there are so many great stories that just work with John that never worked with Jack or even Daniel in SG-1 fandom.
God, THIS. I love the way Jack and John, and Rodney and Daniel, are so parallel, the way both slashy pairs are founded on the same basic soldier/citizen and intensely protective dynamic, the way the same *types* of stories get told about them- and it is IMPOSSIBLE to tell the SAME stories about them. The way AUs work with John/Rodney and don't with Jack/Daniel, for example, that we've talked about. But lots of other things too.
Interestingly, I adore Jack's past as a closeted gay man- except that I want to draw the distinction between "gay man who actually had sex with other men, and is known to at least a few others" (which I tried to do in Problem Solving, but is much rarer and harder to pull off) and "gay man who has never actually acted on that" (which: OH GOD do I love. Yaay for virgin-with-men-Jack. *fans*).
But all the same, Jack is *slashy* and we can read him as gay- but John it seems like John is *queer*, and that can be defended right from the text even if there was no one in particular to pair him off with. You would never see fabulous meta explorations of identity like "Straight as a Circle" with Jack. Whereas... yeah. you're right. I don't think I've ever seen an AU where Jack didn't have that sense of being different, just not fitting in the boxes.
And the way you phrase those last two paragraphs is just beautiful. Yes. *nodnod*
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 04:01 am (UTC)there are so many great stories that just work with John that never worked with Jack or even Daniel in SG-1 fandom.
God, THIS. I love the way Jack and John, and Rodney and Daniel, are so parallel, the way both slashy pairs are founded on the same basic soldier/citizen and intensely protective dynamic, the way the same *types* of stories get told about them- and it is IMPOSSIBLE to tell the SAME stories about them. The way AUs work with John/Rodney and don't with Jack/Daniel, for example, that we've talked about. But lots of other things too.
Interestingly, I adore Jack's past as a closeted gay man- except that I want to draw the distinction between "gay man who actually had sex with other men, and is known to at least a few others" (which I tried to do in Problem Solving, but is much rarer and harder to pull off) and "gay man who has never actually acted on that" (which: OH GOD do I love. Yaay for virgin-with-men-Jack. *fans*).
But all the same, Jack is *slashy* and we can read him as gay- but John it seems like John is *queer*, and that can be defended right from the text even if there was no one in particular to pair him off with. You would never see fabulous meta explorations of identity like "Straight as a Circle" with Jack. Whereas... yeah. you're right. I don't think I've ever seen an AU where Jack didn't have that sense of being different, just not fitting in the boxes.
And the way you phrase those last two paragraphs is just beautiful. Yes. *nodnod*