SH Fandom - Restrictions? Or limits?
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| Title: | SH Fandom - Restrictions? Or limits? |
| Creator: | Flamingo |
| Date(s): | July 6, 2000 |
| Medium: | mailing list post |
| Fandom: | Starsky & Hutch |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
SH Fandom - Restrictions? Or limits? is a 2000 Starsky & Hutch essay by Flamingo.
It was posted to Venice Place Mailing List and is quoted here on Fanlore with permission.
Some Topics Discussed
- fannish dislike of the Starsky and Hutch characterizations in the novel Cost of Love
- Alexis Rogers as a pioneer of fiction that pushed boundaries
- Alexis Rogers as a pioneer in trailblazing the move to posting fiction, specifically slash, to the internet
- the self-imposed restrictions in Starsky & Hutch fandom regarding tone and content
- would Starsky and Hutch be smokers?
Flamingo's Introduction
Oh, goody, goody, goody!!! I am loving this. First off, this may be one of the first truly circular discussions we've had on the list. [...] discussing Alexis' SH stories is a great place to come back to the restrictions conversation. PLUS, we have an added bonus: I disagree with everybody!!! :-D Now all I have to do is keep this on track, and under a three-part post. ;-) [groans are heard throughout the building, people pleading, "Someone stop her!" TOO LATE! :-D]
From the Essay
Alexis has a number of stories, some of them in the Cost of Love universe, some of them separate. I love them all (is anyone here surprised?), though Cost of Love, It's a Dog's Life, and Butterfly Bush are my two favorites. Dog's Life involves a Doberman, my breed, so I especially love it.
You all might like knowing, just for historical interest, that if it weren't for Alexis, there would be no SH Archive at all. She was the first person to propose it (with the then webmistress, Georgia) and the very first person to post any fiction on it. This may sound odd to you now but back then (all of 5 years ago) many, many people felt that putting SH fiction, especially slash, on the net, was a BAD THING and should not be done. There are still some people who feel this way, but fortunately more and more are giving their stories to the net, especially the out of print ones. I was one of the loudest people opposed to electronic fiction, and Alexis changed my mind so thoroughly that I started searching out authors. Suzan Lovett was the second person to give us fiction, so if it weren't for Suzan and Alexis, there would be no Archive as we know it today. For a long, long time, their stories were the only ones on the archives at all. So, hats off to those
pioneering dames.
Now, about the fiction. Up to now, most discussion participants have pretty much been in agreement regarding Alexis' stories. Of course, I don't agree. You knew that, right? I understand completely why everyone feels the way they do, and can't argue the individual points because they have validity.
However...this brings us back to that tricky topic: fandom restrictions and limits. And while most people here don't seem to think there are any, and I'm very glad to hear that, the fact is, if you sit in a room full of fans and talk with them, the list of what they WON'T read, and what they DON'T want in stories is far longer than what they do. The fan who said she knew someone who went to Pros because Starsky and Hutch was too limited is not wrong in her reporting. Scores of writers bailed from this fandom and went to Pros where many of them still are, and when you ask them why they will say it was because S&H was too limited, that the fandom didn't want certain types of stories, and that they had no limits in Pros and still don't, so that is why they are there. Having dealt with unhappiness over certain plot lines of mine, and comments that run along the line of, "I don't want to read that in S&H," I felt the time was right to push the envelope, hence my zine.
Stories like Cost of Love aren't being written anymore (and I hear you all breathe a sigh of relief) but that is a loss for the fandom. The characterization of S&H in Cost of Love, and most of Alexis' stories, does push the envelope on these men, and not always successfully. And yes, a lot of people didn't agree with that characterization. But still, it is very valuable. How can that be when people dislike it so much? Because it forces us to look at the characters anew, with a different focus. Because it stimulates views on how they can be portrayed. Because it pisses people off and makes them say, "I'm going to take that same plot scenario and write it the way it should have been written."
