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J2 story set in post-earthquake Haiti
Caught Between the Earth and Sky, by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gatorgrrrl
The setting is Haiti, post-earthquake. Jensen Ackles is an American doctor who's running from his past, trying to make up for his mistakes in this broken place and live up to the promise he made to his brother half a lifetime ago. Jared Padalecki is a naive photojournalist who's hiding from himself, hoping to find one more story in a place already forgotten by the rest of the world. When he learns about all the good things Jensen and his friend, Haitian nurse Abraham Joseph, are doing around the ravaged country, he thinks he's found his story. Jensen, of course, thinks otherwise. But Jared is nothing if not persistent, and when circumstances work to throw them together, he quickly learns that Dr. Jensen Ackles is more than just a story and that sometimes, stories can become personal.
Haiti is: broken, forgotten, ravaged (Darkest Haiti?)
Jensen is: hiding from himself, motivated by personal tragedy, trying to become better through helping the less fortunate
Jared is: naive, plucky, determined, hiding from himself, writing a story about a white aid worker
Abraham Joseph is: a Haitian nurse whose primary descriptor is 'Jensen's friend'
Anyone read the story? This strikes me as an intensely problematic and unwise premise.
ETA: I seespnpermanon is discussing the issue. This is what I <3 about the meme. Nonnies there have hashed out just why the timing, genesis and thrust of the story is offensive.
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From her author's notes here:
I have taken a few liberties with some of the facts in order to make them fit into the story the way I needed. For example, Haiti's daytime temperatures in February/March, when the majority of this fic takes place, tend to be in the 70s-80s F; I made it seem much hotter. The country's rainy season doesn't really begin until early April; I pushed it up a few weeks. And the Port-au-Prince General Hospital was severely damaged in the earthquake and since then, its emergency room has been housed in a tent. In the fic, the building is fairly undamaged and even has electricity.
And here:
When I signed up for Big Bang back in January, I had a completely different story in mind. An SPN gen story, in fact. That idea languished inside my head for a few weeks until I finally gave up trying to force it and moved on. Then the idea of a different J2 AU fic popped into my head, but again, it didn't go anywhere. Then it occurred to me: Why not use current events as the setting? The Haiti earthquake was still in the news and the more I saw about it, the more I wanted to use it until it seemed like the best idea ever. (That, of course, is only my opinion.)
From here.
I am very sorry to hear that my choice of setting offended you. It was not my intention in the least to treat the Haiti earthquake lightly or to diminish the devastation of it. I tried my best to treat the topic with respect and frankly, I think I did a decent job of it. Using the setting of a disaster or an epidemic or a war as a backdrop to a 'romance' isn't really that unusual in fiction, based on many of the novels and movies I have read and seen, but obviously it isn't your cup of tea. I agree; these types of fics aren't for everyone.
gatorgrrrlThe setting is Haiti, post-earthquake. Jensen Ackles is an American doctor who's running from his past, trying to make up for his mistakes in this broken place and live up to the promise he made to his brother half a lifetime ago. Jared Padalecki is a naive photojournalist who's hiding from himself, hoping to find one more story in a place already forgotten by the rest of the world. When he learns about all the good things Jensen and his friend, Haitian nurse Abraham Joseph, are doing around the ravaged country, he thinks he's found his story. Jensen, of course, thinks otherwise. But Jared is nothing if not persistent, and when circumstances work to throw them together, he quickly learns that Dr. Jensen Ackles is more than just a story and that sometimes, stories can become personal.
Haiti is: broken, forgotten, ravaged (Darkest Haiti?)
Jensen is: hiding from himself, motivated by personal tragedy, trying to become better through helping the less fortunate
Jared is: naive, plucky, determined, hiding from himself, writing a story about a white aid worker
Abraham Joseph is: a Haitian nurse whose primary descriptor is 'Jensen's friend'
Anyone read the story? This strikes me as an intensely problematic and unwise premise.
ETA: I see
spnpermanon is discussing the issue. This is what I <3 about the meme. Nonnies there have hashed out just why the timing, genesis and thrust of the story is offensive.ETA:
From her author's notes here:
I have taken a few liberties with some of the facts in order to make them fit into the story the way I needed. For example, Haiti's daytime temperatures in February/March, when the majority of this fic takes place, tend to be in the 70s-80s F; I made it seem much hotter. The country's rainy season doesn't really begin until early April; I pushed it up a few weeks. And the Port-au-Prince General Hospital was severely damaged in the earthquake and since then, its emergency room has been housed in a tent. In the fic, the building is fairly undamaged and even has electricity.
