Strange Bedfellows (APA)

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Zine
Title: Strange Bedfellows
Publisher:
Editor(s): Shoshanna
Type:
Date(s): May 1993-November 1997
Frequency:
Medium: print
Fandom: Multiple Fandoms
External Links: Subpages for Strange Bedfellows (APA):
Issue 001 · Issue 002 · Issue 003 · Issue 004 · Issue 005 · Issue 006 · Issue 007 · Issue 008 · Issue 009 · Issue 010 · Issue 011 · Issue 012 · Issue 013 · Issue 014 · Issue 015 · Issue 016 · Issue 017 · Issue 018 · Issue 019
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Strange Bedfellows was an multi-fandom slash APA that was published between 1993 and 1997. There were nineteen issues.

At its peak, it had 37 members who came from a number of countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, Scotland, France and Japan.

Some fans' contributions to the apa were written over a series of months. For example, it wasn't unusual to have a tribber write that they'd started their typing in May for a publication date of August.[1] This means that the date the apa was sent (and the date on the front cover) represents a time frame that may encompass several months.

Issue Contents

Click on the links below to see more information about individual issues of Strange Bedfellows.

Strange Bedfellows Issues
Issue 001 Issue 002 Issue 003 Issue 004 Issue 005
Issue 006 Issue 007 Issue 008 Issue 009 Issue 010
Issue 011 Issue 012 Issue 013 Issue 014 Issue 015
Issue 016 Issue 017 Issue 018 Issue 019

Regarding the Covers

In the ninth issue of the apa, the OE solicited covers and wrote:

Any subject, any theme: the only restriction is that a reasonably-prudent fan should be able to read the apa on a city bus.

And I won't use fannish art without the artist's permission; but anything commercial is fair game.

The Acafan Connection

Among its members were acafans such as Henry Jenkins, several other PhD graduate students and others in the academic culture.

The term "conehead" and "egghead" was sometimes used to describe this element.

A fan in late 1994 commented on the differences in this apa and other forums:

Perhaps what Sandy meant was that she'd like to see more 'internal' rather than 'external' discussion? This apa has something of a reputation for 'eggheadedness,' because, compared to other fora, there is a lot more analysis-from-the-outside, and correspondingly less discussion of the characters and situations as if they were real. I don't mind the emphasis on external analysis (if I did I wouldn't have joined), but it is sort of different. [2]

This apa was a direct successor to The Terra Nostra Underground.

For the individual trib titles, see Trib Titles.

About

[Shoshanna] founded Strange Bedfellows (SBF) as a successor to the TNU (Terra Nostra Underground), and its current membership is thirty-seven, including Cynthia Jenkins and Henry Jenkins. Members are mostly female, but three men regularly participate at present and others have in the past. The group includes bisexual, gay, and straight people. About half of the members have written fan fiction and/or published fanzines, and that proportion is not, we think, too far above that in media fandom as a whole; the fan community tends to assume that everyone can write and that some people simply haven't done so (yet). There is no sharp distinction between readers and writers in most of the discussion that follows. Both are considered creative. Apa members come from various educational and class backgrounds, although most are middle class and tend to have at least a college degree; most are American, but there are eight European members (including one living in the United States) and one Western woman living in Japan. As far as we know, all the members are white, but since the apa is conducted through the mail rather than in person, we are not certain.[3]

Shoshanna made a distinction between being the OE of the apa, and what she wrote as her trib. From the first issue:

Though in the first issue, she writes: "I'm not the OE of this apa. The OE writes the page at the front called the OEditorial. Me writing this apazine here, I'm just another apa member, and nothing I write has any official status whatever. Of course, I do have special input with the woman who writes the OEditorial..."

Visibility and Privacy

From the 3rd issue in late 1993:

We've gotten a lot of inquiries from people about the apa; it's quite flattering to be this popular! At ZebraCon I was pleasantly surprised to meet several people who, though not members, were reading members' topics and following the discussions. (Who, me want to run the journal-of-record of slash fandom? Naw...) So I thought it would be interesting to try to get a sense of how many people are actually reading each issue. How many friends do you folk pass the apa on to? Let's tot it up next issue. Myself, I talk to my roommate about it, but he doesn't actually read it; he's not a slash fan per se. I've also sent out a spec or two; but other than that, the local friends I have who would want to borrow it are all members already.

And from the 3rd issue, a reminder:

[Included is]... yes, Romeo and Juliet universe story with her apazine, but note that this one is marked Not For Circuit, so you shouldn't xerox it out of the apa. You do realize that the apa is semi-public, right? Anything could get shown to anyone.

