cutecoati liked the meta I wrote for her yesterday on historical settings in HP fanfic, which pleases me. She was the intended audience, and she liked it.

But today, I'm, erm, hungover. That toss-off comment I inserted in the essay about how we need to just put a moratorium on the use of the Holocaust or Nazis in HP fanfic clearly resonated with several people, and has stayed with me.

It's true. The Holocaust has spawned some really cringe-worthy fanfics. Not that HP is unusual in that regard: the Holocaust has inspired more wretched, kitschy responses in quite a few genres that I've seen. It's such a monumental historical event that people cant' help responding to it: and not all of them have had the background or sense to pull it off, well.

And now my mind is running, coming up with other possible awful, kitschy historical HP plot bunnies.

Because what other historical event comes to mind (for Americans, I mean) that is just as loaded as the Holocaust? That has just as much potential for cringe-worthy, racist stories that trivialize the tragedies that they take as their historical backdrop?

( an HP fanfic set before and during the American Civil War, of course )