And here:
When I signed up for Big Bang back in January, I had a completely different story in mind. An SPN gen story, in fact. That idea languished inside my head for a few weeks until I finally gave up trying to force it and moved on. Then the idea of a different J2 AU fic popped into my head, but again, it didn't go anywhere. Then it occurred to me: Why not use current events as the setting? The Haiti earthquake was still in the news and the more I saw about it, the more I wanted to use it until it seemed like the best idea ever. (That, of course, is only my opinion.)
From here.
I am very sorry to hear that my choice of setting offended you. It was not my intention in the least to treat the Haiti earthquake lightly or to diminish the devastation of it. I tried my best to treat the topic with respect and frankly, I think I did a decent job of it. Using the setting of a disaster or an epidemic or a war as a backdrop to a 'romance' isn't really that unusual in fiction, based on many of the novels and movies I have read and seen, but obviously it isn't your cup of tea. I agree; these types of fics aren't for everyone.
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Note also the warnings: "angst, bad words, m/m sex, non-graphic death of children." Um, yeah.
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here via network
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::facepalm::
Not Enough WTF in the world.
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"Looking at pictures", "embellishing for scenery and colour". It's almost cliche.
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It's almost perfectly cliche, to the point that in any other context, I'd be sure we were all being trolled. I kind of wish we were.
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Yeah, I had a moment of, "This can't be real, right?" when I first saw the summary.
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(At least she removed the pregnant woman picture. URGH.)
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...I'm failing to think of the last time I ever saw wank spilled out over my flist about art and honestly kinda failing.
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It's an interesting point you make, about the value of artists. Most of the criticism is being directed at the writer, even in this post. I think part of the explanation for that is that to an extent, BB itself prioritizes the writing. I saw the summary of the fic, before I saw the art.
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It could be that people aren't actually seeing the art, too, except for the graphic used on the artist's link page, and while the art still uses pictures of Haitians the most problematic picture -- the pregnant woman -- was removed, which leads to #2: the artist doesn't seem to be going all 'omgwtf!' and is treating it reasonably, apologizing, etc. (e.g., basically doing all the right things in handling this) so people are taking a wait-and-see approach, like you.
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She's definitely handling things better. It's only been a day though, maybe the writer will apologize as well.
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Those are the recent incidents that come to my mind, if they help.
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That said! There is surprisingly more artwank on Fandom Wank than I expected, but very little of it seems to be race/gender/sexuality related.
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The Sherlock Holmes fanart totally got the Chief Illiniwek-like gear treatment; I'd link you but I forgot where it was. :|
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Also, things like "The Haiti earthquake was still in the news and the more I saw about it, the more I wanted to use it until it seemed like the best idea ever" make me doubt that it's the writer trying to process/understand/come to terms with massive tragedy by writing about it and suspects it's more "the idea of earthquakes plotbunnied me. And if the writer wanted to do "slash pairing triumphs in the face of earthquake-induced adversity," because they saw earthquakes on the news, they could always have set it in California and created a fictional American earthquake. There are still all kinds of ways you could make "helping earthquake victims in Los Angelos/San Francisco" offensive, but at least they wouldn't involve real people who were in a real earthquake less than six months ago.
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Thank you for posting! As far as I can tell you were one of the very first to get the ball rolling -- a huge thanks for that.
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And the Port-au-Prince General Hospital was severely damaged in the earthquake and since then, its emergency room has been housed in a tent. In the fic, the building is fairly undamaged and even has electricity.
WHAT. Ignoring all the other MASSIVE fail of this fic, just WHAT? NOT ONLY are you taking a RECENT AND STILL ONGOING TRAGEDY THAT KILLED HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE and are writing WHITE BOY ROMANCE using it as a background, but you have the gall to DOWNPLAY THE SUFFERING AND DESTRUCTION BY MAKING THINGS "BETTER"??? Oh, so sorry the DESTRUCTION AND DEATH didn't play into your little slasher plans.
AUGH. *FLAILS EVERYWHERE*
I NEED TO GO KNIT SOMETHING.
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Maybe she changed things so they'd be easier for her to deal with? I... can't understand why there was a need. It's just so strange, on top of everything else.
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