From the 7th issue in late 1994, an admission that this publication was shared with people other than subscribers:

I have no idea who the person your refer to is, but complaints/warnings like this - even if totally justified - should be sent by private letter and not go into an APA. They can escalate/it makes it hard to loan the zine to friends.

In 1998, some of the apa's excerpts below were quoted in "Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking": Selections from The Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows and are online here, Archived version.

Trib Titles

As per apazine custom, most fans created a title for their set of contributions.

Some of the titles carried over from Terra Nostra Underground.

Note: some fans kept a consistent title throughout, and others changed them.

Below is an almost complete list of the tribs within the apa.

Note: initials and first names are used for most fans here. Fans who were identified in "Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking": Selections from The Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows (from which this apa was extensively quoted) are referred to with full names.

  • Agnes Tomorrow: Notes From Tomorrow (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #8, #11, #16, #19)
  • Airelle (often combined with Cat): Cat's Spawn (#3)
  • Alex P: Secret Kiss (#1), Shadowy Dream (#2)
  • Barbara Tennison: Strange Tongues (#1, #2, #3, #4, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, likely #18, #19)
  • Brooke B: Something Rich and Strange: Untitled (#14), untitled (#16, #19)
  • Cat Anestopoulo: Darkling Zine (varying subtitles) (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #12, #13, #14, #15, #17, #19), Hide Your Men, Women, and Children! (#11)
  • Christine: Lunatic Fringe (#2, #3, #4, #5), The Ghost in the Christine (#9, #10)
  • Cynthia Jenkins: Menage a Deux (#2, #3, #4, #6, #8, #11, #12)
  • David B: To Be Announced (#5)
  • Dawn F: Love Without Mercy (#17)
  • Eileen Roy: Twinbear (#13, #14, #15, #16), untitled (#17, likely #18, #19)
  • Henry Jenkins: Confessions of a Male Slash Fan (#1, #2, #3, #4, #6, #8, #10)
  • Isoline: Vice Files (#1, #2, #3, #4, #6, #8, #11), Piles of Snow Turn Into Piles of Paper! (#12), Babylon 5 Security Transmissions (#15)
  • Jane Carnall: Ghost Speaker (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #12, #14, #15, #16, #17, likely 18, #19)
  • Jean D: Yamibutoh (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #14, #15, #16), Kiken na Futari (#19)
  • Jean H: Mardi Gras Favors (#1, #3, #4, #5, #6, #8, #11, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, likely #18, #19)
  • Jeanne J: The Magic May Return (#13, #14, #15, #16, #17, likely #18, #19)
  • Jenn H: Paradoxical Ramblings (#1, #2, #3, #8, #10)
  • Jilly R: Wide-Eyed and Breathless (#15, #16)
  • Kath S: Sukebei (with Veronica P: #1, #2, #3, #4), Goodbye and Good Luck (#7)
  • Katharina K: untitled (#10)
  • Kathy Resch: Slash is Everywhere (#3, #7)
  • Kim Bannister: untitled (#1), Desert Blooms (#2, #3, #4, #6, #7, #8, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15)
  • Laura A: Notes of a Neophyte (#4, #7), Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon (#8), Thoughts of Love and Thoughts of Power (#13), Thoughts of Love... Power... Lust (#15)
  • Leigh M: With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemas (#4, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #14, #15, #16, #17, likely #18, #19)
  • Lezlie Shell: WHIPS: Women of Houston in Pornography (with Katherine S: #1, #4, #5), WHIPS: Mary Sueing... (#2), WHIPS: Why I'm Reading Kung Fu Genzines (#6), WHIPS: Evolution in Action (#10)
  • Linn O'B: Musings from the Last Possible Minute (#5)
  • Lynn C: Hello to SBF (#7), From the Bottom of a Dark Barrel (#8)
  • M Fae Glasgow:, Nancy B: Two Heads Are Better Than One (#1, #2, #3, #4, #6, #8, #9, #10, #12, #14, #15)
  • Meg G: untitled (#1, #2, #3, #4, #6, #8, #13, #16)
  • Morgan: Another Mad Cult (#2), A Different Eye (#3), Bad Girls Go Everywhere (#4), De Nada (#5), Delusions of Gender (#6, #8)
  • Nancy B: Beheaded and Lobotomized (#13)
  • Nicole V: Works Well Under Pressure (#3), I put the "fun into "dysfunctional" (#8), Works Well Under Pressure (Nicole V: #3)
  • Nina Boal: Lavender Lilies (#1, #2, #3, #4, #6, #7, #8, #11, #12, #14, #16)
  • Nola Frame-Gray: Wonderlust (Nola F-G: #11, #12)
  • Pat Nussman: Something Rich and Strange: Tales from the Obsessed (#14, #16, #17)
  • Sandy Hereld/Alyx and Nicole V: T-shirt Slogans Are Intellectual Discourse (#1, #2, #3, #5, #8)
  • Sarah Katherine: Writing from the Margins (#1, #2)
  • Sarah T: Phoning From the Margins (#4), When Correctly Viewed (#4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14)
  • Shoshanna: For the World is Hollow and I Fell Off the Edge (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #10, #11, #12, #14, #15, #17)
  • Skuld: Weirdness on a Swan's Wing (#1, #2, #5, #7, #10, #14)
  • Susan/Sue C: Untitled (#2), It's Not So Much the Apocalypse (#4), I'll Give You Three Seconds (#6), By This Time, My Lungs Were Aching For Air (#5), The Lure of the Clambake (#8), Push the Button, Frank (#10)
  • Teresa Hehir: To Be Announced (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16)
  • Thomas: WHIPS: Iconoclastica (#2), WHIPS: W.H.I.P.S. Redux (#5), WHIPS: Under Water Reflections (#6), Coming Up for Air (#10)

