fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3132 ]

[ SECRET POST #3132 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3132 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 068 secrets from Secret Submission Post #448.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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07. http://i.imgur.com/oVm7QuD.png

Personally, I can't stand high school AUs because they remind me of the fact that I'm very much not in high school anymore, and haven't been for a long time.

I also dislike how obviously American the vast majority seem to be, regardless of where the source material is set. I mean, would it kill you to do a bit of research on what high school is like in other countries?

It's true.
I think it's also half the reason I can't get into HSAUs at all, even if I could get over the teenager bit. My HS years didn't look like they do in America, and I have no interest in writing about American highschoolers - and why should I, anyway?
But AUing them into a non-American HS seems like it would be weird and not accepted by fandom (though I do sometimes see stuff in Japanese high schools...)

It's like all these HSAUs occur in a bland, Americanish kind of alternate universe.

Personally I would love to see more high school or university AUs set outside America. I dunno if it's just something in media but there seems to be so much mean-spiritedness in American high schools/colleges which I cannot relate to at all and find kind of off-putting. I imagine bullying exists everywhere but it's not nearly as...institutionalised or accepted as normal where I grew up (NZ) as it seems to be in America.

It's true. I also don't remember my school being nearly so horrible in that respect, either.
I feel like people would find it too weird, though, reading about familiar characters in such a... specific setting. Everybody seems to accept America as the default, and as a kind of 'neutral' setting.

I agree, and it's ridiculous because America is so far from neutral, but I think the best way to change that is to start doing it.

I mean, a modern SnK fic set in Israel would be no more AU than one set in America, right? And other fans from that country would love it. I know I got excited when I found a fic set (partially) in NZ. It was reasonably popular too so the setting can't have scared off too many people.

I do kind of do it on the low-down, actually. I try to be coy about it, but I put in little cultural details relevant to me, rather than making an effort to localize things in America. On the other hand, I don't write many AUs, so there's that...

I did once write a canonverse fic where Levi was Jewish. I was surprised that it was pretty well received!

Huh, someone likes HS AUs. Well, more power to you, OP! It's as good reason to read it as any. HS is a time where there was little responsibility and it was easy to make friends. Also it provides a recognizible backdrop. Like, people don't have to be mentally kids to enjoy Harry Potter or to be mentally in army to enjoy Rambo.
I wonder why you don't read it often. Not for the lack of contenet or..?

My fandoms either have no visible or very few HS AU fics, or don't have many with pairings, plots, and/or characterisations I want to read.

I guess that's another reason I still like the HS AU concept - I haven't really been in a fandom swamped by them. That's a complaint I've seen about HS AUs, too many of them.

"people don't have to be mentally kids to enjoy Harry Potter or to be mentally in army to enjoy Rambo"

That's interesting, I didn't think of that when I made the secret! I have read people say the main reason they like HP is because it brings them back to their childhoods. But it seems that's just one reason it's popular, though it is a strong one.

SPN has so many high school fic, seems like every third fic is set in HS.

Hmm, I didn't hear this about Harry Potter books. Makes sense.

I can definitely relate to feeling like you're still mentally in high school, OP. I mean, in some ways I feel like a mature, capable adult. I have an adult's intelligence and a mature adult's control over myself as a social being (none of that squabbling, competitive, back-biting nonsense). But in other ways I feel developmentally stunted at like a 12/13-year-old's level, which isn't awesome on the ego.

And yeah, I do kind of wonder if that's why I love High School as much as I do.

Particularly because I was never really much of a teenager in my teens. I was so withdrawn and emotionally removed (not quite to a Complex-PTSD level, but not far off), and just utterly disinterested in all the things most teenagers are so excited by. I just wanted to get through each day with as few obligations and challenges as possible, and be left alone by the world.

Which is probably why I think there's something so...almost blindingly intense, and like, sweet/angsty/intoxicating/wistful about HS AUs. Because I never had/did/felt any of that teenage stuff myself, and in hindsight it just seems soooo...IDEK. It seems like that's where I missed the turn off into my life, I guess, and if I could go back to that point and take the turn off it would be immensely cathartic and also much healthier than what actually came next.

