Strange Bedfellows (APA)/Issue 014

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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

Strange Bedfellows 14 was published in August 1996 and contains about 111 pages.

cover of issue #14, portrays Mulder and Scully gathering some zines off the ground. The artist is Cat Anestopoulo.

Some of these zines are: Late For Breakfast, Terra Nostra Underground, Uncharted Waters, D-Notice, The Plain and Simple Zine, Quantum Fire, In a Plain Brown Wrapper, Leapin' Friskys, Concupiscence, Fantazine, Friend of My Heart, Oblaque, maybe X-Rated X-Files, and Dyad.

There were 33 members sharing 22 subscriptions.

Some Topics Discussed in "Strange Tongues"

  • visual slash vs textual slash, Pros circuit stories and fans who'd never seen the show
  • much about Babylon 5
  • do comedic and campy shows (Xena and UNCLE) produce less slash than angsty ones?
  • are words/darkfic dangerous?
  • speculation on the Fraser/Victoria pairing
  • pairings and Forever Knight
  • Western fans and Japanese fans and differing mindsets regarding writing and From Eroica with Love
  • lack of Highlander and Forever Knight slash fiction

Excerpts from "Strange Tongues"

... I went to MMC with the hope of finding out more about slash, Nick/LaCroix if that was the usual pairing in that universe, but everyone I asked, including those who should have known what they were talking about, said there weren't any whole zines for slash in the fandom. Does anyone who reads this have more information? Same question for Highlander, and same answer. Despite the massive buzz on both these shows in slash as well as gen fandom, slash as more than miscellaneous stories (and surely in activity on the e-net), doesn't seem to exist in quantity. Yes, the concept is more readily thinkable now, but does that mean fans don't write it as often? Or does it have to do with the "eternal immortal" themes? DS, which is younger than either of these shows, has a nice stack of all-slash zines (and even a little readable gen) already. Do characters who might live forever make slash as such less necessary, perhaps, having their own different but equally riveting high-profile problem?

The mention of Aoike's "Nosferatu" after the discussion above makes me wonder if desperate Eroica fans might have done better to import Louis and Lestat to spice up Aoike's too-mundane Transylvania. Concomitantly, are Japanese fans as wildly eager to cross any and all universes in that way, as they are to combine characters for yaoi?

Something downright weird about Japanese and Western fandom is how processes that start in the same place (such as dramatic series with "holes," or minimal series, i.e., sources where something is left to the imagination) end in the same place (rampant fan story-telling), are upon examination achieved by different means, for different ends. That is, they may well be entirely different processes, despite the obvious parallels. Eroica may give rise to stronger story-telling in the West because it's too detailed to leave Japanese fans room to maneuver, but not for non-Japanese-reading fans, who miss so much verbal detail and lose all kinds of cultural references.

I'd guess the amateur fans are the conservative ones in terms of story structures just because they need the simple rules to work by, while more accomplished artists have the technique and confidence to break the rules for good reasons. Western fandom has broken taboos rather than format rules for the most part; it's not usually innovative about writing techniques.

The double-think inherent in Japanese stories and pictures, especially at the point where the blue-eyed blonds are meant as idealized Japanese characters, is astonishing to us; but I think Western fans are just different fish in a different bowl of water, not seeing the immense double-think that takes them from a nominally straight TV drama to the fannish slash universe where true love and good sex - or immortality are the inevitable goal of every set of partners. (Doesn't anybody just solve crime any more?)

I personally think, from reading the (translated) Eroica manga, that Eberbach ought to be a repressed German romantic ready to be released, even if there's little-and-dwindling evidence in the manga stories that he actually is. Hence all the borrowing from, I guess, my own depths to make him look that way in my fanfic.

Okay, Forever Knight. Now that I think about it, this should have been a nice, conventionally slashy buddy-cop show: two guys who solve murders and get shot at together, one with a devastating secret, the other sympathetically human. Are there fan stories about Nick and Schenke falling into an "obvious" donor/drinker relationship? Are there fannish tearful scenes of Schenke being there for Nick in his adversity of trying to regain mortality? Does Nick convert Schenke (or vice versa) to vampire immortality so they can be together for eternity? No, nothing of the sort has ever appeared (that I know of) in the fandom. Certainly not in quantities enough to define a fannish genre. No, Nick and Natalie - she being "there for him" in the matter of regaining his human mortality — are one well-exploited relationship, and Nick's connections with seldom-seen (and in one case, dead-for-a-season) vampires are taken as primary. Schenke is all but totally ignored outside the exact role he plays on screen, the oblivious co-worker. Why? This is not to point out that fans are missing a bet, though I suspect some do underestimate the art involved in creating Schenke as a character. Rather, fans collectively are seeing something other than a routine slash pair in this rather routine (outside the vampire question) cop-buddies couple, and the question is what they do see. I think you may pinpoint it in saying the show is basically a struggle between good and evil, the saga of Nick's moral choices as they affect his mortal soul. His relationships with vampires are what's important, and his relationship with Natalie in that it's based on his struggle for mortality, is crucial. The possibility of sex with Schenke is simply irrelevant to fannish thinking: very unexpected given the show's outline, unless there is something else occupying the central core of attention. Perhaps the personnel changes and more visible vampire characters in the third season emphasized this, but it was part of the show throughout.

I must confess that my attitude toward B5 is much less analytical than it first was, or perhaps should be. At the moment (this may be an aberration to do with the writing fever that has seized me in its inky grip) I am currently focused on B5 as a backdrop for what I can make up to go with it, slipping from first- to fourth- (well, third-) wave fannish style. Am occupied in overwriting it, rather than seeing into the layers of possible plots. Is this what ever so many fans do nearly all the time? That I used to be above? Am I regressing? Well, whatever it is I am doing it, and I'm getting nothing but encouragement for it from nearly everyone I know in fandom. Glad you can keep to a more intellectual approach while I'm off gathering daisies, however.

UNCLE was comedic too, and perhaps it's significant that it only became a major slash fandom in the 80's, when not only was the show re-aired, and not only were there existing slash models to spark the development of N/I as a genre, but also the concept of an "international police force" was considerably darker and more dramatic for viewers than might be thought in the 60's. UNCLE is also notable as the fandom with the highest h/c content known to fan: the stories really based on the dramatic possibilities in the show amount to one-offs and a few stray stories, rather than the body of the fandom. I often wonder, in fact, if there would be any readable UNCLE slash at all if Eros and Urich hadn't contributed some models of How It Can Be Done.

Remember how I was seduced by Due South and told you all about it last apazine? Now I'm writing stories, based not only on DS but on everything else I've ever heard of, which is taking up enormous amounts of time, including the weekends I should otherwise have spent doing a longer apazine. Even now, I am acutely aware that I am not writing about Benny and Ray in a waterfall; nor about a fiery young Centauri courtier who is going to fall, most inappropriately for all concerned, for Ivanova; nor even about Eroica casing the Chicago Institute of Art and doing a comparative study with the Royal Ontario Museum. But I could be, and it's driving me crazy. I cannot quite bring myself to apologize for this sudden access of fannish (rather than fan-of-fannish) behavior, but I will try to talk about other subjects, such as slash in the abstract, here. The question is: Was I a raving lunatic before, or have I just become one? I am sure I'm in good company either way, so I shan't repine. Besides, that would take too much time away from imagining yet more narrative scenes about Japanese anime characters transposed into Western TV show settings.

Bosh, bother and nonsense, to whatever fan it is who thinks that dark fanfic — or any kind of fanfic or any kind of writing — is inherently bad for the soul. The reader and her soul are active participants in any reading, and they are what determine the meaning and use of whatever she reads. This comes down to "pornography doesn't rape people, people rape people," or something like that. Whatever you've read, or watched, or heard (even on the news) is no excuse for anything a person does. I've recently had a similar discussion on the unappetizing topic of some of the more extreme examples of NAMBLA literature, and it still comes down to a freedom-of-publication issue, like it or not. Reading the how-to literature isn't a crime. Molesting kids is a crime. You can't punish thoughts and keep a free society, as the whole "Nightwatch" thread in B5 should remind those of us who may be too young to recall the McCarthy blacklist era of the 1950's.

In B5, slash possibilities for Franklin seem to me best with Marcus. Franklin and Garibaldi, despite all that Italian cooking, were clearly (to my eye) an effort doomed to failure as far as hot romance was concerned, though in the kind of friendship one has instead of romance, they were doing fine. Garibaldi's heart was with Sinclair. (:-)) Marcus has the qualification that he's even further out on a limb than Franklin, and disguises it nearly as well most of the time. Marcus has a slightly better reason, in the war and his Ranger activities, for being functionally psychotic than Franklin did for overusing drugs, but I have a feeling they could sympathize with each others' obsessions rather well.

