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Mary and I have started using this term in conversation a lot, and because I'm really off the beaten path of metafandom stuff lately, I'm not sure how widespread the phrase is. Anyway, I really like it, because it has a lot of relevance to slash and fanfic, but also to gen and canon, and to me it seems to describe...at least part of what people always talk about as "the slash aesthetic."
So what, I asked myself, *is* emo porn, exactly? And the best I could do at defining it is that emo porn is a climactic moment of high-pitch emotion that is completely focused and unmixed, normally but not always focused on the purity of two characters' feelings for one another. You know it not by what's said but by how it's deployed, the kind of reaction it's intended to elicit from the audience: a breathles, riveted, completely absorbing moment of emotional response. Other kinds of writing tries to make you feel something, to be sure, but emo porn's goal is to make you feel that *whatever you are feeling is everything* -- at least for that moment. It goes straight for the spine, and when it's done well, there's a kind of disconnected elation that results, where you feel like you've been mainlining some powerful emotion in its purest form. To elaborate, a few points of interest:
-- emo porn is not necessarily sexual
Obviously, people's interpretations of which characters are playing out a sexual dynamic varies, but I don't mean this simply in a text/subtext kind of way. I mean that while there is subtextual emo porn, where the emo porn gets read as standing in for or representing a perceived sexual tension, there is also emo porn that overtly takes place between lovers (Angel was particularly good at emo porn with his girlfriends: e.g. "I Will Rememer You" and "You're Welcome" -- different girlfriends, same emo porn!), and also emo porn that takes place in a manifestly non-sexual relationship, such as between parents and children (the example that springs to mind for me is Buffy and Giles at the end of "Passion," which, I realize there are such things as Buffy/Giles shippers, even though -- no, no, no, please stop making Buffy sleep with her dad, it's *awful*! -- but even given that it may be problematic as an example of nonsexual relationships, I wanted to give it a nod since it got edged off my Top Five below by another daddy/daughter emo porn moment). I've noticed that it's getting harder and harder to get fandom to agree that there is any such thing as a non-sexual relationship *g* (I thought about using Simon letting hiself be burned at the stake so River doesn't have to do it alone in "Safe" as my example but that's contested, too, in terms of sexual vs. nonsexual -- there's honestly no pleasing you people), but the point is that just because you identify something in canon as being emo porn does not automatically mean that you see, or want to see, anything sexual in the characters' relationship. I personally am a fan of platonic emo porn, as you'll notice when I get to my list.
-- emo porn is not necessarily predicated on trauma
Usually, yes. Usually it's a terrible moment of pain and loss, wherein the only thing they have to turn to for comfort is each other -- or worse, where they're denied each other's comfort and it's all, well, dreadful. But you can have happy emo porn, I swear! The end of the first run of the UK Queer as Folk, where Stuart and Vince reunite just with their eyes is awesome emo porn, and makes me ecstatically happy. If you prefer the US version, I'd say Justin's prom at the end of season 1 contains some prime emo porn, even before they start bringing the pain. There seems to be something in our collective brains that makes us more receptive to dark emo porn, while the happier stuff runs the risk of being dismissed as fluff or schmoop or whatever, but making you want to kill yourself at the same time it sends you into an ecstatic rapture of ohmygodthatwassoamazing! is not a functional part of the definition. It's just common.
