Jeanita Danzik
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| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Jeanita Danzik |
| Alias(es): | Bette St. Davis |
| Type: | author |
| Fandoms: | Star Trek, The X-Files |
| Communities: | alt.fan.q, alt.startrek.creative.erotica |
| Other: | |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Jeanita Danzik was an American fan writer, particularly known in Star Trek fandom for her Q, Jean-Luc Picard and Picard/Q stories. She published Trek fanfiction in zines in the 1980s. She was active c. 1995–96 on alt.fan.q, where associates included Alara Rogers, Atara Stein, Ruth Gifford, Mercutio, Robin Lawrie, Varoneeka and Julia Houston.
She was also active in The X-Files fandom in the 2000s under the pseud Bette St. Davis,[1] where she wrote mainly Skinner/Krycek, described as unique and different and amazing.[2]
Recollections
Jeanita wrote long, plotty stories with lots of angst and a great deal of insight. Her "The Q Who Fell To Earth" is honestly probably the most realistic treatment of the whole concept, once you solve the initial problem (which I pointed out to her in beta, but she handwaved) of how the lawyer finds Q in the first place. Riller Harris and her problems with Starfleet and Federation society because her mother is an Orion slave was the first treatment I encountered in Trek fanfiction of the issues of minorities and racism, and the first encounter I'd *ever* had with the notion that racism doesn't have to be hatred, it can be amazed pleasure that one of "those people" is actually doing so well. Patronizing, well-meaning, liberal... the kind of attitudes people like me adopt reflexively because we think it's good to support minorities' achievements and don't realize how irritated we would be if people looked at *our* achievements as if we were dancing bears or something. It opened my eyes, seriously. It's also a realistic treatment of the issue for the Star Trek universe, where the more pernicious, obvious forms of racism have been mostly eliminated in the Federation.Jeanita was actually very good at critiquing white-bread American elites through outsiders in Star Trek fanfic. She wrote a story for my new Seven of Nine archive when the character first appeared, "Raindrops in Hell", about a bitter lesbian Maquis of Asian descent getting involved with Seven, and the whole point to that was to discuss the dark side of "assimilation" as practiced by Voyager, where the Maquis are supposed to be incorporated into the Starfleet group and they're all one big happy family, right? And Seven is supposed to be thrilled to be becoming human, right?
In 1995-1996 or so, there were a whole group of us hanging around on alt.fan.q, proposing challenges to each other, reading and beta-reading and collaborating on each other's fic, feeding on each other's ideas. There was Atara Stein and Ruth Gifford and Mercutio and Robin Lawrie and later on Varoneeka and Julia Houston... and there was Jeanita, who took zeitgeisterrific ideas everyone else was working with and did something completely different with them. Who admitted to me she was obsessed with getting characters married off. Who wrote an amazing story about Riker and Soren, the androgyne who fell in love with him, that I didn't even read until after I fell out of the fandom and came back in, and I didn't even think Jeanita *liked* Riker. Who wrote sexy, intelligent men, but confessed that she had a thing for dumb guys, and had a crush on Patrick Stewart, and said she thought Stewart had the brain of a tuna fish... thus causing him to be nicknamed "The Tuna", and that, in case you're wondering, is why tuna references turn up in two of my Charles Xavier stories. Who wrote incredibly short PWPs and incredibly long novels and threatened to kill me if I killed off Picard in a story I was talking about writing. Who took the totally evil bastard Picard from "Dark Mirror", the novel by Diane Duane, and made him even *more* evil, and then made him sympathetic. Who found a completely original way to do a "relationship threatened by jealousy" type plot. ... (Alara Rogers[1])
Many of you know Bette St. Cloud, who wrote amazing and eccentric and brilliant stories in this fandom. Her "Two Voices" won second place in the 2002 Spooky Awards for Outstanding Skinner/Krycek Romance. I would never have dreamed that a story called "Walter, the Cross-Dressing A.D., and the Man Who Loved Him" could become one of my favorite fics in any fandom, but that was before I knew Bette.
...She had recently resolved to begin concentrating on her original fiction, and I believe that given time, she would have found her niche as a professional writer, with the same quirky, raunchy, wise and hilarious style that she showed in all of her writing. She was also one of the dearest online friends I've ever had, and I will miss her terribly. (Ann Emmess)[3]
I read so much of her stuff back in the day and really enjoyed it, and she was kind enough to let me write about her slash under her real name in my P/Q article. I remember she did have very interesting takes on characters, and even if they weren't the same as *my* takes, they were plausible and well-written. (Atara Stein)[4]
Example Fanfiction
TNG
- The Q Who Fell to Earth (1995). Well-known 'Deja Q' spinoff novel
- The Best of All Possible Worlds (1996) & In The Valley Of The Shadow (1997). Set in the Mirror Universe, focusing on mirror-Picard. Both stories were ASC Award winners
X-Files
- "Two Voices". Skinner/Krycek. 2002 Spooky Awards runner-up
References
- ^ a b c alara-r: A friend of mine is dead. (accessed 9 June 2016)
- ^ Comment from polly_b (accessed 10 June 2016)
- ^ a b ASCEM: Forwarding some sad news - In Memoriam... Jeanita Danzik (accessed 9 June 2016)
- ^ Comment from astarte59 (accessed 10 June 2016)