Sleight of Hand
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Sleight of Hand |
| Author(s): | leelah |
| Date(s): | |
| Length: | |
| Genre(s): | slash |
| Fandom(s): | U2 |
| Relationship(s): | |
| External Links: | |
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Sleight of Hand by leelah is a U2 story featuring Bono/Edge.
It was originally posted to FanFiction.net and later to loveisblindness, and is now offline.
Fan Comments
2002
.....a couple of years ago one of my very best former students, who reminds me so much of all of you, mentioned that she wrote X-Files fan fiction and gave me a link to one of her stories on ff.net. Her work was marvelous. Later she got more into Farscape, a show I've never seen...I started to visit previously forbidden sites, such as U2.com, which in the past [using my old computer] had sneered at me for even attempting to view its contents. I was reading posts in the zootopia Bono folder (shocker). Some of those enthusiastic but pure-as-the-driven-snow posters were complaining about ff.net and some of the sick, sick things that were being written about the band, especially Bono and Edge. One slightly more openminded soul, whose name I have forgotten but to whom I owe a lot, provided a link, saying, "Yeah, but this one's pretty hot."
It was Sleight of Hand by leelah, one of my favorite stories by her and in my opinion the fanfic against which all other fanfics must be judged. I even remember the date I stumbled upon it: January 15, 2002. It really made a huge impact on me. I read about one fourth of the surprisingly vast number of U2 fanfics that were up there at the time, and kind of got a feel for the spectrum of writers, which ranged from bad to spectactular. I was still thinking about leelah's work a couple of weeks later, long after the rest of the stories there had faded from my memory. I recall telling still-kind-of-boyfriend Joel that I had read this story about hands, just "two people" holding hands, and it was one of the most erotic things I'd ever read in my life.[1]
The first fic I read was Sleight of Hand by Leelah, and it remains the best fic I have ever read... all other fics shall be judged to its grandeur.
Then, I read everything else leelah had ever written, and loved it all. I also loved the idea of Bono and Edge, because I could see it happening. It seemed natural to me; it still does. [2]
2016
I wish I had a time machine sometimes, so I could go back in time to the early 2000′s and read all the U2 fic that is no longer on the internet. I HEAR SO MUCH ABOUT SLEIGHT OF HAND BY LEELAH AND I’VE NO IDEA WHAT IT WAS, WHY?? you were there, let me in your memories
AND NOW LOVEISBLINDNESS.NET IS DOWN?
OH NO
Me too! I still can’t get to chapter 8-12. I never read about the boots!!!
I’M STILL HYSTERICALLY BANGING POTS AND PANS OVER THIS TODAY, GODDAMNIT, WHY? IT LIVES ON ON WAYBACK MACHINE BUT THAT’S NOT THE POINT
Somebody needs to start downloading shit right now before we lose anymore.
If Hawkmoon disappears, I will riot!
[...]
SLEIGHT OF HAND IS GONE AND ITS NEVER COMING BACK, WE NEED TO ACCEPT IT. WE NEVER GOT TO SEE IT.
you’ll be pleased to know ladies,, that i have every u2 fanfic ever posted online stored in my head. back in the ol days i would sit at my computer by my log fire while the wind howled outside and the pigs brayed, and i would scroll and scroll………. [3]
2021
There's been a bit of activity around these parts recently, so I'm gonna go for it and ask if any people from the 'early fandom days' of, like 2001ish have a copy of Sleight of Hand by Leelah, or Into the Rose Garden by waterhyacinth or Stargazer or, you know, fics that once existed but no longer do due to loveisblindness waving a hand as it walked into the sunset. I HAVE NEEDS, OKAY? [4]
References
- ^ comment in "How I discovered U2 slash" post at u2slash dated November 21, 2002; reference link; reference link.
- ^ comment in "How I discovered U2 slash" post at u2slash dated November 21, 2002; reference link.
- ^ breathinginthissilence.tumblr (January 27, 2016)
- ^ from u2slash (May 23, 2021)