Jan Levine
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Jan Levine |
| Alias(es): | |
| Type: | fanzine publisher, fan writer |
| Fandoms: | The Professionals, Star Trek , Blake's 7 |
| Communities: | |
| Other: | |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Jan Levine is a fan writer and fanzine publisher.
She created Allamagoosa Press.
Zines Published
Interviews
- Fanlore Live!: 2009 Escapade Panel Notes: Jan Levine
- Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Jan Levine (2013)
Jan's Own Words: 2013
From Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Jan Levine:
I started as a science fiction fan back in the days of stone knives and bearskins. Let's see, I think, actually, my very first convention was the 1975 Star Trek Chicago Strektacular, I think they called it. It was one of the very last of the very huge Star Trek scenes where they had all of the guests there. And I was looking for fanzines. And unfortunately, it was a terrible disappointment. I did not know about slash at that point. I did not find slash; what I found was like two zines that were so terribly bad, even then, [laughter] that I knew there had to be better, but I did not know how to find it. So I had a great time, but that was kind of not a success in finding my tribe at that point.
Then I went to, started going to science fiction conventions, and met Joan Verba, who was kind of the odd woman out because she was a science fiction fan, but she was also a Star Trek fan, and the only one that I knew. And I knew that I wanted to get involved in Star Trek fandom, or at least read the zines. And she invited me over to her house and explained that there were some that were K-and-S, which were Kirk and Spock and hurt/comfort and that sort of thing, and some of them were actually more...and she actually didn't have to go into detail. And I said, “That sounds interesting too. I am okay.” So she lent me a handful of old zines, and I read them, and, “Yeah, I like this.”
...really my interest was primarily hurt/comfort. And still, has always been; it's more about the relationship than about the hot sex. But this is my own personal quirk... The way I use [the term hurt/comfort] is the way Leslie Fish used it in the story, “This Deadly Innocence”, in that one of the pair needs to get hurt so the other one can comfort him about it. [laughter] And I am, I swing both ways. It doesn't have to be one partner or the other, usually, whereas I have, I know some people that it has to be Bodie, it has to be Doyle, or Kirk, or whatever.... Physical [hurt] is always good [laughter] but it can be about past trauma, or current trauma, or recovering from a terrible experience. One of my very favorites from way back Star Trek stories was one where Kirk was in, essentially a prisoner of war sort of situation, where he was tortured. He was the leader of a group and he managed to keep the group together. And what we see are the flashbacks after he's been rescued. And how he and Spock and the Enterprise crew in general help him deal with it.
I kind of moved from Blake's 7 to The Professionals. And that one was all Camille Bacon-Smith's fault. [laughter] She wrote Enterprising Women, and she, which is an anthropological exploration of women in media fandom, primarily. And she had a bunch of pull quotes from various stories. And one of them was a story called “Endgame,” that looked really interesting. And again. Sarah Thompson again, who was not a Professionals fan, she was very much a Pros fan, still is – I mean a Blake's 7 fan, I mean, still is – but I said, “I want to find a copy of this, but I don't know any of these people.” She said, “I think I have that story,” and she sent me, she sent me a Xerox, and my introduction to Pros, my first introduction to Pros. The first story I read was one of the most gritty death-stories ever written [laughter], so that sort of shaped my feelings about it. And I loved it. It was a great story.