Strange Bedfellows (APA)/Issue 009

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Babylon 5 themed cover for issue #9 shows Commander Sinclair in the foreground with Delenn and Garibaldi in the background. It is titled "Influences," and it is by Isoline

Strange Bedfellows 9 was published in May 1995 and contains about 105 pages.

There were 35 members sharing 23 subscriptions.

Mystery Solved

The previous issue contains several fans' comments about a long rant by M. Fae Glasgow that was supposedly in issue #7. Glasgow's trib does not, however, appear in that table of contents, nor in all copies.

It was reprinted in #9 with the title: "Two Heads reprise (should have been in #7)," as well as this note from the OE:

A reprint of our SBF trib from Issue Number Seven. (If you're one of the lucky few who got a copy before, then you can ignore it. As for the rest of you — don't even begin to ask what happened to the original copies of the trib. As Captain Sheridan of Babylon 5 has said, "It's just one more mystery among many.")

This means that some fans are seeing the rant for the first time, while others read it many months ago.

A fan in #9 commented:

I'm actually sitting down to reply with three back issues of the apa on hand, instead of just one or two. That's because of a mailing glitch in the Two Heads' trib for #7. I gather it went out late, after the apa proper; but not everyone got it. My first inkling of its existence was the responses from [B], [N], [S], and others in #8. After some confusion over the phantom trib aggravated by the excitement and exhaustion of Escapade — I finally got a copy from [S]. And then, of course, I had to fish out #6 to see what it was responding to. So I'll reply to that first, since it comes first chronologically.

From the OE

First of all, here are the results of the poll on increasing the apa's size again. Twelve members responded, although that represents only ten subscriptions. Of those, six (representing four subscriptions) voted to let in all five people. Four members voted to let in "some more people," either not mentioning a number at all or explicitly leaving the number up to me depending on how much more work I was willing to take on. (Thanks!) One member requested that I let in one or two new folk, but no more; and one explicitly had no opinion. Everybody else stood mute.

Based on this response, I've decided to offer all five people on the waiting list a chance to join. My apologies to the member who felt nearly overloaded by the current size, but the fact is, you were outvoted. I don't know if they will all join, but invitations will go out to them sometime soon. Because of this:

Copy count is hereby increased to 30. That's thirty. Three-oh. 36 in base eight, and IE in hexadecimal. Thirty. Everybody got that?

Some Topics Discussed in "Strange Tongues"

Excerpts from "Strange Tongues"

Slash has developed as specifically gender-based: there are no stories within "slash" of, say, interspecies but hetero couples, interreligious but hetero couples, and so on. This doesn't prevent a same-sex couple in a slash story from suffering any and all complications resulting from their racial, religious, class or occupational differences as well as the complications of their taboo sexual relationship, if it is taboo in the story setting. If our own society fully accepted any-gender couples, there wouldn't have been a basis for slash (as we know it) to develop in the first place, although homosexual and omnisexual romances would no doubt have been part of fanwriting from the beginning. Human nature being what it is, I fully expect that in such a society, fanwriting would eventually have developed a ghetto for stories dealing in some subject that is taboo to the mainstream of that society. (Death stories? Live-birth stories? Stories about people who wear leather and eat meat?) An underground of such stories where the taboo element is a type of interpersonal relationship — between certain professions, if you like — might very well develop with much the same "feel" as slash has for us.

The kick of any slash story isn't quite in just seeing two guys in love (as women conceive "in love" usually), but seeing two particular guys in love. I theorize, mostly from what I like, that any story that describes two particular guys well enough to delineate them for the reader as individuals can support a slash feel, but in the absence of fairly good character writing in a slash story, the TV characters as seen for hours and hours on screen supply the particularity for the story characters. Even without showing much personality, two characters in the very particular situation of the given TV show can evoke the show's characters for the reader either by deduction (a close-working pair of anti-civil-terrorist government agents in London are assumed by the fan to be Bodie and Doyle - who else could they be?) or by actual similarity, when the story action presents the same problems with the same sorts of solutions necessitating the same sorts of characters as the TV show presents, just by virtue of the plot.

Marion Zimmer Bradley always seemed aware of her characters' taboos and used them strongly, in Darkovan/Terran stories, Tower-vs.-Castle stories. Keeper/anybody stories, Chieri/Human stories, and so on, which may have given her writing some of its undeniable appeal for fans. Slash fans generally cite Heritage of Hastur, however, where the male/male liaison is socially appropriate, but troublesome to the characters for personal reasons instead. It's the readers' taboos, rather than the characters,' that make it high-profile.

I do appreciate the liveliness of a show that's still on the road, though it's rather easier to write the unauthorized sequel (let alone the chapter for tomorrow night) after the curtain comes down. Speaking of which, Eroica, as you and a few other excellent friends have told me, has just acquired a new installment. I'm told that Japanese serials are even more static in format than Western ones used to be, so this probably won't introduce any unexpected developments; Klaus and Dorian won't leap into bed together, alas, just because they're making an appearance for the first time in six years. I write this in full hope (though not the expectation) that some Japanese Murphy's law (murufisu raa) will now apply and Aoike will be inspired to make a liar out of me.

Have you seen the couple of Miami Vice stories where Castillo meets various people in Vietnam? I liked the one where it was Crockett, a promising but rather brief example of an unfortunately tongue-tied genre. There was one where it was Starsky and/or Hutch, or maybe Rick Simon...

Riker's stance and hint of creeping fat say: self-indulgent power-hungry buck; you'll eat well, but you'll pay for it. Picard's carriage says: self-respect, moderation and honor make the best sauce.

This is the cartoon discussed, by Linda Stoops, printed in Storms #1 (1981).
On slash definitions and sex as a human motivator. Yup, it is. I am reminded, of a SW cartoon in a long-ago beloved zine: 1. Exhausted zine editor, lying on couch watching a vision of Luke as he says: "Hey Uncle Owen, this R2 unit has a bad motivator!" 2. Zine editor removes hand from eyes and says appreciatively: "Come here, honey, and I'll show you some motivation."

On the subject of what kind of fan I am, I seem to write mostly slash, even though I happily read anything with a shred of interpersonal drama. There were tons of SW fanfic based on family complications arising from galactic politics, and I ate it up like cotton candy, for instance. But how does one term a fandom which one has been involved in, but isn't really actively practicing any more? What about being a fan of fanfic, but not particularly of the show, as I was of Professionals? I watched B7 for itself, but Doctor Who only for the sake of knowing what people were talking about. I've watched QL largely for the homosocial bonding bits and some other scenery, but Sandbaggers was great even though — perhaps because - it relentlessly torpedoed every possible human relationship. All these shades of fandom need some way of being explained, though it might be best to take the long way round and just explain them if someone is actually interested enough to ask.