Similar Contemporary APAs and Online Venues

The British APA Late for Breakfast was a print contemporary.

There was also a lot of cross-pollination with Virgule-L, the first slash mailing list. Virgule-L was never referred by this title in the apa, but instead called "the email list" and "the slash list." In the second issue of Strange Bedfellows, Sandy Herrold called it "The virtual apa — i.e. the slash mailing list," and she noted it had 29 members (the same number of fans who were members of the print apazine.)

  • many of participants in Strange Bedfellows were also members of Virgule-L, though some apa tribbers were adamant in their avoidance of things having to do with computers
  • many of the same topics were discussed in both venues, though Strange Bedfellows had more of an emphasis on academic discussion; fans in both paces for instance, discussed The Wave Theory of Slash when it was distributed to both places simultaneously
  • male members were allowed to be members of Strange Bedfellow while they were disallowed at Virgule-L"
  • the apa had a limited membership and there was always a waiting list
  • the mailing list had a strict referral policy for members: you had to know someone
  • fans' full and legal names, as well as addresses, were used in both spaces

Initial Join-Up

Initial membership eligibility in the apa was a bit fierce. Members of the then-recently ceased The Terra Nostra Underground had first dibs. Some fans partnered up with another fan for a "co-subscribing," and at the time of the first issue, there was a waiting list.

From the first issue:

[Jane C's] cosubscriber, who was listed with her full name in the preliminary roster I sent out, has asked to be listed with a pseudonym; please take note. Also, in early April [Lezlie S] nipped in and got the last remaining subscription to SB. A week after that [Cat A] took advantage of the grandfather clause for TNU members and joined as well and when Kath sent her zine in she included another from her friend Veronica, who will be sharing Kath's

subscription and therefore evades the question of limits altogether. Welcome; I'm glad to have you all. On top of that, we have two people on a waiting list. Hoo boy, is we popular! If anyone has an opinion one way or the other about changing the subscription limit (or instituting a membership limit), please drop me a line; and remember that TNU members can still join until July first, regardless.

Some Vocabulary: "re yr ct"

The fans in "Strange Bedfellows" used a version of "RYCT" or "re yr ct" (re your comment to) that was commonly used in older, science fiction fanzines. Fans in Strange Bedfellows used versions of this, along with tweaks: "reyrct" = "re yr ct." Less commonly, "reherct" and "yrct."

The term is used in relation to member's previous comments, and a way to keep track of "threaded comments" in previous issues. It was the nature of apas to have been published two/three months or more previously, and communications could get tricky!

Some "Strange Bedfellows" examples of use: M. Fae: reyrct Tre, re biblical stuff and reyrct Barbara reherct me: I loved 'reading intimacy between peers as itself erotic.' Yes! reyrct me on philosophy.

Regarding Referring to this APA with Initials: First, a "stirring, vibrant, muscular" Request for "SBF"

In the first issue of the apa, two fans (M. Fae and Nancy B) requested that the title of this publication not be "SB," but "SBF":

A Plea to Shoshanna and the other members of Strange BedFellows. Do you think we could refer to the APA as SBF? In conversation it's too much of a mouthful to say the entire name of the thing and just referring to it by two initials (SB) isn't quite enough—too weak and namby-pamby. Moreover, to those of us here in Southern California, SB means Santa Barbara! In the past you could refer to another TNUer. Try that with SB—SBer. Aaahh! It's pathetic! Please, please, please let us adopt the stirring, vibrant, muscular SBF.

