{"id":109960,"date":"2016-03-13T21:17:15","date_gmt":"2016-03-13T21:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/03\/13\/fannishcodex-pinesinthewoods-thesnadger\/"},"modified":"2016-03-13T21:17:15","modified_gmt":"2016-03-13T21:17:15","slug":"fannishcodex-pinesinthewoods-thesnadger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/03\/13\/fannishcodex-pinesinthewoods-thesnadger\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

fannishcodex<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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pinesinthewoods<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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thesnadger<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Hurt\/Comfort is such an interesting thing. It\u2019s basically an entire genre<\/i>\u00a0of fanfiction. I\u2019d argue it satisfies a very basic, vital need\u2013the same way that horror satisfies the basic need to be scared in a safe, controllable space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And yet it doesn\u2019t really have an equivalent outside of fan culture.\u00a0"Tearjerkers\u201d can sometimes come close, they\u2019re probably the closest thing to a mainstream hurt\/comfort genre that there is. But those types of books and movies don\u2019t usually focus on the\u00a0\u201ccomfort\u201d aspect in the same way, and don\u2019t make use of\u00a0tension and release.<\/p>\n

I think every good hurt\/comfort fic makes use of tension and release<\/a>\u00a0just as horror does, <\/p>\n

whether the writer is consciously aware of it or not. Though of course the tension and release in h\/c comes from different sources than in horror. Instead of anticipating something frightening, you anticipate the intimacy and\/or validation that comes from the \u201ccomfort\u201d part you know is eventually coming. That\u2019s what provides release of the tension built up during the \u201churt\u201d scenes.<\/p>\n

I could write a goddamned essay about this it\u2019s so fascinating.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a great definition\/analysis of it! I\u2019ve been interested in this too. It\u2019s always been my favorite fanfiction genre. It\u2019s to the point where reading just angst is not enough, there is something left unfulfilled if the character does not have the\u00a0\u2018tension and release\u2019 and just remains under whatever stressor at the end. I think part of the reason I like it so much, is often in mainstream media characters DO NOT have that\u00a0\u2018healing moment\u2019, shall we say. Too often, there may be a sad\/traumatic\/stressful event and the character is shown to just pick themselves up from it and move on like nothing happened. Which is not realistic as we all know, so I think the hurt\/comfort genre in fanfiction is a kind of a response to that. The\u00a0\u201cfilling in the blanks\u201d of when a character needs a moment of healing or validation to continue onward, because that in a sense is more relatable then the\u00a0\u201csuper hero\u201d character who can move through it like nothing damaged them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n