Do I see differences in category between Dorian/Klaus and slash such as S/H and B/D? I'm not sure. There are obvious differences, of course: Dorian and Klaus are different individual characters, appear in a different medium, show the effects of being written by and for Japanese readers, and so on. Manga characters being considered within a Western slash context at all is a change, perhaps. Unlike the most typical slash couples, they aren't co-workers with shared problems created by their mutual work. They disagree on most basic issues and work together only when they have to - but so do Avon and Blake or Avon and Vila. Having Dorian as openly gay in the source seems to be the biggest break with slash tradition, and it does derail slash fans for whom overt straight sexuality is important. Even so, the intriguing balance between the two leads (especially in the early manga storylines), gives each one his own philosophy, occupation and supporters, shown often as parallel but irreconcilable opposites. They're put into positions where they will inevitably encounter each other, and each find that no one but the other is sufficient to fulfill the needs of the current plot. It's very easy to see them as potential partners, although the manga leaves them poised at that moment of not-quite-meeting, while a typical TV-show source throws its lead couple together in no uncertain terms in the first episode, or introduces them as already partnered. Eroica, in this sense, is one long succession of meet-cute episodes for a couple that steadfastly refuses to recognize an obvious attraction. That could be a 'difference from the S/H, B/D and so on: the source doesn't demonstrate their slashability with a long history of proven partnership, but merely suggests it (over and over) with test cases.

I may have said at some time during the con or elsewhere, I have nothing against real-persona (and sometimes not against real-person) slash, and in fact I wish more of it could be written embodying the curious but riveting dynamic of two aging rock stars who thrust themselves once more into the limelight in order to reaffirm that they really love each other. One wonders why, if they've made this momentous discovery (whether just recently or twenty years ago), they don't retire to some venue more comfortable than a succession of limelit stages to express it to each other. One begins to wonder if they perhaps need limelight and publicity to properly appreciate themselves or each other. Do these guys have a fetish (technically speaking, a condition for sex without which they don't get off) for playing rock in front of audiences together? Hmm, that would explain a lot. This is not meant to discourage you. I think it would be incredibly cute and virtually off the scale of the angst-o-meter. I just wish somebody would write it so I could read it.

I'm afraid you're right that the XF zineds who put "no slash" on flyers are simply bigots; that is exactly what I'm afraid of. I just want to point out that they are behaving as bigots rather than as any combination of (a) reasonable (b) human or (c) editors.

Not sure of your referents for "sticky" and "dusty" [slash] stories, so it's hard to say where I'd place you on that field. I get some idea that it has to do with dryer detachment versus sticky close involvement, but not in the sense that the writer is detached from or identified with her characters, since by M. Fae' s and my own accounts both, I'm the one who identifies (at least while I'm writing) and she's the one who's a detached creatrix. The effect on the reader, however, may be the opposite.

Some Topics Discussed in "Darkling Zine: And then Came the Flies..."

  • gay porn

Excerpts from "Darkling Zine: And then Came the Flies..."

I catch new addictions far too easily, and never the right ones. The newest addiction is addiction to gay porn. I'm renting videos now, and copy them. I used not to like gay porn, but I was watching the wrong movies, cheap ones, with ugly guys, no effort at plot or even creating an atmosphere. The Abduction series blew my mind. Not that they are especially mind blowing, but there is a story, a minimum of dialog... Or rather, plot and dialog are only sketched, but just like in Opera, it is there to create a certain emotion to flavor the music (sex) when it takes place. The Abduction series is a trilogy: a Beautiful Prince has to be stimulated by Sex Slaves to remain beautiful and young forever. So he has a Secret Legion who abducts young men, and the most gifted of them are trained to be Sex Slaves to Deherazad.

[...]

The acting is weird. There is a lot of conviction in it, and at the same time, a sort of distanciation. This id due to the fact, maybe, that porn actors are not real actors, but acrobats whose job it is to make ligament and muscle stretching poses look like wild abandon and hot sex. OK, there is more to acting than reciting one's text with a lot of conviction but with no ringing true at all. This, however, is not without its charm. Opera singers are not required to act naturally either. Nor are Panto players. It can define a genre in itself, especially since porn actors are all lousy actors in exactly the same way.

And all those round, lean, long muscled bodies writhing and humping and rubbing against each other... It is wonderful background for reading, writing or cleaning up my room.

Some Topics Discussed in "Vice Files"

  • Oklahoma City bombing
  • The X-Files
  • figure skating
  • comments about JMS's interaction with fans
  • Babylon 5, Jeffrey Sinclair
  • this fan's father wrote for science fiction zines using the pseud "Joan Carr"
  • science fiction fans who write for zines: "I suspect, though, that many of them are either commentary on various things, or for people who are working on becoming pro writers, instead of those of us who are willing to remain fans."

Excerpts from "Vice Files"

I don't think they did the Sinclair to Sheridan switch well at all -- we spent the entire first season with Sinclair, wondering with him, suffering with him over the hole in his mid, and then we were cheated out of seeing his reaction to the revelation (which I don't completely believe -- Minibari are notorious for not tell the whole truth)! Sure, we get to see it in the comic book, but I wanted O'Hare do it!

Re: JMS not including any quoted text, I certainly won't complain -- how many other producers bother to really talk with the fans of their shows? On the really important subjects, it's pretty easy to tell what he's talking about, anyway.

Your trouble with the cover of Science Fiction Audiences: Watching Star Trek and Doctor Who ], sounds rather like the effort of trying to get a decent SFTV show accepted by a big Network without them fiddling with it (say, NBC, for example) - the letter writing campaigns are viewed as the product of a bunch of bored weirdos and housewives, and the Network is really the only one who knows what their audience wants to see.

Some Topics Discussed in "Ghost Speaker"

Excerpts from "Ghost Speaker"

I feel for you about the covers of Science-Fiction Audiences but I'm sure no intelligent fan will blame you for them. Everyone knows publishers put covers on books that they think will sell them, and that they operate on the principle that no one went broke underestimating the intelligence of the public.

FAN POSSE: Often enough at Escapade to pique my curiosity, and how here in the apa, fans say that they don't want to write certain kinds of stories because of the negative reactions of fan.

Who are these fans?

Why is everyone so scared of them?

Couldn't we gang up on these other fans and scare them?

Some Topics Discussed in "Yamibutoh"

  • the recent earthquake
  • Sailor Moon
  • Julie, a Japanese star
  • children and nudity in Japan

Excerpts from "Yamibutoh"

Actually, both fans and academics both have the amazing capacity for analyzing things to death and beyond but, of course, WE only talk about interesting things.

