If Gone With The Wind was released today

[dangermousie]

I spent a solid chunk of the weekend wallowing in GWTW: 4 discs of a four hour movie (some scenes of which need to be rewatched and repeated "kiss, me Scarlett...once") plus really fun documentaries would do that to you (btw, Clark Gable? *Moan*). Then I went to ff.net to look for fanfic (which was shockingly under "movies" and not "books."). There wasn't much, and none of it (at least from the summaries) looked dreadful. And so I was forced to imagine what would happen if the movie was released now, as opposed to 60+ years ago, with the same conditions (as in "biggest grosser of all time, with the biggest male star and the publicity-hyped beauty in the lead"). Hmmmm...

* Rhett/Ashley slash. Lots of it. To the feedback that this is a Scarlett/Rhett in the original, the authors would reply that the repliers are homophobes. Besides, OMG, didn't you see Rhett carry unconscious Ashley in his arms. There was so something there!
* There would be a few hardcore Ashley/Scarlett shippers who would have happy flame wars with Rhett/Scarlett shippers.
* Someone would write a 50-chapter, 900-page continuation and BNFs would flock to it, saying that the author understood the characters so much better than Margaret Mitchell.
*Book-only fans would come by and flame authors who've based their fanfic only on the movies, saying they are ignoramuses, and that Mitchell's explanation about baked beans on p. 468 is crucial to the whole understanding of GWTW.
* Mary Sues of all varieties: impoverished but noble belles, Northern gentlewomen, teenyboppers thrust back through time. They will be mostly after Rhett (who would have realized he never cared for that stupid Scarlett after all, especially by the time Mary Sue got out her electric guitar and fed her unicorn), but there will be a spillover to console Ashley, make happy Frank and Charles who never died, and even many of the book's characters who were never in the movie.
* Deathfic. You think Sherman took a heavy toll on the South? Just you wait until the fanfic authors will get their hands on the story.
*Scarlett will contemplate her feelings on Rhett/Ashley/Melanie/the neighbor's cat to the tune of Britney Spears' latest.
* Various Mary Sues bring Rhett and Scarlett together, and/or they engage in a lot of reconciliation PWP sex (on second thoughts, hmmmmmmm.....)
* People write RP stories about Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland etc. When other people object, saying that in all likelyhood Clark Gable never took Vivien Leigh/Leslie Howard/Olivia de Havilland/the second unit director on a romantic parachute tour of Brazil as they were being hunted by the evil serial killers and engaged in lots of sex, the RP-people will object, calling their critics narrow-minded as "OMG it is clearly fiction."
* AUs. Lots of AUs. That way the author will have to do no research. Make Rhett an important doctor and Scarlett the new intern. Throw common sense out of the window. See it fly!
*Mpreg. *shudder* You thought Rhett was a good father before?

Heeee. Love my new "morning after" icon. Judging by that grin, Rhett wasn't too bad :D

Comments

[rabidfangurl.livejournal.com]

You forgot the Scarlett/Melanie femmeslash. And the backstories about Rhett's horrible childhood, from which he can only recover in Scarlett's arms. Oh! And the non-con BDSM fics, with Rhett tying Scarlett to a bed and showing her who's in charge.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, exactly. How could I?

Rhett's horrible childhood, from which he can only recover in Scarlett's arms

I am sure there would be plenty of fic where he (or she) gets kidnapped/mistreated/horribly tortured and can only recover from hideous trauma and nightmares through healing sex and a lot of touchy-feely talking with enough crying to fill the Grand Canyon.

[katranna.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was gonna say that!

Also, I can totally see Scarlett/Melanie femmeslash. Seriously, it makes sense.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I can totally see Scarlett/Melanie femmeslash

Ummmm...No?

Melanie is so proper that I think she has sex with Ashley with the lights out and under blankets. She would be horrified to think of sex with another woman (or anyone not her husband).

And Scarlett likes men. Nope :D

[katranna.livejournal.com]

I didn't say they have SEX with each other. And I know Scarlett likes men. The two are not exclusive. :-P I just think their latter relationship could be constrained as Scarlett trying to deny her attraction to Melanie, not Ashley, and going after Ashley just to make a point.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Not really...sorry :) She doesn't even realize she likes Melly as a person until way too late. Plus, Scarlett likes really strong and alpha and Melly isn't.

