"Hurt/Comfort" in Trek Fanlit
| Meta | |
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| Title: | "Hurt/Comfort" in Trek Fanlit |
| Creator: | Patricia Hintz |
| Date(s): | June 1981 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
"Hurt/Comfort" in Trek Fanlit is a 1981 essay by Patricia Hintz.
It was printed in APA Enterprise #1.
For some additional context, see Timeline of Hurt/Comfort Meta.
Some Topics Discussed
- the term hurt/comfort is a simple description of a complicated genre
- the author writes that it takes on a variety of forms in fiction, which in turn have elements of: 1) "get'em" in which most of the characters are killed off and the survivors must deal with that," 2) the "torture story" in which "the Klingon's latest version of their 'mindsifter' is tested out on a hapless Captain Kirk," 3) the 'Mary Sue' story in which the writer projects an alter ego of herself into the 23rd century and onto the Enterprise"
- why write hurt/comfort? 1) "to delve deeply into the characters by putting them up against the worst the entire universe (literally) can throw at them, and seeing how they cope," 2) in "which the 'hurt' is only the conflicts and loneliness within the characters themselves" -- The author states that their favorite are this last kind.
- the author mentions the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese in New York City
From the Essay
Fans reactions to hurt/comfort stories has ranged from "*sigh*" and "I wish I could convey that amount of feeling in a story!" to "If Kirk (Spock, McCoy, etc.) comes down with another rare, fatal disease, I'll scream!
One fan was telling me about her reactions to a wonderfully written fan novel that had her rolling on the floor with laughter at the oh-so-typical situations it put the characters though - Kirk tortured, the Enterprise destroyed - the whole bit. But her cynical attitude disappeared in talking about another novel which is, according to her, not just a tearjerker, but a tear-wrencher - it had her bawling, so sad it was. (She said anyone who didn't cry at reading it must be a Klingon spy!) Still, being what they are, fans love to laugh at themselves; there has even been a story -a parody - written, in which "the characters themselves try desperately to avoid the hurt/comfort syndrome, much to the authors' annoyance, and the readers delight!".
But, despite their occasionally facetious attitude, Star Trek fans slave over stories and buy them voraciously. (The cost of fanzine printing and buying is nothing to shake a tribble at, and many fans are shocked at finding themselves spending up to ten dollars and over for a single zine.) Oh, well. As one fan remarked in a letter, "They can only take me away once, right?"
Star Trek fans aren't the only fans with this... eccentricity; though ST zines were the first to come upon the scene, other media zines cannot be ignored in respect to the hurt/comfort format. For instance, the TV show Starsky and Hutch has had quite a few zines - the theme (which is present in the futuristic, somewhat idealistic Star Trek) that people (especially men) need not hide behind unemotional, "machismo" barriers that they can demonstrate feelings of friendship and loneliness, has brought many ST fans into S and H fandom. Star Wars, also, has inspired a plethora of fan fiction, and Battlestar: Galactica zinedom is growing - even the TV show M*A*S*H, with its compassion and pain underneath a veneer of humor, has a large following of fans with their own zines. Almost anything that people are drawn to emotionally will have stories - even if those stories are only daydreams.
But the question remains: why do fans write and read these stories? Perhaps people wish to be moved deeply, touched - that is, after all, the purpose of hurt/comfort stories; to make you feel along with the characters.
Or, perhaps, as another fan has suggested, people write and read these stories as escapism - they want to escape
to a place where the ideal of friendship they see can be realized, the seemingly uncaring world around them can be forgotten for a time. "It is frightening for people to reach out and help. There was a girl in New York, stabbed, screaming for help on her front doorstep - and the people could hear her, but nobody helped." So, maybe people write and read hurt/comfort to express the thoughts of a 21st century philosopher, words said to be more meaningful than any others -- "I love you" : "Let me help".