On images being necessary to slash: I would have argued against this a year ago, and I'll still point out that some fans (like me) get off on word combinations at least as fast as on pictures. However, it does seem clear that not only are many fans affected by pictures over words at the ratio of 1000:1, but also, as I re-assess my reactions to various fannish shows and other stimuli, that the visuals do add something. Not everything, mind you, since the most delicious image is nothing for long without witty dialogue or at least music, but something. On the other hand, there's the phenomenon of B/D circuit-story fandom, as you say. I might suggest that the visual inspiration there wasn't precisely absent, but was present at second hand, having been gleaned from the earlier material that did come from fans who'd seen the show on screen

Thinking of f/f, your discourse shows that it logically follows that a single-woman character is in and of herself as shocking and transgressive as two men are only if they sleep together. F/f is redundant, as so much else about female characters on screen is to female viewers: they're not broken so we don't have to fix them; they're not mysterious enigmas so we don't have to explain them; they're not breaking a high-profile taboo by linking up with the most obvious partner provided, so we don't have to do it for them when the show doesn't, because the show usually does. (Being TV, it generally got the style of partnership wrong due to the overriding cultural necessity for *romance* if there was (a) a woman and (b) a man, in the same plotline, but due to a number of factors it often wasn't worth rewriting those couples to make them both human, and we went with slash instead; but you know that part.) By your argument, female characters if they're really independent and self-sufficient, are revolutionary in themselves already, no sexual activity needed. Hmmm. But they need sex lives, or some of them should, as human beings, don't they? There's a place for slash here, still, no less than m/m remains fascinating to some readers even when m/f relationships are possible with the edge and danger of equality. Well, I hope so. I also agree with you about fannish denials of interest in female characters being ironic, since so many fans are patently writing about themselves at some level. But is it themselves as women, or as human personalities, who might be jealous or petty or cruel or kind regardless of sex? Fandom also makes it possible to be conscious of oneself as female, in a community focused on female interests, even while one is creating fictional men to the best of one's writerly ability with as much dissociation as one can muster. One hopes.

Some Topics Discussed in "Cat's Darkling Zine"

Excerpts from "Cat's Darkling Zine"

Geordi: It is a pity he was used as what the French call a "faire valoir" (a foil, I believe? Someone whose sole purpose is to make another look good.) As I said, I have absolutely no idea why I like him. Maybe I am driven to like at least one character in a series, and by default, since there is no major embarrassment about him, it's got to be him?

About Scully's dressing. She had more practical clothes when rescuing Mulder in [the episode] DEEP THROAT, but that seems incidental. OK, a lot of her work consists in getting people to give her answers, which she might feel easier to achieve if dressed for the part, but I seem to remember her wearing protective clothing during autopsies. Could be wrong. And I find her so tiny and cute in those big flapping coats.

A point of importance to me ; I could actually like/drool over Ralph Fiennes. As Ammon Goetz in Schindler's List, it was too serious a movie that I could disregard the uniform. In "Lawrence" I could drool over him to my hearts content and not need feel nauseous. Those looks they gave each other... Those looks... Or was I seeing something that wasn't there? I had to stop watching when I got too excited; I got to squeal at the really intense bits, hide my head in the sofa cushions and shake [A] like a fruit tree.

I've seen Methos! On a splotchy picture, with flickering TV reception, and zig-zag gaps, on a postage stamp sized TV screen, but I've seen him... And liked what I saw... Is he going to be a recurring character? (Or, since you get the series ahead, has he been killed already?) He's oohh... So cute when he gets his nose painted by Duncan! So endearing in his determination to protect him from Christine! Richie, Duncan, Methos, what a lovely pretend family they'd make... But surely, that would be too enjoyable to be true. I can't believe it: I haven't seen him (Methos) clearly, and already I think (wrongly, I suspect) he must be as sexy as Antonio Banderas. There must be something magic about him. Later: I've seen him now, on a clear picture at [A's]. Methos is... looks very gay, loves to stand close to Duncan, and is incredibly exiting. Reminds us of another actor we can't pinpoint. Is there slash with him around???? I'm in love all over again! Weird thing, in the French version Methos and Duncan say 'VOUS' to each other which is very formal and stand-offish. That seems wrong for them. Although the English has only one second person, do the dialogs between Methos and Duncan convey the same distance ?))

I still like [Miguel Ferrer] as deep as when I watched Twin Peaks enthralled, episode after episode, without realizing that it wasn't so much Twin Peaks I cared for, but him ! And most TP slash is Harry (blah) Truman and Dale Cooper. No fairness in this world. And then I go thinking that Benton Fraser, who is about as goody-stuck up as Harry Truman is not blah at all. Go figure. I just love manipulative bastards.

The main difference between Voyager and ST TNG is that so many Voyager characters have a strong hook for me: Janeway's raspy whiskey voice, B'Elanna's intelligence and fierceness, Chakotay's softness, Tuvok's serene hypocrisy, Paris' courtship of abject failure (he's a soul brother Arnold Rimmer, another character I love.). The Doctor' (who's not the one, who's eight of them but almost as whimsically and beside the point as the real one (ones?)), Kes's funny accent (English speakers, please, is this a made up accent, or a local one?) Of course, I couldn't like that much any Tom Dick and Harry Kim, but he plays the flute so marvelously to Tom Paris, almost climbing into his lap ?)

As to people who are completely alone, without a shared culture or others of their kind; I grew up on comic books, and those lostlings are a dime a dozen in that medium : mutants, androids, survivors of displaced timelines. Sole Survivors of a Massacred Race are common as dirt, my favorite being Element Lad from the Legion of Super-heroes, a cute blond wearing pink.

Little pudge of a ghost? MARTY HOPKIRK? How dare you? Good description, but HOW DARE YOU? Not wish him on Randall, I mean? Maybe you wish Jeannie on him? Heretic! Marty is perfect! Petulant, annoying, immature! (And I STILL don't like those qualities in Bodie.) And so jealous! (whether of Jeannie or Jeff is not always clear, seeing the way he behaves when Jeff is trying to have it off with ANYONE.). Hopkirk has gone to the Q & Callavicci's school of obnoxiousness and graduated with flying colors.

How does creating a show, writing episodes etc. allow anyone to dictate to others what they are permitted to read? You can only push creative control so far.

I haven't seen a lot of Due South, the pilot and two episodes. From what I saw, Benton is manipulative because he knows very skillfully to tap into the bottomless well of people feeling guilty over feeling imperfect. Maybe not because he is cynically manipulative (this could also be discussed), but because it comes naturally to him : this was what has been done to him when he was young. From the reaction of his Canadian colleagues in the pilot, he did not interact much with them. That is how he can start with an almost clean slate of naivete for the viewer to marvel at. In Canada, he was able to flee into solitude. With Ray, he's got a problem. Humans seem determined to find meanings, even when there are none to find, into anything, from tea leaves to politician speeches. Being driven to find meaning in the most unlikely places, given the right motivation, Ray will try to find meanings into Benton's polite behaviour (mask, attitude) that such behaviour was never meant to convey. But from Benton's past, we see that his excruciatingly polite behaviour could be layered with secondary meanings, because Benton has no other language to express his emotions in. Ray is a shock to him, because up to now, only Diefenbaker, could understand Benton's unique sign language. Maybe that's why it doesn't matter that Ray is so ugly.

The only thing that ever prevented me from fancying a David/Nick Starsky story is that Nick is so incredibly unattractive. Proper brothers is what most heroes lack.

Some Topics Discussed in "Twinbear"

Excerpts from "Twinbear"

Forever Knight came to a sharp and wooden end. I would've been more annoyed if I hadn't been so amused (and if it weren't perfectly easy to think of ways around it.) Maybe I just no stake in the ending.

I usually do enjoy Sliders, in spite (or because) of the cheesy plots and acting. Like the one where the US was run by Spain and the illegal aliens huddling on street corners were from Canada ("Get back to your pallid, damp little country where you belong!") or the Planet of the Apes rip-off (with the apes the Kromags --Cro-Magnons-- (Who were completely human, by the way)--get it? GET IT?) But the only trace of feeling between any of the sliders is between Rembrandt, the black singer, and Wade, the little elf girl. Watch them — they're the ones that hug, that greet each other after every parting most enthusiastically, that walk side by side with hands touching. Quinn, not a flicker. I think he's gay. I hope the professor isn't...

I do have some semi-private slash universes that are either purely literary or purely made-up. One universe, for example, started by a friend who kindly lets me play, involves the children of Doc Savage and Holmes' granddaughter (after he gave up his incestuous affair with his half-brother, Tarzan. (this all takes-off from Philip Jose Farmer's pastiches) who go on to have slash love affairs throughout time and literary history, including characters from Dickson's Dorsal series, Heinlein's Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Bujold's Miles Naismith. And one of my favorite slash novels is DVS's Discovered Among the Stars, which has only small role played by Kirk and Spock near the end; her original characters are far more interesting. But I do agree that is is far harder to get critical mass for a slash fandom with any book -- especially sf and adventure books, which are still aimed at male readers -- than with a tv show or movie, where you can just say, "Look!"

