suaine.livejournal.com]

I can't even. What the fuck is wrong with that person?

[surreal-44.livejournal.com]

Honestly, after reading the story, I am not seeing where your anger comes from. I was expecting gratuitous porn, ridiculous sexy times or a downplaying of the Nazi's treatment of prisoners. It was certainly not anything like that horrific Haiti story. So where is the anger over porn coming from? The characters are homosexuals but they are not having sex.

Also...remember that issue I had several weeks ago with underage pornographic fic and remember how I got beaten down for it because I was too judgmental? How is what she wrote any different from what I was upset about, and why is her reasoning (if you don't like it, don't read it) any different?

I am not trying to be argumentative, I am just trying to learn. :-)

[lanning.livejournal.com]

*snerk* But she worked so *hard*!

[usakeh.livejournal.com]

I think it's perfectly possible to respectfully set a piece of fiction in a horrific environment. There are certain things you must do in order to be respectful - for instance, making sure your evil environment isn't just there to facilitate the fornication of two uninvolved individuals - but it is doable, I think. What this chick has done, however, is absolutely offensive. Her excuses for her callousness are even more incriminating. Were I convinced she had half a brain (and something of a heart), I'd tell her as much; as I am not so convinced, though, I'm going to essentially give up on her and just leave her and her horrible story alone. Still, seriously: I didn't know I could feel this disgusted by a fanfic. I thought that I'd seen it all! Evidently not.

[usakeh.livejournal.com]

but about using a horrific tragedy as nothing more than a vessel that helps the most privileged persons in our society have a romance.

YES, THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT I TRIED TO SAY BELOW. If it's just there so that the protagonists can get it on - if it's used in the story to bring them together, as a tool to bring them together - then the writer has NO RIGHT to be utilizing that setting. NO RIGHT AT ALL.

[usakeh.livejournal.com]

Also, love the "our town" icon.

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

I can see a distinction between original fiction using characters who could conceivably have ended up in the camps, and AU fanfic which parachutes characters into ghastly historical situations.

Hell, if the author had a) put the captured American soldiers in a POW camp and b) done a huge amount of research and c) approached it really carefully, I can see that it might be readable.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I wish I were creative enough to have made the juxtaposition up, but there was a production of Our Town at Lincoln Center in 1989 that used a photograph of Earth from space with the words "Our Town" under the Earth as its advertising poster. No name of the theater, no names of the actors, no dates, nothing. I was awestruck, and have loved the image ever since.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Frank and Gerard are two members of the band My Chemical Romance. They're real people.

I don't know how people can find this story defensible.

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

Yes, of course.