Hobbits in love, maybe

[prillalar]

I've just skimmed my way through a whole long story about Merry and Pippin, trying to work out whether or not it was slash.

There was talk of love and being everything in the world to each other and then there was also talk of encounters with lasses and of their eventual weddings and children. There were many embraces and kisses on the hair, the cheek, the forehead, and the fingertips.

At this point, I was yelling at my computer screen: "Just stick your tongue in his mouth already!"

But they never did and so I remain in ignorance about their relationship.

It was kind of like watching Frodo and Sam in TTT, actually.

Comments

[vissy.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Which story is this?

[prillalar]

I didn't really want to discuss a particular story, so I won't name it. And I've looked at a few more that are quite similar since.

[vissy.livejournal.com]

I'm always on the hunt for lovely long hobbity sagas, and I don't mind if they're gen, slash or whatever. Theirloveissoindefinable!

[prillalar]

*g* I found a few off this page:

http://love.macca_4ever.tripod.com/lotr/fiction.html

[vissy.livejournal.com]

Nope, it's a dead end.

[k2daisy.livejournal.com]

Hee. Sounds like you stumbled across an UST story. I'm pretty impressed people are still writing those, to be honest. Yay for UST! ;-)

[prillalar]

You know, I'm not sure it *was* UST. The more I think about it, the more I think it was Deep Abiding But Platonic Love. I've now seen more than a couple stories which celebrate the deep love between the two but don't make it sexual.

These stories seem to be just a hair the other side of the slash/gen dividing line. And some of my stories about them are just a hair this side. I'll have to think about this some more -- this might be a subject for a longer post.

[vissy.livejournal.com]

Definitely. FF.net seems to be full of passionate hobbit stories with the NO SLASH header. The NO SLASH readers and writers seem quite adamant about their stance, and yet many of the stories would still fall under a broad definition of slash.

[prillalar]

I will definitely have to read more of these. It seems like "it's not slash because we *say* it's not slash". Because otherwise all the close-embracing, finger-entwining, cheek-touching, curl-stroking, head-cheek-shoulder-forehead-fingertip-kissing, and "Oh, Merry!" "Oh, Pippin"-ing would kind of make you think it *was*.

An ointment should clear that up

[runpunkrun]

I think you've found Hobbit Smarm, Hal. And, yes, it sounds like a disease. The symptoms can include: extreme schmoopiness, excessive non-sexual touching, repeated declarations of Very Best Friendship, and lots of gazing, pining, and assorted sighing.

I ran into smarm a lot in Sentinel, and it never made any sense to me. Either Jim and Blair were in love and hot for each other, or they were just really good pals, but the reasoning behind smarm and its straddling of the fence with its kisses on the forehead and hour-long hugs totally escapes me.

Re: An ointment should clear that up

[prillalar]

And I thought this was a hobbit only phenom! I should have known it would show up in Sentinal, though.

Smarm is such a good word for it. :)

[k2daisy.livejournal.com]

The more I think about it, the more I think it was Deep Abiding But Platonic Love.

Ah, that could be too. I used to make fun of the MSR camp over in XF, because they had so many labels for all the different types of "love" expressions between Mulder and Scully; it seemed rather nitpicky to me. Either the characters are doing it, or they're not - nuff said. But since I've moved into a wider multi-fandom world, I've been beginning to appreciate the subtler distinctions the shippers used. There's a lot more to write about within the spectrum between "porn" and "just friends". So I'm intrigued to hear other fandoms are taking advantage of the full spectrum, even if they're not labeling it as a "such and such" fic.

[prillalar]

Hmm, Mulder and Scully. You make me think. Because back in the day, I was one of those people who could watch every tender embrace, every held hand, and every forehead kiss and still think "they're just friends -- no romance here!"

Though I don't think I would have found any appeal in *writing* them that way if they weren't like that already. Hmm.

Just add tongue

[semielliptical]

Since there isn't all that much decent Merry/Pippin out there, I will read stories like this, sometimes to enjoy as is, and sometimes I'll upgrade the story to slash in my imagination. I just realized this makes me sound kind of pitiful and desperate for slashy hobbit action.

But there is at least one long non-slash M/P series that I would love to read in a slash version. Fanfic about the fanfic, hmm...I doubt the authors would approve.

Re: Just add tongue

[prillalar]

I wonder if those people read slashy M/P and just edit out the slashy bits in their minds. *g*

This has got me thinking a lot about my own hobbit fic, which by and large, is quite innocuous and could easily be edited to friendship fic. I don't read or write any hobbit fic that's more than PG13 (unlike the rest of my reading/writing habits!).

So, maybe I'm doing the same thing as these stories except that since I'm a slasher I put the kisses on the mouth instead of on the forehead. It's the friendship that's most important to me.

And what's all the Frodo/Sam stuff in the books if not Deep Abiding Hand-Holding Platonic Love?