Some Topics Discussed in "Ghost Speaker "

Excerpts from "Ghost Speaker "

What I've always aimed for is just what you describe — much in little. What Kipling called writing like carving mother-of-pearl; writing a story so that it reads differently on the second reading, and maybe differently again on subsequent readings. Writing densely (I mean texture, not intelligence). The odd thing is that media fiction is a perfect field for this kind of writing; you can even take what I call "visual quotes" from the series - describe in words a scene from the series, without making overt reference to the moment except in the description. You can throw in a quote from an episode knowing that a well-versed fan will pick up on that and, in a way, have the whole episode to add to that moment.

A few months ago a package appeared with four free Mills and Boon books (cheap straight romances; I think Harlequin is the US equivalent), a free teddy-bear, about six inches tall, and a special offer to buy four new M&B romances every month. So, I tossed the special offer in the bin, gave the M&B books to Oxfam, and kept the teddy-bear. Wasn't her fault she'd fallen into bad company.

Some Topics Discussed in "Weirdness on a Swan's Wing"

  • being on several slash panels at cons
  • Visibility, is slash gaining some respectability?
  • keeping one's slash interests from family members, co-workers
  • Violating the Fourth Wall

Excerpts from "Weirdness on a Swan's Wing"

Is slash gaining respectability?' I'm not too sure what the outcome of the discussion was [at Worldcon in Glasgow]. Sure I'll admit to writing slash, try stopping me, but only when I'm with other fans. Not just slash fans - that goes without saying - but people in other fandoms. People who may have no wish to read or write slash but can understand an obsession when they see one. I'll quite happily go on a panel and admit to a room full of people that I want to write pervy stories about my favourite characters from stage and screen. However, I am a little cautious about mentioning it when I'm outside my cosy, fannish world. I wouldn't mention it at work for instance... I mean they know I'm strange - but not how strange! They know I write - but I dismiss it as 'very derivative fan fiction... the sort of thing only other fans would want to read.' I try and make it sound as unappealing and nerdy as possible and never, ever offer to show it to anyone.

The people I really wouldn't want to know are the actors. I would be very uncomfortable at a media con (as opposed to the SF cons I normally frequent) - I would hate to cause offence. I know people tend to be very discreet at conventions which have actors and other tv people present and I think that is a good thing. After all, while this is something I enjoy and get a lot of fun from, I would never consider doing it if I thought it would hurt anyone. Besides I don't write about the actors - just the characters! For similar reasons I am a little wary of showing my stories to gay men. I do not wish to offend. However, recently a couple of my gay friends have asked to see some of my stories and as they both have a fair idea of what they involve I am inclined to send them. I'll let you know if I get any feedback.

Some Topics Discussed in "Yamibutoh"

  • various doujinshi
  • "Takarazuka fem fans"
  • "Eroica has been written over a number of years and during the writing time, Aoike's attitude towards her characters seriously changed."
  • much analysis about Japanese culture, sexuality
  • The X-Files, Babylon 5, Due South
  • the musical, "Dora, the Cat Who Lived a Million Times"

Excerpts from "Yamibutoh"

With a few exceptions, Japanese shows have a beginning, a middle and an end. One of the most unique things about EROICA is that it does not, although most manga does. The Japanese, being rather fond of tragedy, generally do not write "Fifth Season" stories to write the characters out of tragic endings that the author/s have created, but these are known. What limited series means in fanfic then is that there is a built-in ending, often tragic, to the overall stories of the characters in a slash story. Char/Garma was a very popular early slash couple (both of Gundam), but no one writing a story with them, however light and fun, could lose sight of the end of the story, that Char would eventually arrange Garma's death as part of his overall revenge against Garma's family. Who needs to overcome barriers, deal with homophobia, with the major barrier of tragic death ahead. With a few exceptions, Japanese fanfic exist in a plot driven universe. There are AUs, but they tend to be light and silly. Usually, a sexual encounter in a zine carries overtones that the audience is supposed to recognize.

Some Japanese stuff reminds me of B7 fic more than anything. The story is fun and light. The dark overtones come with knowing that the situation is not going to last. Char will kill Garma. Avon will attempt to shove Vila out an airlock. Gai will die (after getting his personality back). Avon will shoot Blake. It does not matter what the relationship is in the story, this WILL happen. For Japanese fiction, knowing that tragedy is in the air means that the characters do not, in the story, have to overcome barriers. The barriers are going to show up soon enough in the plot. In a way I really like this. I tend to do this myself in writing (I DID read Japanese stuff first). Why should homosexuality be an issue way in the future (in SF) or among vampires or demons or whatever? Char does not have to worry that he is fucking a minor or that he is fucking a male. It is quite enough that he is fucking a member of the family that he has sworn to destroy.

I'm sure this does not cover everything and there are some other differences and some other reasons, but, to an extent, I do think that the emphasis of "image" over logic in Japanese culture and the limited nature of most Japanese series, both in manga and in anime, do contribute to differences in slash fanfic. There is also the 2-dimensional vs 3-dimen-sional situation and its impact on realism to consider and I am sure there is more.

I'm still waiting to read my first Garibaldi/Sinclair (and I WILL wait 2 more years if JMS insists, but I won't be happy).

The one fandom where there is a lot of black/white pairings is adult stuff for B7 with Dayna and Avon usually. Dayna, however, is only black in color. She has no cultural background that is recognizably "black". Therefore, anyone writing her does not even have to mention racism. As far as I remember, her color was never even mentioned on the show. Especially, dealing in a modern or historical setting, a color-crossed couple has a lot of cultural baggage to deal with. I wonder if it just doesn't intimidate writers. Vulcans can't complain if one portrays them wrong. Gay men are only recently reading much slash and there are still debates in some circles whether men should participate (THIS IS NOT MY OPINION: ONLY I HAVE HEARD THIS), possibly partly because of self consciousness over making errors. Racial stereotyping and cultural booboos are much more nervous-making.

Aoike has indeed changed a lot from her earlier stuff. We foreign fans have put forth theories going from getting married to finding "religion" to explain the shift in her work. Of course it could also be that she is a pro and was following a path from stuff that feels a lot like fanfic (although original, to "straight" action manga. Personally, I wonder if there is any connection between the revival of Eroica and the current popularity of June fiction.

Re X Files, it is too bad there is not more slash or slashy stuff out there. What little I have read has rather disappointed me. Mulder is such a screwed up fellow it seems to me that a lot of really twisty things could be done with his character that no one much has played with. Mulder written by M. Fae, now there is a concept.

Marzipan and Kisses! Heavens! I think I was a member of this for about one year way back in about 1978. I could not keep up. Could this be the same group?

Life in Japanese slash plods along. There are no really good new fandoms. I am hoping that X Files will really catch on with the fans. It is a popular show here, but winter Comicate only had one zine and that was a straight adventure zine. Different shows seem to really attract very different fandoms. I have recently found about The A-Team (last month's cover) zines and they have all been comic stories and gags. Trek here mostly is, too. The only western thing that seems to have slash is Interview with a Vampire and it would be hard to avoid it there.

The big slash fandoms right now are W Gundam (no. #1 by a whole lot)and a short-running SF show called 'Evangelion.' On the ticked off department, on TV right now they are running a late night show called 'Hen' (Weird). It is a live show based on a comic about a high school boy who falls for a very girlish boy in school. Although the boy really is one, the other boy is sure the kid must be really a girl. The show is amusing, but, alas, it is a serious 'cop out' as the girlish boy is being portrayed really by a girl. She isn't very pretty really. There are lots of boys in Tokyo, too, who look as much like a girl as she does, so casting a girl is just to avoid having this kid making passes at and kissing another boy. I thought we were past all that here.

I think it depends on what you mean by the word "shocking". Even in Japan, there is some caring about what sex a character fucks (or a person). Homosexuality is not mainstream and, although the JUNE section of a zine sale draws an enormous crowd by western standards, the number of fans is still a minority. I think the difference is to a large extent that "iya da!" (OH GROSS!) just is not the same as "That is morally degenerate and against the will of God!) I suppose it is that here the condemnation of slash and also the condemnation of homosexuality just does not carry the same moral-emotional-fanatical-knee jerk condemnation. No one seems to care enough to work up a good rant.

St. Seiya, which ran about nine years ago here was really the show that got slash big time here. Before that, there was some after Seiya, a deluge. I have a lot of Seiya zines and a smallish, but dedicated fandom is still putting them out. There is Dragonball slash, too. (really) That those 60 year old women at Tomio's concert would probably say if asked why they screamed when he danced with his brother IS that he is sexy-they probably would not even try to analyze it. It is very very hard to get the Japanese to try and analyze anything.