We are still discussing this group of stories written 20 years ago because they are challenging, different, edgy, and they force us to consider these tried-and-true characters in a different light. We *need* that in this very staid fandom. How many years can we keep portraying these guys the same way? We need new angles and new viewpoints, and yes, some of them we are not going to like. I've got several manuscript novels in my possession that I'm hoping the authors will allow me to publish. They're old, and they've been handed around from fan to fan, never officially put in a zine. The portrayals of the boys in these novels is very very different from what we're used to reading. Many fans won't like these stories, but that's okay. The writing is good, and more important, it's different. Old fandoms need things to shake them up.
Starsky and Hutch need *different* angles, different story lines.
I think I may be the only person I know who has no trouble with the characterizations of either of the guys in this story (okay, well maybe a few). The experiences people have in their life change them in ways that are hard to account for. I am totally open to almost any characterization of the guys prior to the series. In this story, we see a lot of Starsky's development, and frankly, it is Hutch's willingness to accept his love for him, in my view, that makes him become the mature man we see in the series. The key, here, though, is that this is S&H *before* the series, before they become the men we see in the first episode. Therefore, anything is plausible. Because human nature is that malleable. Every time fans say, "that character would never do that," they limit a writer's options. (Of course, what they're really saying is "that writer didn't or can't make me believe that that character would ever do that," and the subset of this is, "I know this character better than any writer, and if he doesn't behave the way I *expect* him to, I'll never believe it." This is the real limitation for writers in fanfiction.)
But more importantly, the freedom to present the characters this way, and in the ways I have seen them portrayed in novels I have in my possession, which will not be greatly favored by most fans, the freedom to write like this is diminished these days as we are encouraged by our readers and our own hesitations to write what everyone prefers. I know the amount of vocal protest I received over plot developments in Total Eclipse were, frankly, often daunting. And I know I veered away from doing things that I *really* wanted to do because of them. Because I was told by many many people, "Starsky (or Hutch, pick one) would never do *that*."
Hey, anybody is capable of doing anything. You may not like it, but shit happens. People do stupid things. They do self-destructive things. Everybody does. And that's why I love Cost of Love. Because these guys make a ton of mistakes, they fuck up a lot of stuff, and they careen off each other in ways I would've never thought of. Suzan Lovett's A Fine Storm made me into an SH fan...but it was Cost of Love that turned me into an SH writer, something I had not planned on being. Because in that story I saw so many possibilities...possibilities I don't see as clearly
anymore.
... thousands of men with similar experiences came home [from Vietnam] and behaved in very many different ways. It's normal to equate our experiences with what we're reading. So if we have experiences with a certain type of history, we will expect the character to reflect that. But no two human beings respond to the same experience the same way. I didn't find Starsky's turnaround too easy. To me it was difficult and very involved. And I don't see it as being over at the end of the story, either. Just a different view.
Do I think Cost of Love is perfect? Oh, hell, no. There were *many* things that needed better motivation to be more plausible, and what annoyed me was that they could've been easily better motivated! (Which goes right back to: "I'm going to take that same plot scenario and write it the way it should have been written.")
This story, [The Cost of Love], is incredibly well written, amazingly ambitious for a *fan* story, and has moments of incredible power, beauty, and honesty. I found this story so incredibly compelling the first time I read it that I couldn't put it down, quite literally. I snuck it into my desk drawer at work and read sneaky paragraphs every chance I had. When people would come into my office I would jump a foot as if I had drugs on my desk. I couldn't think about anything else when I read this. It amazed me. That was the kind of stuff I wanted to write (only with better motivation! ;-) ) I have far less problems with the motivation, characterization, and plot problems in this novel than I do with endless bouts of hyper-emotional sobbing men in much of the fiction we get today. I read it at least once a year to remind me of what I could do if I had enough guts.
As most of you know, I rarely read outside my fandom and as highly as I think of Cost of Love, it would not stimulate me to read any of Alexis' other stories. When I was new to the fandom (just a few years ago) it surprised me that everyone didn't think as well of Cost of Love and other difficult stories as I did, even with its flaws. Of course, it surprised me that anyone liked hurt/comfort at all, so you can see how easily I fit in. ;-)
I appreciate otterlady's willingness to discuss this, and ksl, and kathm's views on this difficult work of fiction. I've enjoyed disagreeing with all of you (with love and respect) very much! We need to do this again!!!