-- emo porn is girly (corrollary: not everything slashy is also emo porn)
No, this is not me delving into the debate (such as it is) on "feminizing" characters. And I am mindful of the fact that most, if not all, of the emo porn I'm referencing from canoncial sources actually was invented by men, and I definitely don't want to produce a thesis statement at the moment regarding the definition of masculine and feminine. However, I think when male characters and writers indulge in emo porn, they are by definition stepping outside the paramaters of (blah blah disclaimercakes) what we generally consider man-like behavior. There are some characters and shows that use very little emo porn -- even some famously slashy characters and shows. These are guys who emote in a much more firmly guy-like way; their expressions of love and emotion are *totally real* and highly slashy, but they think of themselves as guy's guys, and they wouldn't be caught dead doing emo porn. In this category, I include Due South. The show is slashy as all hell, but things are signaled in quiet, sometimes slightly awkward, strong and pragmatic ways, with the exception of a single episode ("Victoria's Secret"), where it isn't the slash relationship that gets emo porned. I'm thinking of something like "North" or "Asylum," where the male characters' loyalty and devotion is unquestioned, but it isn't written, shot, or acted as an intensely, *expressively* emotional release. It's just known and accepted, without a lot of fuss. Supernatural skews the same way; there's been a small amount of emo porn (interestingly, IMO none of it very successful, because it doesn't suit the characters as well as the other style), but mostly they abide by the No Chick Flick Moments maxim, and we're simply left to know how much they love each other without consolidating it into the kind of purity and intensity emo porn requires. SGA is also a slashy show with a distinct lack of emo porn, which, thank God. I wouldn't trust these writers within a hundred yards of it.
It's in fanfiction, however, where emo porn really comes into its own. We are amazingly skilled at remixing source materials to create emo porn -- in fact, it's probably not a coincidence that some of the most popular fandoms are those like the above that specifically refuse to canon-ify emo porn. Suddenly, we all want to add it ourselves. I'm not up to compiling a list of my favorite fanfic emo porn; life is way too short, but I think it's not much of an overstatement to say that I often read fic actively looking for the emo porn, that that's my primary (if perhaps not my only) purpose in reading fanfic at all. In fact, I'm deeply tempted to make the impossibly contentious statement that slash is in some sense about creating emo porn, which is why some stories that seem textually gen can "feel like" slash, and some that feature gay sex can feel oddly *off* somehow, like they don't quite fit in with the rest of the genre (of course, I'm reminded by Mary that not everyone considers slash a "genre," so...yes. Duly noted.) Anyway, if I were to make that statement, everyone and their dog would immediately be like "So you're saying you don't consider blah bliddy blah slash?" and I would be like, "Um, well, yes, I do, but, so, the thing, uh..." and look quite foolish, which is why I'm resisting the temptation.
And now that I've offered up this totally subjective and probably not very useful primer on What I Mean When I Say Emo Porn, just for fun, my five favorite emo porn moments on television, in no particular order.
1) Wiseguy, the "Nights in White Satin" scene. If you remember this show, you know exactly what I mean and are totally on board with me. If you don't, you probably wouldn't believe me if I described it to you. I consider this the gold standard to which all emo porn aspires.
2) The Yellow Crayon scenes in "Grave," season 6 BtVS, Willow & Xander. Never having been much of a W/X shipper, this makes an excellent example of how a person can view emo porn as reflecting a particularly intense friendship rather than a sublimated romance.
3) Jim and Blair's fight in "Warriors," The Sentinel. This show sort of walked the line between indulging in emo porn and operating out of that Guy Romance model I alluded to above. This scene, to me, crosses that line -- something about their physicality, how close they stand, how they try to communicate how serious they are about what they're saying through touches that are almost violent but actually not really - it's more like they're trying to physically *bring* one another, push or pull them, toward seeing things their way, and I think it's a perfect reflection of how connected Jim and Blair are even when they argue. Every time I see even the half-second clip from it that ran in the opening credits, I get a little shivery.
4) Keith's "If they take you away..." scene in "Donut Run," Veronica Mars. Any scene with the words "I would not survive without you" in the actual dialogue is, ipso facto, emo porn. This is such a great episode, and even as much as I adore him, I sometimes forget, Enrico can really act.
5) "Walking in Memphis," The X-Files, "Postmodern Prometheus." See, I put a happy one on the list! This was great emo porn and an effective scene in general because of its resonance both for shippers and non-shippers. It doesn't matter. This scene does not give a damn if Mulder and Scully ever have sex, or secretly want to, or if you the viewer want them to. At that moment, they're "together" in the sense of being on the same page, of being glad and grateful for each other, of simply and overtly taking enormous pleasure in each other's company. It's the defining Mulder/Scully scene for me for the whole series.
