Indecision 2008 is over at last, so we can all take a deep breath and focus on what really matters: fandom.Did you vote? Dean does his duty. And if that means voting, he does it right. In Supernatural, Loyal Constituency (girlguidejones) takes a well-deserved sidesweep at Sam, and reminds us that while Dean may take your money, your drink and most definitely your girl, he'll make sure you sleep safe at night.
The last three election cycles saw a wave of fanfic in response. If it wasn't George Bush getting down with Kerry and Cheny, it was John Edward's forbidden love for just about anyone he had been photographed with. This year, political fanfic was thin on the ground, although caelumcaelum did write out the Obama/Biden ticket in Smile, For Your Heart Is Breaking. An Italian magazine imagined a tastefully illustrated detente between McCain and Obama, but that comes nowhere near the romantic heights of Bush and Blair's Endless Love.
West Wing and the Daily Show probably did more in the last decade for American Civics than all the textbooks in all the high schools. The last season election of a fresh minority-race senator to follow Bartlett was inspired, it turns out, by the stories about an interesting new Illinois senator. No wonder Maureen Dowd turned to Aaron Sorkin's Bartlett for advice mid-race for Obama.
And then there's satire. Mocking politicians is practically mandatory, and when Laura Stone throws Edward Cullen from Twilight into the mix, this story glitters like moose blood on fresh-fallen snow.
Lex becomes president of the U.S.A. in multiple timelines, and occasionally of the world, once in a while of the galaxy. There's a long stretch where he's out of Smallville but not quite at the White House where Lex is almost within reach of Clark again. There's a tension here between the constraints of punditslash and smallville universe, but Chloe's bitterness is for me the heart of Dirty Campaigning (belmanoir), not Colbert. Although, Colbert/Lex is hot, who am I kidding!
95% of West Wing stories deal with politics at some level. I picked one of the quintessential stories of life on the campaign trail, Hollow Lake State Park. It's Sperenza, which if you recognise the name probably means you've already read it, and if you don't, then bookmark this for when you have a day or two to devour everything she's written. She's double featured today!
The campaign trail means long hours, dizzying odds and shacking up with strangers. You may not know the fandom, Macdonald Hill, but all you need to know is that Bruno and Boots were roommates at a Canadian boarding school and usually in trouble. And now Bruno is grown-up (hah!) and sending Boots postcards and voicemail and questions from On The Road.
Step over to SGA for another campaign story as As Wide As The Sky (Seperis) deftly avoids the plot loopholes of the premise - John Sheppard running for presidency - and pulls out a seriously sweet story that's really about John and Rodney and public service and hope. It's not realistic the moment you stop reading and think about it, but the details of the crashing campaign, the hurried discussions, John's wavering confidence - it's enough to believe for a moment in Sheppard '08.
West Wing also made Seabourne for America (Sperenza) which made Excerpt from Vanity Fair: The Candidate (S.N.Kastle) which made Fredericksburg (past tense) in bandom which pretty much led to a whole riff of political!bandom stories.
This list really should be President Roslin and four fairly badass guys, but I guess you have to survive two genocides, cancer, betrayal, terrorism, kidnapping, vote-rigging, betrayal, some more betrayal and really bad drugs before you can be as badass as BSG's president.
Then again, if Bartlett met Roslin, we would pretty much have the (fictional) world's problems solved by next week. Anjali Organna does the crossover by skipping all the bits don't fit and working on the small counterpoints between characters that do, meshing them together to make it seem completely plausible.
The cracked out crossover of Boondocks, the cartoon and comic strip, and BSG comes closest to Roslin's politics and the prices she's willing to pay in All These Revolutionaries Will Only Break Your Heart (Jennifer-Oksana).
Then there's politics on a grand galactic scale. You either love this story or don't quite get the fuss. Plus, there's the whole colonial saviour vibe going on, but given that SGA itself is built on the premise that Earth Knows Best... Written By The Victors (Sperenza) swept into fandom and created a whole spin-off of beautiful stories and media. There's also some good meta about it.
As a counterpoint, I highly recommend Little House on the Mainland (eleveninches) for recognising and delighting in the crazed waffle-logic of Elizabeth Weir against the Pegasus galaxy. You'll never look at Halling (or Lorne) the same.
You know when I was little I thought Star Wars was about blasters and lightsabres and Princess Leia in a slinky metal bikini. Now, thanks to Lucas' first trilogy, I understand that it's all about taxation. And trade routes. And fiscal policies. Most Phantom Menance stories skip all that for Jedi sexing and Padme pining, but I have to give props to dee for managing to twist George Lucas' droning into a backstab worthy of the Sith in Bread and Circuses.
The phrase comes from Roman times, when politics meant knives and bribes in the open and a politician was expected to be flexible. Astolat makes the argument for Rome's Cicero and Antony most convincing in Occasions.
History obscures the passions and fights of the people who become national figures. We can reconstruct a lot of it, but always there has to be a leap of imagination. It's not that much different from filling in the gaps of any media. This was done, I reckon, most brilliantly in George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels. But before you hit the library, read Those Who Stand For Nothing (psychomachia) for a melancholy look at the founding fathers.
And for politics at its most cracked out crazy, two more stories:
He's the reason Ankh-Morpork is so magnificent, he's what every tinpot dictator wishes in their shrivelled up hearts to be, he is... Lord Vetinari from the Pratchett books. And he's got competition (glow worm). The story could do with a polishing, but it's got great Pratchetty lines and a bittersweet undertone that make it well worth reading.
And then from QAF you can have Brian Kinney Saves The Universe (Valerie). Because in fandom, we can imagine a better world. And maybe, inspire ourselves to make it one.
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