I know Scarlett likes men. The two are not exclusive

In her case they are :) It's said she doesn't like any women in any fashion because they are competition :P

[thelana.livejournal.com]

She doesn't even realize she likes Melly as a person until way too late.

See, she's in denial about it, just like she is with Rhett ;)

(I think I need a *sticks togue out* icon)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

ROFL!

She is hardly Melly-fixated at the end. More like "Rhett! Where will I get the sexing from now?"

[thelana.livejournal.com]

Well considering that Scarlett spends most of her life till *the night* unimpressed and uninterested (if not ewwwwwed out) in sex there would be ample opportunity for experimentation ;)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Well, she actually finds sex life with Rhett mildly pleasant (wow :D) but "the night" really makes me wonder about her sexual preferences: not in the gender way :P but in "what does she like" way? Because does she, like some strong women, have domination fantasies? Or is it just that Rhett is just generally holding back and being nice and thoughtful and when he loses it, it all comes out (unfortunate choice of phrase :D) and he really does demonstrate his skill in bed...

I do think any man would be a bit hindered by the fact that he knew his wife was imagining someone else in bed with her, instead of him...

[thelana.livejournal.com]

I dunno. Maybe it works as Scarlett being an alpha personality and not really respecting anybody unless they have out-alphered her. She doesn't believe in equals and if you are below her in the ranking order you are not worthy of her attention.

(even though I think she eventually grew to respect for example Melanie in a way despite her completly different type of personality and value system; I don't think that Scarlett ever got Melanie, but eventually accepted her as being just a whole different breed of bird and moved on)

But yeah the *that night* scene does create certain similarities (for me) to the infamous Siegfried/Brunhild story. About the valkyrie who will only submit (and immediately fall in love) to the men who bests her in battle. Something I have always disliked instensely as a concept. That a strong woman can only love a man who is still even stronger.

But since Scarlett always struck me as more neurotic and psychotic than strong, I never had so much issues with it in her case.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I do think she is a very strong woman: how could she have pulled through in Tara otherwise. But she has no tolerance for weakness and a great deal of respect for strength. And of course, at some point in the book she realizes she has only known two grown-up men (as opposed to boys), and they were Ashley and Rhett.

I think Scarlett looks for strength her whole life. Basically, she ends up shouldering the burden during the Civil War and Reconstruction, and there is no one to help her: not her father, not her sisters, not Melly, not Ashley, not Frank. No wonder she fixates on strength.

I think hers is a more extreme experession of a pretty common view (shared by me, btw) that you don't want your partner (of whichever gender) to be a dishrag. I love my husband in part because he doesn't agree all the time but will stand up to me and argue etc etc. Otherwise I could just get a dog.

I don't think I could love someone weaker than me, so I don't have a problem with the concept :)

[thelana.livejournal.com]

So why is it acceptable for a man to be ok with being married to a pretty dishrag? I'm more of the opinion that a minimum amount of strenght is obviously necessary. But after a certain threshhold it doesn't matter anymore who the stronger one is.

After all, if you are an immensely strong person, somebody slightly weaker than you would still be pretty strong and far away from a dishrag. Basically, if you are Wonderwoman (or a valkyrie) why do you have to love Superman instead of a normally pretty strong and pretty neat guy?

(and that doesn't even go into the different types of stenght, from physical to intellectual to emotional to moral...)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's OK for anyone to be married to a dishrag (well, it's their business, but I don't understand the preference).

One of the reasons I love Rhett is because he falls for strong and wilfull Scarlett, not a "yes dear" type.

somebody slightly weaker than you would still be pretty strong and far away from a dishrag.

Maybe. But I am selfish and I want someone stronger than me. Someone I can rely to always take care of me when I can't. It might be un-PC, gender-biased, whatever. But I want a man who is stronger than me. Not to rule me, but for me to know that there is all that strength in reserve.

I agree with you on different types of strength (it depends on the person which kind appeals to them most), but that's a different discussion.

I want to look up to my life partner. If he looks up to me for different qualities, that's great. But I don't want to be the always-superior one. Any more than I would want to be an inferior dishrag.

[thelana.livejournal.com]

Don't you know? Un-pc is the new chique. *snerk*

Personally, I don't mind what people do in real life. But in movies/books I find it boring. Mostly because it's the norm of relationships, both in real life and in the medias. The beauty of fiction is that you can explore all kind of things. So why always tread the same ground and make things easy and predictable? Especially if the concept itself already is based on suspension of disbelief (like with a valkyrie). Why create something special and then just box it into the same old same old situations to an extent where what makes it special becomes mostly pointless?

