journey journey

[timeripple]

Off for a weekend of drinking and debauchery in NYC with mousapelli. Uh, by which I mean bubble tea and karaoke and shopping.

...

It would be spoilery to tell you why, but I’ve been thinking about the notion of the OTP lately—what it is, how it’s constructed and used, what differences between a canon and fanon OTP look like. Any thoughts on the matter?

Comments

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

I'd really like it if we actually found bubble tea this time hahaha.

[snowqueenofhoth.livejournal.com]

Chinatown. How can you miss it? PS I AM JEALOUS.

[timeripple.livejournal.com]

Yeah you are.

Though we totally didn't make it to Chinatown this time either. XD

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

BUBBLE TEA DEBAUCHERY

sounds like my kind of orgy, really.

OTP, huh...
I'm only fringe in most fandoms, so I can't really comment much on that (I haven't made any theories, anyhow).
I have my own writer's perspective ideas, though...

Romance-wise, if things are spelled out in the text, that is fact. I also feel, however, that anything that doesn't end up in the actual text, even if the author intends it? Is *not* cannon, per se. Therefore, I have my own theories on Luna's OTP. It is not Rowling's. Where I go over into fandom-theory is that I feel the author's idea is NOT that much more credible.

Otherwise it would have been in the actual text.
...or actually, I'm not as arrogant as to make that kind of statement.
But it is important to me to acknowledge that what a reader brings to the story is enough to make their experience of it valid.

Which is why I always try to see any given OTP from the shipper's perspective, at least for a moment, before going back to my own. ;)


I though I didn't have anything to say about this, but APPARENTLY...
I do find the interrelation of the concepts of cannon, 'ships, and OTP interesting, even just as lingual constructs XD

[timeripple.livejournal.com]

Right? It's SO INTERESTING.

I think the term OTP--One True Pairing--has a couple of angles. One is reader-response (and I think this is the primary meaning): it's the reader's favorite ship for a given fandom or character, regardless of who ends up with whom in canon. I'm trying to figure out if there's another layer that's more canon character-based, and how to articulate that thought. XD

(And then of course I'm finding things that undermine the very notion of an OTP--OR DO THEY ACTUALLY CONFIRM IT??? OTP as canon endgame vs OTP as the only ship for a given reader or text... and now I'm blathering incoherently. Sigh. This is what all my papers look like at first. I THOUGHT I WAS DONE WITH THOSE.)

[idiosyncreant.livejournal.com]

I see that we are kindred spirits. I write the exact same type of papers, which is why I've forgone academia for fandom comment-trails...

REGRETTING NOTHING

But yes, (your "incoherent babbling" sounds perfectly like my own mind, haha uh oh) OTP is a construct that is both highly contextual and open to interpretation, because as many words it started out as a concrete idea and then was subverted for sarcastic/playful use.

OTP could be the 'ship you'll go down with, defending it to the last man, but if Hermione and Ron still get together.

And then when the OTP is justified by cannon, you get a layer of bragging-rights and legitimacy layered onto it.

But as a humorous construct sometimes it's able to provide insight, it becomes a shortcut-word.

See: Spencer Reid + Paper = OTP
At first it seems funny, but then you start to watch his hands as he goes through files, and scans books at his million-dollar-mind speed, his absolute comfort, and you're like... "Wait, they really are perfect together."

Belle/Library
Tae-Kyung/PigRabbit
Tamaki/Kyoya

does the OTP necessarily have to be romantic? Or is it a partnership that will live past any fleeting romance and on into the boring marrieds years?


...I like to end presentations with a question. This is my main problem with essays. X)

[timeripple.livejournal.com]

And it's so USEFUL as a shortcut. (Maybe too convenient? ...nah.) I recently used the phrase "Otto/Scarf OTP!" BECAUSE IT'S TRUE.

I think the very phrasing is connected to the fictional ideal of True Love, too, which I am finding more and more problematic. (And I want to examine the ways in which OTP might differ from True Love...neither of which necessarily end up in boring marrieds years.)