Weird personal stuff aside though, THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE HIGH SCHOOL AUS???

I thought most people like HS AUs. They certainly tend to be popular, anyway. I'm not sure what fandoms people are in if their experience is that HS AUs are disliked. I would never consider liking HS AUs an embarrassing thing, either.

However, I do agree with what the other commenters are saying about most HS AUs being quite Americanized. I don't mind it as much as some people, because I'm Canadian, so I'm used to my fictional depictions of reality being thoroughly Americanized. But it can be really grating at times, for sure. So much bullying! So much jock worship! So much freaking pep!

nayrt

I loathe them. It's such a boring, cliched setting, and I didn't enjoy high school so I don't care to relive the experience in fandom. If you're writing an AU, you have a world of possibilities in front of you, and choosing HS just seems unimaginative.

Same here.
There is one such fic I liked, for Sayuki fandom. It was ages ago.

For me, I feel like I peaked in high school. I was a sheltered geek with few friends, and hated attending practice for a club I didn't like being in. But I consider this peaking because I had good grades and felt like I was smart and capable of learning all sorts of stuff in the future. Which doesn't sound as good having typed it.

I also feel something like what you mentioned about missing out on the romanticised intensity not just presented in fiction, but that people I've met reminisce about.

A lot of HS AU complaints I've seen are about too many at the expense of other AUs (which I don't buy because I think most HS AU writers wouldn't be writing other AUs automatically if they didn't write HS AUs), OOC writing, and lack of research for non-American canons or characters (and the resulting defaulting to American HS). I agree there should be more variety instead of the stereotypical American HS norm, though the phenomenon is interesting.

I think it helps to keep in mind that AUs function for the most part not on the level of reality, but on the level of genre.

So of fucking course HSAUs are centered around the American high school experience, because they're not for the most part having anything to do with high school - they're AUs set in high school movies, which is a genre which America has dominated.

I think it helps to keep in mind that AUs function for the most part not on the level of reality, but on the level of genre. So of fucking course HSAUs are centered around the American high school experience

I agree with this to a degree. It is clear that most HS AUs function on the level of genre. However, British boarding school fiction is a genre too, a definitively British one, and sometimes even British boarding school fics are Americanized. That's when I find it particularly glaring.

While I don't write or read high school AUs, I sometimes like to imagine them.

I went to a US high school, and actually didn't mind it much. I was a geek, but had a circle of friends and some measure of acceptance in the student body (it helped that my school was super-crowded, giving me a bit of anonymity). While I wouldn't want to repeat it, necessarily, high school was much more enjoyable for me than college.

Plus it was before my mental illnesses got really bad. They were there, but my friends kept me at some level of normalcy (though it started getting strained in senior year). I've gotten a lot better at coping, but my memories make me feel a bit nostalgic at times.

But I consider this peaking because I had good grades and felt like I was smart and capable of learning all sorts of stuff in the future. Which doesn't sound as good having typed it.

No I get it. I had an extremely academic friend who sounds a lot like you. She was an absolutely FANTASTIC student, and was really excited about the future and university, etc., and then she became extremely disillusioned and depressed in the years after HS. She doesn't read fic, though, so I can't ask her if she feels the same way about HS AUs. :(

too many at the expense of other AUs (which I don't buy because I think most HS AU writers wouldn't be writing other AUs automatically if they didn't write HS AUs

I agree; what a silly argument. One may as well say "Too many people are becoming figure skaters at the expense of hockey players."

OOC writing

Personally I don't find HS AUs much more likely to be OOC than any other kind of fanfic, though I may also be a bit more relaxed about it because the teens are still formative years and therefore if the characters aren't exactly like they are in canon I can explain it that way.

though the phenomenon is interesting.

Yes, I find it interesting too. :)

I like them because even though I'm in my 20s I don't feel as if I've been sufficiently experienced in "adult life" to write it convincingly

Me too.

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[ SECRET POST #3132 ]

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