Me, I come from a happy tradition of believing all canon is irrevocably true, and then working my butt off to find a way around it. Acknowledge everything that's happened, and then create a scenario where the situation goes someplace completely else. The creators sorely tested me with One Day, One Room, however. There's never been a moment of canon that I've rejected like that. So I just ignore House-was-abused; other authors can have a field day with that, and good on them, but it'll never be me.

Even without the anvilicious revelation of "One Day, One Room," it was obvious all the way back to "Daddy's Boy" that House had either been abused or inappropriately punished by his father. There were already fanfic writers who'd intuited that about the relationship because they were well-attuned to how House reacts to people. How he reacted to his dad clearly drove the needle off the far end of the dial. You didn't even need the little heart-to-heart with Wilson and Cameron in the parking lot at the end of "DB" to figure that out. Re: canon surpassing stories: All fiction, whether it's fan fiction or mainstream, is looking backwards in time. In mainstream fiction, there's the necessary lag time of about a year between the writer being influenced by any current events and the day the book lands on the shelves of the bookstore. In fanfiction, the speed is much, much faster. Things can turn on a dime in a week. So anybody can have things happen that make a story obsolete. And that's pretty much accepted. As both a writer and a reader, there are still parts of those obsolete stories that make them beloved. By the same turn, as Namaste says, there are events in canon that can be used to make characterizations much richer and more detailed.

I don't mind getting jossed; it's just another challenge to write around, or fodder for the next story. There were already fanfic writers who'd intuited that about the relationship because they were well-attuned to how House reacts to people. Hee, this amuses me, given our discussion of the degree of canonicity of our fic-writing. Here's my take: any time prior to ODOR, House-was-abused was *not* canon. Stories that extrapolated and fanwanked from Daddy's Boy were *not* canon--no intuition necessary, because there was nothing to intuit--in canon. Those stories, however, have now become retroactively closer to canon, while other stories where House's relationship with his dad revolved around some other problem have since been jossed. Anyway, I'll fanwank: John House was a strict disciplinarian; House was exactly the wrong sort of kid to try that on and expect it to work; in the seventies on a military base, these wouldn't have been seen as extreme measures. Is that true? Not hardly! We don't know enough. There isn't enough canon to support that reading. So because it pleases me, I choose my personal fanon over canon in this case. I think we all probably have these moment where fanon works better for us, because it's more fun, because we like it better--not because it's true. (Wilson's gender-neutral "funny...good" speech come to mind, anyone?)

Zulu said: The creators sorely tested me with One Day, One Room, however. There's never been a moment of canon that I've rejected like that. So I just ignore House-was-abused; other authors can have a field day with that, and good on them, but it'll never be me. One of my fave fandom writers (karaokegal for those of you on LJ) is with you. She prefers to believe that his relationship with his father was difficult without the physical abuse. And to respond to another issue, canon influences my writing quite a bit. I haven't written any AU or crossover fics (yet) and most of my work takes something that happens in canon and runs with it... I try to run only so far, though, and I have yet to feel unreasonably limited.

I still don't buy that he physically smacked his kid into next week and back on a regular basis -- which is the tack some people have taken in their fic. (As Taiga mentioned on another thread on LJ, the fics in which John House smacks poor sensitive Greg merely for reading a book make me want to scream.) However, I buy that he crossed the line in terms of punishment, with over-the-top techniques such as ice baths, which wouldn't necessarily have been out of place on a 1960s/70s military base, but would be with your kid. I certainly buy that House himself has a hard time reconciling if that was actually abuse. With that thought, I think there is still a ton of gray area out there for fic writers to explore. And a question I noted on another thread ... why no fic about when House started needing reading glasses?

