It's interesting to reread this after a couple of years' lapse, because I actually seem to have been much more pro-Phantom in those days -- I'm afraid the difference is almost certainly attributable to overexposure to badfic! At the time of this article I don't think I had read any POTO fanfic at all, and my frame of reference was largely that of period novels/films: I was still genuinely in the 'tragic antagonist' camp. Fan-fiction managed to kill that for me, not least by depicting a totally different character who wouldn't dream of extortion, threats or murder and in whose presence the unfortunate Christine becomes cringingly remorseful and infantilised. For Fluffy Erik and his authors I had no sympathy whatsoever.
From what I've read it does seem to be an age thing: angst-ridden teenagers want to 'save' the Phantom. As a tortured adult I apparently preferred to see him suffering beautifully (à la Ivor Novello)!
But whatever 'sympathy with the devil' might have prompted my approval of his tragic ending in "Love Never Dies" got thoroughly subverted by Lloyd Webber's own decision to stack the cards in the Phantom's favour. This article was written on the basis of a 'highlights' sample -- when I finally got hold of the full soundtrack, months later, my "unanticipated but ironically apt" reaction was to enlist myself fullheartedly on the side of the unfortunate Raoul, with whom I could instantly identify: http://igenlode.livejournal.com/27219.html
Finding him so very much the underdog in this fandom only confirmed that bias: it's odd, on the face of it, that the teenage fandom doesn't identify more with Leroux-Raoul, who is such a very 'teenage' protagonist with his insecurities and emotional extremes. But while the fans' love of the Phantom soured me on that character, I never shipped E/C to start with -- I never particularly 'shipped' anyone, and used to be totally confused when fanfic archives supplied a 'shipping' field to be filled out: the protagonists of my stories weren't there in order to make love to one another, they had dangers and adventures to get on with!
So the main and completely unexpected result of this fandom has been to turn me into something I never was previously: an ardent writer of romance. R/C romance...
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-08-30 12:58 pm (UTC)From what I've read it does seem to be an age thing: angst-ridden teenagers want to 'save' the Phantom. As a tortured adult I apparently preferred to see him suffering beautifully (à la Ivor Novello)!
But whatever 'sympathy with the devil' might have prompted my approval of his tragic ending in "Love Never Dies" got thoroughly subverted by Lloyd Webber's own decision to stack the cards in the Phantom's favour. This article was written on the basis of a 'highlights' sample -- when I finally got hold of the full soundtrack, months later, my "unanticipated but ironically apt" reaction was to enlist myself fullheartedly on the side of the unfortunate Raoul, with whom I could instantly identify: http://igenlode.livejournal.com/27219.html
Finding him so very much the underdog in this fandom only confirmed that bias: it's odd, on the face of it, that the teenage fandom doesn't identify more with Leroux-Raoul, who is such a very 'teenage' protagonist with his insecurities and emotional extremes. But while the fans' love of the Phantom soured me on that character, I never shipped E/C to start with -- I never particularly 'shipped' anyone, and used to be totally confused when fanfic archives supplied a 'shipping' field to be filled out: the protagonists of my stories weren't there in order to make love to one another, they had dangers and adventures to get on with!
So the main and completely unexpected result of this fandom has been to turn me into something I never was previously: an ardent writer of romance. R/C romance...