An Exercise in Futility (Or Lessons in How to Beat a Dead Horse): Black Cover

Open Letter
Title:	An Exercise in Futility (Or Lessons in How to Beat a Dead Horse): Black Cover
From:	James Pirkola
Addressed To:	Beauty and the Beast fans
Date(s):	March 1991
Medium:	print
Fandom:	Beauty and the Beast (TV)
Topic:
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An Exercise in Futility (Or Lessons in How to Beat a Dead Horse): Black Cover is a 1991 open letter by James Pirkola.

The subject: the highly controversial Beauty and the Beast zine Black Cover.

This open letter was printed in Once Upon a Time... Is Now in January/February 1991 and Tunneltalk in March 1991.

Some Topics Discussed

• censorship
• fans' disapproval of portraying beloved characters in a poor light
• understanding the differences between reality and fantasy
• what is "adult" fiction

The Letter

This is an open letter to all B&TB fans on a subject that I have become involved in obliquely. I'm a person who has enjoyed fantasy and speculative fiction all my life. When B&TB was first shown on TV, I found it to be enchanting, and continued to find it so right up to its last episode.

Since the show's cancellation, I have watched with interest the efforts of organized fandom to carry on the traditions of the stories. This watching was done through a close friend who joined that effort. Maybe they could duplicate the success of the Star Trek fans and make B&TB live on.

My friend — who unlike me — is a creative person, wanted to help carry on the traditions of the show by writing stories and drawing pictures she could exchange with others with like feelings. Soon my friend became very involved. I, although not so involved, offered support in the areas of word processing and desk-top publishing and advice when asked.

My friend, after some minor successes in fan publications, decided to try on her own, to publish her own B&TB novel, and met with some success here also. Now "enter the dragon." A group of her friends, excited with he success, said, "Let's get together and collaborate on some stories."

Have I got your attention now; can you see it coming? They said to each other "Hey! This is adult fantasy, right? Look at what has been written up to now. Some pretty sexy stuff, right? Lets write some real adult fantasies." Wrong-o!!! Two key words here—ADULT and FANTASY. (I'll get back to these two words in a moment.) They forgot the things they saw happening in the Star Trek fandom world. Well, with a group egging each other on, things became real adult, real fast. After about a month of phone calls back and forth (would you believe phone bills in excess of $300.00 from our end alone?) the thing got run off on our printer. They had a lot of fun with it, now the group all wanted to see their ideas in print.

This is where I enter the picture, my friend asked my help on a flier and to act as the banker for the checks that came in, because the group used a pen name. My friend also wrote stories and felt that her name would be inappropriate on this group effort. You can see ... from the fliers that I tried to make it clear that this was ADULT material. I tried to arrange her ad copy so it could not be misunderstood. I guess I failed. My friend and her group did not try to misrepresent what was in this story collection.

I want now to cover those two words, ADULT and FANTASY, or at least my understanding of them and how they relate to this Black Cover HOO RAH.

The word "ADULT pictures to me someone who understands that there are a lot of ways to do things in this world and understand that their way isn't the only way. I myself have lived long enough to know that everything depicted in those stories does happen and are accepted and normal to many people. Anyone who doesn't understand that is not being adult. Each one of us at one time or another has acquired something—a car, a house, a magazine, or something—that didn't fit our personal tastes. The adult thing to do is realize that it does fit someone else, or it wouldn't exist, and get on with our life. Remember, you may not like it, but your best friend or neighbor may love it.

The word "FANTASY" has always meant to me something that DOES NOT and CAN NOT exist, but it's FUN to speculate about. Isn't that what imagination is for?

Now, with this background established, on to the reason for, and the title of this letter.

After the fanzine Black Cover been distributed for a while, some of B&TB fandom critics gave their reviews. They were not encouraging, to say the least. They were, in general, comments on the quality and the contents. We all of course, understand that a critic is just someone with a PERSONAL OPINION and with the guts to print that opinion and try to make you accept that opinion as your own. Of course, some responsibilities do come with the title critic. They are supposed to review in context and they are supposed to be reviewing just that particular story. Not the people who wrote it, or their other works. Isn't that the way professional critics do it? I doubt that any of the people who write fiction live, or even necessarily believe in, the things they write about, they are just trying to entertain you. Also, some of our greatest writers' first stories were pretty bad, and many couldn't spell or properly structure a sentence. But they wrote good stories. That's why there are editors and proofreaders making a lot of money.

By now you are probably wondering just where all this is going, so I will try to pull it all together now. My friend pulled Black Cover, a cooperative effort of a group of people (remember those phone bills), off the market over 6 months ago. This was done because a number of people do not seem to understand what the words ADULT and FANTASY mean and attacked her personally. My friend or her group do not live the life-styles depicted in those stories, although they do know of and understand them; they are, after all, adults. This group does understand that the word fantasy means something that is not real.

Apparently some people out there must think that they can go to New York, lift up a manhole cover and find something other than a sewer. That these make-believe people really exist, and were personally slandered by these stories.

Come on now, people; you killed the horse (a good 6 months ago); now stop beating it. You didn't like these make-believe stories in Black Cover, so they were taken off the marker. You pinched off a branch of your FANTASY WORLD you didn't like. So now get on with building the parts you do like. Isn't that what your fan clubs and fanzines are for? A group of amateurs and semi-professionals having ' fun with a subject you all enjoy. So enjoy, don't fight.

A final note to the editor. I know this letter is long and so will never see print in its entirety, if at all. But I do have to say that, after over six months of lingering BS about a for gods sake fantasy story, I think I have the right to say that if I ever see or hear another word that treats this stuff as real, I will find the person who produced it and throw up in their lap!

In closing, I will tell you all that I really do like the B&TB fantasy. "ITS FUN."

Fan Comments

James Pirkola — I don't believe we share the same understanding of B&TB, or the words "adult" or "fantasy ."Which is okay — but l found your letter condescending and offensive, which I don't think is okay. You have the right to throw up on someone who has a different opinion from you? Come on; at the very least, I find that attitude indirect opposition to someone who says they found B&TB "enchanting" and "fun." And I don't agree with your definition of a critic, either. Of course, a critic brings the author/performer of a work and their previous works into play in the course of a review, comparison and judgment of the quality and contents of a work are part of a critic's job, though — I believe — a moral judgment s not Your definitions of the words "adult" and "fantasy" are rudimentary ones, and are in no way an accurate or definitive advisory on the contents of Black Cover. Neither was, in my judgment, your first flier; your second one was much more accurate. l am amazed at your surprise over people's reaction to the zine; to assume that all people understand the words "adult fantasy" to cover the entire range of sexual proclivities — or that those two words carry the same meaning to all people—is asking a little much. Yes, these activities do exist and go on every day, but they are not as commonly accepted as you seem to think. Your inference that people who cannot accept them are out of touch with reality, and are not, in fact, being" adult" people I found the most insulting and unkind remark in your whole letter. Not to mention untrue and narrow-minded; who's being intolerant and unimaginative now? You ask people to be more accepting and understanding — but where is your own acceptance and understanding of others who do not share your point of view? I believe you wrote your letter in an attempt to defend your friends, but was it necessary to insult/ridicule/belittle every B&TB fan who disagrees with them in the process? I hope that, if you feel moved to write again, you'll find more positive, constructive ways to support your friends and to communicate with fellow fans.

Mr. Pirkola, I know what fantasy is. (I've been reading SF and fantasy of all kinds since age 14.)That's why I choose what fantasy I want to embrace—and what I choose to reject. It's my decision. You publish what you want, and that's fine by me. I never had the least desire to buy Black Cover, and therefore was never in a position to review or protest it.