Whatever fandom I've been a part of from puberty on, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer all the way through to my current fixation on Supernatural, I love to read fanfiction. I've been a member of Internet communities that celebrate it, and I've written more than my fair share. If done responsibly, it can be a great exercise in creativity; you're taking pre-made characters and a ready-made environment and then twisting them to tell your own tale. I've read everything from amazing flashback scenes, gorgeous-with-potential alternate universe fics, and filthy smutty sex scenes between characters, and written more than a few of each myself. Some writers of fanfiction are genuinely talented enough to be uber-successful published authors if they pursued their craft. It's not all Mary Sues and self-insertions.
But fanfiction is the redheaded stepchild of most fandoms, and for good reason. Many creators themselves are forbidden to read it by law; they could glean ideas from the authors and then be sued for royalties. Many actors, musicians and authors have stated publicly that they find it creepy or unsettling, and avoid it at all costs. Thus, most fanfic writers keep their craft under their hat, like a shameful hobby that they only confess to on the anonymous terms of the Internet; they use pseudonyms and screen-names to hide behind, and obviously their work can never see print or profit. It's a labor of love, not sensibility.
So when my fascination and involvement with all things Repo! The Genetic Opera began, I started to follow several people involved on Facebook, including Spooky Dan Walker, one of the friends of the film's creators and the head of the fan movement. A few months ago, I saw Spooky Dan leading a discussion on his Facebook page about submissions of Repo! fanfiction, and was curious and more than a little confused.
By tradition, when a show's creators or people affiliated with it in an official capacity authorize something--- say, for example, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer tie-in novels that were hugely popular in the late 90s/early 00s--- then the contents of that work are accepted into the fandom as 'canon'. Thus, if Repo! creators and their fan club condoned a fan-fiction book, this introduces all kinds of complications to the actual backgrounds and outcomes of the characters as written by the film's original creators, doesn't it? Also, fanfiction has been around for free for decades; why would anyone pay for a collection of it when you can go to sites like fanfiction.net or, if you like it smuttier, adultfanfiction.net and read it for free?
However, when I voiced this opinion on Spooky Dan's Facebook wall, quite a few fangirls jumped on me to accuse me of not supporting Repo! (right, because I've dedicated almost a full year of my life and a ton of money into my love of this film and its stars, not to mention my current involvement in shadowcasting the movie). So I decided, alright, if everyone's so passionate about it, I'll buy the book and see what's going on with it. See if it's worth the hype. After all, these were touted as 'exclusive' fics of the highest quality, hand-selected by the biggest Repo! fans to please a wide variety of audiences. And at $14 plus shipping for 21 stories, you were paying a pittance for each tale. Surely even if the majority of them were bad, a few good seeds could redeem the cost?
The books were being advertised as extremely limited edition, with only 100 copies in the original printing. I placed my order and sat back to wait.
When it arrived, I was surprised by the tackiness of the overall design. I understand that the books were done on a very low budget and were printed at an independent press; thus the paper and cover cardstock are not the quality of a book you'd buy, for example, at Barnes & Noble. However, you would think that the people affiliated with this project could've used Photoshop a bit more; the cover is a dim photograph of two members of a shadowcast portraying Amber Sweet and a Eunuch, and the title is a dark, blurry graphic pasted in the top right corner. The book is done in a boring font with lines skipped between paragraphs (sometimes--- this is inconsistent throughout the book) and the margins fluctuate at will. Spelling errors and typos abound, which leads one to believe that the book was edited quickly and fairly sloppily; I picked out several mistakes throughout the book that were easily spotted and should've been caught before the book went to press.