I think maybe one of the things that has put a lot of fans off writing females in slash or even fanfic featuring media females is not the beauty, but the plastic personalities of so many of the media women. Perhaps it is related to the same reason many women preferred the sidekick - it was less that they preferred his looks (I think, however, sidekicks age better as they were less likely to be the epitome of the style of their show's era and thus often more acceptable to later audiences), but because he had a more "real" personality.

I wonder if, besides losing some of the urge to slash characters when their relationship has already been consummated in the show because there are no barriers to overcome, I wonder if the same rationale applies as has been argued for much nonslash fanfic - that is that much fanfic is written because the writer is dissatisfied about something in the show — something is missing in plot or relationship that the writer feels should be there. If the series is perfect, I suspect there is less an urge to tinker. It may not mean the show relationship was boring, merely that we don't think we can improve it.

This has been a slow period for slash in Japan. There have been no new programs or movies with any. Darn. The slashiest thing on TV are the extremely few new villains on Sailor Moon, a girls' animation show, but the show is so silly it is hard to deal with that seriously. I hope there will be more to report next time.

Spot on with the concern about creating media females who are real professionals. I've seen one Voyager and I think Janeway has a chance at being one, but that seems to be because they've tried to give her no reasonable male partner. No wonder fans are scared to letting Scully have a sex life.

I agree that Voyager has real slash possibilities. Paris and Kim are rather sweet together, but I think I prefer Paris and Chakotay for a little zing. I wish the cast had more hair. I see too many military cuts in life. I hate seeing them on TV.

Some Topics Discussed in "Mardi Gras Favors"

  • a fan read Flesh and Steel and did a lot of reading about witch hunts in England between 1400-1700
  • comments about RevelCon

Some Topics Discussed in "Desert Blooms"

  • owns too many zines to remember
  • young fans' views of the various Treks
  • talking to a tie-in novel writer
  • Lois McMaster Bujold's books and the character, Bothari
  • acquiring and offering others copies of bootleg concert recordings
  • comments about Queer Punk, Pansy Division
  • m/f slash and the X-Files
  • coming to terms and accepting Real Person Slash
  • U2 slash fan fic
  • trying to like Star Trek: Voyager
  • comments about the cleverness of JMS
  • comments about Henry Jenkin's Scrooge/Marley story, Golden Idol, see that page

Excerpts from "Desert Blooms"

You're absolutely right about the wonderful complexity and intelligence inherent in B5. It is consistently well thought out but the best part, apart from the wonderful characters and dialogue, is that it gives us clues to mentally chew upon all along the way, so if we are clever enough, we might be able to piece together what will happen (but I think JMS is far more clever than we!).

... the whole father/son type relationship [in Forever Knight] I still find it tremendously erotic. And if they truly mean to make it that kind of relationship then it just adds to the thrill of the forbidden. Pseudo-incest has it's draw!

Voyager. While I agree with much of your analysis on the pairings and possibilities in the show and that there is probably more slash potential there than previous Treks, I can't agree with you that each ST gets a little better. I admit a tremendous bias here because somewhere along the way they lost me and I've been unable to rekindle any kind of enthusiasm for the shows, although I do think Voyager harkens back more to classic Trek than the others have. I try to watch it when I remember and have found some of it to be okay but mostly the plots have been entirely predictable and one dimensional and the characters are, how do I put this, very white. Even with the racial mix of characters they all seem stamped from the same mold. I think the most interesting of the bunch is (what's his name??) the Native American but I still feel they could really play him up and make him a much more interesting character than they have. And I think both the doctor and Neelix are extremely irritating. Sorry, I'm sounding bitchy here and I don't mean to outright condemn the show. I'll keep giving it a watch now and again and see if it grows on me.

Speaking of, the U2 stories are in process - I have 2 started and I believe the inimitable MFae has been sneaking in a few pages in between Avon bonking Vila, or some such. As to when will you see them? Well, we sort of wanted to have a good handful written to start the universe so...your guess is as good as mine!

I'm glad I've helped you come to some terms with "real person slash". It was a complete about- face for me to accept it, even though I suppose I've been doing the same thing as you most of my life by interpreting musicians and their music in my own way. Usually (but not always) musicians/actors/celebs are babbling fools in interviews and reading them is an exercise in embarrassment. However, if you skip the talk and focus on the music that moves you then you can find an understanding that transcends other methods of communication.

About the idea that perhaps there could be such a thing as M/F slash (I still think Harriet/Lord Peter is pretty darn close to it). It's a curious idea that makes a certain amount of sense, but I wonder if it would really work. Once you give, to use your example, Scully & Mulder a sexual relationship then wouldn't you slip into the standard romance formula (which the majority of slash does) and thus negate the slash aspect of it being M/F? And if you don't make it a relationship but a single, or serial, sexual encounter that doesn't become a relationship then aren't you doomed to a universe of first time stories only?

I've rediscovered the pleasure of collecting bootlegs (mostly live performances and studio outtakes) and have a small but growing number of Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant, Beatles and U2 cd's (mostly U2). I would be more than happy to make tapes of these for anyone who's interested. Write or email me for a listing of what I have. Among my most recent purchases is the Led Zep reunion at the January 1995 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and some Plant concert tapes from the 85 and 93 tours. I can't wait until the Page/Plant boots start showing up-they should be loads of fun!

[...]

About cyberfans not being wiling to share their toys- my experience has been mainly on a U2 music list (Wire) and I've found this group to be, while a tad too serious, very generous in duping and trading tapes, both audio and video. Perhaps it's music fans in general, but there's a tremendous amount of unsolicited swapping of tapes and willingness to search out obscure recordings and information just for the sake of it. The sharing and kinship reminds me very much of the generosity I've experienced with media fans. But I've not explored (yet!) the online groups connected with media fandom.

[I have] been to locate all my scattered zines and make a semi-exhaustive listing of what I have. I found at this year's Escapade I was looking at zines not knowing if I already had them or not, which makes for poor purchasing decisions. So the next con you see me at, I will be clutching in one hand my little list and balancing a huge stack of new zines in the other!

I recently attended an informal lecture/get-together with writer John Vornholt who's written, among many things, a slew of Next Gen, Earth 2 and Babylon 5 novels. It was interesting to, talk to a pro writer who writes media characters. I asked if he found it difficult to write established characters as opposed to original ones and he said he really enjoyed it and found it an interesting challenge. The most interesting part of the evening was the crowd, mainly young college students, who grew up on Next Gen, love DS9 and are mostly wary of Voyager. They seemed, however, to have almost no knowledge of classic Trek which had me perplexed until I realized they weren't even born when it aired and so to them it's an ancient tv show of their parents generation with little connection to the Star Trek that they enjoy (and let's face it, little of the spirit of classic Trek remains in any of these shows, IMHO). Oh, one thing of interest he mentioned was that he heard, from the horse's, er, writer's, mouth, that Chris Carter (X-Files) is so paranoid he requires his novel writer to hop a plane and hand deliver each manuscript personally to him. Does this explain some of the paranoia of the show?

