::applauds:: Although I wish I didn't have to applaud this rant, but you're right. The fandom stupid, it hurts my brain.

Great rant. One great risk if you write, fail to do research and base your facts off someone else's fiction is that your story will be two steps removed from reality. Fiction is not reality. Unlike reality, it has to make sense. Things get changed for this reason. Or to heighten tension. Or whatever. I you don't reinject some extra reality to balance the fact that you're writing fiction based on someone else's fiction.... Well, remember when auto translation software like Babblefish first came out? And people would translate something into, say, French and back to English to see what would happen? Not doing research is doing the same thing with your fiction!

Fantastic rant; the first time I read a fic where House is on top, missionary style, I prayed and prayed it would be the last. Of course, it wasn't. Some people just... arrrgh.

I'll admit, I don't have as much knowledge about his disability as I probably should, planning as I am to write fic in this fandom, but at least I have common sense. Also, your idea about doing too many squats and then gauging the pain was fantastic, and I think I may have to do that. Not sure how many I'll be able to pull off, as I have pretty bad knees, but I'm going to give it a try.

I'm also lucky enough to have a friend in med school. I don't know if you meant to or not, but you really helped me out with ideas for researching his condition. I am hell bent to not write bad House fanfiction, because there are so many other works I've read that I admire so much (including yours). So, thanks. :)

The key to doing squats without hurting your knees is to make very sure to keep your knees from bowing inward as you stand up. (If you can't help it, you're using too much weight.)

Of course, that's how you keep from injuring yourself while doing them, no idea how it works if you've already injured them another way...

Fantastic rant; the first time I read a fic where House is on top, missionary style, I prayed and prayed it would be the last.

Cat maintains if you got the pillow positioning right, it would work, and considering the biologist thing and the weight-lifting thing--if you haven't guessed by now, the squats thing was her idea--I am willing to take her word for it, though I have difficulties visualizing for some reason.

And of course being on the bottom is fine, though I have noticed that only one of the two ways that could work is ever written. It's like right after Pathogenesis and Intervention was written the entire fandom took a vote and decided House doesn't enjoy prostate stimulation, and nobody bothered sending me a note.

I feel so left out.


I'll admit, I don't have as much knowledge about his disability as I probably should, planning as I am to write fic in this fandom, but at least I have common sense. [snip] I'm also lucky enough to have a friend in med school. I don't know if you meant to or not, but you really helped me out with ideas for researching his condition.

Well, that's part of the reason I'm emphasizing so strongly getting a beta who's solid on this stuff, because.... Well, it's been a lot better since 'Three Stories' but it's always difficult to figure out exactly where to start, what to ask. (Excluding the 'addiction' thing, which is why I have absolutely no empathy for anyone who fucks that baby up--which is most of the fandom and the writers/producers. Sigh.) So it's easy to get stuff wrong just because you never knew to even look into/for that, and it's understandable to get it wrong in those cases, just as it would be for anything--I hardly blame myself for not knowing a choke chain wouldn't work on a human being because of head size. Thus, a good beta: to catch this stuff you couldn't, and tell you that no, Vicodin doesn't work like that, or no, a prong collar would be a lot better.

I swear getting solidly beta'd seems to be on the decline, but Tris (hobviously) disagrees with me, which means it's either just me or my fandom circles. But that's... really a discussion for another time.


because there are so many other works I've read that I admire so much (including yours).

Thank you! And I was serious, incidentally, when I said if someone wanted to get a beta to look over things for accuracy; given that I try to avoid things with a fixed deadline because of my less-than-dependable physical state, I'm not sure it would be me, but I do seem to be attracting more of the sides of House fandom who do have this practical knowledge.

Fucking WORD! Especially this part:

Because whatever the doctors say, not getting side effects is a lot rarer than getting them, and the best most of us learn to hope for is side effects we can live with.

Not to mention that you learn to live with constant side effects, *and* at least some amount of the original problem as well, unless you are the luckiest bastard in the universe and your medication works perfectly.