Thanks for indulging me by reading this far! If you want to include shining examples of emo porn as you see it in the comments, please do! I'm interested.
So what, I asked myself, *is* emo porn, exactly? And the best I could do at defining it is that emo porn is a climactic moment of high-pitch emotion that is completely focused and unmixed, normally but not always focused on the purity of two characters' feelings for one another. You know it not by what's said but by how it's deployed, the kind of reaction it's intended to elicit from the audience: a breathles, riveted, completely absorbing moment of emotional response. Other kinds of writing tries to make you feel something, to be sure, but emo porn's goal is to make you feel that *whatever you are feeling is everything* -- at least for that moment. It goes straight for the spine, and when it's done well, there's a kind of disconnected elation that results, where you feel like you've been mainlining some powerful emotion in its purest form. To elaborate, a few points of interest:
-- emo porn is not necessarily sexual
Obviously, people's interpretations of which characters are playing out a sexual dynamic varies, but I don't mean this simply in a text/subtext kind of way. I mean that while there is subtextual emo porn, where the emo porn gets read as standing in for or representing a perceived sexual tension, there is also emo porn that overtly takes place between lovers (Angel was particularly good at emo porn with his girlfriends: e.g. "I Will Rememer You" and "You're Welcome" -- different girlfriends, same emo porn!), and also emo porn that takes place in a manifestly non-sexual relationship, such as between parents and children (the example that springs to mind for me is Buffy and Giles at the end of "Passion," which, I realize there are such things as Buffy/Giles shippers, even though -- no, no, no, please stop making Buffy sleep with her dad, it's *awful*! -- but even given that it may be problematic as an example of nonsexual relationships, I wanted to give it a nod since it got edged off my Top Five below by another daddy/daughter emo porn moment). I've noticed that it's getting harder and harder to get fandom to agree that there is any such thing as a non-sexual relationship *g* (I thought about using Simon letting hiself be burned at the stake so River doesn't have to do it alone in "Safe" as my example but that's contested, too, in terms of sexual vs. nonsexual -- there's honestly no pleasing you people), but the point is that just because you identify something in canon as being emo porn does not automatically mean that you see, or want to see, anything sexual in the characters' relationship. I personally am a fan of platonic emo porn, as you'll notice when I get to my list.
-- emo porn is not necessarily predicated on trauma
Usually, yes. Usually it's a terrible moment of pain and loss, wherein the only thing they have to turn to for comfort is each other -- or worse, where they're denied each other's comfort and it's all, well, dreadful. But you can have happy emo porn, I swear! The end of the first run of the UK Queer as Folk, where Stuart and Vince reunite just with their eyes is awesome emo porn, and makes me ecstatically happy. If you prefer the US version, I'd say Justin's prom at the end of season 1 contains some prime emo porn, even before they start bringing the pain. There seems to be something in our collective brains that makes us more receptive to dark emo porn, while the happier stuff runs the risk of being dismissed as fluff or schmoop or whatever, but making you want to kill yourself at the same time it sends you into an ecstatic rapture of ohmygodthatwassoamazing! is not a functional part of the definition. It's just common.
-- emo porn is girly (corrollary: not everything slashy is also emo porn)
No, this is not me delving into the debate (such as it is) on "feminizing" characters. And I am mindful of the fact that most, if not all, of the emo porn I'm referencing from canoncial sources actually was invented by men, and I definitely don't want to produce a thesis statement at the moment regarding the definition of masculine and feminine. However, I think when male characters and writers indulge in emo porn, they are by definition stepping outside the paramaters of (blah blah disclaimercakes) what we generally consider man-like behavior. There are some characters and shows that use very little emo porn -- even some famously slashy characters and shows. These are guys who emote in a much more firmly guy-like way; their expressions of love and emotion are *totally real* and highly slashy, but they think of themselves as guy's guys, and they wouldn't be caught dead doing emo porn. In this category, I include Due South. The show is slashy as all hell, but things are signaled in quiet, sometimes slightly awkward, strong and pragmatic ways, with the exception of a single episode ("Victoria's Secret"), where it isn't the slash relationship that gets emo porned. I'm thinking of something like "North" or "Asylum," where the male characters' loyalty and devotion is unquestioned, but it isn't written, shot, or acted as an intensely, *expressively* emotional release. It's just known and accepted, without a lot of fuss. Supernatural skews the same way; there's been a small amount of emo porn (interestingly, IMO none of it very successful, because it doesn't suit the characters as well as the other style), but mostly they abide by the No Chick Flick Moments maxim, and we're simply left to know how much they love each other without consolidating it into the kind of purity and intensity emo porn requires. SGA is also a slashy show with a distinct lack of emo porn, which, thank God. I wouldn't trust these writers within a hundred yards of it.
