Entreat Me Not to Leave Thee

Fanfiction
Title:	Entreat Me Not to Leave Thee
Author(s):	C.M. (Mog) Decarnin
Date(s):	began in 1987, finished in 2003 or before, possibly late 1990s?
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:	Entreat Me Not to Leave Thee
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Entreat Me Not to Leave Thee is a Kirk/Spock story by C.M. (Mog) Decarnin.

Two Explanations of Why It Wasn't Pubbed in a Zine

According to the Author's Notes: "When I had about 90 single-spaced pages, I sent them off to [Kathy Resch]. She explained that she wanted to publish it, but had an honorable policy of not torturing readers with "to be continued" stories; so she couldn't publish it until it was done."

According to Blurring the Lines: Online or in Print, It's Still K/S, the story is "available only online and generally thought of as 'an Internet story,' was written back in the mid eighties—years before Internet culture— intended for the KSX 3 zine that never materialized, and only put up online later for lack of a better venue for an incomplete piece."

Author's Notes

"A Word of Explanation...

This story was begun way back in the 80s, when slash was pubbed in paper zines. There was high controversy just then over S/M content in slash. Many zines refused to accept any story with violence, non-consensual sex, etc.

Nurtured up as I was on the Star Trek Action Group stories out of Scotland and other heavily S/M oriented old slash, I felt that by denying S/M, slash would be denying its roots. Having finally gotten charged up enough to write a story of my own, I wanted to write one packed with S/M politics. I rented an IBM Selectric (for those who snuck in under the tent, I'm talking about a typewriter -- sort of like a computer keyboard hooked directly to a printer, bypassing RAM, ROM, and monitor). When I had about 90 single-spaced pages, I sent them off to [Kathy Resch]. She explained that she wanted to publish it, but had an honorable policy of not torturing readers with "to be continued" stories; so she couldn't publish it until it was done. I, on the other hand, had cherished this vision of getting responses to the first three parts, and using those to springboard the rest, addressing any issues readers might have raised.

This probably never would have actually happened. In those days, feedback was hard to come by -- everything being done by U.S. mail, not the Internet. But it was my fond underlying plan.

Still, I figured I could finish the story without it.

Time passed.

This story would now only raise controversy inside a few benighted religious cults and Hollywood law firms; sometimes, change is good. It's still not done. It never got any further than those original 90 pages (and a couple fragmentary scenes intended to hook on later). But, the time has come for it to get its butt off the shelf and get read. Who knows -- maybe once the next Highlander story is done, and the X-Files story is done and the Sentinel story is done..."

Reactions and Reviews

Excellent, excellent, excellent. Comes to a cadence, but not a conclusion, so everyone write to House of Slack and encourage Decarnin to finish it!

...you will either love it or hate it. But the ending - even if it is supposed to be unfinished - is so sweet.

Whether you be a fan of Trek or not, whether you be a fan of BDSM slash stories or not, READ THIS STORY, you'll be very happy you took the slacker archivist's advice on this. What we have here is some damn fine fic! Intreat Me Not To Leave Thee is a story written long ago, before the advent of net-fandom and archives like this one, and we're just very, very happy that C.M. saved it for us, and allowed us to save it for her, and bring it to you.

This is a very heavy BDSM story with Spock as the dominant partner and Kirk as the submissive. I won't go into detail exactly what this story is about, save to say it is quite graphic and not for the faint-hearted. This work came up in the BDSM panel at KiSCon and what I found most interesting was that a number of K/Srs present who enjoy seeing Kirk and Spock in this type of scenario were sitting right behind me and as soon as this story was mentioned, their immediate reaction was, "Oh, wow, what a hot story, BUT I didn't like the characterizations, especially Spock." Well, that statement proves a very important point when it comes to writing K/S and that point is when someone sits down to write a K/S story, creates two characters in her head, puts them on paper, names them Kirk and Spock, describes them as looking like Kirk and Spock, but doesn't make the effort to give them the characterizations of Kirk and Spock, then what you end up with is a slash story, not a K/S one. If, however, the author takes the characters of Kirk and Spock as created by Gene Roddenberry, fleshed out by the writers of the series, and brought to life by Bill and Leonard, and puts THOSE characters down on paper, then I'll believe her story, regardless of the subject matter. Now granted while no two K/Srs are ever going to agree completely as to how they envision each of these two men, there is a core personality they each have which must be respected and maintained when writing a story. It is only when those basic personality characteristics are adhered to by the author that her work becomes a true K/S story. The best of the best K/S authors, both past and present, have learned this lesson well which is why no matter what she/he has them doing, I'll buy it every time.

Thank you for your very interesting thoughts on BDSM and K/S in the May [of The K/S Press] issue. I do absolutely agree with you that the characterisation is the most important point. I, too, have read some BDSM where the characters were not recognisable (but there are also some non-BDSM where that is the case), and I did not like those. opinion that the characterisation in this story was off, or the opinion of the people who were sitting behind you at the Con, but I had a very different impression. Actually, after getting over the first shock (which made me stop reading for a few days(!)), I tried it again, and after giving it much thought, decided that the characterisation was brilliant. This is my personal opinion, and I have some trouble with a few other points of the story, but I have read few things in my life that were so well written. This author definitely knows about words. And if you accept the psychological thesis that a little sado-masochism is not some kind of mental illness but a perfectly normal inclination, you see a profound characterisation of two very strong people. I absolutely dislike a weak Kirk or Spock, and there is nothing weak about either of them in this story. This is a very strong Spock who has come to terms with what his preferences are, and a Kirk who has to decide what he really wants. Kirk does not choose one of the easy ways out, and he wouldn't be Kirk if he did. The author is brutally honest and leaves little room for self-deception in the characters. Pon Farr and things just run their course? No such thing here. Kirk must make his decision armed with nothing but the truth about himself and Spock. The one thing I feel uncomfortable about is a flashback scene with mild(?) sexual content between two children (8 and 12 years old, if I recall correctly). I think this scene is crucial for the psychological development, but I would have preferred it if they had at least been of the same age. This in only a very small detail, however. Read this story with caution, and be prepared for something unusual, because it is hurry, and that is good because it is a positive, honest story which happens to describe BDSM as just another form of sexuality. It does so very explicitly, however. Be warned.

This fic was written in 1987, at a time where BDSM in fic was way more controversial as it is now……and because of that, the author gets really soap-boxy about BDSM being ok when all I want to do is just get to the fucking. If you can just glaze over the occaisional pro-BDSM monologues, there is some hot-like-burning scenes, and I am in love with the author’s idea of vulcan pornography.