I remember once, not long before Detox aired, getting into an argument with someone who believed, well and truly believed, that House was taking that bet with Cuddy in order to find out if he is actually in pain, because goodness, he's been on painkillers so long he probably just doesn't know anymore!

You can find that little gem of brilliance here. For extra fun, try to count how many times she tried to imply or flat-out argue that the fact he isn't a real person means she doesn't have to bother taking reality into account. *eyeroll* (For extra pain, hit 'parent' and read what I was worried about even then. I seem to be prescient with this fandom in the worst possible way.)

*applauds wildly* I have a back problem that gives me fits on (thankfully rare) occasions, and NOTHING I've ever been prescribed has worked. Lortabs knock it back but not out. Ugh. One thing I notice when I'm in pain (even if it's not severe pain) is how absolutely exhausting it is. Maybe people get used to it after awhile, but, dude, chronic pain is wearing. And this is something else that no one (either in fiction or TV) ever even mentions. And if you have a condition like a bad back or a DEAD MUSCLE IN YOUR FREAKING LEG, it *will* affect everything you do. Everything.

I mean, of course he's addicted. He's in pain. He needs the pills to function. This is the definition of addiction. How this is a bad thing has escaped me.

How this is a bad thing has escaped me.

Perhaps because the entire episode was set up to make it seem that way?

There's a reason the entire fandom heard him say he didn't have a problem and immediately concluded that this was not the case, and of course he did--though I'm not sure if it's the same reason I have never once even in any teeny tiny throw-away sentence in any meta ever or any fic ever seen anyone acknowledge that bit where even Wilson was no longer sure if it was a problem or not, and was electing to take a step back and let things proceed as they would for now. Surprisingly, though, the reason isn't merely that the fandom is slavishly, rapturously devoted to angst to the point where they will actually firmly deny that there is any lightness to the show at all. (There's humor, they will admit, but it's all black humor, bitter snark born from the depths of pain.)

The reason so much of the fandom firmly believes he had a problem is that the entire episode was constructed, to the point of willfully and utterly mangling medical facts that are available on even a cursory examination of opiate addiction, in order to leave you with the impression that he had a problem. And I am not talking about that somewhat ambiguous musical ending, either.

It's the simple fact that the entire episode was presented with the idea that it is impossible for there to be a third option--that it was all black and white, all easily right or wrong. He was either abusing them and would go through detox or he wasn't abusing them and wouldn't--which is medically ludicrous but isn't commonly known as such, and so people who don't have any experience with this simply accepted this as factually the way it works.

And then from there, from that ridiculous premise, House's repeated denials that he was going through detox, his insistence he wasn't addicted, it was just pain... combined with the above black-and-white options, of course the entire fandom heard him say, "It's not a problem," and went, "But it has to be a problem, there's no other option than for it to be a problem, so he's just still in denial about it."

What else could they have believed?



For the record, if I list my five worst episodes of the season, the only one that ranks lower than 'Detox' is 'Heavy'. And the current incarnation of House fandom doesn't merely revere 'Detox'--it's based on 'Detox', in that that episode is its holy grail, it's fundamental backbone, the perspective through which they have viewed every single other episode.

Considering it is actually one of the most extraneous episodes of the season--for all that it contains what should have been some amazingly pivotal character turning points, nothing that was raised in it was ever touched on again, which is a major part of the reason I rank it so low--a great deal about why the fandom is the way it is comes to make sense.

THANK YOU.

Got here via nostalgia_lj. Fantastic meta. Haven't read a lot of House fic, but it's an issue that comes up in a lot of fanfic that is almost never handled properly. Mostly, imo, because most people just don't understand physical disability in general. So bravo for fighting the good fight, and also for putting the smack down on the dumbness of fandom. ;)

Once I wrote a fic where House was getting such good make-outs that he forgot to take his Vicodin. *headdesks* On the up side, I for one realized that not taking it would just mean that he'd have to get up later and take one to combat the agony. But I still wrote it reeeeally badly. I feel lingering guilt, even now.

