sakura_no_miko | Archvied fic rec - This Deadly Innocence

Title: This Deadly Innocence (The End of the Hurt/Comfort Syndrome)

Rating: R

Pairing: Kirk/Spock

Warnings: references to character injury, references to alien sex, references to masturbation (male), death of a wild animal, some awkward virgin fetishization stuff, self-loathing issues

Other notes: classic fic, hurt/comfort (and criticisms thereof), tropes/cliches, meta, boys being stupid/UST, hurt/recovery, emotional and philosophical angst

Length: 37k

Summary: Doctor McCoy has detected a dangerous syndrome in two of his patients. He prescribes a novel treatment.

I’m hoping someone will read this fic and not just glance over the title. It raises some good points, and I imagine writing a fic critical of such a beloved trope as hurt/comfort would be difficult in any time and fandom, let alone in pre-internet, limited-to-zines-and-letters times. Like the author’s note says, her story didn’t make it into the usual hurt/comfort ‘zines. Would have been a pity to have written such an interesting story and have everyone reject it.

Now, myself, I wouldn’t equate hurt/comfort tropes to Münchausen syndrome (or Münchausen syndrome-by-proxy, for that matter), which is a psychological condition where a person purposefully hurts themselves, or pretends to be hurt, to get attention. I think most hurt/comfort is meant in a good way. As Bones points out here, Spock and Kirk are stubborn and emotionally stunted, and the same is true for many characters in popular fiction. The basic idea of hurt/comfort–the idea of some big, earth-shattering change finally breaking the status quo–there’s nothing wrong with that.

But hurt/comfort is sort of ingrained in fandom, and, you know, there are a lot of tropes in popular culture that people just sort of stick to, because that’s what they know and recognize, little realizing how problematic it is.

I actually read a tumblr entry a bit back talking about how the trope of forcing a kiss on someone, or surprisingly them with a kiss, could be considered sexual assault in some cases–after all, the kisser isn’t asking for consent. Yet it’s still an iconic romantic and comedic image, simply because most people don’t think about it in those terms. The girls in refrigerators trope–creating a character’s backstory by killing off the girlfriend or other important character–was widespread in comics for a while until some people got together and criticized it.

Which isn’t to criticize people who use such tropes. I did, before I really knew what I was writing, because that’s what I’d read in other 'fics and what I took to be normal. That’s why I think this is an important fic to read. It brings up an interesting perspective.

Also, like several of the other classic Kirk/Spock fics I’ve read, I always find myself amused at just how much these two fall over each other. It’s that same sort of idiocy I went on about in Incident Report. The boys need to talk to each other, darn it. I guess it’s more of that old-school machismo (or at least fangirls’ versions of machismo).

There’s still that classic fic stiffness that sort of turns me off, but that’s just the style of the times. Also some really awkward virgin–not “fetishization,” per se, but something like that. Kirk is a wee bit paternalistic. All that, “I must hold back, because he’s so ~pure~” bullshit. Still, as much as I’m praising this fic for how it deals with hurt/comfort tropes, it’s still adhering to other tropes I dislike.

I just really like the beginning with Bones laying out the problematic issues of hurt/comfort. Not sure I like the resolution as much, but, hey. Can’t be perfect, I suppose.

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Originally posted on tumblr on 10/04/12