Some Topics Discussed in "With Friends Like These..."

  • maybe being a minority gives her a bigger interest in slash and equality?
  • comments about Judith Seaman's fiction
  • vidding
  • Avon, Cally, and Tarrant's treatment of Vila in Blake's 7
  • comments about The Left Hand of Darkness
  • comments about The X-Files and the hope that Mulder and Scully don't begin a sexual relationship
  • this fan quotes another fan from an unknown source (likely On the Wing): "from my perspective Tarrant getting angsty over "Ohmigod, I'm in love with a man" is less interesting than Tarrant getting angsty about "Ohmigod, I'm in love with Avon.""

Excerpts from "With Friends Like These... "

I don't see the lack of women in slash as misogynistic. It's just that dealing with male-female relations in fanfic is too much like work. A one-gender universe is the easy, effortless way to freedom from gender roles. I get almost the same kick from stories in which there are no men, which is why I prefer female/female slash to straight. Gee, I probably sound like the mental patient from that Tiptree story, "Your Faces, Oh My Sisters..." But it's just an admittedly escapist fantasy ~ nothing I'd want in real life. My sister claims that white women always see everything in terms of male-female relations. Maybe she should modify that to straight white women! : )

It does seem that fans approach slash from basically two different perspectives. One might be termed the "Forbidden Love" contingent - those for whom "crossing the barriers" is the main appeal. The other I think of as the "What If I Were Free" contingent ~ those for whom the freedom from gender roles is the turn-on. 1 place myself squarely in the latter category.

"The path of true love never runs smooth; what fun would that be?" Barriers are definitely part of the appeal, and not only for slash. Someone once accused me of being a racist because I'm not a big fan of Tarrant/Dayna. But the problem isn't Dayna's race, it's that she gets along so well with Tarrant. It's boring. The only time I find Tarrant/Dayna interesting is after Vila, when he must explain to Dayna his dalliance with Servalan... The fact that there was often conflict between Vila and Tarrant, Tarrant and Avon, Spock and McCoy, etc., only adds to the appeal of the pairings!

Much enjoyed reading all your comments. Thank you for reassuring me about Scully/Mulder. I just think it would be extremely unprofessional for them to become sexually involved. It's so often assumed that women are disruptive in the workplace merely because they are women, and that the only reason we go to college and become doctors, engineers, etc., is to meet more marriage prospects. Having Scully and Mulder hop in the sack would just play right into that stereotype.

The Left Side of Darkness appears to be part of a larger "future history." LeGuin's various human-like races are presumed to be related ~ if not an actual Earth colony (often with considerable genetic drift) then seeded from the same roots. The point being that I have a hard time believing in sexual relations between beings who supposedly evolved independently. (I can accept Spock, but only if I don't think too much about Sarek and Amanda!)

Agree with you about Judith Seaman. She seems to understand the B7 characters very well (though in my case it's her understanding of Avon-Tarrant rather than Avon-Vila I appreciate!), but doesn't use this expertise enough in her stories. I think it's because her stories tend to focus sharply and very narrowly on Avon, leaving the others but pale, wan shadows in the background. I like to read about character relationships, not just about characters, so this doesn't work for me.

I do think that my minority status has something to do with my interest in slash. Most of my peers aren't nearly as obsessed with equality in relationships as I am. They see the battle for equal rights as over, ancient history. I don't. Perhaps it might seem so to me if I were a white woman or an Asian man, but from an Asian woman's perspective it's all too plain that we've got a long way to go yet.

I think you may be onto something with your theory of true equality making slash unnecessary. Well, less necessary, anyway. Sarah Thompson views hetero stuff with a strong female protagonist like A Companion For My Death as being analogous to slash. I do not; for me, the nearest hetero equivalent to slash is something like The X-Files, in which a man and a woman have a close relationship that does not involve sex. In either case, equality seems to be the key issue.

I might find genre romances more palatable if they did go against stereotype more often with both the male and female characters. One of the things I liked about Beauty and the Beast was that Linda Hamilton was not a conventional beauty. My dad used to complain that her face looked like the south end of a horse going north, and that she was built like a defensive linebacker. But I liked that. In the early episodes especially, Catherine got knocked around a lot, and Linda Hamilton at least looked like she could take it. I was quite disappointed when they replaced Catherine with yet another anorectic Barbie doll.

Thanks for taking the time to comment on my music videos. And I'm glad you told me what didn't work for you as well as what did... Videomaker magazine ran a FAQ about videomakers in their May issue. One of the questions was, "Do we hurt videomakers' feelings when we criticize their work?" Answer: "Nah. They thrive on criticism; just makes their work better.... The line from "Bend Over, Greek Sailor" that you couldn't decode is "Alsace is first mate and he gets on my nerves." I think. (You should hear the rest of the song. I only used about half the verses.) I didn't realize how familiar "Mr. Tambourine Man" would be to most fans. It didn't seem dated to me, because I'd never heard of it before. Sheila Paulson used it in one of my favorite stories, "Empire of Sand." I wondered if it was an actual song, when I was told it was, I couldn't resist doing a video to it. Little did I know that everyone already knew the song! (I showed it to a couple of fortysomething fans who shall remain nameless, and their reaction was, "I want a joint"!)

Some Topics Discussed in "From the Bottom of a Dark Barrel"

Excerpts from "From the Bottom of a Dark Barrel"

So this will be short. I had planned to type up the slash interpretation of Eliot's "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," but it's too much to type now. Maybe I'll be better in a few months. I would probably have let myself get tossed out of the APA for not contributing again this time, except for the fact that slash is all that is keeping me going right now.

Bravo on your Led Zep vids. I love "Promises" [1], and although I find it hard not to see Dorian where Plant shimmies. I am pretty intrigued by the story behind them. How much video footage do you have to work with? and feel free to send me email stories about them! Looking for evidence for real person slash tickles me even if it's unPC somehow. (Slashing Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry is on my list someday.) Did you know that some women in Duran Duran fandom independent of slash found themselves writing fannish stories of the band, including a deep dark secret past in which the two main guys had had an affair...?

I find Chakotay a huge disappointment, because his character could have been a terrific source of tension and drama on the ship, and they completely declawed him, perhaps in order to keep Janeway unthreatened as a commanding woman? Aside from a few sarcastic references to his being the only real Maquis (sp?) on that ship, we have seen none of his rebel sensibihties. Sometimes I despise the Star Trek writers.