I don't think I have too much trouble with the writing the pain problem (well, I don't usually write about it much, because in my experience living with chronic pain makes it almost a non-issue most of the time... it impacts your life deeply, but you've been suffering long enough that it becomes the norm and you don't think about it much), but the actual function of the leg gives me problems. I find it hard to figure out what he could and could not do. I'd imagine that without the cane he'd have lots of problems with the leg just buckling. I've had knee troubles recently where every once in awhile the knee just threatens to give out completely, and it's kind of terrifying... the idea that your body just can't do the things you're used to doing.

I don't really have a point, but that that was excellent and that I fear sometimes I'm guilty guilty guilty.

You know, really, I think that the people who feel guilty and worry that they're getting it right are... not the problems. Like I said, I don't expect everyone to know all about this stuff and how it works--even I don't, which is part of the reason I stole catalase's soul at the earliest opportunity, because wow, a plot/realism beta who is a biologist, that's a thing of joy.

Plus, if you're aware that there's a gap in your knowledge, that you don't know exactly how something would work, you go into the writing process itself differently, in an attempt--either conscious or unconscious--to minimize the damage you'll do. Witness the people saying they don't write House in certain situations, because they don't know how they would play out. If you know you don't know something, you write around that lack of knowledge... but if you aren't even aware of your ignorance you inevitably make it a part of the story.

The problems are the ones that don't care, or the ones who give it a glance of a thought and then assume their betas will catch it, without bothering to make sure their betas really do have the depth of experience needed to make that catch. The problems are the people who don't even think that this might be a gap in their knowledge, that they might have to take special consideration, and just write the story as if everything were normal, dropping in the cane and the leg when they find it convenient. The problems are the ones who go, "Oh, he's an addict!" and write fic that makes this as a base assumption and a major role and can't even tell you the difference between physical dependency and psychological dependency, much less the stages of addiction and the things that make opiate addictions rather uniquely different than most major addictions. (After all, alcohol, cigarettes, and most other drug addictions are all addictions of choice--you didn't have to take this stuff, you elected to. Most opiate addictions start from the patient requiring this stuff to function, as in House's case, and it saddens me to type this and realize no, most of the fandom, even with me spelling it out like that, would not understand what an astoundingly major difference that can make.) The problems are the betas who can't even make connections between the limited mobility they had that time they sprained their ankle and how House would have to move, but still tell the person they're betaing for that they can handle it just fine.

And the biggest problem is, in a way, the way the feedback cycle reinforces this. Because the same unconscious knowledge gaps that lead the writers to do these things exist in the readership, the readers are never going to know better--and are going to praise them as deeply and as fully for work that contains such problems as they would for work that's honest and true, which only makes the writer more likely to repeat these errors or make even worse ones. And there's too many forms of both direct and indirect pressure for the people who do know better to risk speaking up and pointing out the problems in a piece receiving that much applause; the few occasions I've seen people attempt to do so haven't usually ended well. So the burden does become almost solely the writer's... and to many people just don't care.

*claps* I've only read a little House fic and have run into this.

In my experience, fandom always deals badly with medicine/drug addiction. I once had to be physically restrained from writing a heated letter to a Lost fanfic writer who knew jackshit about heroin addiction. (Of course, the show's not really any better.)

In my experience, fandom always deals badly with medicine/drug addiction.

*sighs* I know, and this case is even worse than usual, given the complexity of it, but.... Still, a little bit of research and/or common sense makes the difference between, "Oh my god all drugs are bad must wean him off the Vicodin any way you can, he'll be fine with just tylenol if you can get him to accept it!" and the realization that he's in pain, pain is bad--in more ways than just the obvious--and you have to do something to deal with that. Hence, pain pills.

I actually had to cut out a huge section in this about how just antidepressants aren't going to cut it, either, because it turned into a lecture on how they actually work as opposed to how most people think they work and that seems like it should be saved for another time.


I once had to be physically restrained from writing a heated letter to a Lost fanfic writer who knew jackshit about heroin addiction. (Of course, the show's not really any better.)

