October Story
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | October Story |
| Author(s): | Susan Matthews |
| Date(s): | 1988 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Blake's 7 |
| External Links: | |
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October Story is a Blake's 7 story by Susan Matthews.
It was published in Powerplay #3.
Author's Notes
From "Powerplay" #3:
An Indulgence in the Key of Hurt/Comfort from the Minor Arcana
Author’s Note:
The Minor Arcana universe is one otherwise undifferentiated from mainstream (aired) Blake’s 7in which for unexplored and quite unimportant reasons several critical events in canonical Blake did not occur. As a result the crew of the Liberator consists of Blake, Jenna, Vila, Avon, and Cally; as well as Dayna, Tarrant and Soolin.
Unlike mainstream B7 in the Minor Arcana there are no major plot progressions, no particular developments in characterization, and no terminal events.
The concept of homosexual relations, fantasies, desires, or inclinations between members of the Liberator’s crew is one that does not exist in the Minor Arcana universe.
It is the author’s contention that the classic hurt/comfort story characteristically suffers from a very great deal of story burdening in what amounts to very little plot indeed. Since I am hopeful of having produced a reasonable representation of this most honorable category, I feel honor-bound to point out the following plot elements, so that the reader may refer to this outline whenever the prose threatens to overwhelm her and swamp her perception of where the heck in the story precisely she is.
Reactions and Reviews
1994
Romantic Sadism has very definite limits. You don't want to mess them up too badly; they have to stay pretty while they're being tortured. Mutilation is generally considered excessive, but opinion is divided about permanent scarring. The suffering should ideally be emotional as well as physical, and a colorful setting is a plus. The most utterly outrageous example I've ever seen is "October Story" by Susan Matthews, in Powerplay #3, in which the author invents an entire alien society solely in order to have her preferred victim (Avon, but it could have been anyone; he's unconscious or delirious for most of the story anyway) ceremonially flogged as a blood sacrifice on an altar covered with yellow silk (I did wonder whether they have a fabulous enzyme detergent that gets bloodstains out of silk, or whether they have to make new altar hangings for every sacrifice) and then floated down a river on a bed of rose petals. I am not making this up— I told you it was outrageous. But I don't know how anyone could read all that purple prose about the white skin and the red blood and the yellow silk and the pink rose petals without realizing that the intention is explicitly erotic, even if it doesn't do it for you personally. [1]
2013
ok, so maybe i just didn't give this fic a fair chance, but i decided not to read it after reading this in the author's note:
- Unlike mainstream B7 in the Minor Arcana there are no major plot progressions, no particular developments in characterisation, and no terminal events.
i'm all for low stakes, but i find this really depressing.
and then there's this:
- The concept of homosexual relations, fantasies, desires, or inclinations between members of the Liberator's crew is one that does not exist in the Minor Arcana universe.
which i assume is just code for 'there is no B/A or A/V in this fic, ok???' and i think it's supposed to be funny. but, as a gay myself, i find it offensive to be actively written out of existence (ok, so it's just saying on the liberator, but still - you could arguably read it that way).
massively biased, i started reading the fic (wishing it was a suzan lovett, so even more biased) and hit this on the first page:
- The Elder Duchess had fallen in love with Vila Restal, and poor Vila still looked uncomfortable. Not that Avon seemed to have taken it any better, Cally thought Avon's nose was still out of joint about it - petty vanity, to see Vila chosen where he was ignored. There was so little of human frailty to be detected in her love that she cherished it more strongly when some minor blemish to his shining bright armour did appear, and this little quirk was twice as attractive to her in its absolutely incongruity.
kerr avon? a man without faults? is this... a joke?
i skimmed over a few more pages, but eventually stopped. has anyone else read this? is it worth going back? [2]
References
- ^ from Strange Bedfellows APA #5 (May 1994)
- ^ Aralias reviewed this zine in 2013 on Dreamwidth, Archived version