Five Days of Fandom: Day 1

[januar]

I don't know why I decided to do this, I just did. Each day this week, Monday through Friday, I'm going to make a fandom post, with each day having a theme. The post will have some info about that theme plus rec links. Anyway, let's get this started!

SEDORETU

A sedoretu, in the simpliest and easiest form to explain, is a foursome. It's four people (usually, but not always, two men and two women) getting married. However, it's a lot more complicated than that, because a person in a sedoretu doesn't sleep with all three other people, only two of them. In the world where sedoretu exist, society is split into two moieties. Your moiety determines who you can have sex with, because you only have sex with people of the opposite moeity. To have sex with a person of the same moeity is taboo. In a sedoretu, there are two people of each moeity. Usually it's a man and woman of one moeity and a man and woman of the other. So a person in a sedoretu sleeps with the two people who are the opposite moeity. That makes six relationships within the marriage: four sexual, and two non-sexual.

I love the concept of the sedoretu. Ever since I first learned of it, which I think was the Merlin sedoretu fic, An Ever-Fixed Mark, I've loved it. I think every fandom should have at least one sedoretu fic. Sadly, that is definitely not the case. I know of seven sedoretu fic. And that's including the one I wrote. More people need to write sedoretu fic. Even if it's in a fandom I don't know, I would probably read it.

The creator of the sedoretu is Ursula K. Le Guin. She first introduced the concept of the sedoretu in her short story "A Fisherman of the Inland Sea" and brought the concept back in the short stories "Unchosen Love" and "Mountain Ways". I've only completely read the later two, which deal more with the actual sedoretu than "Fisherman" does. "Unchosen Love" and "Mountain Ways" are both in her collection of short stories, The Birthday of the World: And Other Stories.

Rec links

• Excerpts from Unchosen Love and Mountain Ways

• Love & Marriage by melannen
- A meta post on different types of marriage seen in science fiction. Sedoretu is the third one down, but the whole post is interesting.

• An Ever-Fixed Mark by imperfectcircle
- Merlin (BBC), Merlin/Morgana/Gwen/Arthur. My introduction to sedoretu. It's pretty much perfect and a must read.

• Diurnal by thedeadparrot
- Sherlock Holmes (2009), Watson/Mary/Irene/Holmes. rymenhild was the one who first got me loving the idea of this foursome. A year after that, I discovered this fic and could die happy. The thing I love most about it is how it covers all six of the relationships that are within the marriage.

• How I Met Your Morning Mother by sapote
- How I Met Your Mother, Lily/Marshall/Ted/other. I had never thought of Lily, Marshall and Ted in that way, but it really works. This fic actually uses an expanded sedoretu that has aunts and uncles also in the marriage, which was explored in "A Fisherman of the Inland Sea".

• Buffy of the Ki'O by sapote
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy/Willow/Xander/Giles. The foursome may sound a bit weird, but it really does work. I also like how there are references to other sedoretu in other fandoms within the story.

• short untitled Doctor Who sedoretu ficlets by recessional
- Doctor Who, Amy/Rory/Doctor/River. Before the mid-season reveal, this foursome was a perfect fit, so many people thought so.

• From Morning to Night by januar
- Doctor Who, Amy/Rory/Doctor/River. Yes, I'm including my own, just to give a complete list. Like recessional above, I wrote my story before the mid-season reveal, because I loved the idea of this foursome. I still do, a bit, but only in a massive AU sense. Damn you, Moffat.

There you have it. I highly encourage the thinking up of sedoretu in different fandoms. I've actually started a Harry Potter one, plus the other night I thought of Neal/Peter/Elizabeth/Sarah from White Collar.

If you have a post about sedoretu you've thought of, or know of any other sedoretu fic out there, let me know!

Comments

[kaydeefalls]

Ooh, thank you for the recs. I love the sedoretu dynamic.

...and now I really want a Charles/Erik/Raven/Moira sedoretu fic. Shit.

[januar]

Charles/Erik/Raven/Moira sedoretu fic would be awesome.

[rymenhild]

skygiants and I were discussing a sedoretu of the four most important characters in Megan Whalen Turner's Thief series. I absolutely ship it. Unfortunately, I can't tell you which characters ought to get sedoretu-married without spoiling at least one plot development from each of the four books out so far.

I just tried figuring out a Bujold Vorkosigan sedoretu, but I can't do it. Miles/Ekaterin/Kareen/Mark would require Miles/Mark, which is impossible for reasons of moiety and also because honestly there's no sexual tension there. Besides, there is no way I can get the sedoretu to work in the context of Barrayaran culture. Um. An Aral/Cordelia/Alys/Simon foursome could work, if the sedoretu could be an optional marriage structure among other possible marriage structures.

If you add sedoretu marriage to Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's Liaden books (although I have no idea if you've read them), each generation of Korval could function as a sedoretu: Er Thom / Anne / Aelliana / Daav works fine if you presume that Er Thom and Daav are sedoretu brothers of opposite moieties. In canon, Er Thom and Daav are foster brothers, biological cousins, and best friends, and when Er Thom meets Anne, Daav's heart nearly breaks from loneliness at having to share Er Thom. There is no reason that foursome couldn't work in all appropriate directions.

Follow that down to the next generation and Val Con and Shan are also sedoretu brothers of opposite moieties, children respectively of the Day marriage (Aelliana/Daav) and Night marriage (Er Thom/Anne) within their parents' sedoretu. So we have Val Con / Miri / Priscilla / Shan as a perfectly reasonable marriage. I don't see why sedoretu marriage can't coexist with short-term contract marriage and lifemate marriage.

[januar]

I've actually never read any of the books you're talking about, but I love it when people think about possible sedoretu marriage! Now you have me thinking about the books I've read.

Take the Dark is Rising sequence. I think (correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a while since I've read the books) there could be Will/Bran/Jane/other (although I have no idea who the other would be).

[rymenhild]

The absence of a second girl in that series (besides the Lady and Miss Greythorne, who don't count!) is a problem both for purposes of shipping and for the Bechdel Test. I don't see a sedoretu working there at all, alas.

[aria]

Okay, in the Neal/Peter/Elizabeth/Sarah one, who are in the same moieties? I am inclined to say that Neal and El are in one and Peter and Sarah in another, even though Sarah/El sounds slightly boggling to me and I am sad that there cannot be sexy Neal/El -- but it still seems like the best configuration? Also, fff, now I really want to write that fic.

[januar]

Neal and El being one moeity and Peter and Sarah being the other is exactly what I was thinking. I cannot break up El/Peter and put them in the same moeity, no way no how. The lose of sexy Neal/El is sad, but I love the idea of the two of them having this friendship, which they already do! Sarah/El... I'm not sure how to do that myself, but the two of them understand that their men have a thing for each other, and they can be flexible.

WRIIIIIIITE IIIIIIIIT. XD

[ashen_key]

How interesting! I love this idea, although I think the one foursome I'm playing with, it won't quite work, exactly. (Avatar! which is complicated, and involves two Na'vi only mentioned by name in movie, but it'll be tricksy and awesome if I can pull it off)

[surexit]

I really like this idea, but because I am all about the Forbidden Love I'm now thinking about the TRAGIC LOVE STORY of two people from the same moiety who see each other all the time and are supposed to be just friends and OH THE ANGST.