Star Trek in the Stone Age

Meta
Title:	Star Trek in the Stone Age
Creator:	Robin Lawrie
Date(s):	April 26, 1998
Medium:	online
Fandom:	Star Trek
Topic:	Zines, Fanfic
External Links:	online here, along with follow-on discussion
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Star Trek in the Stone Age/zines is an essay posted by TSU Robin Lawrie member to alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated. The essay was targeted at Netfans who had never seen print fanzines and/or had recently started reading K/S fanfiction online.

Original Essay

Good afternoon to everyone; I'm Arachnae, the newly appointed Chairbeing and Full Professor, Department of Classics. Aunt Ruth has asked me to write a series of papers on Star Trek fandom, pre-Internet days. (Yes, it did exist.)

I beg your indulgence on three points. One, i've never posted a formal anything to a group before; two, I'm doing this entire paper from memory. The dates are a little fuzzy, OK? And three, I never saw more than 10% of the Trekfic published in the 1970s and 80s. I'm giving you *my* impressions of what I *did* see.

If anyone is interested in the subject, I'll continue with the series for as long as I can come up with ideas for papers. Feedback is earnestly welcomed.

Professor Arachnae [fake email address redacted]

STAR TREK IN THE STONE AGE

Star Trek fan fiction started in 1969, before the original series had ended its run on network TV. Spockanalia, the first fanzine, was a small, pamphlet-type booklet. The contents were mostly pseudo-scientific essays, with some Trekfic added as an afterthought. Over the next several years, four more issues joined the first, following the same format, and other people started publishing their own fanzines, as they were called. These were usually all fiction and poetry, with artwork.

By the middle of the 1970s, fen all over the world were writing and printing their own stories, and several editors has started publishing anthologies, using material from many writers, and mailing their zines all over the globe.

The problem was finding out about them, and then finding someone who published them. Without the Internet, we had to rely on word-of-mouth, conventions, and the Post Awful. I didn't know about fandom until I was in high school. If I remember correctly, I first heard about fandom in David Gerrold's book, "The Making of Star Trek." In it, I found DT Steiner's book Spock Enslaved (Lord and Lady, what a cover on that book!), and also "Universal Translator," which was a listing of the zines available from the advertising editors. A major problem with the zines was irregularity. We all know that real life has a nasty habit of intruding on our Trek time, and these ladies had the added problems of receiving stories and artwork through the mail, getting them published, usually at printshops, and then mailing them out. (The lifespan of the average zine was three issues.) It was standard procedure to send out money, and not get your zine until a year or more had passed. I have upwards of $100 worth of zines that I ordered and paid for, and never received.

Another fun part was Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap. You'd send in your money, wait weeks or months, and what hit your mailbox wasn't fit to use to line the bird's cage. 30% garbage, 65% readable, and 5% treasure is about how it broke down. You never knew in advance which you were getting. Most of the editors actually edited their zines, but some of them put out any tripe that crossed their desk.

The conventions in those days were puny, despite what Joan Winston wrote in her book about the conventions she organized in New York City; attracted and Star Trek was very much the neglected step-child at the "real" science fiction cons. The very first Trek con held in Reno, NV, attracted *maybe* 500 people. It was a Creation con, and we didn't have another one in Reno for over 10 years. There was *no* fanfic sold at that con, except for Bantam Books "The New Voyages," and those stories got butchered before they were put in the book.

The early Trekfic was G or PG rated, and sex was barely acknowledged to exist, and never between the established characters. Slowly, the writers got more daring, and the stories became more adult in nature. It wasn't until around the mid 1970s that hard-core sex arrived on the scene. Once it did, however, it quickly became de rigeur, and non-sexual Trekfic became the exception, rather than the standard.

It was during this period (mid to late 70s), that the first K/S story was published. It was a ghastly two-page sex, blood, and death pwp, as they're called now. I can't even remember the name of the thing. At the time, it created a firestorm of controversy within Trek fandom, but it also opened the door for everyone who was to follow. Someone has to be first, and this was it.

