fic - gah is it gen?

[lettered]

The Pure and Simple Truth is now available on Archive of Our own here. This really is one of the things I'm proudest of having written. I'm having trouble figuring out how to categorize it. It's about how Draco, Harry, Pansy, Hermione, Ron, Goyle, Blaise, and Luna all became friends, but it's based on a fic where Draco and Harry hook up. There's a definite love story there, but I don't feel like that's the focus. There's no sex or making out, and very few other elements of the "romance" genre, and large parts aren't about the Harry/Draco at all. Does anyone think it would be wrong to post this story in a gen comm? Because I think many people who don't like Harry/Draco would still like it, and it's possible some people who like Harry/Draco won't like it because it's not really centered around H/D. But I don't want to false advertise. Anyone got any ideas about this? Help would be so appreciated!

It's also available on Dreamwidth:

Author: lettered
Title: The Pure and Simple Truth
Pairing(s): Harry/Draco, but this fic might as well be gen. Besides Harry and Draco, mostly canon pairings
Rating: PG
Warnings: No porn. No plot. No, really!
Summary: Harry, Draco, and Hermione go to a pub. Harry, Draco, and Pansy go to a pub. Harry, Draco, Pansy, and Hermione go to a pub. Harry, Draco, Hermione and Ron go to a pub. Harry, Draco, Hermione, Ron, and Pansy―you guessed it―go to a pub. I could go on. In fact, I did. Harry, Draco, Hermione, Pansy, Ron, Blaise, Luna, Goyle, Neville, and Theodore Nott go to a pub. In various combinations.
Word Count: 70,000 It happened by accident.
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter, in case you didn’t know, and talekayler wrote Nunquam Securus
Author's notes: Nunquam Securus is a short fic about how Harry and Draco navigate romance amidst their entwined circle of friends. This fic is the back story about how that circle formed.

Thank you so, so much talekayler for writing this fic, and for signing up for remix, giving me the opportunity to write this story. Thank you to stultiloquentia for her quick beta, to ravenclown for some points of crit and enthusiasm, and the mods for their patience and kindness. And even though she will never see this, thanks to my_daroga for putting up with me while I wrote this.

The Pure and Simple Truth

Comments

[synecdochic]

I would definitely call it one of those stories that can be labeled gen or slash either way, depending on how you squint at it. I'd call it gen, but I use an inclusive definition of gen (any relationships are not more than a passing focus of the story) and not an exclusive definition (no mention of non-canon relationships and/or no mention of relationships at all, canonical or not).

If I were you, I'd post to gen communities, with a "gen, background mention of Harry/Draco" or something like that.

[lettered]

Thanks for your input. I posted it to a gen comm with a note of explanation. It's moderated, so hopefully the mods can decide. Thanks again ;o)

[synecdochic]

Glad to be of service! I find myself in the "gen gap" sometimes -- I don't write gen-qua-gen very often, but I'd say about 30% of what I write is "gen if you squint at it right", and it's hard for me to label it. (The discussion of whether "Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose" is gen or not is one of those that pops up often. I have finally settled on "Rodney and John were in a romantic/sexual relationship, which is mentioned in the story, but there is no sex or romance in the story itself, so it's gen", but many people have argued that with me, so. *shrug*)

CATEGORIZING THINGS IS HARD.

[lettered]

Someone pointed out that people read gen for different reasons. If I read gen, I'm reading it with the understanding that romance isn't the main idea. Sometimes other people who read gen are reading it in order to get away from romance altogether.

I find this interesting, because in plenty of fics I read, romance isn't the main idea. Self-discovery is my favorite main idea, but there's plenty of other things, the most visible of which is plot of the action/adventure or mystery nature. However, if Harry and Draco hook up in a mystery, that's slash.

What's interesting is that in fandom, Harry and Draco hooking up and having sex is the climax of the story, whereas solving the mystery usually comes after or before, and is resolution or build up--which is why it's totally appropriate to label the genre as slash. However, when solving the mystery is the climax, it really should be labeled mystery, not slash. The nice thing is, you can label something mystery and slash. If the genre is more amorphous, or ahem, general, people don't like it if you label it gen and slash. Which, go figure.

/random musing

[synecdochic]

Isn't it weird how we classify things sometimes? I am also sometimes frustrated by how we label romantic genre (slash/gen/het) above literary genre (mystery, sf, yadda) when you're right, they're not exclusive labels...