Selling fanzines over the counter is not always accepted and not always safe. Traditionally, anime producers have seen it as a compliment and felt that an active fandom supports a show rather than undermines its profits. There are a few exceptions, notably Nippon Sunrise's attempt recently to intimidate the pro publishers putting out W Gundam slash stuff. The studio has apparently backed down, but they tried to intimidate the artists and they threatened the publishers. Pro publishing of slashy collections on real stars (especially Jotiny's jimusho) is also out. Mostly, the situation seems to be that the fanzine work, even pro publishing of the same does not undermine the copyright of the material, which in the States, at least, it does. Yes, though, fans tend to recognize intellectual ownership as a courtesy. Ashibe fanwork usually features the artists real work and zines are mostly just information. On the other hand, the artist who does Jeanne's beloved Papua Kun seems to like slash and her own colleagues have put out slash zines using her characters.

"Does western slash appeal to Japanese fans" is no. Very very few of them would be able to read it. Translated, they might like it though. Parts of "Hellhound", after all read like a Japanese zine.

Some Topics Discussed in "Mardi Gras Favors"

Excerpts from "Mardi Gras Favors"

As I've been reading the postings of Digital Graffiti which is devoted to fans of LZ & the current doings of P&P, a few weeks ago there was a posting about the possibility of a sexual relationship between P&P in the past or perhaps just recently started. The responses ranged from: "Really?" to "No way!" to "Who cares, it doesn't change their songs." Is anyone writing stories currently?

[Randym], I loved seeing your two Mulder/Krycek videos at MediaWest. They are very reflective of the range of feelings that exist between the two men. Could I get copies of them? Are you thinking of doing another?

After the [MediaWest*Con] Con, I looked thru the http://gossamer.eng.ohio-state.edu /x-files/ site which is a huge story archive to see whether there were any more M/K stories. I noticed a link entitled Erotica which led to a page asking me to assure them that I was 18 & would not sue them for the ensuing stories' content. The next page had a huge title Auto Asphyxiation above the story listings. Made me look to see if anyone was looking over my shoulder! It listed stories by subject M/S being most numerous. However, there were also listings for Scully/Skinner as well as M/Skinner. The one story for M/Skinner that I read was rather funny from Skinner's point of view as he realized that in "Paybacks" he'd finally found a way of shutting Mulder up.

An unexpected story plot was "XXX-Philes: A Personal Fantasy" [sic] by Kirsten Berry from 1994. She wrote it as a kind of Penthouse Celebrity Fantasy wherein she writes a teleplay which is accepted for X-Files so she is invited to observe the taping in Vancouver. During the taping she finds herself in bed with David. However, she also writes an invitation from Gillian to spend the night as her husband is out of town and as Gillian says "I'm married - not dead. She liked both too much to settle for sex with just one.

[...]

I also found a few more M/K in the gossamer archives. One group by Brenda Antrim of "Deal" & "Bait" & "Possibilities" I originally pulled up because it was listed as M/K/S, but it wasn't a trio. However, it did consider a plot by K to hold M as hostage which develops into sex & in the second story into sex with Scully as a restrained witness to M/K. Though it's certainly not as serous as Nelson's novella. Antrim also has another set of stories "Slick" parts 1 & 2 which allow Scully to beat up K in the second part. Then in "Krycek" she plots a M/K which ends in M shooting him.

I'm working on reading Livengoo's "October" [sic] & "Camping" etc by herself & Amperage & another's whose pseuds I can't recall.

Some Topics Discussed in "The Magic May Return"

Excerpts from "The Magic May Return"

"Klaus is not a repressed German waiting to be released, he's an obnoxious, aggressive, arrogant git, and proud to be so." -- Thank you, thank you, thank you. That scratches right where I was itching. I correspond with people who ask me, indignantly, why I call Klaus a bully; who tell me in all seriousness that Klaus is really a Christ figure taking the sins of humanity on himself; who say yes he's rude and arrogant and obnoxious, but so beautiful it doesn't matter. Manga Klaus is an asshole and Dorian's fascination with him a piece of stunningly bad taste. But then, Dorian likes rough trade. If it looks even remotely like it might beat him up, he goes right after it, as in the current story.

[...]

I'm really not sure that access to a full translation [of From Eroica with Love] would help at all, unless one is a very selective reader. What plowing through the later stuff does is convince me, unmovably, of both the impossibility and undesirability of anything happening between the two. Dorian is a self-preoccupied twit, Klaus is a violent and semi-psychotic jerk: why are we reading about these unpleasant people? Makes me doubly curmudgeonly with the starry-eyed 'But Dorian and Klaus belong together' types. Write them that way if you must, but please include an A/U release at the beginning of your story. (NOTE: The A/U form must be signed for stories where Klaus a) displays self-knowledge or introspection, and/or b) gives Dorian hours of patient therapy.)

'Why can't "they" make Garibaldi bi?' Well, maybe they have. Probably they have. Surely they have. And if they haven't, they've got a lot of explaining to do. Drops the woman in his life to go off and follow a man he's seen only twice? What do we call that? Just a bad case of the 'Come back to the raft, Huck honeys'? [1]

Thanks for your description of the bolt of lightning experience [of being hit hard by a new fandom]. I hadn't realized it was a universal. An image comes along and pushes a button you didn't know was there, and suddenly the universe goes kind of Moebius inside-out and unexpected dimensions open up. Reality is flooded with erotic energy zing zing zing. A white shirt, a blond pony tail on a young boy, and we're history - well no, we're riding a huge wave of excitement. Fun, isn't it? I'm happy to know it can/could happen again.

Wish I could agree that Delenn was ever 'arrogant'. To me it looked assured, and I'd like it back. The brief spark in Severed Dreams wasn't enough. Pretty soon we're back to Delenn-does-Little-Dorrit, being confiding and womanly and timid all over her Big Strong Captain. Yuck. The return to Victorian values being indulged in (sporadically, thank god) by the Earthers has me annoyed. I know openness in sexual matters goes cyclically, but I'd hoped the 23rd century would be a bit more comfortable than middle-class middle America in the 1950's. Whatever the B5 crew do sexually, none of them seems capable of talking about it, or of talking about sex at all. Having Ivanova blench and fall all over her feet whenever an alien asks her a perfectly straightforward question is painful. It's conduct unbecoming an adult.

Can of worms time: care to recap that discussion in the other apa about why dark fanfic might be considered bad for the soul? I take it there were some arguments on the anti-dark side that made sense to you. I've always assumed that the point of these stories is to take the monsters of the id and look at them in the light, but it never occurred to me to wonder if the exercise itself might be dangerous for anyone but the person whose id is being emptied.

You say [Blake's 7 characters are] not doing it. Maybe it's because my introduction to B7 itself was the Oblaque series, but I've always envisioned B7 slash as comprising a parallel pornographic universe where Blake and Avon and Vila - ok ok, Leigh: and Tarrant - never do anything but screw each other. The plot and background of the series is of minor importance: all that matters is the web of of emotional relationships among the main characters and its expression in sexual terms. When relationship is more important than setting, I expect to find A/Us: but I gather there are very few B7 A/Us to speak of. The characters are inseparable from their s/f setting, but the setting itself isn't important. Is this a paradox?

You're the Eros who wrote Seducer Seduced [in Compromising Positions ], yes? I loved that story: it stood all the conventions on their head and made them make sense. I never understood where the 'poor little Illya' notion came from, unless it was a fannish conviction that Illya would look cute if he could only be persuaded to whimper.

Why no black slash? I'd say, off the top of my head, that the fear of using (culturally invading) or misusing a foreign cultural background is stronger than any other factor. Even if it's purely amateur and even if there are few black media fans (let alone black slash fans) who would write the stories themselves, that sense of appropriating someone else's territory - of speaking for a people who have been spoken for for too long and who might well resent me doing it - would keep me from writing a present-day black slash story. Same thing would stop me from writing Indian characters into a DS story, though mercifully it doesn't stop the scriptwriters. (The scriptwriters consult the Indians involved, at least, but my natural Canadian reaction is that there ought to be some Indian scriptwriters there in the first place. Sorry, was someone saying that DS is leftist? It isn't really: it's Canadian.) It wouldn't stop me for a minute from writing a Franklin story or a Geordi story or a Sisko story if the man didn't put me to sleep, or anything else if I wrote live action fanfic which of course I don't... though the temptation to do Franklin/Garibaldi is almost irresistible. Funny that there's no Bowler/Brisco stuff, though, or Calrissian, if in fact that's true: all the rules are off in a fantasy based series.

