Talk:Pass the Crisco, Spock

Comments from the author

I am the author of this paper. What additional information would be useful here?

Oh, man, that is incredibly cool. Um, maybe the exact date of its writing ... some key academic/news responses ... the response you got from the fannish community? --Emma 17:53, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi! Ditto Emma -- I'd love to see some more background on reaction to it, both fannishly and from the media or academia; or background on when/why you wrote it; or basically anything else you want to add. *g* --Arduinna 19:52, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Good ideas! OK, here goes.

Germination. I wrote it in February or March 1994 as a paper for a class called 'Contemporary Cultural Criticism,' which was offered in Stanford's Art History department. The course was taught by Prof. Alexander Nemerov, who is now at Yale. The class was basically a primer in how to 'read' cultural 'texts.' Nemerov had a wry, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor about applying the language of literary and textual criticism to so-called 'low' culture, so it was incredibly fun, and helped me see the world in a whole new way. I still have the syllabus if anyone's interested in the other readings, which ranged from Fredric Jameson and Roland Barthes to 'Rambo III.'

The syllabus included the Donna Haraway articles from Andrew Ross and Constance Penley's book _Technoculture_, so of course I was drawn to Penley's essay on slash in that anthology (um, have you seen the illustrations? *grin*). I had been interested in sub-cultures or micro-cultures for years - since the mid-'80s; I collected zines, subscribed to Mondo 2000, read _High Weirdness by Mail_, _Factsheet 5_, etc. I think it comes down to being fascinated by passionate people who produce interesting things. I was trying to figure out what my course paper was going to be and was tossing around a number of ideas; slash emerged as something I was intrigued by and wanted to know more about. I'm not sure how I decided that an introductory paper would fill some kind of niche; perhaps this was settled on in discussions with Prof. Nemerov. It might have been clear to him that I was not ready for a more sophisticated study, so this would be a good way for me to get my feet wet in the subject.

Writing the Paper. First I needed to get my hands on some slash, no easy task back then if you didn't know anyone doing it; it was almost all printed matter that was privately circulated within small networks of very secretive writers. So I called Constance Penley, who was very helpful and encouraging, providing a number of resources - the two most important being a listserv called ACAFEN-L (for academics studying and/or practicing fandom), and an introduction to Lynn Cherny, a Stanford graduate student who was doing research on MOOs, online culture and fan production. Lynn was amazingly helpful, talking with me extensively about fandom and slash, lending me the entire "Blake's 7" series on VHS, numerous writings from her collection, and several fanvids (I still can't hear U2's "With or Without You" without thinking of an amazingly well-done Blake's 7 fanvid). Henry Jenkins' _Textual Poachers_ obviously had a huge influence on my work and readings as well. My husband, Scott, is a science fiction expert and helped me get a handle on the early years of fandom and fan production. I think I came up with the title 'Pass the Crisco, Spock' because I was reveling in the transgressive possibilities of academic writing on transgressive topics, or something like that. Mainly I just thought it was funny.

Reactions. I suspect the paper grew legs primarily on the basis of its catchy title, but from what I've read when I've seen it posted or mentioned over the years, it looks like some folks have recommended it as a useful introduction, which is very gratifying. I don't recall any specific reactions from the fan community at the time; I didn't try to circulate it with fans but I might have given Lynn a copy or asked her to read it. I think I expected it to be roundly condemned for the flippant title, but either everyone decided to be gentle with me or I've blocked out any criticism.  :) I can't remember how it got into circulation on-line, but I must have posted it to my student webpage. It was re-posted by Columbia University and got picked up and re-posted around the Web here and there. I forgot about it until the late 90s, when I became friends with a writer who divulged that she had gotten a small amount of celebrity cred from knowing me personally (!).

A quick Google reveals a few mentions:

http://www.geocities.com/veehome/bibliog.html "Vehemently" writes: "I may go to Hell if I admit that I include this article largely for its great title. Actually, it's a reasonable roundup of slash history and criticism, offering little that's new, but boiling down and examining several of the authors on this bibliography."

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/05.07.98/tv-9818.html Zack Stentz writes in "Vulcan Love Slave": "the Slash culture has been a popular subject for senior theses and cultural studies doctoral dissertations with titles like "Pass the Crisco, Spock")"

Here's a good one, someone thinks my paper was actual fan fiction from the 1970s: 'One of the earliest, dating back to the late 1970s, was a ficitional piece titled "Pass the Crisco, Spock" (go ahead, google the title if you don't believe me) ...'.

I'll ask my writer friends if they recall other reactions or discussions of the paper over the years.

Hope this helps! - Patty

Rename

I'm not sure if the fanwork naming convention applies to academic commentary articles. If it does, this page should be renamed Pass the Crisco, Spock. If not, the quotes should still be removed: Pass the Crisco, Spock - Patricia Scheiern Lewis.--æthel 16:17, 10 December 2009 (UTC)