It's in fanfiction, however, where emo porn really comes into its own. We are amazingly skilled at remixing source materials to create emo porn -- in fact, it's probably not a coincidence that some of the most popular fandoms are those like the above that specifically refuse to canon-ify emo porn. Suddenly, we all want to add it ourselves. I'm not up to compiling a list of my favorite fanfic emo porn; life is way too short, but I think it's not much of an overstatement to say that I often read fic actively looking for the emo porn, that that's my primary (if perhaps not my only) purpose in reading fanfic at all. In fact, I'm deeply tempted to make the impossibly contentious statement that slash is in some sense about creating emo porn, which is why some stories that seem textually gen can "feel like" slash, and some that feature gay sex can feel oddly *off* somehow, like they don't quite fit in with the rest of the genre (of course, I'm reminded by Mary that not everyone considers slash a "genre," so...yes. Duly noted.) Anyway, if I were to make that statement, everyone and their dog would immediately be like "So you're saying you don't consider blah bliddy blah slash?" and I would be like, "Um, well, yes, I do, but, so, the thing, uh..." and look quite foolish, which is why I'm resisting the temptation.
And now that I've offered up this totally subjective and probably not very useful primer on What I Mean When I Say Emo Porn, just for fun, my five favorite emo porn moments on television, in no particular order.
1) Wiseguy, the "Nights in White Satin" scene. If you remember this show, you know exactly what I mean and are totally on board with me. If you don't, you probably wouldn't believe me if I described it to you. I consider this the gold standard to which all emo porn aspires.
2) The Yellow Crayon scenes in "Grave," season 6 BtVS, Willow & Xander. Never having been much of a W/X shipper, this makes an excellent example of how a person can view emo porn as reflecting a particularly intense friendship rather than a sublimated romance.
3) Jim and Blair's fight in "Warriors," The Sentinel. This show sort of walked the line between indulging in emo porn and operating out of that Guy Romance model I alluded to above. This scene, to me, crosses that line -- something about their physicality, how close they stand, how they try to communicate how serious they are about what they're saying through touches that are almost violent but actually not really - it's more like they're trying to physically *bring* one another, push or pull them, toward seeing things their way, and I think it's a perfect reflection of how connected Jim and Blair are even when they argue. Every time I see even the half-second clip from it that ran in the opening credits, I get a little shivery.
4) Keith's "If they take you away..." scene in "Donut Run," Veronica Mars. Any scene with the words "I would not survive without you" in the actual dialogue is, ipso facto, emo porn. This is such a great episode, and even as much as I adore him, I sometimes forget, Enrico can really act.
5) "Walking in Memphis," The X-Files, "Postmodern Prometheus." See, I put a happy one on the list! This was great emo porn and an effective scene in general because of its resonance both for shippers and non-shippers. It doesn't matter. This scene does not give a damn if Mulder and Scully ever have sex, or secretly want to, or if you the viewer want them to. At that moment, they're "together" in the sense of being on the same page, of being glad and grateful for each other, of simply and overtly taking enormous pleasure in each other's company. It's the defining Mulder/Scully scene for me for the whole series.
Thanks for indulging me by reading this far! If you want to include shining examples of emo porn as you see it in the comments, please do! I'm interested.
