historical AUs—send all recs!

[jlh]

So there's been an avalanche of fail recently, regarding historical AUs, both RPF and "FPF." I've been thinking about writing a post, a kind of "how to write one and avoid horrible fail!" But to do that, I need your recs!

Please rec historical AUs that you really love, that you feel avoided these kinds of fails but still managed to deal with the historical issues. Many of us have written the equivalent of a costume drama—like, putting the characters in a Regency Romance—that completely avoids the issues of the time. That's totally fine! But those AUs are not the ones I wanted to look at for this project.

I'd love to have AUs from a wide range of fandoms, and various time periods! Feel free to pimp this out to your own flist, and if you have suggestions for things I should think about to include in the eventual post please let me know! (Or, if you'd like to read it over—I think I'll definitely need some "betas" on this one, and I can't force sistermagpie and ali_wildgoose to do all of it!)

Thanks!!

Comments

[dana_kujan]

I've been very interested and curious about this undertaking since you first mentioned it on Twitter. I'm looking forward to it, and I'm willing to beta.

[tielan]

The very best AU I've seen done, in a time-period which has racism and sexism liek whoa and where most people (of the time) wouldn't have thought twice about it, is kristen999 and everybetty's "Long Ago (And Far Away)".

Stargate Atlantis AU, gen, team-focused: John, Rodney, Ronon, and Teyla in Papua New Guinea, early 1940s in the midst of WWII.

One would think there's no way to get a half-black woman and a man with Hawaiian ancestry into a story about WWII American pilots, right? WRONG.

Both Teyla and Ronon have their own parts to play in the story - the writers deliberately and carefully included them in the plots, gave them reasons and background and agency, all the while still retaining the broader prejudices of the time period.

If you want an example of How To Do It Right, this is probably as close as it's going to get. The reason it doesn't get 100% from me is because Teyla - rather than being an African-American woman, is a Papuan-Australian woman, which could be seen as tying into the All Brown People Are Interchangeable trope - and will for some of the less cluey. On the other hand, there's no call for a half-African woman in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, while there is the possibility and potential of a half-Papuan/half-white woman.

I call it 'licence to include Teyla in the story' and it doesn't bother me. I'd rather have her in the story with a different racial type than not in the story at all, like far too many other AUs where the authors couldn't be arsed to do the research that would include her (or Ronon) in roles that gave them agency and inclusion in the plot.

And on top of all that...it's a FANTASTIC read. So, WIN all around.

[melodiousb]

I've been trying to come up with recs on and off all day, but all I can think of are AUs where the anachronisms set my teeth on edge. Your historical AUs are pretty much the only ones I can think of off the top of my head where the setting is more than a nifty backdrop.

I do have this: The Bubble Chamber, by Duncan Johnson. It's set during the Red Scare, but with the aid of time travel rather than an alternate universe--it's a Doctor Who fic--and it stood out for me because it incorporates the political atmosphere of the time (which is necessary to the plot) without co-opting it.

[alexseanchai]

Restraint by darkemeralds, which is Supernatural RPF, yes it's a Regency romance sue me, but it does engage with the attitudes of the time to class and homosexual behavior and to a lesser extent sexism.

[turlough]

Here through mahoni.

Going through my bandom recs I came up with these fics that I think might be the sort you're looking for.

- A Lovely Apparition (or, The One Where Gerard's A Crossdresser in the 1790s) by jezrana is mainly a romance but it doesn't sidestep the issues of crossdressing and homosexuality (21,720 words)
- These Walls Are Built To Fall by jezrana is also mainly a romance (this one taking place vaguely in the Edwardian period) but it doesn't sidestep the class and sexuality issues (6,930 words)
- Up the Line by tabula_x_rasa takes place on the Western front during the last months of WWI and it's firmly rooted in its time and place, very little prettifying (54,630 words)
- The End of the Beginning by tuesdaysgone is a post WWII story about soldiers home from the war and the wives who've been living without them for so long (14,920 words)

[sistermagpie]

Yay! This sounds great! I haven't read that many AUs, but ones that were historical that I remember liking were--well, obviously yours but I assume you tried to be doing it right! I loved that Star Trek fic where they were in the old west. That seemed like a great example of how much you can say about the character with the way you transform them.

There was also an ATLA fic that I was really loving but I don't think it was finished...damn, who wrote it? Rawles! It's unfinished, but it was called "A Certain Fondness." An Avatar Regency fic.

Those are the ones I remember feeling were really taking place in those times. A Certain Fondness didn't get very far, but iirc it was already dealing with the some of the social pressures etc.

[mis-mariposas.livejournal.com]

Searching for the Ghost (http://hollycomb.livejournal.com/149860.html) by Hollycomb.

StarTrek. Sulu/Chekov, NC-17. AU, 80k -- Sulu is a Navy translator sent to Japan in September 1945 as part of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey. Chekov and Scotty are physicists, Spock is a behavioral psychologist who is accompanied by his protégé Uhura, McCoy is a Navy doctor, and Jim is a Lieutenant Commander.

There is almost nothing about this story that doesn't hurt, but that's what makes it a good historical AU. Sulu is Japanese American in Japan with the US Army post WWII and the author does not gloss over the confusion, complications, and ugliness that brings with it.

[dana_kujan]

If you're still taking recs:

http://aerye.dreamwidth.org/362011.html