Alice Mills
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Alice Mills |
| Alias(es): | Madison Lang, Iris |
| Type: | |
| Fandoms: | Star Trek: TOS, K/S, Donald Strachey, Brokeback Mountain, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine |
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| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Alice Mills was a Star Trek fanwriter.
When she died, her zine collection was donated by her family to Bowling Green State University's Special Collections. See PCL MS 224 Alice J. Mills Kirk/Spock (K/S) Fanzine Collection.
Biographical Sketch
Alice Jean Mills (née Everett) (April 10, 1932 – April 23, 2015) was born in Toledo, OH but moved at the age of two to Quincy, MA, becoming a life-long resident of the Boston area until her death in Weymouth, MA in 2015. A graduate of Quincy High School, she yearned to further her education but circumstances put college out of reach. She never stopped learning, reading widely and voraciously in the areas of English literature, Greek philosophy and the sciences. She became especially interested in NASA’s space programs, astronomy, astrophysics, and neurosciences, in particular the science of the brain. These interests grew from her involvement in the Kirk/Spock fanzine movement beginning in 1979, when her enthusiasm for the television series Star Trek developed into a deeper appreciation for the series’ homoerotic subtexts. The movement also put her in touch with a vast, international network of women (Sandra Gent, Jean Hinson, Caro Hedge, Pat Stall, Bea Bula, Robin Hood, Cynthia Coleman, Jenna St. Clair, and Elke Zielonka among others), who were equally passionate about advancing a queer narrative of the show.
Mills, who wrote using her own name as well as pseudonyms such as Madison Lang and Iris, was impatient with injustice, and her stories reflect a world committed to love, desire, and passion, in all its guises—bonding, in other words, rather than bondage. She was less interested in and often critical of Kirk/Spock stories that explored violence and sado-masochism, even consensual violence, as she often said, “Only a universe based on love will advance to the next mindstep of the cosmos. There is no other way.” This was a purist/absolutist position that she applied not only to Kirk/Spock, but also to many different areas of social, political, and cultural realities; for example, she was extremely critical of a space program based on military objectives, and blamed the Reagan Administration for the adjustment away from a Gene Roddenberry-infused internationalism towards a nationalistic, militaristic agenda in space exploration. She also was disheartened by what she saw as a trend in Kirk/Spock literature towards violence, competition, jealousy, and pleasure in pain. In addition to her contributions to the world of fanfiction, she was a devoted mother of four, a wife of over fifty years, a grandmother of six, and an aunt to many nieces and nephews, but she was truly most passionate about pursuing a ‘life of the mind’, a life of ideas and future possibilities, which is what she found, I believe, in this international community of women and the slash zine fanfiction movement. [1]
Fanworks
Mill's fanworks appear in:
References
- ^ Written by Jean Mills, daughter of Alice J. Mills, for the Finding Aid at Bowling Green University