*looks pointedly at 'Detox'* You know, I'm starting to seriously wonder if there is anyone outside of J. Michael Staczynski who has done a show realistically and accurately depicting addiction (excluding certain gritty crime dramas, of course--really, excluding any number of shows that people don't get extremely fannish about). In fact, Babylon 5 did it twice and both times were beautiful--I'd say that arc was one of the best-done things of Season 5.

Babylon 5: canonical femslash. canonical tentacle porn. kick-ass space battles. complicated theology/mythology. wonderful characters, romances, and arcs. Officially the show voted most, "Wait, why isn't fandom actually fanning this?" ever.

*applauds* Spot-on, and completely the reason why the idea of writing House fic intimidates me: there's just too much that can go so very, very wrong, either with medical detail or characterization, and a lot of research on both should go into the attempt. A statement like "While you're sitting, raise your right foot completely up off the floor. You know what? House can't do that" really puts things into perspective, because it is both startlingly graphic and accurate.

(...Also, may I friend you?)

there's just too much that can go so very, very wrong, either with medical detail or characterization, and a lot of research on both should go into the attempt.

Again, I think if you write with the awareness of the gaps in your knowledge, and find ways to work around them, and/or find a beta who does know what they're doing--at this rate I might poll the people I know and see who's willing to turn themselves into a lending library of such--it really isn't a problem.

The thing is, going by these comments, I'm starting to get a sense that the reason so much House fic that's currently written contains problems ranging from minor to major is that the people who would know better, who would make sure their fics didn't have such issues, are... too intimidated to try in the first place, more or less ceding the field to everybody else. That might also explain why the most common reaction given whenever anyone complains about said problems is, "Well, then, why don't you write something using your knowledge?"

Which is a bit of a problem in and of itself, actually, given that a lot of the people who have first-hand experience with such problems aren't really ready for the public baring of wounds--or in the least private in-depth examination of wounds--that writing such a fic would be.


A statement like "While you're sitting, raise your right foot completely up off the floor. You know what? House can't do that" really puts things into perspective, because it is both startlingly graphic and accurate.

Thank you. I was hoping it would work that way--I wanted something very simple, very clear, and very easy for the person reading it to instantly to. This one wasn't innate knowledge, though; I've just had a lot of talks with my realism beta, catalase, and through her have finally gotten a sense of exactly what it is those muscles do.


(...Also, may I friend you?)

By all means. Though I should probably note my posting mix is a bit... eclectic, in tone if not, these days, in subject.

ummm, Word?


Totally. Word. I've stopped reading House fanfic (which basically translates to me OUT of House fandom - I'm a fan of the show, but i'm not in the fandom) because it bugs me how....how mobile they make him. And also, how consistent and localized they depict his pain.

He has a pain in his leg. So his leg is sore.


Well, yeah but it doesn't stop there. Walking with a cane (and is it just me or is that cane an inch or two too short for him?) makes you lopsided. Limping makes you lopsided. Hello disproportionate muscle development, a skewing of the spine, exhaustion from making your body move day in and out in ways it is not optimized for (don't believe me. Try walking for an hour without swinging your arms - the way humans walk is a complex system of counterbalances. A cane helps you BE mobile. BUt it's not GOOD mobility) And headaches. Did I mentioned the ouch?

Umm, stopping now before I get verbose again. Or start ranting about Detox.

But yeah. *loves you liek woah for writing this*

Indeed. I think a lot of fandoms fall into a kind of trap where the writers end up using canon selectively, to the point where their writing bears little resemblance to canon's realities. It's like making Professor Snape handsome or kind, or making Zeke Stone forget about his wife... it distorts the canon until the fic is just about cyphers with the same names and superficial resembances to the canon characters. It's bad writing, and it pisses discerning readers off, but it seems to exist everywhere.

Incidentally, I really hope I've not gone off the deep end with MY fic, though I suppose it's entirely likely. Mepp.

Thanks for sharing this; it's good to stir the ashes of the fandom.

making Zeke Stone forget about his wife...

Do we even have enough of a fandom for that to be a problem? O.o Seriously, the biggest problem I've encountered with Rosalyn is the persistent way some fans insist on spelling it Rosalind. (Which is why this very prominent shot from 'Poem' is my Brimstone 'canon bitch' icon.)