I don't really enjoy long arguments about what is or isn't slash, but I think I may agree with you about X Files. I watch for Scully as much or more than for Mulder, and find myself completely uninterested in slashing him. (And I am not watching "for her" because she's a good "role model," but because I think she's really sexy and likable.) Reading the x-files.creative stories, I find a good slashy kick to lots of the (women's) stories that are M/S, or hurt-comfort. I suppose the fact that she is a strong character combined with the "barrier" of the career and her unwillingness to get unprofessional or dependent on anyone (in the stories anyway) makes many feel similar to slash scenarios. I'm a hopeless first-time fan, and so for me "what happens after they do it" is never very interesting compared to the flirtation and tension beforehand. So it seems to me that a show that doesn't portray a male and female lead as sexually involved can feel exactly as thrilling as a slash show. After they're involved, of course, all bets are off.

I used to argue very strenuously against the label "addictive" being applied to MUDs, since I dislike the connotations of substance abuse and the image of wild-eyed desperate victims who'd do anything for their hit. But the fact that so many MUDders use the term themselves, and so many people (fannish types?) get so involved makes me wonder if it's not accurate at some level. Substance abuse isn't quite the right metaphor, but maybe there isn't a better one? This addiction/obsession phenomenon is just one of the ways fandom is similar to MUDdom (the rest of that list will have to wait).

Wow, don't let them take you away in a straight jacket for MOOing too much. I wish I could come play Dorian in your slashy MOO adventures (would you do Klaus?), but my hands won't let me MUD right now. I guess I shouldn't tell you all about AmberMUSH and the other MUSHes based on fantasy universes, where folks roleplay a character in the literary universe and huge numbers of people keep a collaborative storyline going over a long period of time. I wandered around AmberMUSH once and ran into people saying things like, "So, what shall we do about the Random situation?" but they all unfortunately shut up as soon as I came into the room. I guess they thought I was a spy. I'd like to hang out on these MUDs after I finish my diss, and see how well tens of people can work together on an evolving plot with no dominant single author figure in control.

Some Topics Discussed in "Two Heads Are Better Than One" (NB) (originally meant for #7)

Excerpts from "Two Heads Are Better Than One" (NB) (originally meant for #7)

Of course Talia's the bi character. The powers-that-be would never allow it to be one of the male leads. It's not so important if it's a woman; after all, the idea of two women together is kind of a turn on and certainly no threat to the all important male. But two men doing it? Ugh. Who'd want pansies in command.

What the Fuck is this Misogyny? Technically this bit belongs in mailing comments to [T], but I had such a strong reaction that I decided to run it separately. So, [T], what is this on misogyny and slash? Aren't you making a mountain out of a molehill? I seriously doubt that slash authors are being misogynistic. After all, the definition of misogyny is "hatred of women." Us? Hatred of women? Oh, come on!! Female characters may be underdrawn, practically non-existent, or even stereotyped in a lot of slash, but I for one don't give a flying fuck. It's the relationship between the two men that interests me. Do you think your own stories are deliberately misogynistic? Do you include yourself in your criticism? Remember, slash is genre writing. I wish people would stop telling me that slash ought to include strong women characters, that its lack of such characters or its cardboard females make it misogynistic. For me, slash isn't about women, it's about men, about two men together who at some point in the story are probably going to have sex.

Surely you are poking fun at us all. Surely you are being perverse and wicked. In regards to your X-Files ruminations: "It occurs to me that slash is difficult in these shows exactly because the attitude is that women, to the show characters and in the general tone of the drama also, are respectable human beings. Could it be possible that the slightest modicum of actual equality for women will succeed in making slash obsolete [italics mine], where studio outrage and moral pronouncements of every kind have failed it utterly?" Of course not! We slashers will simply pack our bags and move to another show. So there. Seriously, I don't want to slash X-Files. It doesn't need it, nor are there the characters for it. Who in the world would you pair Mulder with? Or Sculley [sic] if you wanted f/f? You'd have to create original characters.

I would agree that a main premise of slash — consciously realized or not — is that both characters think of the other as their one true love, their one true passion, their other half, and that when you start to stray from this premise, some readers won't like the story as much or will be tempted to say that it isn't true slash. Not that there aren't stories or authors that postulate relationships that don't work, or characters who can't return their partner's feelings. I just don't think those stories are in the middle of the bell curve; they're more towards the fringes. Equally important is the notion of forbidden love. Most stories—again consciously or not—accept the premise that the relationship should not be or is not something normally pursued or readily accepted (at least at first). Reasons may vary from homophobia to rank to 'I thought you were exclusively straight, so I didn't try.' I think that if you bill both characters as gay from the start, then it becomes harder to set up the forbidden aspect (it tends to be 'we'd lose our jobs if they knew we were gay). In fact, you start to drift to the edge of the slash continuum (my view of the range of stories) towards a truly gay sensibility in the story.

It continues to amaze me how wonderful the writing in this APA can often be. Our written discussions, diatribes, and speculations form a terrific record of ongoing thought and theory about slash. Often we surpass the output of regular letterzines and, generally speaking, I think we are better than the slashlist on the net because of the ephemeral quality of that medium. (The net works differently and does not lend itself to measured reflection over long periods. Many of us keep no copies of posts or threads, whereas I have a complete set SBF and TNU issues on my "bookshelves, ready to be perused at my slightest whim.)

Some Topics Discussed in "Two Heads Are Better Than One" (M F G) (originally meant for #7)

Excerpts from "Two Heads Are Better Than One" (M F G) (originally meant for #7)

So, how's the obsession coming? Listened to anything other than Achtung Baby and men who wear fishnet tights. No? Me neither! Well, apart from rediscovering the dubious elements in old Who songs and the pleasures of Lou Reed's Transformer, that is. Still haven't got round to listening to REM's Monster: will let you know if it's as sexy (not to mention gay) as reports have said. About slashing music(ians): one of the things I find is that it makes a difference whether or not all the elements are there. It's not enough to have slashable lyrics (Jimmy Sommerville), there also has to be the video/concert/interview backup that makes those slash elements apply to someone in the band (U2, Nine Inch Nails). Or, when I'm feeling particularly shallow, it just has to be that I fancy them enough. But it makes a real difference when you can go to a concert, see Trent Reznor looking absolutely gorgeous in fishnet tights and leather sticking his hand down the inside front of his shorts. Or sticking his hand down inside the back of his shorts. Or accompanying the lyrics "I want to fuck you like an animal" with him writhing on the stage as he is on the receiving end. Or pretending to shag his guitarist (the former drag queen whom rumour has it, is indeed shagging Trent and vice versa). Sigh. All this, and good music too. Now, if only all his CDs came with perfect video images of those glorious legs of his...

