Pride and Prejudice (Blake's 7 zine)

Zine
Title:	Pride and Prejudice
Publisher:	Aralias
Editor(s):	Aralias
Date(s):	2015
Series?:
Medium:	print zine
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Blake's 7
Language:	English
External Links:	AO3 collection
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Pride and Prejudice is a slash Blake's 7 anthology fanzine in the Blake/Avon pairing, published in September 2015 by Aralias.

All art is by Suzan Lovett.

Some but not all fanfiction is themed around the work of Jane Austen. The zine also includes a 'Making Of' section, which re-prints several Dreamwidth posts about the creation process.

A copy of this zine is held in the University of Iowa Fanzine Archives and also at Texas A&M University.

Contents

Fanfiction

VOL. 1: PRE WAY BACK

• Taking the Credit by Unsentimental Fool (R)
• Renounce Renounce by Aralias (PG)

VOL. 2: THE LIBERATOR

• Scars and Sentiment by Mithen (PG-13)
• Bluescale Blues by Elviaprose (NC-17)
• Atmospheric Pressures by Aralias (NC-17)
• Strings Attached by x_los (NC-17)
• Intimacy by Lycoris (PG-13)
• Face of the Enemy by Clocketpatch (PG-13)
• Terminal Point by Aralias (PG)
• Gauda Prime and Prejudice by x_los (NC-17)

VOL. 3: POST GAUDA PRIME

• I Should Have Changed That Stupid Lock. I Should Have Made You Leave Your Key by Executrix (R)
• Persuasion by Aralias (PG-13)
• First Blossom, Then Bear Fruit by Corngold (reprint. NC-17)
• The Doors of Perception by Elviaprose (PG-13)

Artwork and Interior Shots

The front cover is a new image created by Suzan for the zine in 2015. It depicts Blake and Avon as part of a fantasy setting, shown with large cats (very consciously echoing her work for zines such as Powerplay), although rather than being entirely hand-drawn the image includes photomanip elements that would not have been possible in the late 1980s and early 1980s.

The other artwork featured (including the back cover) is re-printed from much earlier zines. These are: Evasive Maneuvers, 1994, (back cover), Avon Calling 3, 1994, (PWB and Liberator-years volume headers), and Return of the 7 3, 1989, (PGP volume header).

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  The front is a new image, the back is a re-print of the cover of Evasive Maneuvers.

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  The title page is a homage to the original title page of Pride and Prejudice

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  Each of the three volumes opens with a Suzan Lovett illustration. This one was originally printed as the back cover of Avon Calling 3

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Comment from the Editor

As part of a Fandom Snowflake challenge to self-rec works that defined the creator's output, Aralias wrote the following about her zine and why it was important:

It's the first B7 zine for X years - proving that the fandom isn't dead, and that it remembers and builds on its past. It features new Suzan Lovett artwork that I magically managed to get (because she was so nice) as well as old Suzan Lovett artwork, as well as many many thousands of words of great fic that people wrote only because I asked them to be in a zine (x_los only started writing B/A for this zine ...). As well as writing my own (perfectly OK) fics for the zine, I also imposed my own views of the characters onto the other writers through editing and through rejecting material that didn't fit. It printed up beautifully, and looks like something worth keeping around. It's a lasting testament to the work that I did in this fandom - which I think I can fairly say goes beyond just writing fanfic and stretches into reinvigoration and memorialising (slight exaggeration obviously as I have nothing to do with Horizon - still going strong! - and Tumblr, but still, not insignificant I think). Even though the fic is all online, you should all buy a copy!

Reactions and Reviews

See reactions and reviews for Bluescale Blues.

See reactions and reviews for The Doors of Perception.

See reactions and reviews for First Blossom, Then Bear Fruit.

See reactions and reviews for Face of the Enemy.

See reactions and reviews for Gauda Prime and Prejudice.

See reactions and reviews for Persuasion.

See reactions and reviews for Atmospheric Pressures.

See reactions and reviews for Taking the Credit.

See reactions and reviews for I Should Have Changed That Stupid Lock. I Should Have Made You Leave The Key..

See reactions and reviews for Intimacy.

See reactions and reviews for Strings Attached.

See reactions and reviews for Scars and Sentiment.

[zine]: "Zine had arrived and is so utterly gorgeous to look at that I am quite stunned ... What a great collection of fic! Stories to treasure."

[zine]:"it's glorious. It arrived in the post today and it's brilliant, every time I look at it, I am squeaking with joy."

"[zine]:My copy of the fanzine has arrived! And very nice it looks too!"

[zine]:MY ZINE HAS ARRIVED! And WOW, that is...well, it's glorious, starting with lions and jaguars and high, buckled boots, oh my! How amazingly hefty it is...in this post-paper era there's an almost hedonistic pleasure to the sheer physical presence of it. How delicious, I could eat it up. I am doing so (not literally).

[zine]:Well, I said I'd be back after finishing the zine to give you my impressions, and here I am :-)

I read everything except the handful of stories you warned me away from. As I anticipated, I couldn't "buy into" the assumption that Blake and Avon were lovers--or wanted to be--and that was true across the board (i.e., the degree of sexual explicitness didn't matter). And while many of the stories are otherwise well-written, that common factor prevented me from fully liking them. With one notable exception, which I will now go into at some length...

My favorite story in the zine, as luck would have it, is also the longest story in the zine. I'm referring, of course, to "Gauda Prime and Prejudice" by x_los. For starters, I love how the society is portrayed as matter-of-factly accepting of both opposite and same-sex relationships. (It's not how the Federation is canonically depicted-- but it's not *not* how it's depicted either--so the possibility is there.) At first, I tried to fit the storys events into canon--but I soon realized that the author didn't intend that, that she was painting an alternative picture of how all the different characters have come together, including characters who never crossed paths in the original series at all. Most amazing of all (because it's never happened before in my experience), I ended up "believing" the romance between Blake and Avon--because the author (a) depicted their individual character and personalities correctly and (b) traced the dynamics of their coming together with complete psychological plausibility.

Finally, as someone who once (only once) edited a zine, I enjoyed reading your notes in the Appendix. It brought back many memories, both frustrating and gratifying.)