Well that and the fact that there's really no fic featuring her at all, but she does usually at least get a mention--an angsty, tormented mention of Zeke thinking back in pain and sorrow about how he'd failed her/is failing her....

Uh, yeah, part of my problem with all the ANGST in House fandom is the fact I was kind of coming into it with a surfeit of angst to begin with. But, y'know, the show was really funny, too, so I had this naive idea there'd be a fair amount of nicely snarky fics, too.


distorts the canon until the fic is just about cyphers with the same names and superficial resembances to the canon characters. It's bad writing, and it pisses discerning readers off, but it seems to exist everywhere.

I'm trying to answer a question on that five things meme that I sort of set myself up for, because I found the answers fascinating so I asked several people, who then came looking for revenge. It's five fanons that you like, and it's remarkably difficult because one tends to only remember the fanons you really dislike. But in trying to come up with some, I've started to realize how horrifically present these things are in House fandom--I know it's bad everywhere, but I swear it's unusually bad here, and I even know why: the text has unusual room for ambiguity. It isn't as obvious and straightly defined as most shows, doesn't make as big an effort to smack you with a mallet saying, "THIS IS WHAT WE MEAN," which is part of why I like it--it's a show that works best if you're fairly intelligent yourself. But it's lead to such rampant stupidity in the fandom, such incredibly subversive fanons, that last night I had an epiphany about one even I was accepting unquestioning. (I intend to post about that one in a bit, when I get caught up on some comments.)


Incidentally, I really hope I've not gone off the deep end with MY fic, though I suppose it's entirely likely. Mepp.

*shrugs* I can only say to you what I intend to say to everyone else: one, if you're worrying about it, you're very likely not the problem to begin with (see my reply to Otter for more), and two, get a good beta. Come to think of it, haven't you been beta'd by canthlian? He's been my friend for long enough and is smart enough about how this works that he'd have probably caught anything really problematical, and he can always come to Cat or myself if he has questions, so....

Well-said.

I've only been reading House stories a) by people whose work I knew I respected, or b) by people who've been rec'd by the people in category A, and I think I'm glad of it. Are there really stories which put forth the theory that House would be fine if he just learned to forgive himself, or if he just took up acupuncture, or whatever? Oy.

Are there really stories which put forth the theory that House would be fine if he just learned to forgive himself, or if he just took up acupuncture, or whatever?

I've seen serious discussions of whether or not his pain is mostly or entirely psychosomatic. And then there's the way that after any episode with the slightest hint of ambiguity, such as 'Three Stories' or 'The Honeymoon', people will leap to ever increasing extremes of speculation about House's so-called addiction, presenting them as clear-cut fact even in such cases where a brief examination of show evidence clearly refutes it. Like it or not, most of this fandom does not react on rationality; it reacts on bias.

I'm willing to see fics that give a nod and little more to his disability, because I think that the show does just about that, unless they're using it for a plot point. I haven't seen all the canon, and I don't read cold in the fandom (almost everything I read comes from recs or trusted authors) so I imagine I'm missing the worst of it, but I also know I've recced a story where he fell and didn't immediately curl up in agony, a story where a side-effect is improbably overcome, and I may have recced one where he has missionary-position sex. All those things did make me hesitate, but they didn't ruin the story for me.

I guess...I'm NOT a total canon adherent, and I do sometimes compromise reality in favor of fantasy. I mean, if we were all about the gritty realism, there would be no hot cliche-ridden slave!fic or rentboy!fic. And all these middle-aged men having sudden sexuality crises? Well. Statistically, not so much.

I do agree that I wish writers would do more research in general, so that factual things would be more accurate. But if you're telling me House falls because Wilson leans on him wrong, and he doesn't have his cane, and he can't support himself without it, then I'm going to say, okay, effort - and give the benefit of the doubt by assuming that he fell on top of Wilson or in such a way that his leg wasn't part of the impact. As long as the rest of the story is well-written and in-character, that is.