About slash not happening particularly easily in X-Files and Quantum Leap. Well, it's partly to each their own: there are plenty of people out there who just don't see any basis at all for Blake/Avon slash — there are even some people (gasp!) who don't see the basis for Pros slash, citing the heterosexuality of the characters etc. But for those universes that don't inspire much slash, I think it's less to do with the equality of the female characters than the lack of spark between the males. Also, about the 'forbidden love' aspect: the first published and distributed slash was K/S — but we have no way of telling what odd stories were stuffed into the back of cupboards or thought of in the privacy of people's minds. According to some reports, one British K/Ser (who goes waaaay back), early British K/S really differed from early American K/S in that while American K/S dwelt very heavily on the 'forbidden love' aspects (what will happen if they're caught, can they still be men even if they do this etc), the early British K/S simply blithely accepted the possibility of sex between men and off they jolly-well went. I don't know enough about early British K/S to comment on it, but it certainly rings true of a lot of the early American K/S I've seen.

When it comes to B7 slash, there are always at least three viable female characters who could tempt Our Heroes from the Great Bent Way — and it's no use you arguing that the writers wimped Jenna & Cally & Dayna & Soolin & Servalan. Just look at what they did to Vila! And to a lesser degree, Tarrant as well. None of that stopped writers from doing Avon/Vila stories, nor did that even limit those writers to the typical weeping, weak Vila stories: if it's possible to trawl through the series to get evidence for Vila being stronger than he is commonly presented, then it's just as easy to do so for the female characters. If the desire is there. So while a penis may not be the issue of paramount importance, I think that it's fairly obvious, if only by observing the genre, that for many, if not most, fans, slash requires two male members.

[a small excerpt from a multi-page rant which specifically addresses at least two fans, and many others in a general fashion]: I'm willing to share my stories with fandom. I'm willing to put the characters on paper in sexy and intriguing situations, I'm even willing to take someone's particular kink and write them a story featuring that. But I am not willing to allow fandom to assume it knows me — or any other writer — because they think they can tell so much about us from our stories. I applaud your honesty, and your willingness to come right out and say something instead of skulking. But I want to ask you this: if you are so sure that it's true that we can read a writer's true nature through her stories (a la if she likes to hurt them she's a sadist), are you so sanguine about your ability to know which stories she wrote for herself, and which stories she wrote for other people? Are you quite, quite sure that you can tell which stories reflect the writer's real desires and/or activities, and those things that only sound good as long as they are confined to pure fantasy?

So all this is a shadowplay of our, the writers, own psyches, that these stories are a way of reading the writer as well as her fiction, that we all (regardless of what we might think ourselves as individuals) identify with these characters, in your opinion, and it's perfectly all right for fans to take their interpretations of what a writer writes and then make suppositions about said writer and call those suppositions true. Now think about Velvet Underground, Virtual Reality, November. I've heard fans say that the writer's sick, vicious, twisted, cruel, sadistic, and obviously in an unhealthy relationship of her own: all on the basis of her stories. Are you saying these people are right? About Sebastian, of all people? Later, you say, "the characters are sexual extensions of ourselves". On what do you base this wide, all-inclusive, all- encompassing statement?

If the characters were an extension of my sexuality, then Avon would be sickened by the smell of leather, and not one of them would ever derive the slightest bit of pleasure from being spanked or whipped or any number of other things. I wrote a story called Rosetta Stone that was very, very difficult for me, because I found the sex in it absolutely repulsive and revolting: but it fit the aspects of the characters that I was exploring. That was not an extension of my sexuality, nor of me. And I'll rip the face off the first person who dares to claim that it is.

[...]

Oh, boy, this just isn't my lucky apa, is it? First I have [T] telling me that I'm completely wrong about The Real Truth of how I write, now I have you, [L], telling me that I'm not FEMALE. "In slash it is very important that these guys have already been involved in a deep friendship and slash takes it too [sic] the next level. This is a FEMALE requirement. Adding nipple rings and anonymous sex to this setting is like grafting the realism of MIAMI VICE to BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. The result isn't going to please anybody." So it's a FEMALE thing, is it? Hang on, I need to run to the privacy of the other room to run a quick check. Nope, the plumbing remains the same. Which leaves me in a quandary.

[...]

I'm getting really worried, here. You know, maybe they got my gender wrong at the maternity hospital when I was born and my gynaecologist just hasn't had the heart to break this bad news to me. So not remaining faithful is a "guy" thing, is it? Gosh, d'you think Prince Charles knows he married a guy? [2] And of course, final nail in the coffin, because I don't require them to have been in a deep friendship first, then I can't be FEMALE, can I? Hey, does this mean I can play NFL football after all?

I am sick and tired of being told Why You Write Slash. I am sick and tired of being told what the deep, dark psychological reasons are. I'm sick of being told I'm a misogynist because I don't include women in my stories (oh, yeah? And just where am I supposed to fit Susan Fisher into a tete-^-tete in the buggy-boo?). I am sick and tired of having people tell me what I really think and feel — as opposed to what I think I think and feel. I am really tired of being told that I'm writing 'from my pain', or my guilt, or my inhibitions, or my lack of self-worth, or my repressed this that or the next thing. I am tired of being told I'm writing this or that because society has forced me into a box, a corner or subcultural ghetto. I'm tired of being told I'm doing this because I'm a feminist or a misogynist, a conservative or a liberal, a poor, pathetic wee thing or a poor, misunderstood, downtrodden wee thing. I'm sick of being told I'm writing this because I'm revolutionary, overthrowing a patriarchal society, emasculating men, gelding men or just screwing them into exhaustion. I am truly fed up with hearing that I identify with 'him', or that he is me — I am he and he is me and I am the bloody Walrus. I'm tired of being told that everything I write is about me — why, thank you kindly for saying I'm too stupid to make up bloody sex stories! I'm tired of being told I'm writing because I want a man, want to be a man or actually am a man and just didn't know it. I'm tired of being told it's because I idolise men, exalt men, kowtow to men, respect men, envy men, hate men or just want to be a man. I'm tired of being told it's penis envy or vagina hate. And I'm really, really tired of people going on and on and on and on, reams upon reams upon reams, and not one of them ever mentioning one very salient fact. So — excuse me, but can we leave the lofty halls of academe just for a moment? Slash is, undoubtedly, many things to many people, but there's one group of readers/writers who seem to be getting lost in the shuffle, ignored in favour of theories that are either far more cerebral than certain basic truths or far more insulting to women or far more convoluted than the reason that applies to some of us.

[...]

