The Epic A/B/O List

It comes as no surprise to folks on my flist that I am absolutely fascinated by the alpha/beta/omega trope as it’s developed in fandom in the last year and a half or so. For one thing, I like seeing authors explore the specifics of how the founding principles of a/b/o sex and gender work out in practice, and how those differences comment on our own society’s very complicated feelings about gender and sex. For another, I like the frisson of unease that comes of combining the familiar – workplace politics, romance, the college or high school AU – with the alienness of a society running on different reproductive principles and sexual politics than ours. Finally, I’m intrigued by what fandom’s collective fascination with the trope says about fandom as a whole, although I don’t feel qualified to say anything useful about that aspect.

Of course, some folks are just in the trope for the porn, and there’s plenty of it. You’ve got your knotting, you’ve got your mpreg, and you’ve got your explicit and less-explicit D/s overtones. A trifecta of kink! Personally, I’m not nearly so interested in the porn as I am in the worldbuilding, but there's plenty of each to go around.

Here, then, is a collection of a whole bunch of Fics of Interest™ that I’ve collected over the past year or so. They’re collected vaguely by theme. This is by no means exhaustive (lolno), nor is it precisely a recs list. However, I do find all these fics interesting for one reason or another because of how they develop the tropes.

( A few notes )

( Fics for Context )

( General Worldbuilding Development )

( Sexuality/Gender Subversion )

( A/B/O Plus )

( Women in A/B/O )

Original entry posted at Dreamwidth. Feel free to reply here or there. ( DW replies)

The Epic A/B/O List

It comes as no surprise to folks on my flist that I am absolutely fascinated by the alpha/beta/omega trope as it’s developed in fandom in the last year and a half or so. For one thing, I like seeing authors explore the specifics of how the founding principles of a/b/o sex and gender work out in practice, and how those differences comment on our own society’s very complicated feelings about gender and sex. For another, I like the frisson of unease that comes of combining the familiar – workplace politics, romance, the college or high school AU – with the alienness of a society running on different reproductive principles and sexual politics than ours. Finally, I’m intrigued by what fandom’s collective fascination with the trope says about fandom as a whole, although I don’t feel qualified to say anything useful about that aspect.

Of course, some folks are just in the trope for the porn, and there’s plenty of it. You’ve got your knotting, you’ve got your mpreg, and you’ve got your explicit and less-explicit D/s overtones. A trifecta of kink! Personally, I’m not nearly so interested in the porn as I am in the worldbuilding, but there's plenty of each to go around.

Here, then, is a collection of a whole bunch of Fics of Interest™ that I’ve collected over the past year or so. They’re collected vaguely by theme. This is by no means exhaustive (lolno), nor is it precisely a recs list. However, I do find all these fics interesting for one reason or another because of how they develop the tropes.

( A few notes )

( Fics for Context )

( General Worldbuilding Development )

( Sexuality/Gender Subversion )

( A/B/O Plus )

( Women in A/B/O )

Original entry posted at Dreamwidth. Feel free to reply here or there. ( DW replies)