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

[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.

[jlh]

Thanks so much for this! I'm excited to read it. I know what you mean about the All Brown People Are Interchangeable, and having to kind of let that go. I think you are working to keep people accurate, but you also want to avoid the Buffy the Vampire Slayer in England syndrome, where the cast would never have met.

Even if you have things that are only at 80 or 75 or even 50% but have interesting aspects that could be used as examples, that would be really great too.

Thanks again!!