It seems to me that Whorf and Tuvok are very properly Klingon and Vulcan first in the fannish imagination; the race of the actor who plays an alien can surely be of only marginal importance? I assume (doubtless incorrectly) that Andreas Katsulas is Greek or something, but once the latex is on, does it matter?

You don't find your own sex scenes arousing? That's too bad: they work so nicely for us... My experience is the opposite. The first PWP I wrote I had to keep my vibrator handy in order to relieve the — uhh, the creative strain. And yes, it was full of all the decades-old cheap thrills fantasies, and having them all in one place at one time in print blew the top of my head off. Repeated re-readings and re-re-readings and re-re-re-readings have taken the edge off, as is inevitable, but there's still a lot of energy there. Oh definitely, I write for myself, and I get very cross when the disembodied voices of putative future readers come whispering their suggestions and criticisms. If I'm doing this for myself alone, I expect to be spared all that.

What's wrong with biblical incest? Not that Moses/Aaron pushes any buttons. Traumatized by Charlton Heston at an early age, I was, and can't see Moses as anything other than a stick, and Aaron as anything but a smart PR man. But Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel has definite possibilities.

The Internet. You all know the story about W.H. Auden coming to visit T.S. Eliot and finding him playing solitaire? "Good God, Tom, how can you stand to play that mindless game?" To which Eliot replied "It's the closest I can come to being dead." The Net's like that, except that unlike solitaire (but sort of like ironing) it gives you the illusion that you've actually accomplished something in return for the three or four hours expended. So your story stays stuck at page two and the pile of zines gets no lower... so what? I hate the beast, but I'm a mail junkie and I can't live without it. Even though I can now fret because no-one's writing me in two modes, not one.

Let's not talk about DS, because we're bound to disagree. No, let's not talk about Fraser because we're bound to disagree. You think he's a human being and I think he's a Canadian shibboleth. Leave me my Ceinadian in-jokes; we have so few of them. 'You say 'skedule' and I say 'shedule'. You spell it 'color' and I spell it 'colour'. Skedule/shedule, color/colour, let's call the whole thing off.' We can talk about Ray, if you like. I can't quite see him unselfconsciously gay/bi either; he works too hard at projecting the straight guy image. (And he does it so badly. He could be uncomfortably gay and trying to cover, perhaps.) I wonder why no-one's taken the 'we're not gay we just love each other' out for those two. It's tailor-made for Ray as I see him. If he's living in his mother's value system then he thinks of gay men as effeminate, which Ben isn't; and if he thinks of gay men as being clones in tight jeans with one earring and a drawl, which Ben isn't; and if Ben isn't gay then sleeping with him isn't 'gay' exactly you understand it's — different. (I know it's not logical but it *is* the way the majority of the human race thinks. Playing with the definition until it defines the reality you want it to is the oldest mind-trick in the book.)

Has anyone written Dr. Who as just another old queen?

B5 'a plot driven beast'? I suppose, in that Shit Happens that isn't of the characters doing. What I like about it is that the characters then wade into the shit and clean it up/look distressed when they find it all over their nice uniforms depending on command style. What I like about it is the character-driven action that happens all round the Shit Happening.

Some Topics Discussed in "Desert Blooms"

  • non-white characters in slash, a list
  • Babylon 5, War of the Worlds, Due South, Forever Knight
  • getting turned on by one's own sex scenes
  • the poor quality of fiction on the internet
  • disappointment in watching shows in which actors talk about their own shows

Excerpts from "Desert Blooms"

Oh dear. I beg to differ (I'm feeling ornery tonight). I find Sheridan and Delenn truly charming, very romantic, very mature and very, well, hetero. And I think the wince factor on B5 is pretty minimal. In fact, I think it's one of the most amazing shows on TV. The plots are intricate and surprising and original, and the characters are wonderfully 3 dimensional (mostly). I love it and I even find the relationship between Sheridan and Delenn as much fun as any same-sex pairing (egad!).

We recently got the Sci Fi channel (a great disappointment overall, but maybe it's just the summer doldrums) and I've curiously watched a handful of WOtW eps. Blech! It's awful (I know, I know - "my fandom's okay, your fandom's okay") I haven't found anything redeeming in it, not even the pleasure of watching Adrian Paul grace the screen in khaki's and that oh-so-serious pout. On the other hand, a good piece of writing can suspend my distaste, as least while I'm reading it.

I'm thoroughly impressed with your analysis of Due South! It's almost enough to push me over the edge to actually become a DS fan (this will happen, I know. In time. It's inevitable, and I look forward to it with a quiet anticipation.) There's something terribly fascinating watching the creation of a new fandom as it becomes 'the next big thing". I've never seen it quite so close up before, and from a relatively neutral space. It's fun being an observer rather than a participator.

I saw 2 of the cop show specials [2] - Professionals and Starsky & Hutch - and found them really enjoyable. The SH one just sort of reaffirmed all the reasons we liked it in the first place. I did particularly like the comments about how S & H loved each other. The Pro's one reaffirmed that Lewis Collins is an absolute idiot who ought not to be let loose without a script! Brian Clemens also came off as a real jerk. Martin Shaw was the only one who didn't sound like a total jerk, but he was also the most testy about things. I never realized just how much he hated the show. The whole thing was very bitchy. I think the lesson learned from all of this is that actors shouldn't be let out of their cages too often!

I've recently been exploring more of the on-line erotica available and while a lot of it is of pretty questionable quality, it's enough to get the creative juices running a bit. I'm writing (a painful process) what seems to be an epic Pro's story (who knows if it will end up anything like the way its started?) that incorporates some unpopular ideas (now, if I told you it would ruin the surprise). It won't be a hugely popular story if it turns out the way I think it will (my stories have free will and often do things that I hadn't planned on them doing.)

I think most of the FK slash is on the net, with only a small portion making it's way into zines. And as with most things net, it's not particularly good. I realize that's a pretty broad statement and someone should be able to pop up with a list of good FK stuff (I'm waiting...) but of what [N] & I have found, most is short, badly written fluff which I guess is standard for a circuit fandom. (Our own Katharine Scarritt has written a wonderfully dark and moody piece that contradicts everything I've just said. It's called Serpent's Tooth) While I've been equally intrigued and frustrated by the show, I don't believe the slash fiction has yet lived up to it's promise. On the other hand, some of the gen stuff (yes, I admit to reading some gen) that appeared in the Forever Net zines was quite good. Go figure.

Someone in the last trib or two was talking about whether a writer likes her own sex scenes and this story has been revelatory for me in that way. Usually, when I write the sex I'm concentrating so much on getting the details and the mood and the emotions just so that I divorce myself from the scene and when it's all done. I've never gotten that little sexual jolt that reading a bit that pushes all my buttons can cause. However, this time around I've written 2 bits that were getting me a little hot and bothered as they were being written (both times I was in a fast-food joint at lunchtime - not the sort of atmosphere you'd think would inspire hot sex!). I don't know if readers will get quite the thrill I did writing them, but each time I write I learn new things about the process and that in itself is pretty inspirational.

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

  • this is the first fan to use an emoticon in her trib
  • why a lack of Scully/Skinner stories
  • The X-Files, Scully
  • Krycek isn't evil, just "... morally confused. The poor kid was probably recruited young by CM, and had no idea of what he was getting himself into. By the time he realized what kind of shop CM ran, it was too late to get out."
  • "Nicholas Lea has suggested M/K himself! He's says that's the real reason Krycek is always sneaking around Mulder's house!☺"
  • the film, "Jeffrey"
  • the lack of War of the Worlds slash
  • Due South has taken over slash discussion in many places
  • comments on The Prince of Cups, see that page
  • Hurt/Comfort
  • a reprint (with a black and white photo manip) of "Slick," an X-Files story by Brenda Antrim: "Here, just to prove it can be done: a Mulder/Krycek with Mulder on the bottom. It's netfic, reprinted with the kind permission of the author. This is an alternate ending to the recent two-parter, "Piper Maru" and "Apocrypha." Contains spoilers for third season episodes."

Excerpts from "With Friends Like These..."

I think, just judging from the fanfic, more fans identify with the hurtee than with the comforter. At least with slash and other m-m relationships. In fact, I'd divide h-c fans into three camps. The vast majority are the classic h-c fans, who identify with the one being hurt as way of forcing the hero to show that he cares. Comfort is very important to these fans, and they also tend to like the action to occur between established characters, especially male ones. A smaller group identifies with the comforter and gets off on the power-nurturing fantasy of healing the victim. These fans seem to prefer m-f relationships over m-m, and are more accepting of original characters in the comforter's role. Then there are the "romantic sadists," to use your term, who are probably the smallest group of all. They like the hurt part of h-c comfort, may identify with the hurter rather than the comforter, and even complain about the comfort that clutters up the average h-c. ☺

I'm surprised you say there hasn't been much WOW slash. I didn't like the show much (too gory), but I do remember reading quite a bit of WOW slash. Ironhorse was considered majorly hot stuff. He was by far the most popular character, but the idiot producers killed him off after only one season. Harrison was the guy he was usually paired with. (I think that's his name ~ been a long time.) I liked Ironhorse a lot, but had a hard time seeing him in a slash relationship, because he was a military man. Yes, a lot of officers do have gay relationships, but Ironhorse was such a rule-booker. When he joined the military, he promised he wouldn't engage in homosexual behavior, and that would be reason enough for a man like him. Not that it stopped me from reading the stories, you understand!