The book is divided into two segments, a 'canon'-style section and a 'smut' section. The 'canon' section focuses mostly on Graverobber, who is obviously the main wank fodder for most fans of the film. And true, Terrance Zdunich is a beautiful man and a terrific performer, but the portrayals in the stories in the book read like a teenybopper dream. Several stories fixate on Graverobber having a sexual relationship with Shilo (something I never picked up in the film, but I guess people can read anything they want into it when they watch) or on the relationship between Nathan Wallace and his victims. There is also a lesbian story featuring Mag and Marni for anyone so inclined. The crackfic "Nathan's Secret Hobby", while supposed to be 'fun', reads like a sour taste in the mouth--- apparently Nathan is fond of secretly opening his organ delivery bags, dressing the organs up in Barbie clothes, and acting out scenes with them before turning them in to GeneCo. While I can appreciate off-the-wall humor, the story is just absurd and throws off the vibe of the stories bracketing it; it's the only one of its kind in the book, and it really doesn't belong in the flow of things.
It's the 'smut' section that really takes a turn for the worst. The opening story "Fucking Repo" is one of the most nauseating pieces of shit I've ever had the misfortune of laying eyes on. The story is told from the point of view of a man named Chad who does not want to go to see the film, but his friend drags him to a midnight showing anyway. 'Chad' (writing under the oh-so-clever synonym 'Anon E. Moose'-- die in a fire, won't you?) then proceeds to degrade every shadowcaster present, discussing one overweight cosplayer as disgusting and using several pages to degrade anyone in the cast he found less than attractive. He then proceeds to talk about a GenTern cosplayer sitting on his lap and grinding on his cock during the pre-show, a henchgirl giving him a handjob, and another GenTern letting him finger her during the remainder of the pre-show. He also gets a blowjob from the cast's Pavi, titfucks Amber Sweet, and finally succumbs to the dubious charms of the 'hippopotamus' (his term, clearly, not mine) cast member, who gives him a blowjob to finish him off.
Number one, while I know this is fantasy, this is the most degrading story I've ever read and I can't believe that people who claim to admire the cosplayers and shadowcasters would allow this story to be put in the book. It has NO redeeming qualities whatsoever; the author literally trashes every individual cast member, making a live Repo! show out to be a complete clusterfuck orgy where the shadowcasters are clamoring to fuck a newbie every showing. Please.
Secondly, are we supposed to believe that Anon E. Moose is actually able to sexually withstand six or seven castmates taking him to third base and beyond? Again, please. He goes to great lengths to convince the readers of his heterosexuality while the cast Pavi is deep-throating him, a contradiction which I find truly hilarious. By the end of the story, I wanted to knee him in the groin--- this is what they call smut? He just made an entire fandom out to be either vile, promiscuous whores or fat pigs who are dying to slobber on his cock. He wishes.
The remainder of the 'smut' stories seem to focus on Amber and Graverobber--- apparently every author has seen the deleted "Come Up and Try My New Parts" scene, then, since the stories take on a tired rendition of it. And the book wraps up with a Pavi/Graverobber scene to truly nauseate what little sense you have left.
While the book may have been done in fun, I am truly appalled at its final outcome, and wish I'd saved the money to blow on something else--- something from the official CafePress site, maybe, rather than the Repo Army since disagreeing with Spooky Dan got me attacked on his page. The book is EXACTLY what I thought it would be--- an exercise in Mary Sue sexual fantasy and a collection of mediocre fiction, with a few genuine pieces slipped in to mediate the monotony. The few standout stories that're genuinely good and enjoyable--- "And I'll Throw These Words Out There..." (the Mag/Marni lesbian tale, well-written and delicately worded), "Fathers" (a surprisingly touching piece from Nathan's viewpoint), and "Exit, Stage Left" (a death-fic from Graverobber's viewpoint, beautiful and poignant) are so spaced out that you genuinely have to sift through a mountain of mediocre crap to find them, and it's like finding diamonds in a sea of cubic zirconia. Everything in the book glitters, but not all of it is something you'd genuinely want to keep as a treasure.
Final thoughts: Save your cash and take your chances on fanfiction.net if Repo! fanfic is your bag. This was an interesting experiment from Spooky Dan and Co., and I'm sure most of the sort of people who would buy it will love it (or profess to, anyway), but for me, the book was a big disappointment and what began as something I already found weird and unsettling only solidified my concern and skepticism.
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