Obviously, Spock was the focus of almost everyone who wrote fanfic in those days. (As far as that goes, he still is, for the people who write TOS stories.) One of the best anthologies of the period was The Sensuous Vulcan. 200 pages of Spock getting laid, and giving a whole new meaning to the concept of the IDIC. There was one K/S story in it, called "Desert Heat." You know the plot. K & S are trapped on a planet together, and Spock goes into Pon Farr. That was the very first K/S story I ever read. I was 22 at the time.

Prior to that, I had read a goodly number of "adult" stories, most notably The Night of the Twin Moons and Full Moon Rising, both of which concerned Sarek and Amanda. They were written by Jean Lorrah, whose vision of Spock's parents was the standard used in fanfic for many years. (Two later books in her series were "The IDIC Epidemic" and "The Vulcan Academy Murders," both published by Pocket Books.)

After "Desert Heat," I started looking for K/S stories, like the good little slash-slut I am. (Only we never used the term "slash") R & R was an anthology zine of the day, and was one of the better quality ones produced. Warped Space was another, although WS only did PG-rated material, and never any K/S. Its sister, Obsc'zine, was definitely X-rated, and did a little bit of everything, including a lot of K/S.

Oddly enough, R&R produced what is probably the very first S/McC story. I laughed my head off when I first saw it. They had a very strict "no hard-core" and "no K/S" policy. They also published a Star Trek/Dr. Who story that won several fan awards. I still have that issue, along with several others. About 8 years ago, a pipe broke in my basement, and lost about $1000 worth of zines in the resulting flood, along with a Gayle F. original poster called, "Kirk Enslaved." I still mourn the loss of those zines.

The Postal Disservice was also a lot of fun to deal with. I had a few zines arrive mangled and creased, on occasion. When shipping zines overseas, in either direction, the covers had to be obscured, because the Customs inspectors would tear open the envelope, and if they saw an explicit cover, the zine would be destroyed as contraband. This happened in England , as well as the US and Canada, so the editors had to learn to fake them out. Ordering a zine from England usually meant a trip to the bank for an international money order, a trip to the Post Awful for an international reply coupon, and a wait of several months, even if the thing was ready and waiting in the editor's house, because there is a limit on how many IRCs can be redeemed in one day. I had several zines lost in the mail. and the editor hadn't insured it, and the Post Awful wouldn't stir themselves to look, so I was SOL.

The only benefit that the old zines have over the new archives is the artwork. Some of it was as bad as the writing could get, but some of it was magnificent. Gayle F., Signe Landon, Nan Lewis. These are names to summon images of near perfection. Phil Foglio, who has long since gone pro. Gordon Carleton, who did one of the funniest posters I've ever seen. And many others, whose names I have forgotten, or never knew.

Ah...Those were the days!

Some Selected Commentary

For the full follow-on discussion, go here.

[from Kirk and Spock--The Full Monty ]: Hello to all you folks on ascem.

I'm Shelley Butler, and I've been lurking here for a while. I do K/S art for zines, and I adore K/S and everything about it!

I understand there have been some TSU lectures here recently about the history of K/S zine fandom, and I thought I'd add a short lecture on art in K/S zines. I'd like to explain about art in K/S, and show some of you out there who may not be familiar with zines or the artwork associated with them, an example of what the art looks like.

One of the big selling points about zines throughout the past like 20-some years has been the artwork in them. In the "olden" days, before VCRs and readily available episode tapes, the artists had only their imagination, memory and a stray photo or two, to use as source material to draw Kirk and Spock in all their compromising positions.

Sometimes it was very, very sucessful---as in the art of [Gayle F], Southern Cross, Pat Stall or Marilyn Cole, DEW and a number of others. The drawings of these women are guaranteed to take your breath away.

Othertimes, it was not so successful. You couldn't tell your Kirk from your any other human male, and you could tell your Spock, but only because of the ears and maybe the double ridges!).