Am I suspending too much disbelief? Perhaps. But, you know, while I think that every author should do research to the best of his or her ability, I think it's a lot to ask that readers do the research as well...I read so many stories, in so many fandoms, that I'd have to be an expert on everything. Although, I know that if you are knowledgeable about something that a writer gets wrong, it can totally ruin a story for you, no matter how well it's done otherwise.

Thank you for the rant, though. That was interesting and informative, and it's no doubt something I'll pay more attention to from here on out. I read your painkiller rant as well, and now am far better armed with information than previously.

I'm willing to see fics that give a nod and little more to his disability, because I think that the show does just about that

This actually ties into a discussion for a whole 'nother day, and the one I mentioned on jenavira's post, in relation to the idea fandom only discusses certain things (possibly because they can relate). Because I've seen discussions on a number of more common fannish topics and more specific things raised within the show, but nearly nothing at all on the way the show depicts his disability--less, actually, the more they deal with it. Which, from my point of view, is actually perhaps the most amazing and remarkable thing about the show at all--they're doing something I don't think I've ever seen anybody else do, and they're doing it well.

('Detox' notwithstanding. I could hate that episode alone for the fact I always have to take a moment to note it as an exception.)

It's possibly a sign of how well they're doing it that it seems to have passed clear over the heads of everyone in the fandom lacking personal experience, but the problem there is that those of us with experience are going to hesitate a moment before bringing it up. It's one of the reasons I haven't done anything myself; it touches on areas that are still in many ways painful. Also, the few times I have tried to discuss it purely in comments, it hasn't... gone well.

So no, I can't really accept the idea that the problem is that the show isn't doing anything--it's just that again, much like the problems with fic, the general lack of knowledge/experience means that it's not being noticed.

I'm still grateful for what they're doing, for all that it's not made into an issue. Perhaps in some ways more--because it's certainly far better than having his disability as a giant anvil in every episode, as would be far more common.

Actually, if you'd like a quick example that someone just reminded me of--there are plenty of fics in the fandom that has House living in an apartment with stairs, and yet it's established in the pilot that he can't go up them. But it's not a point of angst, it's not a major moment of drama--Cuddy just trots up a flight of stairs to get away from him and he stands at the bottom and makes a snarky comment.

This is how the show handles disability. It might not be as glaringly obvious as most shows make it, but it is there. And this, too, is all I'm asking from fic--I'm not demanding it be a major part of the stories, I'm not demanding it be introduced via tons of angst; point of fact I hate it when people do that. I'm simply looking for the same levels of subtle acknowledgment of what's there that the show has.

Is this really asking so much?


I don't read cold in the fandom (almost everything I read comes from recs or trusted authors)

Which is less relevant than you may suspect; these days, neither do I. I don't have the fic comms friended anymore and I mostly read what my friends who do go forth and endure the tumult tell me is good. But the problem is I do also keep an eye on recs lists... and at least glance at everything that comes up on them.

Don't make the mistake of assuming this rant was directed at the badfic of the fandom. It wasn't; it was directed at the good-to-mediocre fic.

And as you mentioned, it isn't necessarily a killing flaw; if I did recs--which these days I don't--there would be a number of fics that I recommended that did have errors... but minor ones. The kind of tiny, nit-picky, insignificant details that I'm not sure you were clear weren't the deepest thrust of this rant; minor points, like the fact pain killers take more than five minutes to kick in, that sort of thing. Things that bother me a little to see done, but don't deeply upset me; I can read on past them and enjoy the rest of the fic with no difficulties.

The problem is the stories that inevitably follow in their wake, as I've mentioned elsewhere.


[Reply continued in next comment]

Fascinating rant, and great comments. I'm in the middle of a deliberate House badfic (part of a series of deliberate badfics) which I hope won't make you too ill when it actually appears... in the meantime, may I friend you?