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no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 09:26 am (UTC)From:For myself, if I am watching a show and getting those peak moments (ala Buffy), it makes me less interested in finding fanficiton, as I am still living the high from the show. It's all about those peak moments for me.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 10:04 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 10:19 am (UTC)From:I'm also immediately struck by the "Thirteen!" scene in Rome's "The Spoils", which is interesting because it seems overtly on the masculine type (no dialogue or talking about feelings, lots of violence) and yet ... man. Totally emo porn, pure and overwhelming.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 10:21 am (UTC)From:your discussion is exactly why pwp's don't interest me now that the new has worn off of slash for me UNLESS there's emo porn or h/c or character development or SOMETHING going on with the fucking or the blowjobs or whatever.
by your definition does emo porn=smarm? how would smarm fit in? because in most of our pairings that aren't Enemy Lurv, like Harry/Draco, smarm is canon.
(I first found you in TS, btw, and am not quite in SGA but can't help reading it because, well, the fanfic is so damn GOOD just now.)
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 10:25 am (UTC)From:Absolutely.
When I got the first season DVDs, first thing I did was pop in the last disc to go directly to this scene . . . only to discover that they'd replaced "Nights in White Satin" with something completely different. I had to whack the sound off before my memory got remixed as well.
Honestly. They should have paid whatever they were asking for the rights. It would have been worth it.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 11:03 am (UTC)From:I know what you mean when you say DS isn't exactly overt emo porn, but for me, one of the prime moments that would fit the bill (at least if I understand what you're getting across) is the scene in MotB when Ray hits Fraser. CKR does the best emotionally devastated look I've ever seen. Those EYES...just...
It *is* heavily on the traumatic side of the scale, but I think that look is the most revealing moment of the strength of Ray's feelings in a show that is liberally sprinkled with less emo slash, for want of a better term :)
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 11:38 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 12:07 pm (UTC)From:(I've popped over from my friends' friends list, apologies for invading.)
It resonated, because there's something I look for in fanfiction that I wasn't sure how to categorise - I've always considered myself a slasher without question, but recently I've started to question that. Because I'm not satisfied just with gay sex. PWPs don't do a hell of a lot for me. It's the build-ups, the characterisation, and the climax - which could be a sexual thing, but doesn't have to be. I've been blinkering myself, I think, to entirely too great an extent, and you've put your finger on why - it wasn't the porn I was after, after all. It was the emotion.
Hunh. Stuff to think about. New fic to trundle off in search of.
Very much obliged.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 12:13 pm (UTC)From:See, I would say Mountie on the Bounty too, only not that moment. I was just thinking about this as I read the post.
The moment for me is when they're discussing their transfers, and Fraser asks if Ray will take his, and he says "Me? No." That quick. Like it was never even a consideration. The punch doesn't resolve anything, it starts it, and outside events force them to fix things. And everything in the episode is about small releases of tension, and small motions towards each other, and frustration, all the way through. And then the transfer talk, which just releases all the tension in one go. Because it's still them. And they look at each other, and start laughing, because they can... breathe again.
*goes pink*
Er... and I totally didn't mean to go off on one quite so much. This isn't even my fandom. Er. Sorry about that.
*sidles off, hands in pockets*
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 12:19 pm (UTC)From:This is a great term and one I'm sure we'll have to mull over for a while, but I think it's clearly connected to a lot of what appeals in h/c (though it need not be as you point out) and clearly Ces's right to connect it to catharsis...and yes, if I were trying to define slash aesthetic? That'd be it!!! (Which is why I sometimes catch myself reading m/m fanfic and feeling that that's not slash TO ME or why I can read original m/m and call it slash without hesitation!)
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 12:22 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 12:22 pm (UTC)From:I'll second that.
