Slash and Internet: Good or Bad?
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| Title: | Slash and Internet: Good or Bad? |
| Creator: | H.B. Cavella |
| Date(s): | September 1998 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | |
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| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Slash and Internet: Good or Bad? is a 1998 essay by H.B. Cavella.
It was printed in the Pros letterzine Discovered in a Letterbox #7.
It was written, in part, as a direct response to the news media article Internet authors put TV buddies in unusual romances which had been published a month before.
The editor of the letterzine introduces it with: "One of our contributors sent the following short article in the interests of starring a dialogue about slash, the internet and what other fans welcome - or fear - about its effects on our little corner of the fictional universe. I hope it will generate a lively response; it seems to me that the existence of the Internet is going to have an enormous effect on how - and even what - we read in the future."
For some further context on this subject, see Timeline of Slash Meta.
The Essay
I'm just starting to discover that there's an awful lot of slash available out there in the wide blue electronic yonder; and while I'm enjoying the stories I've found, it's made me think about the possible consequences. Perhaps it's a mixed blessing - secrecy has always been a large constituent of this genre and I'm not sure that putting it onto the internet is in the best interests of slash fandom in general and the slash fan (namely myself) in particular. My own feelings are, I must admit, somewhat ambivalent It seems too public, too exposed, and yet amid the dross of some truly awful stuff there are a few real gems that might never have seen the light of day in any other forum.
My own entry into slash was somewhat bizarre, a little bit like finding and following the yellow brick road and only a great deal of luck brought me to Oz. How many other potential slash fans are there out there? Potential slash fans who never found the yellow brick road or worse, didn't even know that the yellow brick road existed? How many unlucky people would never, could never find their way into our small, comfortable, exclusive world? Perhaps that's what worries me. We are no longer so exclusive, so secret, so special. But I still want to share my sense of wonder, of belonging, of being in the know, and to meet up with people, both those I know and those new to me, who are pervs just like me and are a little, or even a lot, in love with a character on a small screen or in a lovingly produced zine.
Sometimes it is hard to remember that the actor is the character but the character is not the actor. I love the actors but only because they have created beings I wish to know more about Perhaps they do only live on the pages of a book but I can enter their world at any time just by reading that book.
I still don't know if slash on the internet is a good or a bad thing - perhaps I never will - but I will continue to read and collect and enjoy my zines and the new stories on the internet Voyeurism of a fictional character is not a sin, perhaps it's even a little silly, but I say, long live slash in all its many and varied forms and if the future is the internet, I will have to overcome my fears and accept that it's here to stay.