Gen Fic, for SCIENCE!

[ratherastory]

This is something of a follow-up to a conversation in my post about the hypothetical Gen Big Bang, in which I discovered to my shock and dismay that not everyone agrees on what constitutes gen fic!

Thus I am conducting a poll for SCIENCE!

Please spread the word, I am really curious to hear opinions on the subject.

[Poll #1666301]

Comments

Re: sex or SEX?

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

From the comments I've been getting, I have come to the conclusion that I should have taken things like story length and rating (R vs NC-17) into account as well.

My poll was not nearly as scientific as I would have liked. :/

Re: sex or SEX?

[blacklid.livejournal.com]

Length related to definition? Really? That's a new one for me! Well, bravo for trying anyway. Not many people are brave enough to discuss the tough questions anymore. (Why this particular topic should be so "tough" is probably funnier to me than it should be.)

Re: sex or SEX?

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Someone brought it up. If a 10-chapter fic has one sex scene that's not integral to the lot, does that make it het het/slash or gen? A 500-word PWP is one thing, but how about a shorter fic with mentions of sex but nothing "on camera?"

I don't feel especially brave. I didn't realize that this was a really contentious topic, just that people disagree on the exact definition of "gen."

Re: sex or SEX?

[4422shini.livejournal.com]

I don't understand how anyone could consider one sex scene in a 10 chapter story to be het/slash. If the main focus of the story is gen, then it's gen!

Certainly the story should have a forewarning of the material, but to have to relist is silly.

To me, gen tells me to expect a story, where sex isn't the main course, but I never assume it's not there.

How do you feel on the subject?