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I like the first. I really do. (I've been writing it for years, in space drag) But the rest I can take or leave.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

ROFL :)

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

This is very funny, especially as I have the Harry Potter fandom in mind, particularly, but of course your post applies to so much more than HP alone.

RP fics scare the bejeezus out of me.

* Someone would write a 50-chapter, 900-page continuation and BNFs would flock to it, saying that the author understood the characters so much better than Margaret Mitchell.

I find this to be utterly baffling. Yet it happens.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. It definitely happens all the time in HP-world, with people saying that the fanfic author is doing a better job than JKR. Hello? JKR is the creator. There wouldn't be these characters without her!

RP just...does not make sense.

Btw, the goth!HP icon is...priceless!

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

Btw, the goth!HP icon is...priceless!

LOL, from the second I first saw the Goth Trio pic, I knew I had to have an icon from it. Fortunately, I found one. *snuggles icon* It makes me smile. :D Just like the wrongness of this one.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

You forgot the picketing of the movie by assorted racial groups for the treatment of blacks, and the uber-serious, socially-conscious fanficcers who will have all the slaves freed without bloodshed because the South agreed that slavery was wrong after all.

You think Sherman took a heavy toll on the South? Just you wait until the fanfic authors will get their hands on the story.

BWAhahahahahaaa!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Indeed. :)

And all the protests about the role of women :P

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

LMAO. The sad thing is, this is probably true. *shudders*

Btw - I like your new layout! (Rita Hayworth, right?) :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

It's Rita and Glenn Ford in "Gilda"

[thelana.livejournal.com]

Ahh, all the things that make fandom so sweet :D

Seriously, it *is* rather amusing how things always follow the same type of development in practically all fandoms.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Which is either comforting (we are all the same. OMG!Brotherly Love) or scary (the world is populated by freaks wherever we go...)

[thelana.livejournal.com]

For me it's a mixture between "That's kinda sad (boy are we uncreative)" and amusing/sweet "Look at all those cute little kids thinking that they have have just reinvented the wheel!".

[spacedwriter.livejournal.com]

I consider fandoms there for amusement. I mean, c'mon, it's always the same in every fandom. There are the elitist book readers who come in just to bash everything, then whine when someone yells back.

Wait. Everyone does that.
/rolls eyes/

Oh well. I consider MPreg to be the funniest shit ever. How anyone can actually write a serious story involving that is beyond me!

P.S.: Don't forget the uber-feminists!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Uber-feminists wouldn't be seen dead anywhere near GWTW :)

[spacedwriter.livejournal.com]

True, but there are the stupid ones that wander around and occassionally wander into a fandom and bitch, then can never be found again.

You know, I've never actually seen GWTW? It's on my rather impressive list of movies to buy and watch one day. You know, when I have money and am not in school and other such silliness. ;)

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

You are so right!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Fans are pretty much the same, no matter the fandom!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Mary Sues of all varieties: impoverished but noble belles, Northern gentlewomen, teenyboppers thrust back through time. They will be mostly after Rhett (who would have realized he never cared for that stupid Scarlett after all, especially by the time Mary Sue got out her electric guitar and fed her unicorn

Um. That actually has been done in print, or so I'm told, in the book "The Wind Done Wrong", in which we get informed that Mammy's daughter, Scarlett's black half sister (Gerald did the usual plantation owner thing, it seems) was Rhett's real true love with whom he had a passionate sexual relationship from day 1. The Mitchell estate sued.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I've heard of the book but didn't know the plot.

I don't really care for AUs of any stripe, and this is definitely one, because I honestly cannot imagine the gymnastics the author would have to do to fit "another woman was Rhett's true love" into the GWTW story. I really don't like things that aren't true to the original source.

re: If Gone With The Wind Was Released Today

[gsyh.livejournal.com]

- Rhett/Ashley: I've always liked that scene where Rhett came in carrying Ashley, not breaking a sweat at all, oh, he's sooo strong!
-- Maybe they should swing.

I know it's bad, but I love that scene where Rhett carried Scarlett off for ravishing and when she woke up smiling. Totally a lot of hella hot D/s, and I want fic! I once read an original fic in which that scene was acted out (lost the link, was googling for it when I found this post), but I would totally read Rhett/Scarlett D/s smut, with Rhett being really forceful but tender and Scarlett being a very pushy bottom.