I hadn't exactly labeled it, but yeah, this is the driving force behind what I'm looking for in fanfiction. If I find it in a Gen or slash story doesn't matter. the only scene above that I could immediately relate to was the XF reference, which has always been one of my favorite scenes, despite a definite noromo bent.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 12:30 pm (UTC)From:but i have read quite a bit of short fic that is so VERY pwp that it verges on the Any Two Guys Fucking school of slash, which just doesn't do it for me. that's kind of what I meant. What I see in myself may not hold true for everyone, but once I had figured out that yes, indeedy, there was some great smut out there, I started to get pickier and want all that stuff along with my nc 17 rating. that's all I meant.
Good writers certainly can give us a PWP that has all the character elements and implied arc that you mention. that is not impossible. And I don't have to have a 15 page fic to get all the stuff that I want, either... short can be excellent.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 12:33 pm (UTC)From:differentiate from smarm, please... the climax of smarm. *waits expectantly*
i think slash is so big and subtle and so in the eye of the beholder than defining it is hard and it changes over time. kind of like defining rock music or jazz music, yes?
or porn. i know it when i see it, as the supreme court justice said. but like you, i like trying.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 01:07 pm (UTC)From:For me, on a personal level, the punch pinged me as an emo porn moment because a) I am a total angst whore ;), and b) it had the tension of being the *furthest* away they could be from each other while *at the same time* being the perfect demonstration and moment of clarity for both of them of how much they mean to each other.
That sealed the deal for me. And, as I mentioned before, the raw, wounded look in Ray's eyes just killed me. Dead. For me, that was the moment of pure emotional truth between the two of them.
I do love the bit you've mentioned, but I guess that for me it was more of an icing on the cake moment - a lovely resolution of what they'd been building up to in the ep. This is really what makes fandom so fun though, that we can all be watching the same show and get so many different readings of it, depending on our own tastes and experiences. Thanks for your comment :)
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 01:43 pm (UTC)From:Yes!!!
And apart from the Nights in White Satin scene you cite, I don't know your examples, but your description is... yes. (And the reason I haven't bought the WG DVDs is that I've heard somewhere they cut that scene.)
Many PWPs do nothing for me, but some gen stories... boy, take 'The Goliath' in Starsky & Hutch, it's full of that stuff.
I'd disagree, though, that you can't find it in shows like Due South. Maybe it depends on the the level of explicitness you require. Sometimes the quiet moments can do it. Just a look exchanged, some moment of connection. And sometimes, the more subtle, the more effective it is.
Or maybe that's just me.
More emo porn:
Starsky blowing away the only guy (they think) who can save his life in A Coffin for Starsky, because the guy is about to shoot Hutch.
Blair's press conference in The Sentinel by Blair Sandburg - and I'm not even a TS fan.
Ponders the above... it seems that for me, the actual, physical presence of the other partner isn't even strictly necessary. Hm.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 01:46 pm (UTC)From:eta
Date: 2006-04-08 01:49 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 01:56 pm (UTC)From:do you mean without? because if so, yeah! or maybe even \ R, because smarm means no sex at all, yes? preslash without the slash?
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 02:02 pm (UTC)From:so it's the slash that does not contain explicit sex (which yes, would probably need to exclude the R as well except when some people use R for other stuff, so I thought NC17 got the porny aspect :-)
and whether there's sex in smarm...have you *read* TS smarm??? *bg*
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 02:05 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 02:40 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 02:51 pm (UTC)From:but i have read quite a bit of short fic that is so VERY pwp that it verges on the Any Two Guys Fucking school of slash, which just doesn't do it for me
I have to agree with you. I think the best of the PWPs are able to focus and condense the fans' experiences of the show as whole into a scene, sort of bypassing the buildup, like
no subject
Date: 2006-04-08 04:26 pm (UTC)From:Re:
Date: 2006-04-08 05:49 pm (UTC)From:I always thought smarm was emo porn without the sex. I thought if it was slash, it went waaaay beyond smarm. I thought smarm could "pass" on a gen list, with just an eye roll or two.
Of course, I may be all wrong here.
My fav TS smarm is Dasha's new AU on Cascade Library, "Imperfections." Lots of crossover, 7 loooong chapters and counting.
There's some great SG-1 smarm I've found, too. I love fic I can actually read at work!!!! Hee hee.