And So It Goes (Sentinel story)

Jim/Blair Fanfiction
Title:	And So It Goes
Author(s):	Sandy Justine
Date(s):	10 May 1999
Length:	5691 words
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	The Sentinel
External Links:	And So It Goes (J/B, adult), Archived version on LiveJournal And So It Goes on AO3
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And So It Goes is a Jim/Blair story by Sandy Justine.

Author's Summary

A missing scene from "Cypher", in which Jim explains why he came home early, and Blair learns many things from the discussion.

Reactions and Reviews

2006

I did find a story, when I started thinking about it, that includes a terrific use of the WNG trope, a story that doesn't bother me at all or come across as a rejection of homosexuality. Quite the reverse.

In "The Sentinel," you have a fandom that does give you a very viable way to express the sexual and soul-mate nature of the lovers in a manner that can have little or nothing to do with gay identity or gay culture of 21st Century America. Canon gives you a way of exploring an incredibly close, spiritual, karmic bond between Jim and Blair, part of their relationship as Sentinel and guide or Guide.

Of course, you don't have to focus on Sentinel/Guide to write TS fic. Some authors are actually bored by that or actively oppose that. But I find I enjoy all kinds of Sentinel fic, from the plotty police cases to the very, very metaphysical or shamanistic tales, and I enjoy the gen and the smarm in this fandom, too.

"Sacred Space" talks about a soul-deep bond between the two protagonists that slowly, over time, gets expressed as sex. And the Blair character, who narrates the story, sees it as WNG for himself. In this story, the Jim character is written as gay from the outset. In this story, Blair sees his connection with Jim as underlying or transcending or something --- anyway, the connection they have is the point and the sex thing or the sexual attraction thing is not the main point. The bond he feels with Jim gets expressed through sex, but it's very metaphysical. I don't think we are intended to see Blair as in denial here, as an unreliable narrator. I think Justine wants to explore this idea of sex being, in the words of the naughty musical, not the cause, but the symptom.

And Justine is definitely a good enough writer to pull that off!

On the other hand, another story of hers, "And So It Goes," takes the same characters and treats their relationship as more realistically gay, or bi, and plays with the power dynamic between them, and has another character arc entirely. I love that story, too.

So by thinking about "Sacred Space" I realized that, yes, there is definitely a WNG theme in some of the stories I like, and that I don't think it necessarily involves a rejection of dealing with actual gender identity issues as we see them today. You all know I'm very interested in gender studies, as an amateur, and the way slash and SF inform our understanding of them. So this is part of that, to me.

By letting our fic purposefully jettison the reality of 21st Century Gay Culture, are we learning things, experimenting in fiction, about the nature of gender? As grievous_angel used to say, the plumbing can be truly irrelevant; it's all about the characters and the love? If I think along these lines, I get equally interested in the other Big Discussion We Always Have in Slash: Feminizing Male Characters, and What That Means. What is masculine? What is feminine? I love that debate, too, as you know....

2012

In this story, the author returns to the show's first season and presents us with a Jim and Blair who are just beginning to learn how to be roommates and friends. Due to the early point in canon, Justine's Jim is a bit more relaxed than the man we encounter in season 4, but, while bisexual, is still too repressed to let go during sex. Blair is the one who has to take heart, who is strong enough to bend since Jim cannot. Yet. Their interaction takes their core characteristics into account and produces a result that reads sweet and true, and holds so much promise for the future. The ideal story for newbies to the fandom. Enjoy.