wait explain what you mean by calling those 3 yekoc fics a trilogy?????????????????
(ask is in reference to this post, where I referred to three fics by @yekoc as the "Americana Trilogy")
anon I love you thank you for giving me the opportunity to yap. everybody strap in because we're going to do some serious literary analysis of fanfiction here. the three fics in question are come on, star boy, aka hs football au, glory, from a high rise aka depressed finance bro max aka dfbm, and chemical highs and clear blue skies, aka porn fic. I just reread all three of them and remain convinced that together they comprise the Great American Novel. you should go read them before you read this analysis.
first of all, what do I mean by calling them a trilogy? technically, I guess they're more of a triptych; there's no order or progression to them, but I think you see things in each of them when you read them as a set that you might not otherwise see when you read them in isolation from each other. specifically, what emerges is an extended engagement with different aspects of regional american culture. an interesting pattern is that in each, something about american culture brings max and daniel together, but also something in the culture is toxic, or serves as an obstacle to their being together. the happy ending of each of these fics in some way resolves that contradiction, maintaining what is beautiful about america while overcoming what is harmful about it. the three fics also represent america's three major cultural zones: the east coast, the red states (the midwest and the south are coming for me for lumping them together sorry), and the west coast. I'll address them in the order in which they were written:
In the hs football au, the romanticism of american sports culture is what brings max and daniel together (literally, both in max moving to alabama to play football and in them meeting and growing close through the sport). heteronormative expectations about masculinity inherent within that culture are the thing that keeps them apart. it would be easy for the moral of this story to be fuck sports, fuck the south (a path that lewis ultimately ends up choosing); but instead, max and daniel find a resolution, with max coming into his own as an athlete as daniel learns to be more open about his own sexuality. loving max allows daniel to embrace staying in alabama, instead of itching to get out. the setting ultimately reinforces the romanticism of place: the diner where daniel works is an opportunity for him to care for max, the field where they hide out overnight protects them from the things (max's dad) they're afraid of.
In dfbm, new york city's endless capitalist hunger is what brings max and daniel together and what keeps them apart. neither max nor daniel has a healthy work-life balance-- daniel, too, is missing the dinner parties and the romantic milestones his peers are hitting, working all weekend instead of making time to date. max uses his stress about work as a defense mechanism, a way to distance himself from daniel, an excuse to refuse to go back to his apartment or allow himself to be taken care of. max is ultimately able to embrace being with daniel when he comes to understand his endless hunger for daniel and his endless ambition as being one and the same, rather than fearing that satisfying the former would eliminate the latter (it's not for nothing, given that moral, that this fic is my favorite thing I've ever read). as in the hs football au, New York As Such is ultimately Good-- when Max is hurting himself, he walks home, but when he's allowing himself to have things, he takes the subway. the indian food bodega, the tourist trap that is the shake shack where pierre and yuki and alex try to convince him to date-- when max engages with new york, it makes him better (whereas douchebags like chase are always trying to leave new york, going to the hamptons or wherever).
finally, in the porn fic, california as the space of performativity and fantasies and pretending to be something you are not is what brings max and daniel together (via doing porn), but it is also the thing that threatens to keep them apart (via daniel's fear of max's emotions being too real). small details like daniel's oat milk (a health choice, sure, but also a synthetic alternative) and max's love of fifa reinforce the theme of what's fake versus what's real. but again, ultimately, the fic reinforces that culture rather than rejecting it. it's daniel going and really getting himself beaten up in a fight that is a bridge too far for max; the conclusion is not max and daniel deciding to give up making porn, but deciding to make it together, more authentically. the realization that they've been doing something real, all along, but that the audience and the performance is an essential part of it.
what we have in this triptych, then, is sustained engagement with three aspects of american culture-- traditional masculinity, capitalist ambition, and the artificiality of fantasy-- that critiques the toxicity inherent in them before finally finding a reconciliation with them. we have an attention to the details of place that reinforce this message, and we have a complete picture of an america that is flawed but worth believing in, where, as former president bill clinton said, there is nothing wrong with america that can't be cured by what's right about america.
given that optimistic conclusion, it's interesting to consider the role that lewis plays as a peripheral character in each fic--by which I mean, to think about race in america. in each, he appears to daniel as the one who has won the game (getting recruited to bama; making it as an artist; owning his own porn company and setting his own terms). only the hs football au deconstructs that fantasy, presenting lewis's concussions, the racism of the nfl, his desire as a black man to self-actualize in a way that involves his mind rather than just his body, as reasons for him to reject the culture at large. the america of the hs football au is the only one that has no space for him; by contrast, dfbm (in which lewis is the most peripheral, given max's pov) and the porn fic don't explore whether lewis has really "won" the game the way daniel believes that he has. "red" america, then, is ultimately subjected to more critique than "blue" america is. (this is not a weakness in the other two fics, to be clear! as a denizen of blue america, I think blue america is better, particularly to people of color.)
anyway, this is why I think you all should read these fics together, and also a great example of how fanfiction can be political without being preachy, and the power of worldbuilding (if we want to call it that) as an essential component of romance.
Max is standing at the edge of the water, pale skin illuminated like a lightning bug, searing against the night. His chest is made of the same broad, smooth planes as his face, a kind of geometry that makes Daniel’s fingers itch, makes him want to pick up a pen.
come on, star boy by @yekoc
How do talk about come on, star boy? It’s lovely. It works so well. As well as using Maxiel’s dynamic in the best possible way it includes broken brocesdes. It is a sport au, American football, but a requirement of that sport is not required for understanding the story.
There is a second fantastic quote in this. “I’ve heard a lot of bad takes on the Civil War, living here. This is a new one. I honestly congratulate you. It’s not even racist, it’s just amazing.”
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
I’ve been writing chapter-by-chapter fic! It’s terrifying but really fun! Guys, I like this story a lot and I promise I will finish it. Anyway if you want to check it out:
Post Script, by yekoc
Bram Greenfeld/Simon Spier; 12k (so far), M
Simon clicks the little trash icon, and it feels satisfying for a full fifteen seconds. Then he’s staring at his empty inbox, bereft, and it all comes crashing back down--the horrible loneliness of the Ferris Wheel, the fact that he’s going to have to spend the rest of the year trying not to think about who is or isn’t Blue. Who was or wasn’t.
He rubs his eyes, hard, like he can hold a new wave of angry tears back in.
When he opens them, there’s a new email in his inbox.
[Movieverse AU: Blue doesn't reveal himself at the carnival.]
dfbm aka depressed finance bro max aka glory from a high rise by @yekoc is maybe my favorite work of fiction ever written, fan or otherwise. I would link you but links never work on mobile and I'm literally late to meet someone go look it up on ao3
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
A short sequel to Post Script, but also totally works as a standalone story.
Simon/Bram, 2200 words, Explicit
The slow bass of Bram’s speakers is making him sweat, too, a thump, thump that echoes his pulse. He can feel a drop of sweat slide down his back, traveling the slow length of his spine to pool in the dip at his waist.
Couldn’t let go of this story, so have some sweaty summer sex.