Oh, no, another DS fan! ☺ I've watched the show, and it's okay, but the slash appeal eludes me, I'm afraid. There must be something there, though; DS has taken over just about every slash forum I know of!

Enjoyed your comments on The Best Lies, and on XF smut in general. There is a Scully/Skinner contingent out there, but the fraternization thing is a big problem, probably bigger than it is with Mulder/Skinner, because, as you say, Scully is a woman. (And now, of course, we've met Sharon Skinner, whom Skinner obviously loves deeply, so he's pretty much off-limits now.)

[...]

Okay, no Mulder/Skinner, no Scully/Skinner, and Mulder/Skinner. That still leaves us Mulder/Krycek, Scully/Krycek, Skinner/Krycek... ☺

Cody really likes the Mulder/Krycek combination, and has some other great stories that will be published soon. One of them is considerably darker than The Best Lies, and will be appearing, appropriately enough, in the next Dark Fantasies. Another, still in progress, is based on an opera. La Traviata. (Krycek is La Traviato, "the one who has lost his way"!) She's also done a non-explicit Krycek/Melissa and is thinking about doing a Samantha/Scully. (You certainly can't accuse her of being unimaginative!) I have to admit, though, Mulder/Krycek is my favorite XF combination. Nicholas Lea is really hot stuff!

... women's roles on TV and in slash. XF is unique, so far as I know, in that it has a very prominent female character who is not first and foremost a romantic interest. She's carrying half the show, and she's not her male co-star's sex interest. That makes her very special. Yes, Catherine was a high-powered attorney in B&tB, but we all knew that her important role was as love interest for Vincent. Star Wars is another example. George Lucas admitted that he wrote Leia first and foremost as a beautiful princess, until his then-wife told him, "You can't just make her a princess!" and he made her a senator and rebel leader, too. I get that feeling with almost all prominent female TV characters: that they were invented as sexual prizes for the heroes, then had bravery, talent, intelligence, careers, whatever, tacked on as an afterthought. But not Scully; she's unique. And having her get involved with Mulder would ruin that, IMO.

Some Topics Discussed in "Two Heads Are Better Than One" (N B)

  • Due South vs. Wiseguy: What gives rise to a slash fandom?
  • "Overt actions vs. sophisticated innuendo: FK goes out B7 style while Xena producers reject outright denial of f/f relationship"
  • Dalziel/Pascoe
  • the internet and quality control regarding what this fan considers horrible, careless, and too numerous, Due South fanworks
  • regarding writing for shows one is not familiar enough with: "When I [catch an error, I] am jarred out of my happy immersion in a story like that, I find I have a hard time trusting the author afterwards."
  • thoughts on black characters in slashfic
  • MUCH about racism, much about black characters and pairing, some shows with black characters (Babylon 5 and Homicide: Life on the Street) don't have much fanfic due to their structure and the way the shows are written, other shows don't have much because they have limited audiences, the exception is Star Wars and one can blame George Lucas for that
  • The X-Files has run long enough, wrap it up

Excerpts from "Two Heads Are Better Than One" (N B)

I know it's blasphemy to say or think this, but I believe 3 years has been more than a sufficient run for the show. First season had some very intriguing scripts; things have been declining since. I find the scripts ludicrous, laughable, and pathetic most of the time. I am fed up to the teeth with their trying to make it seem like there's some overall direction or plan, when it's obvious they are making it up as they go along. Script inanities and plot obfuscation aside, the characters of Scully and Mulder are intriguing with the latter being extremely easy on the eyes. I suppose that's why I keep watching.

reyrct on TPTB taking fan comments to heart and changing series (but not necessarily in the directions the fans wanted). On a semi-Garak/Bashir list I'm on, there has been a ton of anecdotal evidence given to prove this theory — and yes, to some degree I can believe it's true. Trek (as presented and defined by Via'Borg) wants no implications of homosexuality that it does not control completely and which by default it would allow in only the most sanitized and "castrated" fashion. Deep Sleep Nine, losing ratings as it has been, needed to be revamped to bring in and hold that vital viewer: the young adult male. And to that end this season's eps have brought in male viewer magnet Worf (blehh) and totally cut off the Garak/Bashir scenario. Only one ep really brought them together at all ("Our Man Bashir") and the script was emphatic in presenting Bashir with women. Not that I much care. I really enjoy the G/B stories done by DVS (and to varying degrees, those by other authors), but I don't have any need to actually watch the show. (And I've got all of the G/B scenes on tape anyway.)

Slashing black characters. You gave a list of characters and shows and wondered about them. Sorry, but Murphy was in quite a few more eps than Jax [in The Professionals]; Jax was so minor that he really had no character at all and what does exist is by fannish convention in fanfic. I know there have been Lethal Weapon slash stories (haven't read them but have seen them in multi zines). As for Miami Vice, I've seen a lot of discussion on the whys and wherefores of Crockett/Castillo over Crockett/Tubbs and a lot of the discussion participants have said that there was such chemistry between Crockett and Castillo that just never existed for Crockett and Tubbs. Now it's one thing to write a slash pairing because you think it should be done and an entirely different thing because you care passionately about the characters. I think the best — and most prolific — slash comes from passion, not from academic exercise. So until you find a minority pairing that engenders such passion, you're not going to see a large outpouring of minority pairing slash. One excellently done Hutch/Huggy Bear is not going to inspire me to seek more out or write it myself. In fact, for me, reading the story and really liking it would be a tribute to the writer's skill as Huggy Bear does nothing for me.

So as slash-o-philes, what kinds of rewriting are we tolerant of? Give me source material that reeks of slash and I'll be accepting of even incredibly poorly written stories. If the source material doesn't hand it to us on a silver platter, then it's going to take good writing to convince me. I suppose this disqualifies me from the any two guys school of slash and probably doesn't make me a true fourth waver.

On Dawson in Highlander. Atira Kei [3] has been writing Duncan/Dawson pairings. She considers them her primary slash pair. She has stories in Compound Interest 4.5 with more expected in other zines. I still prefer Duncan/Methos because I find the actor who plays Methos (Peter Wingfield) to be so charismatic and quite a BSO for me. And a lot of other people seem to agree with me. The Highlander newsgroup on the net has been crackling with interest in Methos, not to mention the sparks he's ignited on other mailing lists. Stories are starting to appear — a happy situation.

If you're still not netting around these days — and I haven't heard any evidence that you were — count your lucky stars that you're missing out on the absolute utter crap that the Due South erotica list is churning out. People have taken to writing drabbles (round robins where each contribution is 100 words). As a party game I should think this could be fun, but on the net it's just diarrhea. And frankly, a lot of the Due South net stories are just awful. What is it about the net that engenders so much bad fiction? Is it the ease with which you can whip something off and distribute it to the world? Is it a lack of experience and skill on the part of the writers? Or is it because there are so many people who have recently discovered all this and find themselves wanting to play too?

So why is it that some shows are incredibly popular in slash and others aren't? I've been speculating about this with amusement as I watch new fandoms come into being. Several points: what makes a slash fandom very popular and what gives it enduring popularity (K/S and Pros being two major examples)? Due South typifies the slash fandom that seems almost to have blossomed independently with each individual fan. Wiseguy, OTOH, has struggled. It was practically created by [C] and [J] and though its most passionate fans are just that, they remain few in number and there is relatively little slash material available after all these years. So far, Due South seems to be adhering more closely to the Pros model (is similarity in show structure a factor here?) with its explosion of slashfic in print and on the net. Will it endure? I'm going to go out a limb here (chainsaw in hand) and predict that it will have staying power along the lines of Starsky and Hutch fandom.

The last two eps of Forever Knight were quite wonderful for those of us who like dark stories. "Ashes to Ashes" (the penultimate ep) was one of the slashiest of all (barring "Last Knight" if you see it my way). And I was amazed at the subject matter they got away with: overt references to incest and desire plus the confusion/conflation of roles (mother/daughter and father/son). [K] said she always saw LaCroix as the embodiment of evil until she saw this ep. I read him as a dark character but not purely evil. He and Nick both have a mix of good and evil within themselves and the interesting thing is to see which quality comes out most.