Some of us (gasp, horror, shock) read slash because it turns us on. Some of us read slash because it's sexy, arousing, fine, one-handed reading, as satisfying to the emotions and the intellect as it is to the libido. Some of us read slash not because we identify with these big, brave, hunky men. Nor because some of us wish we were big, brave, hunky men. Nor because we are misogynistic. Nor because we lack good female role models in the source fiction. Nor because we are sexually or emotionally inadequate. Nor because our lives are lacking. Nor because we use slash as an arena to work out the problems of relationships so that we can fix our real lives. Nor because we are confusing real men with real fiction. Nor because we are intellectually stimulated by the transgendering of society-enforced masculine protagonists. Or perhaps we are reading slash for all those reasons.

[...]

... a fully developed, well rounded, sincerely and respectfully valued Susan Fisher is about as appreciated in a slash story as a detailed plot development involving the Bulgarian Trade Delegation. I love dissecting things as much as the next person: I've participated in analysing slash often enough myself. But let's not get to the point where not only can't we see the wood for the trees, but we no longer leave any room for "wood" in the definition for "trees". Slash is far more than any bunch of theories, no matter how high-falutin' those theories might be. And slash is also a lot more visceral, and a lot closer to the metaphoric gutter, much richer and more fecund than any amount of cool, calm and collected reasonings. I don't read slash as an academic, sociological, abstract exercise. And I'm not the only one, either. Let's not forget that there are some very basic, very straightforward reasons for slash, as well as the more rarefied ones. After all, if all we wanted were good character developments, further exploration of an aired universe, more adventures of beloved ship's crews, then we could and would read gen. If all we wanted was the emotional intensity, then we could read and write male bonding stories till the cows come home. If all we wanted was the breaking down of barriers, and then the emotional intensity, then we could read h/c. But some of us don't, at least not exclusively. We read, and write, slash.

Never underestimate the appeal of sex.

Some Topics Discussed in "Two Heads Are Better Than One" (M F G)

The entire trib starts with a brief apology and then an explanation of the rant by writing another very long one.

Excerpts from "Two Heads Are Better Than One" (M F G)

First things first: if my last trib came across as aimed at anyone in particular [3], then I apologise, it was absolutely nothing personal, just me foaming at the mouth on a topic that had been broached once too often.

[...]

This is something I've been thinking about — yet again — the well-worn question of 'what is slash?'. In the past few months, I've had a few experiences that have, I admit, bothered me. A lot.

Experience No. 1: On a mailing list (e-mail), some people started discussing 'slash', but they were calling it slash because the sex/romance was taboo, there were obstacles to overcome, barriers to break down (in other words, generic elements that almost any non-action semi-romance can be reduced to) — and in this case, one 'slash' partner was male, one female.

Experience No. 2: Within a week, I received private email from someone on the Blake's 7 list, saying that she knew I was involved in slash, and could I point her in the right direction "to get some slash". Then she told me the sort of slash she was looking for: none of that "homosexual pornography", no explicit sex "not even normal stuff, like between Servalan and Avon" (and wouldn't those two be bitterly disappointed to hear their sexual encounters described as 'normal'!), because what she really wanted was stories like the series, about them fighting for freedom, etc, etc. Well, I was actually nice, and told her that what she was looking for was called gen (and I only roasted her over a low flame for the 'normal' dig against homosexual stuff).

Experience No. 3 A vicarious experience, to a degree, but bothersome nonetheless. After those two nouveau-slash definitions, came...another slash fan told me about her experience: whilst talking to a fellow X-Files fan, she mentioned that the programme would be really difficult to slash. Her friend (who is not a media fan, but knows as fair bit about all of this, and reads slash, but isn't properly addicted yet) didn't think it would be hard to slash X-Files at all, because, after all, Mulder and Scully were right there....

So all this has got me both royally pissed off and nervous. Pissed off because this feels like people trying to 'steal' slash from us by making it etiolated and generic, and nervous because I have these horrible visions of having to try to find 'male/male stories involving sex and/or romance between two recognisable media characters' in amongst the huge piles of gen and adult 'slash' on Bill Hupe's table. A fate worse than death!

Some Topics Discussed in "When Correctly Viewed"

Excerpts from "When Correctly Viewed"

I'm actually sitting down to reply with three back issues of the apa on hand, instead of just one or two. That's because of a mailing glitch in the Two Heads' trib for #7. I gather it went out late, after the apa proper; but not everyone got it. My first inkling of its existence was the responses from [B], [N], [S], and others in #8. After some confusion over the phantom trib aggravated by the excitement and exhaustion of Escapade— I finally got a copy from [S]. And then, of course, I had to fish out #6 to see what it was responding to. So I'll reply to that first, since it comes first chronologically.

I think there is indeed something that looks a lot like misogyny in certain specific slash stories. I don't by any means think that the genre as a whole IS misogynistic, but I find that I come across things that bother me in this respect quite often. Here's an example:
Blake could imagine how it had been, Anna delicate and circumspect, kissing his cock as a great sacrifice, maybe using her tongue a little (but nowhere near the tip) while Avon politely lay and yearned to thrust it arrogantly down her throat. Women, very often, just had no idea." — Sebastian, "Bittersweet," in Oblaque IV, p. 50.
This was an excellent story that I liked a great deal, but I really could have done without this paragraph on the next-to-last page. Yeah, there are some justifications for it within the story, but I still don't like it. And this kind of gratuitous slam at the female characters, which I for one am capable of interpreting as a put-down of women generally, occurs in many stories. Why does sex with men have to be presented as inherently better than sex with women? Why can't it just be different, or better because it's with a particular partner that you're madly in love with?

As for the lack of women as evidence of alleged misogyny, certainly it would be out of place to waste time developing a female character at length if the story is really about two men. But it seems odd and unbalanced to me when the story is set in a world without any women to speak of at all. It's one thing if Avon and Vila are alone on a planet all by themselves; it's another thing altogether when the Pros move through 20th-century England without encountering any females at all, in any capacity. [J] brought this up at a Pros panel at Escapade, asking why there are so often no women in Pros stories — not necessarily as fully realized characters, but just as walk-ons: a doctor to patch the guys up, a clerk in a store, a passerby on the street, etc. A world without any women at all is just plain unbelievable. This is at least as bad a flaw n the writing as presenting an unrealistic view of what it would mean for two men in 70s Britain to be sleeping together, (I might add that I have not found M. Fae to be an offender in this respect. There are indeed minor female characters who wander through her stories from time to time; I particularly remember a certain cute little redheaded nurse in a Pros story of whom I thought, whether accurately or not, "Well hello, M. Sue Glasgow!" And no, I am not one of those readers who calls every female character by the MS epithet. Though it's not something I have any intrinsic objection to; this one, if that's what she was, I quite liked.)