I'm in the middle of a deliberate House badfic (part of a series of deliberate badfics) which I hope won't make you too ill when it actually appears

Well, given that canthlian once wrote a deliberate SGA badfic that featured such delightful elements as bigoted Marines, tentacle rape, and mpreg, and I read it and survived, there is hope. Besides, deliberately doing things wrong is a whole other matter entirely. o.- (Actually, catalase has been bugging me to write a parody bad(ish) fic for a long time, in which all sorts of stereotypical stupid House fic cliches happen, and the POV character is a sane Foreman walking through the madness and stupidity.)


in the meantime, may I friend you?

Feel free to. I don't really stand on people asking permission, though it's always nice if they drop a comment saying why--although at times like this it's not as if I have to ask. ("You 'splode. It's entertaining! *popcorn*")

Damn. Awesome rant. (Someday, I shall learn to rant properly. Today is not that day.)

Anyway, what I think is particularly interesting is that when those things come up (missionary sex, etc.), I can't stand it because I fall out of the story. My brain sits up and goes "oh, come on!" and then it's all over. I've seen it done where it makes some sense (mayatawi's latest chapter, for example, but there was some major planning and physics involved, which seems perfectly House-like to me), but it's tough to get there.

Er, right. So, cheers and thanks for the rant. Very much needed. I may just friend you in the near future. :)

What you seem to be expressing here is a basic frustration that writers rarely think about blocking. If characters are moving, the writer has to be hyper aware of that movement or the reader gets lost. It's a lot harder when a character has some issue that makes moving around difficult.

Without some understanding of the limitations and capabilities of the human body, one can't write effective action sequences of any kind; and without some fairly detailed work on character development--even characters that somebody else created--one can't write a convincing story that a reader can visualize.

The point I'm getting is that just because you watch a character on a TV show, that character still needs to be developed and researched. It's an important point to make. If a writer has never had to deal with a set of underlying physical and emotional issues that won't ever go away, that color everything she does, getting to a place where she can write that convincingly is hard work. Most people who write fan fiction don't want to work that hard, which is too bad. The work is the most fulfilling part of writing, at least it always has been for me.

On the other hand, people are writing, and that's good. People are thinking, making something out of nothing; that's good, since the alternative is being satisfied with nothing. Not every creation is going to be a masterpiece.

I hope your rant inspires somebody to try a little harder.

You know what's funny? I would swear that House fandom has more standing-up fucking than any other fandom I've ever read.

Maybe for the same reason that fandoms with characters who are canonically virginal have a lot of sex involving techniques known only to porn stars, while fandoms with characters who are canonically experienced and sophisticated have a lot of complex backstory to allow them to be written as ... virgins.

It probably is mostly that contrariness thing, though my biology beta tells me that standing up could, under the right conditions (if he can brace himself and he's not supporting the weight of the other person), work better than a number of positions done lying down, because he'd be putting his weight more on his calf muscles than his thigh ones, which is good because he actually still has all of those. I just don't think that most of the people writing this sort of thing know that, even if they do manage to get it correct.

You know, I just recently discovered this rant via the TWoP forum and wow, can I say that I agree with so many of your points. The very first House fic I stumbled upon had House on top doing things I wasn't even sure *I* could do and I have two fully functional legs (and am a gal, but that's not the point). It's funny, some authors forget about the cane and such, but Hugh Laurie himself says that when he thinks about a scene, he thinks about the limp and movement and where "to park the cane."

(Random side note: I have mixed thoughts about Detox, mainly b/c I think it put too much emphasis on addiction, rather than dependence. House's condition is painful -- he ain't making that one up and while he is taking more Vicodin than he probably should, he can't not take something for the pain; he depends on it to get him through the day. Whether or not he chooses to acknowledge the alternatives, well, that's a different story. But you can't forget about the leg and the pain. Not sure if you agree or not. I do still think Hugh Laurie's a wonderful actor in that episode though.)

The sad thing is, for me, I crave realistic fiction and well-written fiction and while I have been lucky enough to find some of it in this fandom, it is too far and few between. I want good House fic, damnit!

I try and be realistic when I write and for the House story I wrote dealing with House's Vicodin use (see here) I researched my brain out about Vicodin, side effects, and the treament of chronic pain and like someone else said, am lucky enough to have a friend in med school as well. Hopefully it passes the mark as I was going for more realism here.