So is anyone going to do a Herc/Iolaus and Xena/Gabrielle zine? Last SBF I commented that I thought there wouldn't be much slash since the shows were more comic/tongue-in-cheek than serious/ dramatic. I haven't yet seen my prediction proved wrong, though I have seen ads asking for submissions to genzines of these shows.

Some Topics Discussed in "Lavender Lilies"

  • this fan, after years of "gobbling up" slash fanworks, is losing interest, why isn't there more variety, more f/f, more things other than white guys and buddy/cop fandoms?
  • the show, Street Justice, and the lack of fanworks for it, slash and otherwise
  • rape as it is depicted in mainstream media and fandom
  • Silent Lily Universe, Snowbound or the Tale of Two Situations
  • a full-page flyer explaining that the third issue of On the Edge was postponed due to lack of submissions

Excerpts from "Lavender Lilies"

I've discovered that I have interests other than slash, which I 'm sure is true of many, if not most people who are reading this. And thus I am free to indulge in these. The first rush of slash fanaticism is over. It hasn't died at all, it's been replaced by something more subtle and more easy-going. But I've discovered that the interest is still there. But I've also discovered less time for it as I make more time for other interests and activities.

Some thoughts about a popular theme in lesbian literature. This is the scenario of women who live in oppressive patriarchal society where women are treated like property, are handed off to men, etc. The heroine in these plots always ends up fleeing this land and finding refuge in a hidden land which is usually populated only by women. I've been drawn to reading this type of story, and the story I recently had published in Alyson Press's gay/lesbian sword and sorcery anthology [4] features this sort of plot. What is the attraction of this sort of plot? It's because for me, a woman loving another woman is the height of deviancy in a male dominated society. Sometimes it's not directly persecuted in such a society because to persecute female/female attraction is to acknowledge that it exists - and this is the big fear and taboo, that men don't have to be the center of a woman's universe. Suppressing f/f love means that one must recognize its existence. So frequently in lesbian literature, women end up fleeing to a land where such love can exist and take place. I have found that when I write f/f slash or lesbian fiction, I usually write about female outlaws. Thelma and Louise were outlaws, and this was a big charge for me. Jenna is an outlaw in my Jenna/Servalan story, and this is vitally important. The main characters in my lesbian sword & sorcery stories are outlaws in rebellion; they kill the master and flee from slavery to freedom.

Kathy Resch once told me that my set of stories based on a A/U Bodie/Doyle universe, The Silent Lily series caused a huge argument at a West Coast slash party. She said that there was a wide variance on peoples' opinions of these stories; some people love 'em and other hate 'em. Which I think is cool. :-) Apparently some of the controversy lies in the fact that I have a character who is permanently maimed in this series. I was rather naive when I began writing these stories, and didn't know that I was apparently violating a sort of taboo. Since then, I've found that many people have no problem with a character being injured, blinded, crippled, made mute, etc. - as long as the character is restored to wellness, sight, able-bodiedness, etc.

This taboo is not limited to slash. In soap operas, a stock plot device is to have one of the main characters get blinded or wind up in a wheelchair unable to walk. But invariably and inevitably, the character is restored to "normality." It's like it violates some sort of "rule" in soap opera tradition to have a permanently disabled character.

Maybe I'm being Politically Correct, or Politically Incorrect or something. But to me, to always have to restore a character to able-bodiedness cheapens the theme of trauma, injury and/or disability. Because most people in real life who are traumatized, blinded, crippled, etc. do not get magically restored to "normal." So why must soap opera and/or slash characters always be "cured" of their disability? Why is it such a threat to some people to have a character with a permanent disability?

I really think that the plethora of rape stories is at least partly a reflection of women's experiences. I don't think I have read as many stories featuring male rape victims/survivors as I have in slash. In the mass media, male rape seems almost a taboo, something which is considered too "much" to deal with. Very rarely are male rape victims/survivors portrayed in Hollywood movies or TV shows. There was a special TV movie caled "The Rape of Richard Beck," and this was presented as a "special issue "sort of TV film. Whereas female characters get raped al the time in the popular media.

I really wish I could see more female characters in fanzines. And I've read all the explanations in SBF and elsewhere, and the paucity of female characters in fanzines, not just slash fanzines, is still something which leaves me in painfully puzzled befuddlement. But fans will do as they wish and not as I want them to.

I am absolutely in love with Captain Janeway, and she can do whatever she wishes with me, or to any Mary Sue character I might invent to be with her :-)

Some Topics Discussed in "Untitled by N F-G"

Excerpts from "Untitled by N F-G"

I'm in love. DUE SOUTH snuck in and stole my heart when I wasn't looking.

Sneaky bastard.

As good as the aired series is, the fanfic, well most of it, is even better.

Some Topics Discussed in "Something Rich and Strange: Tales From the Obsessed"

  • becoming a slash fan after years of not being one
  • Remington Steele, The Sandbaggers, Man from U.N.C.L.E.
  • the difficulty in trying to convince someone to like a pair they do not, quotes (with permission) a long quote by Doris Egan from a private mailing list
  • comments about Duty
  • identifying with characters in a story

Excerpts from "Something Rich and Strange: Tales From the Obsessed"

I'm not sure there's a way to convince someone who just isn't into a particular pairing. If you think Tarrant is a stupid, irritating git (for example--I'm not saying that you do), then obviously nothing I could possibly say that would persuade you that A/T is a good idea. And, frankly, it would be difficult to convince me to see A/B as anything more than an occasional intellectual pleasure since--despite really sincere attempts to change my attitude--I just plain don't care for Blake. One of those chemical things, I expect, and I regret it, especially since I have a close friend who would really like to see me write some and has urged me most earnestly. I tell her, "I know you like impossible challenges but this is ridiculous.

Until last year (August 9, to be exact...not everyone can celebrate their slash anniversary with such precision) I never quite "got" slash and was so determinedly het in my preference that I published (and still do publish) a zine called Straight Blake's, devoted to het smut. Then I got to know [S] and [B] and some other fans, read a variety of recommended materials, and decided to take a stab at writing a slash story, more or less to see if I could. I chose Avon/Tarrant because they're my favorite B7 characters and I like the way they interact. Once I started writing I got hooked...then obsessed...then yet more obsessed, until I am the pitiable hulk of a human being you see today, unable to go for more than five consecutive minutes in fannish company without uttering the names "Avon" and "Tarrant" in a decidedly linked manner. Long-time friends and acquaintances have been known to say that now they can believe almost any kind of improbable thing, since the most decidedly het-oriented person they know have turned to slash.

[...]

Well, the story that got me thinking that maybe slash wasn't such a bad idea after all was "Blood and Shadows" by Salome in Dark Fantasies #2. It has the nice push-pull between Avon and Tarrant's genuine rivalry with one another and their equally genuine respect, and the rape scene is lovely if you like BUARA. As a short, hot story with a twist that also has both conflict and cooperation, I'd recommend "Engagement" by Trinity Pawling in Dark Fantasies #5 (I think).

On crossing The Sandbaggers and UNCLE--well, I was actually put on a panel once that compared the realism of the two shows. Honest..I can't imagine who conceived the panel. It took about five minutes and that's only because we dragged it out as long as possible. That said, the little UNCLE fanfic I've seen seems often to drag the show more to the SB end of the spectrum, that is, having at least somewhat believable espionage work going on, rather than the intentionally surreal and somewhat campy atmosphere of the show.

IMO, Sheridan and Delenn are very romantic, but alas, they're not very interesting. That could change, depending on whether events insert some conflict into the proceedings. I think Marcus/Ivanova could be fun. On the whole, though, B5 is more intellectual entertainment to me than either emotional or sexual. None of the characters have taken me by the throat, even though I follow the show avidly.

Remington Steele. I liked it first season--a whole lot--but got disturbed later on with the way Laura's character (IMO) was twisted in order to keep the sex in the "tension" stage beyond the believability point. And, I must admit, I liked Murphy Michaels so much first season that I was pissed as hell when the character was tossed off. A few months ago, after my slash conversion, someone suggested Steele/Murphy and I fairly salivated. The visual aspect is in itself alluring...add to that the mixture of distrust and respect and it becomes nearly irresistible. Blonde and dark, smooth and rough-hewn, honest and a bit shady, what could be better? I would feel a bit sorry for Laura in such a universe losing both cute suitors, but what can you do? They're obviously perfect for one another.

I wouldn't altogether discount racism in the lack of Crockett/Tubbs stories, but I honestly think the big reason is that Castillo is a much more compelling character, played by a significantly more skilled actor. Also, Castillo/Olmos is Hispanic, so it's not exactly a white/white pairing...at least it wouldn't be considered so [here] in Florida...

