Real People in Slash

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Title:	Real Person Slash: the final taboo
Creator:	Katherine F.
Date(s):	2000
Medium:	online
Fandom:	RPF, RPS, wank, flames
Topic:
External Links:	Real People in Slash
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Real Person Slash: the final taboo is a 2000 essay by Katherine F. in your website Purity's Room. In response to the The issue of real-people fic, slash in particular by twilight at Swansongs website.

Is it okay to write about Krycek, but not about Nick Lea? If so, why?

Excerpts

I'd always thought of RPS as being, well, icky. Sort of like breaking into a guy's house and sniffing his underpants. There was a huge flame war on alt.tv.x-files.creative some months ago on a similar subject (largely caused by the appalling rudeness of one of the posters, but that's neither here nor there) and the general consensus seemed to be that, yes, RPS or its gen equivalent was icky, unpleasant, a violation of privacy, a stain on the name of fanficcers everywhere, of dubious legality and morality, and only likely to be indulged in by the kind of people who'd actually want to see Monica Lewinsky's dirty dress. In short, that it was A Bad Thing.

I followed the thread without participating, very much amused at the mud being slung in both directions. (That kind of thing happens on atxc all the time. I used to never actually read the stories; I just waited for a flame war to break out and then stocked up on popcorn.) For myself, I was ambivalent; I could understand why the actors wouldn't be too pleased that they were being written about in that way, but I also knew for certain that David Duchovny had once been shown a slash story which featured him (I don't think there were any sex scenes, but I could be wrong; it's a while since I read it) and his only reaction was to laugh and tell the author to get a life. (I hate that expression, I really do. Who is he to judge her life as unworthy? But I digress.) Nevertheless, I did think it was squicky and not something I'd want somebody to do to me, and probably constituted libel at the same time, so I pretty much fell into the "anti" camp.

What mystified me more than anything else was why anyone would find RPS interesting at all, which probably says more about me than it does about RPS. I mean, I'm a canon fiend: I find a fandom fascinating roughly in proportion as I find the original fascinating, and my favourite stories are always the ones that can be neatly slotted into the continuity of the show/film/books/whatever. There are exceptions, but a lot of the time when I'm reading a story that doesn't neatly slot in I find myself thinking: "okay, so this is good, but is it second season or third? Wait, he didn't have the GTO until after he got the dreamcatcher! Who is this original character, and how can she be his sister when we already know that he was an only child?" Or what-have-you. Not that I can't enjoy that kind of story, but I'm always aware of the deviations or vaguenesses, and they bother me. (Oddly, straightforward AUs bother me a lot less; I suppose because when a story is definitely an AU, I know where I stand, so to speak.)

I guess what I find interesting about the characters I like to see slashed is a combination of two things: who they are and how they relate to each other. When you're talking about the actors, that just disappears. Not that they aren't interesting in themselves, but really, could Nick Lea possibly be as interesting as Krycek? . . . I can hear crickets chirping in the silence, so I'll take that as a "no". And much as I'm sure Paul Gross and Callum Keith Rennie are friends, they don't have, and (in my opinion) could never be convincingly portrayed in fiction as having, the kind of profound interdependent bond Benton Fraser and Ray Kowalski have.

So, as far as I'm concerned, the whole question should be academic, right?

Well... not quite. You see, there are occasions -- rare ones, mind you, but they do happen -- when a real-life relationship is just as interesting as a fictional one. A Certain Person Who Shall Remain Nameless has written a short, but very... interesting...piece of slash about Jeremy Paxman and Michael Portillo. Not that I ever wanted to picture Michael Portillo naked...excuse me a moment... ...ah, that's better. But, nevertheless, when you think about it, don't they sort of...react to each other? I dunno. If you've never seen Portillo being interviewed on Newsnight, you have no idea what I'm talking about anyway, but if you have, just...think about it, okay?

Then there's the whole Pirates of Silicon Valley thing. I've never seen PoSV, but according to Jezebel Slade, who has, the relationship between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as depicted in that film is nothing less than steamy. And what a perfect setup for a slash relationship, anyway: rivalry, jealousy, treachery, wanting to work together but never sure how much to trust...And the stories are good. Very good. I can only read them by picturing the actor who played Bill Gates in Gates' place -- I'm not that sick, thank you very much -- but they really are good.

I read Twilight's mini-rant, and it took me aback, because I'd been uncritically accepting the "RPS is icky" viewpoint while enjoying the PoSV stories and the piece sent to me by the Certain Person. I think, to be honest, that there is something a wee bit morally dubious about including real people in fiction for all to see -- but I think far worse examples of this abound in professional fiction. And professional fiction gets a much wider audience than fanfic.