Wow, I didn't expect my comment to get so long...and I think I need to go and read some of your fics now (I just love Five Days a Week).

Random side note: I have mixed thoughts about Detox [snip] Not sure if you agree or not.

You mean that my reputation on 'Detox' hasn't spread fandom-wide? I'm crushed. I'm utterly devastated. I'm only the person popping up in most of the discussions I see that touch on it to explain the things the episode did wrong, backed up by my beloved Polite Dissent review of the ep and a knowledge of the realities of the matter complete enough that I not only know about the differences between physical dependency and addiction, which most of the fandom can't grasp, but I can also explain how addiction is actually diagnosed, why you can't diagnose House as he is right now with it, and what the stages of it are anyway. Not to mention why Wilson's behavior in Detox was particularly, "What were you thinking?"

Wait, does this mean I'm known as "the velocibreasts girl" instead?


mainly b/c I think it put too much emphasis on addiction, rather than dependence

Actually, that right there is one of my biggest problems with the ep--it doesn't 'put too much emphasis on addiction', or doesn't 'sufficiently explain the difference between addiction and dependency' or any of the other things I've heard people say/ask me--it doesn't acknowledge physical dependency at all. In fact, it practically goes out of it's way to deny it exists--in the universe the show and the writers apparently live in, you're either addicted to and misusing your medication or else you can go off it any time you like with no withdrawal problems.

That, I think, is why the fandom is so hell-bent on this notion that House is a junkie--because the episode set it up that way. The whole time they kept insisting House wouldn't suffer any difficulties going off Vicodin unless he was abusing it, which people who have done their research or have personal experience or even just paid attention in Health class know isn't true, but that makes up a vanishingly small percentage of even the really intelligent fans, let alone the average ones. So the episode kept insisting he wouldn't go into withdrawal unless there was abuse, and at the end he went, "Okay, I am addicted but it's not a problem," and everyone went, "Wrong, because of what Cuddy said! You wouldn't have detoxed if you didn't have a problem but you did so you did and you're just in denial!"

The odd thing is, there's a fascinating amount of subtext that reads that he's not Addicted With a Problem, but it all gets lost because of that fundamental, basic, and huge screw-up on behalf of the writers.

*sighs* I could go on, but really, I need to just do a separate post listing all my Detox issues and get it over with. For what it's worth, I do agree that the episode had some amazing acting, though in some ways that just made the rest of it worse, and there was also some other amazing stuff in there--the scene where House talks about how he works, he makes his meals, he functions... is really one of the best things I've ever seen TV do in terms of a disabled character, because usually they don't seem to ever understand, let alone acknowledge, what an amazing thing that is. But again, to a degree, those good elements just make the problems all the more... problematic.


[I break comment limit lengths. Please enjoy part two, coming right up after a short word from our sponsor!]

Linked here from TWOP just today, silly me. Your enormous brain fascinates me. It has been so long since I read any kind of intelligent writing having to do with House that I am blown away and need to read more of the layers of your comments just on this post before I have anything meaningful to say.

But may I friend you anyway?

THANK YOU.

I have had a debilitating knee injury, and while it was nowhere near the level of what happened to House, some people, frankly, piss me off with their utter refusal to acknowledge how much his leg would impact his life. It shouldn't be that hard to remember what's wrong with him, or what kind of adjustments he'd have to make.

But it is, apparently.

Most of the people who disregard his issues have been amazingly lucky. Maybe they've sprained their ankle once or twice. Those of us who have had the misfortune to deal with more should know about the effects pain and limited mobility have on your life. Unfortunately, fandoms tend to be somewhat overrun by the lazy or just plain stupid.

i'm a few months behind on this one, but as a person with RA, i too thank you. i won't go into details, but i think about the effort my husband and i have to put into sex - and i'm nowhere near as disabled as house (depending on the day) - and these fics make me wince. just, ouchies. and the painkillers! i'm sure we could share chapter and verse on them :)

now, if someone could just tell me what professor x is capable of. oddly, i haven't been able to find *any* information on paraplegic sex.