Some Topics Discussed in "Something Rich and Strange: Untitled"

Excerpts from "Something Rich and Strange: Untitled"

I'd like to join the discussion of f/f stories, I hope without repeating points other people have made earlier. Most of the f/f stories I've seen (not that there have been many) have left me indifferent. Until recently I assumed that was just a consequence of being heterosexual. In fact, I recall having a similar "where's the beef?" reaction to a het story told from Avon's point of view. I didn't want to be Avon looking at a woman, I wanted to look at Avon. However, at MediaWest was shown an unfinished AU Dayna/Servalan story which I really enjoyed. Since I'm still het, that forced me to rethink what this story had that the others I'd read didn't. Part of the answer was that I like Servalan when she's in character, and in this story she was. The other reason, I think, was that the author didn't seem to be trying to teach me any lessons. I didn't have that all-too-familiar airless, disappointed realization that someone I'd hoped would be a character was instead turning into a Role Model, and any minute the narrative was going to start sprouting Alternative Modes of Conflict Resolution or something. I have a rant on the subject of "We don't need strong female characters, we need interesting female characters," and in this story that's what I got. I'm hoping it's a trend.

Some Topics Discussed in "When Correctly Viewed"

  • Japanese fiction and homosexuality

Excerpts from "When Correctly Viewed"

MediaWest. Isn't it ironic that after all that fuss about getting rooms in the main hotel, there were quite lot of rooms available when the con actually rolled around!

I am comforted by your idea that the prevalence of SM in Japanese porn is just part of the "anything goes" sensibility seen in manga as well. I think this may well be one of the aspects of the modern popular culture that is a carryover from the Edo period. At that conference I went to a year ago, various people commented on how the erotic prints give an image of a city in which sexual activity is going on everywhere -- alleys, stairwells, balconies, verandas, odd corners, etc. In fact, of course, there would not have been a couple screwing around every corner -- except in the minds of the customers who bought the prints.

I think you are quite right about m/m being more shocking, and therefore perhaps more attractive to slash fans who wish to defy social convention, because in the broader society men are considered more important than women, and therefore "deviant" behavior on their part is of greater concern than whatever trivial activities already-marginalized women may be getting up to.

Some Topics Discussed in "For the World is Hollow..."

  • comments on Angel in the Dark
  • comments about the straight UNCLE stories by C.W. Walker
  • character analysis about Forever Knight and the agency and history of Janette, disliking her the first season, changing her mind in the second season
  • being disappointed and jossed by canon, yet persevering in one's fiction

Excerpts from "For the World is Hollow..."

I had read stacks and stacks of Pros fanfic before I ever saw an episode. And when I finally did see the show, I didn’t like it. I would never watch it for fun. For me, Pros fanfic and Pros fandom are entirely independent of the episodes. I guess this makes me a definitive third- or fourth-waver, as far as Pros goes, at least.

Regarding your "general Eroica piffle" — as a S:AAB writer, I know the pain of finding that the source material does nor provide useful insights into the characters. Although in my case, I felt that the show kept providing the wrong insights. (Like that they're morons. But also, the week after I had outlined the whole novel, an episode aired as rehashing certain background info that thoroughly contradicted one of my fundamental grounding premises. Did I rewrite my novel? Fuck, no

I thought the novel, Angel in the Dark, was extremely well written, but I didn't enjoy it; it was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I kept wanting to just grab the guys and slap them. Stop acting like idjits! But the characters acted just as they ought have, for the way Thomas created them, and given the situation it's hard to image any other outcome that the one she wrote. Everything happened as it ought to have. It just wasn't fun for me. Just as "It's a good zine" is different from "It worked for me," saying "it didn't work for me" should by no means be taken as implying that I don't think it's a good zine. It is.

A number of people in the last couple of issues have been talking about UNCLE, and about what-makes-slash-slash, and about taboo-breaking and stepping out of expected roles, and about the expectation that men will not be emotionally motivated, and so on and so on (paraphrasing wildly from memory, of course). In this context, I'd recommend that slash fans take a look at the straight stories pairing Napoleon and April Dancer that Cindy Walker has written in her "St. Crispin's Day" UNCLE universe. Cindy is not a slash fan, and she doesn't really get why the fantasy works for those of us who are — but that's very different from being anti-slash, and she and I have had some really interesting conversations on the subject. [I told her] What slash is doing that is unusual is taking characters from type B and forcing them into type A (thus feeding the jones of women who want type A stories, but want the lovers to retain the strength of character that type A so often washes away). Society normally posits that career, momentous issues of Truth and Justice, are more important for men, and slash upends that. What you do with April Dancer is, in fact, a mirror image: you are taking a character who, as female, is expected to be more interested in True Love, and forcing her into a type B story. You are crossing just the line that slash is, only from the other direction; your April stories are in a very real way the inverse, the negative image, of slash.

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

  • book signings as a waste of celebrity time
  • Closed vs. Open Canon
  • Due South
  • commenting and viewing shows that are aired out of order
  • using an episode as an old friend, rewriting it for another fandom
  • a three-page flyer for The Wrap Party

Excerpts from "To Be Announced by T H"

Slash ennui - oh, we have an outbreak over here too. Take heart, you're not the only one out of sorts with slash. I've had three stories partly written for about 6 weeks that I haven't added one word to. The other writers I know are not writing either. We're not even watching episodes! Oh, we get together for weekends every so often, as above, and we all talk about slash and the stories we're going to write but none of us are actually putting words on a page. I went through a filing cabinet full of slash zines - all I wanted was something to read. Could I find *anything* I wanted to read? No! I'm hoping that my holiday will get me started again. I'd hate to stop writing now that I've really started. Yes, even though I've stopped writing for a few weeks I still feel as if I'm on some chemically induced high. I've never been high like this before - I don't drink, don't like the alcohol, and don't do drugs, don't like them either, so I've nothing to compare it too. If this is what results from alcohol or drugs though, I can see the appeal.

About Sheridan. Well, he's not my type, he's far too cute and nice but stick him in that white shirt, hang him from that frame and I'll fight anyone for him.

Starsky and Hutch, I guess what I mean by aged well is that it kept me watching all the way through. I don't really mind the flares and '70's clothes though. Anyway, we've just had Starsky shot in that restaurant, and the poison episode. Having got my favourites out of the way I'm not such an avid watcher any more. I watch the first 10 mins then decide that the email waiting on my machine is more important. I guess I have an advantage in that I've read only 1 S&H slash zine. Anyone know any really good ones they'd recommend?

I've had that 'poison' episode of Starsky & Hutch floating around at the back of my brain for years and years - too many to admit to. It's been a good friend over the years, helping out with a little fantasy when things got boring or I had time to kill. Well, having got the writing bug I rewrote it for Due South. Now, I find I miss my friend. It's not there in the same way any more. And it is sad, even though other stories spring up to fill the gap they are not as practiced or comfortable as poison was.

Due South is the first show I've really been involved in that is still showing. I always knew it must be difficult for authors to write when the next episode could blow their carefully crafted story out of the water but I now know it's more than difficult. It's horrible! I can see the advantages in DS having been cancelled. It now becomes much more 'our' property. We don't have to worry about what little piece of history the next ep will bring. We don't have to worry about more ex-wives or kids turning up.

Somehow, when I wasn't looking I've managed to become the Membership Secretary for The Wrap Party. The Wrap Party is a Babylon 5 based Science Fiction convention running in England in 1998. I'm not quite sure how this happened as I had no intention of being on the committee of any convention. Anyway, I've included the latest blurb. This will be a slash-friendly con as we intend having talks and a dealers' room dedicated to adult and slash zines - if any presses/traders want to sell over-18 zines that is.

In mid May, HMV in Oxford street held a signing session with Paul Gross and David Marciano. Not being an actor person and knowing very little about them as people I wasn't going to go. However, my friend desperately wanted to go but not on her own. I got talked into going. It was quite surprising how many people turned up as there had been no advertising, outside of the DS newsgroup, that I had seen. There were no talks or intros or such, just the guys sitting at a desk signing away for all they were worth. They both looked a bit tired, which is understandable as they appear to have done the "if it's Thursday it must be London" tour. I've come to the conclusion that signing sessions really are a waste of time. I'd far rather have sat and listened to them talk about working on the show or how they felt about the characters they played. I guess getting something signed gets you your two minutes of personal contact with the stars, but it seems a very worthless two minutes. I suppose I'm biased in that I don't collect autographs and don't really have any interest in the actors for themselves.

References

  1. ^ This is a reference to the 1948 book "Come Back to the Raft Ag'in, Huck Honey!" by Leslie A. Fiedler.
  2. ^ These were mainstream documentaries/specials on televisions, each episode focused on a different fandom.
  3. ^ Atira Kei, Clifton Evans, Calvin Miller, and Alisha Long are all the same person.
  4. ^ This book is "Swords of the Rainbow."
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