M*A*S*H - Fanlore

M*A*S*H

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Name: M*A*S*H
Abbreviation(s): MASH, Mash
Creator: H. Richard Hornberger
Date(s): 1972-1983
Medium: Television
Country of Origin: United States
External Links: IMDB
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M*A*S*H has no subpages to list.


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Contents

Canon overview

M*A*S*H began life in 1970 as a movie in which thinly disguised commentary on the war in Vietnam was presented as a dark comedy set during the Korean War of the 1950s. In the movie, the inhabitants of a Korean field hospital (M*A*S*H stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) use humor and alcohol to deal with the horrors of war. Although the movie was somewhat controversial, it was popular enough that in 1972, a television version debuted on primetime. It was wildly successful, redefining the American half-hour comedy genre in a number of ways. (citation?) The show ran for 11 years; the Korean War only lasted three.


Cast

The show consisted almost entirely of ensemble comedy, although in its 11 years there were several casting changes. This is a list of some of the lead characters (not all), along with a few distinguishing characteristics.

M*A*S*H Fandom

The MASH fandom is somewhat small, but because of the show's pervasive nature (it was on the air for so long, and is still played more than once a day on cable networks such as TVLand), references to MASH, its characters and its canon can be found sprinkled liberally throughout the fannish world.

The first MASH slash story -- possibly the first MASH story -- was Three Day Pass, by Arduinna, a Hawkeye/Trapper story written for the zine Nothing to Hide in 1998 and posted to the net a year later. It was the only MASH slash until 2001, when the mash-slash mailing list was started up on Yahoogroups.


Mash-slash mailing list

The mailing list has generated some stories every year since 2001, although activity has been erratic in the last few years. With no archive available, though, the stories are restricted to list members. However, in 2004 the list membership organised the Mash Slash Awards[1] which provides an overview of some of the best stories available then.

List membership tends to be young, mainly high-school and college-aged. Stories on the list tend to favor Hawkeye/BJ, but cover almost every imaginable slash pairing; it's also considered perfectly acceptable to post a story with no character names attached, inviting the readers to imagine their own favorite characters in the roles. Femslash is rare, and usually features Erin Hunnicutt, the daughter of BJ Hunnicutt (never seen in the show, during which she was a toddler), aged up to high-school or college age and generally paired with an OFC.

Stories on the list -- particularly those featuring Hawkeye in any way -- also tend toward somberness and angst; there's lots of deathfic (often suicide); sometimes the death itself is the focus, but stories also revolve around funerals. There's also a remarkable amount of cutting and similar coping strategies.

In recent years, the mailing list has developed a sister-LJ community, also called mash-slash.

M*A*S*H in Yuletide

Yuletide has become a steady source of MASH fanfic, mainly gen and slash; the most common slash pairing seems to be Hawkeye/Trapper John, although there are some stories featuring Hawkeye/B.J. and one featuring Hawkeye/Mulcahy.

M*A*S*H on fanfiction.net

MASH stories started appearing on fanfiction.net in 2000, most of them apparently gen or het.


M*A*S*H and other fandoms

MASH has also been crossed with other fandoms, from Buffy[2] to Quantum Leap[3], to Highlander[4] and The Manchurian Candidate[5] as well as being used as a setting for other fandom stories in which characters from other fandoms are cross-cast as various MASH characters.(need citations, examples, links)

The show's combination of humor and pathos makes for a rich playground for many genres of fanfiction, from angst to fluff to schmoop.

Mailing lists and communities

Fanzines

Newsletters:

Gen:

References

  1. ↑ Mash Slash Awards (for Excellence in Fanfiction), accessed November 3rd, 2008
  2. ↑ Twisting the Hellmouth, MASH accessed October 25, 2008.
  3. ↑ Q*U*A*N*T*U*M*L*E*A*P, by Kathryn Lively accessed October 15, 2008
  4. ↑ Walker Among The Dead by Jane Carnall accessed November 3rd, 2008
  5. ↑ Radar's First Time/Return A Man by Scribe accessed November 3rd, 2008
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