I don't mind when canon josses my fics, but when real-life does it, it drives me crazy (looking at you, NJ's otherwise awesome Civil Unions law). Oh well. House's father being an habitual abuser I choose not to believe because it's boring. Conflict between a by-the-book Father and his son with a completely different worldview gives viewers (and writers) a lot to think about. How could the father have handled it differently? How could House have handled it differently? "Bad Dad and innocent kid" - boring. Also, if there was a pattern of physical abuse, Blythe had to have been there to see it. She was a housewife, after all, and she's still with John House today. How in the world would House still be able to have so much affection for his Mom? Genagirl played around in one fic with ideas on the types of punishment House specified: icebaths and sleeping outside. Look at them in one direction, with a very young Greg and a Dad who verbally abuses on top of that, and it's horrible, horrible abuse. Look at them in another direction, with a Greg in his teens who can't stand that he has to go camping during the late fall (sleeping outside and washing in a freezing cold creek), and it looks different. NOTE: I am in no way minimizing any actual abuse any real person may have received. I'm merely talking about this fictional character and his fictional situation.

Have to confess to being somewhat disinterested in the abuse history. I don't know why; just doesn't interest me as much as it does some fan fic writers. I don't think all of House's personality quirks point towards this abuse, although abuse does have a lasting effect. Maybe if it happened a little more recently but House hasn't lived with his parents for nearly 30 years and somehow I just lose interest in stuff that happened that long ago (translation: stuff that happened before House met Wilson) Also, if there was a pattern of physical abuse, Blythe had to have been there to see it. She was a housewife, after all, and she's still with John House today. How in the world would House still be able to have so much affection for his Mom? Unfortunately this does happen. My friend was beaten by his father quite badly. His mother used to lock herself in her room and cry. As a kid, he thought it was because he was such a terrible person but only as an adult did he realize that it was because she felt helpless and unable to stop the abuse. Me, personally, I'd rather take my (theoretical) kids to even a shabby homeless shelter where they'd be free from physical abuse than remain in a situation where they were being beaten on a regular basis. But I can't get inside the mind of a 60s housewife so I don't know why she chose to stay with him. But I will add that my friend always loved his mother and that if you can look past the staying-with-an-abusive-husband, she was in other ways very kind to her kids. He did continue to have affection for her despite the abusive father. I suspect some younger fan fic writers dwell on the abuse because either they enjoy angst or perhaps because of issues in their own lives. But I'm not knocking it as a legitimate theme, just not one that interests me.

I'm hoping this is the right thread to pose this question. Are there any good hostage situation fics out there? The only one I can think of is Safe From Harm, but I'm talking about madman, in the hospital, a group of people affected, and it not resulting in some type of House/Cameron love story. All The Kings Men comes close, but that was more of an attack than a hostage situation. I'm fighting with an idea, but I want to avoid cliche. ETA: Okay, yes, I failed to mention quack3790's Silenced. I meant other than that. :)

fluffy2001 I don't know if this thread is appropriate or not but I'm sure a mod will pop up & say. If you're on LiveJournal there is a community there called hw_recs which is for 'looking for fic' questions. In the meantime, here's one. H/W slash (I don't read much else!) but definitely hostage in there somewhere. http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3398655/1/Cross_To_Bear

I think there's a hostage fic by axilotl - at least I think that's the author's name on LJ. House is held hostage by a psycho girl. Let's see. Ah, here it is: Ignited Eyes and Cyanide. The title sounds a little iffy, but it's a surprisingly good story. The other stuff is good, too: I particularly like Transgressions, speaking of House and his father. Edit: Darn you, hanging tags!

Probably rec questions are better on the ff rec thread. But in terms of how people wrote then and how they write now: I was thinking of this quote in Daddy's Boy where House tells Cameron he reminds her of his father (who he admits he hates). Now, if I was a House/Cameron writer, that would put a whole new slant on stories if I was writing then rather than around the whole season one 'date' thing. And why does no one write about Foreman?

Dude, I write about Foreman. I'm writing about Foreman right now, as a matter of fact. So do other people.

zulu, you are full of lies. Who is this Foreman? The only people I've ever heard of are House and Wilson (and tangentially, Cuddy and maybe that blond kid with the accent, whatever his name was).