Some comments from subsequent issues:

[M. F G] and [N] asked plaintively if they could refer to the apa as "SBF" rather than as "SB." Frankly, folks, I don't care what you call it, but if you call it" that worthless piece of badly-collated garbage" you'd better not do so in my hearing. I usually call it Bedfellows, which works just fine. For that matter, some people are still calling it the TNU...[4]

Second the motion about using SFB as the abbreviation for Strange BedFellows. Much easier to remember as an individual designation. SB always means Sandbaggers to me.[5]

On the subject of referring to this APA: SBF or SBA (A for APAZINE); SBF ss not different enough from LFB (late for Late for Breakfast, which is a British multimedia slash chatzine), and the vowel makes it easier. (As to SBFA, there already is the BSFA (British Science Fiction Association.). B F (short for Bedfellows only) is easier on the tongue and ear than SB I feel. Try to pronounce both and see.[6]

Other Letterzines/Apas With Much Blake's 7 Content

Also see: List of Letterzines.

The End of the Line: The Cessation of This APA

By late 1996 and early 1997, many fans' tribs were getting shorter. Fans were opening their tribs with apologies for missing previous deadlines and for how short their replies are.

The central mailer, Shoshanna, addressed this apathy in the 17th issue:

Some serious business. Interest in this apa has been declining precipitously among the membership over the last year or more. The apa is consistently very thin, and there's a high proportion of last-minute or "next time better, I promise" tribs. To be honest, my own interest has been waning, partly because the apa has been less interesting and partly — I admit it — due to the availability of the Internet. While I'm still interested in participating in the apa, I am beginning to wonder if I might be happier not OEing it.

I'm not making any official announcements of resignation yet. But I would like to test the waters. Would anyone else be interested in taking over the job? (You'd get custody of the power stapler, too, since that was bought with apa funds.) If my resigning would mean that the apa died, that might affect my decision. But I've been doing this for over four years, and I'd like to know if anyone would like to take over. Please let me know, in your next trib or (preferably) earlier.

A fan's trib, in that same issue (The Magic May Return) contained this scold for her fellow tribbers:

Tell you frankly, I don't really feel like doing this: read everybody's trib, think of something to say, pick it out with my three typing fingers, go get 24 copies made, pay to send 240 pages of stuff to the States— and next month find half the issue consists of variations on 'The dog ate my APA' or 'I've been too busy with other things to bother answering you guys so I'll just tell you what I've been reading and what I've been watching and good-bye.' Hell, I can do that. I haven't seen any films in over a year, I don't watch TV, and most of what I read is in Japanese and hence of limited interest. That's all. See you all next time.

And it's no surprise that the longest tribs come from people without access to the instant gratification of the Net. Yakking on the net is like spending the evening on the phone or schmoozing with friends in a pub. It's fun, I'm not denying it, but also pretty ephemeral. There's no deep thought required and no time for deep thought even if you're tempted to it. Type and send is the rule.

Where then will you get the theoretical arguments and formulations that used to fill this APA two or three years ago? I doubt if anyone will ever form a well-thought out theory of anything, or even a systemic analysis, as a result of Net gabbing.

Some Reasons for the End

This trib ceased due to a variety of reasons.

The rise and availability of the internet gave fans many more platforms to discuss and share fandom. Fans were able to correspond via mailing lists created for specialized interests, such as Mulder/Krycek Mailing List, or fanfiction and slash in general at FanFicWrtrs and Virgule-L. Other fans felt uncomfortable, some antagonistic, about online activities and expanded opportunities.

Some of the "heavy-hitter" fans ceased contributing and dropped out. The controversy regarding strong statements by several fans about why slash? and what is slash? between November 1994-May 1995 was likely part of this wane. See Strange Bedfellows (APA)/Issue 007, Strange Bedfellows (APA)/Issue 008, Strange Bedfellows (APA)/Issue 009.

Long-time fans may have felt "talked out" and felt they had rehashed the same topics over and over again, and didn't have the time or patience for the newer fans and the "reinventing of the wheel."

The number of television, movies, and books to discuss had expanded; fans' interest was spread too thin. No longer were fans able to keep the conversation condensed around a few shared fandoms.

And finally, the central mailer grew weary after eight years (beginning with Terra Nostra Underground: Fall 1989 and ending with "Strange Bedfellows" in Fall 1997) of doing the task of keeping the apa moving along.

Some Content

This is just SOME of the topics discussed or included in this apa.

References

  1. ^ From the second issue: "I am actually starting this trib early (oh, I know you've heard it before, but as I type this, it is May10 — of course, I make no promises about when I'll finish it, but we'll see)."
  2. ^ from "Strange Bedfellows" #7
  3. ^ from "Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking": Selections from The Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows, Archived version
  4. ^ comment by the OE in issue #2
  5. ^ from issue #2
  6. ^ from issue #2
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