"Slash Fiction" by Janet Lees Price

Open Letter
Title:	"Slash Fiction"
From:	Janet Lees Price
Addressed To:	Blake's 7 fandom
Date(s):	January 1989
Medium:	print
Fandom:	Blake's 7
Topic:	fan-run vs for profit conventions & slash fiction
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

"Slash Fiction" is a January 1989 open letter by Janet Lees Price.

It accompanied Paul Darrow’s letter, "Unwortham's Lies", an open letter both of which were printed in Avon Club Newsletter #35. These were reprinted in Federation Archives in February 1989. Both letters were written in response to Open Letter by "Name Withheld By Request" by Ann Wortham.

Both letters were a major part of The Blake's 7 Wars.

Some Context

Janet Lees Price, along with her husband Paul Darrow, was a frequent attendee at fan conventions and spent some time socializing with fans. Several of these fans wrote slash fiction under pseudonyms, and they had been very careful to keep these pseuds separate and away from the actors.

Response to Earlier Comments

Janet Lees Price's letter was in response to the editorial introduction to the "Name Withheld Letter" that had been written by the editor of The Federation Archives, Linda Terrell. Darrow claimed that Terrell had been spreading rumors that she was trying to ‘control fan fiction.’ Like Paul Darrow’s letter, Price raised the topic of slash fan fiction, even though the editor, in her newsletter had not mentioned the genre. Price proceeded to out a fan who she had had prior social contact, referring to this fan by her legal name. Price also questioned the use of pseudonyms.

From a December 23, 1988 letter by Price sent to Annie Wortham and "cc., to all fan newsletters" (it includes some statements that were used in the January 1989 letter):

It would appear that Linda Terrell, through any number of communications, is inferring that, in the exalted company of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, I am "trying to control fan fiction." Flattered though I am to complete triumvirate, the ludicrous suggestion is amazing. Such power would be awesome.

Lest there by any, 'fans', misguided enough to lend Ms Terrell any credibility, however short lived, I must state a few facts.

I derive great pleasure from fan fiction. The work is almost unanimously excellent and often beautifully illustrated. Some ____ ____, I find tasteless and, when real names are used, a gross impertinece. But, if a minority wish to write, read and sell, 'slash,' in a free world -- that is my right!

I asked Mr. Terrell one question -- "If the authors of slash fiction are proud of their work, why do they not append their real names to it?"

She has declined to answer.

However, she does not display similar reticence when spreading ill-informed rumours and indulging with fandom.

The truth must be protected from her malign influence!

From another letter by Price:

The over reaction to my comments on, 'slash fiction', is telling. In Australia, I was told that [two names redacted] and you were prominent authors of it. Being friends - I thought - I considered it odd that the subject had never been mentioned and I was intrigued to know if what I had heard was true.

Janet Lees Price's Letter

I don't know if there are any writers of, 'slash fiction', in Britain, but there are in America. For the uninitiated, ’slash fiction’, consists of stories featuring B7 characters in homosexual situations or, ’deviations on that theme’! Somewhat surprisingly, the majority are written by women and are sold under cover at some conventions or via mail order. A few have been sent to us, anonymously, and Paul has been asked to autograph copies, again at some conventions. He has declined. A glance at a few pages of those we were sent was enough! They are pornographic and sometimes, to our disgust, our real, as opposed to our character, names are used.

Out of curiosity, I wrote to Linda Terrell in Florida to ask if, as I had been told she wrote, ’slash’. (We had corresponded from time to time and, not unnaturally, I was intrigued.) I have to say that Ms Terrell neither confirmed nor denied the suggestion. Instead, she has inferred, in a number of communications to us and others, that I was trying to, ’control fan fiction’, as had Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, no less! Flattered though I may be to complete such an illustrious triumvirate, I was amazed by her ludicrous assertion. Such power would indeed be awesome!

I have no wish to dictate other people’s taste in fiction. There is obviously a minority market for ’slash’, and if someone is inclined to spend his or her money on it, it is their right.

However, lest there be any fans misguided enough to lend Ms Terrell's accusation credibility, even temporarily, they should be aware of some facts: I derive great pleasure from the fan fiction that people so kindly send to us. Their work is almost unanimously excellent and often beautifully illustrated. But 'slash fiction’ I find tasteless, frequently disgusting and decidedly ill conceived and, when real names are used, grossly impertinent.

I asked Ms Terrell one question - "If the purveyors of, 'slash fiction’, are proud of their work, why do they decline to append their real names to it?" She has declined to answer!!

Comments from Linda Terrell

What's curious about this, is Janet's 'sudden' reaction to the 'porno' story involving 'Paul and Janet' rather than Avon and ... She takes it sound as though she just received an atrocious copy of this last Fall and that started it all. I remember distinctly her telling a small group of us about that same 'rude' story on the pool deck at OMNICON OVER A YEAR AGO! At that time, we told her about slash; where it came from, why it's called slash; why it is written; why pseuds are used, etc. FACE TO FACE with Janet Darrow! OVER A YEAR AGO! And she's acting like she just discovered it. And it's not a slash story, but heteroerotica. And some in the fandom have been 'hearing about this story for several years now. But I don't know anyone who has ever actually seen/read a copy, except the Darrows! She has been sent at least one genuine slash story - 'Dearly Beloved/Rogue' - anonymously!

Our original allegations went out after we had, indeed, attempted to contact the Darrows. In one of my two replies Janet claims I "declined" to make, I asked them to "please' call me COLLECT so we could talk it out. I felt there had been an over-reaction. Their reply was to call mutual friend, instead, and rail at her as to how they were going to 'ruin" [A W] in fandom. Then the letters started going out. We fully expected that we would take quite a bit of flack. But I never dreamed, in my wildest fantasies, that the Darrows would make it so personal and so petty! That they would 'go after" friends and mere associates of ours. 'Demand' fans take sides' Demand we be "denounced". Even "go after" fellow actors! The last time I dealt with that kind of a vendetta was in elementary school!