The problem [of misogyny] is certainly not limited to slash. There is a definite tendency in B7 gen stories to underplay the female characters or get rid of them altogether. I find it particularly annoying when a writer kills off one or more of the women from the show only to bring on an original female character. Would they do that with one of the men, I ask you? Ha!

Being a relative newcomer and seeing one senior slashfan ranting at other senior slashfen kind of reminds me of what I went through at work a few years ago, when the dean and the head of my department had it in for each other. There were all these horrible meetings at which the two of them would scream at each other while the junior faculty (including yours truly) tried very hard to sink through the floor to escape notice. [P] suggests that I ought to keep my mouth shut on this occasion too, but I hate having to be prudent about my goddamn hobby.

I have the impression that you were responding to something that wasn't actually said — at least not by [T] in her trib back in #6. I gather that there are rude and stupid people elsewhere who assume that your stories are in some sense autobiographical, but I don't believe that was what was meant in this case at all. "Identifying with the characters," either as a writer or a reader, does not necessarily mean that one personally resembles them or wants to resemble them. It can also refer to the leap of imagination that makes it possible to go into someone else's head and write convincingly of emotions that are indeed foreign to you, or to read with a receptive mind capable of appreciating the author's skill in conveying the characters' emotions. It means being able to understand, for the duration of the story, what it would be like to be that character, however repellent you might find his behavior in real life. You said that the story characters are not an extension of your psyche or sexuality, but surely your imagination is a part of your psyche too?

[...]

I think [L] is making an important point that needs to be emphasized: slash is fundamentally a female sex fantasy. It's not basically gay literature.

This is a gender distinction, not a sexual-preference one; and in fact one of the things I find most interesting in thinking about the appeal of slash is that it works as a turn-on for women with such a broad spectrum of real-life preferences and tastes, whereas men who take a serious personal interest in it can (as far as I know) be counted on the fingers of one hand.

I fully agree that sex is the basic motivating factor without which the genre would never have developed. And yet, as recent discussions on the slash list made clear, there are very active slashfen who really aren't interested in explicit sex but just want romantic stories. I was absolutely floored when someone on the slash list asked, during the discussion of the slash debate then raging on the B7 list, whether it might be advisable not to mention the sexual aspect of slash consumption when defending the genre from its detractors! I didn't like that idea at all — it seemed kind of dishonest, and besides, I think it's important to assert that yes, women have sexual fantasies too. So many people these days seem to believe that women aren't really interested in sex, and I'd like to counter that pernicious notion. You are certainly doing your bit, for which I am intensely grateful.

I enjoyed your review of Leigh's videos very much. It was interesting to see how different your taste is from mine. I really liked the "Mr. Tambourine Man" vid and it's not just a generation-gap thing, since previously I had always hated that particular song. (Though I admit, I listened to a lot of Dylan in college, like everyone else I knew. We all thought the lyrics were about us personally. Him and the Beatles, in depressed moods. I still sometimes think of myself as Sexy Sadie: "You broke the rules... You laid it down for all to see... Sexy Sadie, oh-oh, what have you done?") I love "I Was Only Kidding." So shamelessly wicked. And I always crack up laughing at "Yakkety Yak." The point where Vila slams his glass down is where I usually start laughing out loud. You didn't mention my two favorites of the serious ones: the Tarrant weepie, "Show Me the Way," and my very top favorite, "Sailing," which eluki bes shahar described as being about the entire crew's romance with Death. I used to be able to cry over these when I was in the mood, though now I've watched them so much that the effect has somewhat worn off.

Sorry to hear about your problems with the cover of the new book. It sounds like some of the horrid-cover stories I've heard from writers of fiction. You've given me one more reason to be glad I'm in art history — we usually just get a photo of one of the works of art the book is about, instead of some designer's notion of "art."

I was interested in your comment on the difference between being in an evolving fandom and a "finished one." It reminded me of a discussion I had with my friend [C] back when we were both new to B7, all of three years ago. We were kind of sorry to have missed out on all the fun old cons with the actors that we kept hearing about. On the other hand, we were extremely glad both to have missed the Controversy entirely, and to have such an enormous backlog of reading matter awaiting us. Also, I kind of like the fact that the canon is stable, so that fondly cherished fannish speculations will not be overturned by subsequent episodes.

Interesting point that SF fans don't usually "poach." I can think of several reasons: it's more difficult and less satisfying to produce a fan product in the same form as the original, i.e. print; the lesser skill of the fan writer is likely to be painfully obvious (unless said fan is M. Fae); the original writers are more protective of their work; and they are right to be, because fan fiction could be much more damaging to them than to large studios (it muddles their title to the copyright, leaving them open to predation by, say, a large studio, which might try to use their work without paying on the grounds that the fan fiction had put it into the public domain).

Some Topics Discussed in "To Be Announced by T H"

  • an essay called "ABSOLUTE FILTH: An A to Z of Sex by Julie Burchill
  • figure skating comments
  • about the lack of Wizards and Warriors fiction

Excerpts from "To Be Announced by T H"

I think the friendliness or otherwise of both SF and Media cons depends on the people you happen to meet. My first con was a small SF con, and I still keep in contact with some of the people I met there (it turned out later that [M] was one of those people I met but didn't swap addresses with - and she lived less than 10 miles from me; my fourth or fifth con was a Star Trek con, and it was one of the most miserable I ever attended. They were such a cliquish group, who sat in front of video screens mouthing the words back at the screen, the conversations in the bar were all about really obscure plot points (that I couldn't follow at the time, not having seen the series for many years). All in all, that con was one of the reasons I didn't go to more media cons - I hated it! My experience is that it is easier to attend an SF con if you don't know anyone there than a media con. If you do know people at the media con they will connect you to other people automatically (they will always know someone you really should meet, and will introduce you straight away) whereas making more connections at an SF con is not so easy.

I've wondered about the lack of Wizards & Warriors stories. I've seen two stories (in issues of Dyad) that I really loved. The concept of the show looked quite good but it seems to have disappeared without trace. Some of the reviews I have seen in various American magazines moaned on and on about how 'camp' the show was. As it has never shown here (to my knowledge anyway) I have no idea what the show was actually like, but the fiction was good, and I would really like to read a good, long, angsty story.

Some Topics Discussed in "Delusions of Gender"

The entirety of this trib is an essay called "HOW TO SUCK COCK - A 14 LESSON TUTORIAL WITH TECHNIQUES FROM SOME OF THE EXPERTS."

References

  1. ^ by Sandy Herrold and Megan Kent (appeared at the 1994 Virgule convention, also at the Escapade 1995 vid show with "Rock and Roll".)
  2. ^ This is a slam on Princess Diana.
  3. ^ It was explicitly addressed to at least two fans by name.
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