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So what Szpara does in this book is complicated and my hat is off to him for taking it on in the first place and part of me thinks it's genius and part of me also thinks that he tries to stick a landing in thin air and, while it works, I don't know if it holds water and wow are my metaphors shot today.
I talk, probably more than I should, about the role that fanfiction has and will continue to play in contemporary genre literature and the more I talk about it, the clearer it at least becomes in my brain. The focus on characters not as archetypes, but as deeply individual people - not the farm boy, but THIS farm boy who is of interest not because of who he will become but because the story has decided to be about his individuality - is something that fanfic has always been good at. So stories that are not about people and their relationships as such - but are about bringing down trillionaires and capitalism - but are centered around the people and who they are as individual have a lens that I think fanfic has gifted the larger genre audience as a way of seeing the world.
Overall, I think this is a good thing.
In Szpara's story, it ALSO collides with the other major preoccupation, which is agency and the capacity to change. Elisha gets to be at the center of that conversation, but it's just as much Alex's question as well and the complexity with which he handles both is awesome and also opens up conversations about redemption and atonement in fiction. Alex, I would argue, isn't redeemed, but he does begin the process of atonement. And the book ends before he finishes the process, but the framework of redemption and reward versus atonement and absolution is not entirely jettisoned and I think that makes an already complicated conversation more difficult and muddies the waters in terms of choice, devotion, and agency. I'm not sure the story needed a triumphant ending - in fact I'm quite sure it ought not have one - but the disconnect between the resolution of the character's plot and the world's plot in terms of "is this good?" is niggling at me. And I can't decide if I'm pleased by where Elisha and Alex ended or frustrated...or frustrated that I'm pleased.
Anyway, adding this to the list of "gay critiques of 50 shades I never knew I needed" and also appreciating the way in which Szpara is adding to the genre conversation.
I talk, probably more than I should, about the role that fanfiction has and will continue to play in contemporary genre literature and the more I talk about it, the clearer it at least becomes in my brain. The focus on characters not as archetypes, but as deeply individual people - not the farm boy, but THIS farm boy who is of interest not because of who he will become but because the story has decided to be about his individuality - is something that fanfic has always been good at. So stories that are not about people and their relationships as such - but are about bringing down trillionaires and capitalism - but are centered around the people and who they are as individual have a lens that I think fanfic has gifted the larger genre audience as a way of seeing the world.
Overall, I think this is a good thing.
In Szpara's story, it ALSO collides with the other major preoccupation, which is agency and the capacity to change. Elisha gets to be at the center of that conversation, but it's just as much Alex's question as well and the complexity with which he handles both is awesome and also opens up conversations about redemption and atonement in fiction.
Anyway, adding this to the list of "gay critiques of 50 shades I never knew I needed" and also appreciating the way in which Szpara is adding to the genre conversation.