One Small Corner

Fanfiction
Title:	One Small Corner
Author(s):	Connie Faddis
Date(s):	1978
Length:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Starsky & Hutch
External Links:	art by Paulie Gilmore, an illo for the story
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One Small Corner is a gen Starsky and Hutch story by Connie Faddis. It was published in the third issue of Zebra Three.

Comments by the Editor

From Zebra Three #4, a warning:

This issue is somewhat of a departure from the previous issue. 'One Small Corner' has a decidedly more realistic tone to it. No doubt some readers will be offended by the strong language and sexual references...

Comments by the Author

I was trying to look at how S&H night act once their love for each other has been acknowledged and cultivated and lived with day to day. I wanted to show them as whole persons in the context of the larger world in which they live, in the context of other commitments and obligations and beloved people. No man is an island, and two men do not an archipelago make, either.

Reactions and Reviews

Briefly, it concerns a) S&H's efforts to break up a ring of illicit filmmakers specializing in kiddy porn and snuff flicks, helped and hindered by turns by the Vice officers assigned to the case; and b) Hutch's attempts to remove his fourteen year-old half-sister from an intolerable and dangerous home situation. Which is a drastic oversimplification — sort of like telling you that Moby Dick is about a fishing trip — but due to limitations of space, etc.. Get a copy of Z3 and read it for yourself. Even if you don't particularly like Starsky and Hutch, this story is unconditionally guaranteed to make you laugh, cry, sing, dance, kiss the bill collector and cover your Head with your Feete and lie for a Time Astonied. In its emotional complexity, and in the compassion and insight the author has brought to her character, "One Small Corner" is very nearly unique. It is probably the best fan-written story, of any type, yet produced. You'll be cheating yourself if you miss it.

"One Small Corner." Not as emotionally intense as "Mojave Crossing", but a well constructed detective story and an excellent read.

Connie's "One Small Corner" was pretty good, but it didn't have the love and caring her Mojave Crossing had. I think part of the problem for me was Sammie. Hutch was spending so much time on her he hardly had any time or caring left for Starsky.

I did like One Small Corner -- only complaint is it didn't follow Hutch's life. Isn't he supposed to be the "rich" boy, all the best schools, etc.? But then his ex-wife was always Nancy until Vanessa showed up.

Wow! What powerful, sad, horrible, sickening, beautiful, wonderful story. I'm talking about One Small Corner. It was perfect. The trust, the love, and mostly the caring. Like Starsky said, "What ever happened to plain, old fashioned caring?"

As for the graphic description, there was nothing in the story that was either unreal or unnecessary.... It was all needed to put across the tone that the author wanted to get across.

You asked for comments about One Small Corner, so here goes... Grim is the first word that comes to mind! Followed closely by WOW... Connie is a professional in every since of the word. She certainly captured the mood and 'feel' of the streets, and the realism of a cop's world. This S&H relationship was too damned realistic, it was, in fact, the way two cops would handle the job, and themselves, but I wanted the magic and fantasy of that S&H friendship! I was hoping for another story on the order of Crossing or Wilderness.

That scene in the alley where the bad guys catch Starsky was scary and grim, but the only scene in the entire story that stuck with me, so it had impact. In fact, it was one of the few flashes of that S«.:H manic even in the horror of the moment.

... (Mojave) Crossing and Wilderness are stories that the girls and I pull out and read again and again, but I doubt I will read Corner again. It was like reading,a damned good novel, one that held your attention, but once read doesn't draw you back

again.

One Small Corner is extremely well written. Parts of it are abrasive, but that's the kind of life the story deals with. The characters are beautiful in their construction, and real. And, Starsky and Hutch lose none of their appeal by being "realistic."

One Small Corner - Lovely, a wee bit weak in spots, but a fairly lovely story. It was not as graphic as I had imagined it would be from your warning. Some parts were very well done, like the attack on Starsky, 'tho I felt the reaction (Starsky's shakes) should have caused Hutch to get more concerned. I felt that his mind was still on Nina/Sam. It didn't seed right, somehow.

One Small Corner was a real "gut-grabber," and I was literally bowled over by its realism... First off, the subject of snuff flicks and child pornography business was a good foundation to build a story on - and adding Hutch's background, and a half-sister with problmes, created the basis for a dynamic story.

I love the brilliant writing.' Connie Faddis is that special kind of writer who has the talent and ability to reach out from the printed page and grab your senses,'shake ’em, stimulate 'em, really get the ol' proboscis wiggling. One can almost smell Nina's dingy apartment, the stale odor of dog urine in the filthy rug, the day old garbage in the alleyway; one can hear the traffic sounds of the freeways, the pounding storm against the hospital window, the ear-deafening explosion. Even the taste of gritty smog lingers on the palate. Sheer magic!

As for the so-called "strong language and sexual references" — those readers who were offended by it had better go back to mother Goose and Grimm's Fairy Tales because that's exactly where they're living right now. Starsky's terror and humiliation during his sexual/sadistic attack in the alleyway were felt by this reader. Likewise, Hutch's close call with the bad guys at the climax of the story. Both were necessary: both were written and handled well.

As you indicated. One Small Corner deals with S&H on a more realistic level than most stories. I did not find it offensive, any more than I find the "real" world offensive.

I think Connie handled the story very well. ... Being a police officer myself, I know that this kind of thing does not exist only in the imagination but in reality as well, as do things equally "offensive",or worse. I really enjoyed her insight into police-work and into the personalities of all characters involved. I only wish some real police officers had half the empathy she has shown S&H and other characters as having.
 Connie Faddis is a very talented person. And then to top it all off she beautifully illustrated the story. I think I enjoyed her pictures nearly as much as the story.

Of course One Small Corner was not the only story and I enjoyed all the rest, especially Last Hill And Testament and Squadroom Bulletins. Some of the "stuff" found on our squad room bulletin board is unbelievable.

I‘m sure that One Small Corner has garnered the lions share of comments [in this zine]. It was awfully well done — tho at times I'd forget to feel sorry for Samantha and long to give her a good swift kick. Marylou Decker is one of the great female characters in any kind of

fan fiction -- an actual anti-Mary Sue. The scene where Starsky drop kicks her Kentucky Fried Chicken into the wastebasket is the best in the story.

This is what struck me in the lettercol. [M L N] is disappointed in "One Small Corner" because in including Sammie and her problems, S&H don't expend all their "love and caring" exclusively on each other; [D W] misses the "magic and fantasy of that S&H relationship"; and [L T] and [T W] hold Starsky's rape and Hutch's near-evisceration to be the most effective parts of Corner (when they had nothing directly to do with the primary plot). They are disappointed in Corner because it was contaminated with Sammie. Mojave Crossing was superior, they say; possibly because Maggie did not require particular "love and caring." After all, she didn't get blinded or gut-shot. Why then should Sam so waste Hutch's time?

But Corner was not, au fond, one of these epic stories. Its focus was Hutch: how the child-abuse hit him both thru his work on this case and thru events in his own family. It was a story of development in his character (and Sam's) and though it contained elements of the epic, it was not the same identical story as Mojave Crossing in the sense that Mojave Crossing was the same story as Bomb Scare was the same as Last Will and Testament was the same as Promises To Keep was the same as Solitaire. The difference lies in the details, and the skill of the writer.