But although these artists may have been short on the source material or even the talent, they were long, long, long on love for K/S, and it comes through loud and clear. The old zines were often filled with art of all kinds, and even photos (pre-Paramount suing-the- pants-off-of-you-days), and adorned with beautiful graphics, borders and typefaces. Some of those zine are really gorgeous. Often we would buy a zine just because of its cover.

Today, we have way fewer zines and way fewer artists. But new zines usually have a fair amount of artwork inside them, and usually a dynamite cover. Robin Hood of Merry Men Press zines does a front (g-rated) cover and a matching back (explicit) cover. (You can also still collect the old zines, if you hunt at cons and such.)

Somehow, the interpretation of Kirk and Spock together in artwork really fuels the imagination more than any photograph---there's a powerful emotion behind every drawing! And there aren't any photos of them in some of the situations we put them in!!

Anyway, there's a whole world of zines and zine art out there and if you'd like a taste of what you might find in a zine, you can look at this web page that Killashandra so kindly put up for me. http://members.aol.com/KILLASDRA/BUTLER.html

If you want to know more about how to write for, draw for, or buy K/S zines, please write to [email protected]. Kim has agreed to field requests for information.

Thanks a lot for letting me do a little adjunct lecture. I'm thrilled to see so many new K/S fans online, and I hope to see some of you over here in the zine world as well.

The very first "slashy" stories about Kirk and Spock were hurt/comfort type stories. Stories in which either Kirk or Spock was injured and the other was required to care for him -- usually with lots of touching and intense emotion. But the emotions and the physical aspect of the relationship never went any further.

And let's also not forget the Pheonix books (very slashy), and the New Voyages books. The first New Voyages book was published in 1976, and had the story "Winged Dreamers", which was subtly slashy. New Voyages 2, published in 1977, had "Surprise," "The Procrustean Petard," and the incredibly slashy poem in the back:

[poem snipped]

I have much respect for the brave woman who published the first K/S story. Here's the legend as I've heard it told. Gayle F. had already written "Desert Heat", but it hadn't been published yet. So, the first story actually published was "Epilogue to Orion." (I won't mention the author's name...cause I'm feeling somewhat weird about it...I don't know how she'd feel...) It came out in around 1978. I haven't read it, but I don't believe it's the PWP Arachnae described above. It was a short little story, but I don't believe it was very explicit at all. However, it was clearly *not* hurt/comfort.

And it did indeed cause a firestorm within Star Trek fandom. Some glimpses of this discussion can be had in the "Best of Trek" books. An article entitled, "Characterization Rape," by Kendra Hunter in "Best of Trek #2" takes a somewhat balanced, but ultimately negative view of K/S. There's more sniping about it in "Best of Trek #3 & 5" in the Roundtable sections.

[snipped]

And, of course, there's also the fact that in 1979, Gene Roddenberry felt compelled to weigh in on the issue with his infamous footnote in the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture...

Gayle did publish Desert Heat in "The Sensuous Vulcan" shortly after "Epilogue to Orion" was published. She also wrote three sequels to DH. They were eventually collected into one short zine called, "Desert Heat Collected" -naturally. I have read these stories, and in my opinion, the reason these stories became legend is that they are *very* erotic. Lots of hot, steamy sex - which back then was more unusual than it is now. And, of course, she more or less invented the "Kirk and Spock trapped on a planet, Spock's in Pon Farr" plot. So, just because it seems overused to us now, it was still pretty cool for 1979.<g> As far as the quality of the stories themselves, I prefer Gayle's later stories much better....especially her novel, "Choices."<swoon> And "Cave of the Heart", the only K/S/Mc story I've ever been able to stomach....

[snipped]

Wow. What can I say about the artwork? Some of it is so incredibly bad it's frightening. But when it's good -- it's *good.* Many of the early zines were elaborately illustrated and designed. All in the days before computers - god bless their little hearts. (And would you have been brave enough to take a fully illustrated K/S zine to a printer in 1981??)