The Classic Connection

Zine
Title:	The Classic Connection
Publisher:
Editor(s):	Joyce Fuller Kleikamp
Type:
Date(s):	fall of 1994-1996?
Frequency:
Medium:	print
Fandom:	Beauty and the Beast
External Links:
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The Classic Connection is a season 1 and 2 Beauty and the Beast letterzine published by Joyce Fuller Kleikamp. At least 31 issues were published.

For similar fanworks, see List of Letterzines.

About

From one fan's description in Of Love and Hope Digest Vol 3 (1995):

"Another of the letterzines I belong to, The Classic Connection (headed by Joyce Fuller Kleikamp), is dedicated completely to the discussion of classic issues only.

Every month we write letters on a preassigned topic, usually a specific episode. The discussion is fantastic (most letters are 2-4 full pages long), and purely about the details and our perceptions of that particular BB story. The really fun thing is how you get so many different perspectives, how in twelve letters about one episode so many people can notice different, intriguing things. It continually amazes me.

But this space is, for us, the equivalent of the non-smoking room. We know that smoking doesn't bother some, but it does us, and we need to spend at least a part of our time in a place where there's no possibility of it. To use a BB adage, this is our safe place. It's not just that the smoke isn't there, we know it won't be there, and therefore don't have to be concerned about others demanding justification for something that should require no explanation, as has happened all too often to many of us while in the BB population at large in the past."

Another fan wrote in Of Love and Hope Digest Vol 3 (1995):

"Classic Connection" has given me a way to celebrate B&B. Every letter acknowledges Catherine's place with Vincent, alive and well. I don't have to worry that my letters will be mocked and belittled. In today's kinder fandom, that might not happen even in an All Season letterzine (just like in OLAH, things *have* changed for the better), but the presence of third season topics is, frankly, unwanted by me in a general letterzine. I get my recommended daily allowance of green leafy vegetables in OLAH. In participating in CC, I have not packed my marbles and fled the playground, I'm just over in one area enjoying the game. It has given me a lot more hope in the one fandom, let me tell you. The screen door was just about ready to whack me on the bottom when I turned around and headed back in the house."

In 1996, the editor submitted a long letter explaining the origins of the letterzine to volume 3 Of Love and Hope (and how the Beauty and the Beast Classic Wars helped shape it):

"As a Classic fanzine publisher, I had the experience of some third season fans acting in exactly the same [negative] manner towards me, my ideas, my personality, my sanity and my writing. I don't know if any of them were trying to be nasty; sure appeared that way to me. It just goes to show that Classic fans had no monopoly on inappropriate behavior. I don't feel it's valuable to list more horror stories or try to determine

which camp had more loonies or who threw the first stone.

As for "Pipeline", it was my perception that this was a conduit for fuel, each time it arrived in my mailbox, I felt like I'd been torched and left to burn.

I struggled with the idea that fandom had to remain one fandom; somehow, I thought that there must be a way of celebrating Classic B&B without being ripped apart at every turn. I usually had an unpleasant (to put it mildly) reaction to reading the popular letterzine of the time. Each issue was a spear through the heart. This one fandom was held together by the fact that our blood flowed in the same gully. Where was the good in that? We were all wounded, we know that now.

The idea of separate cons, clubs and publications at first appeared so disunifying, so wrong. This initial belief was only solidified when I read a few issues of a Vincent newsletter. Instead of celebrating Vincent, it seemed to have an undercurrent of mean-spiritedness against Catherine. And, against Classic fans. This was my reaction, my perception--I'm not saying it was or wasn't intended as such.

There was nothing intrinsically wrong with delighting in Vincent or in third season--just as there wasn't anything fundamentally wrong about enthusing over Catherine, the Bond, Classic fandom.

What was the key to maintaining the unity of fandom as a whole and yet enjoying B&B as we needed? My answer came. Create a letterzine which was for Classic fans that would be focused on Vincent and Catherine and their world. Keep any comments about "real life and fandom" brief, constructive and polite. And, perhaps most importantly, set an editorial policy that would not, in any way, publish a letter, paragraph, one sentence or even one single word that would be rude, insensitive or otherwise disrespectful of any person.

"Classic Connection" has given me a way to celebrate B&B. Every letter acknowledges Catherine's place with Vincent, alive and well. I don't have to worry that my letters will be mocked and belittled. In today's kinder fandom, that might not happen even in an All Season letterzine (just like in OLAH, things *have* changed for the better), but the presence of third season topics is, frankly, unwanted by me in a general letterzine. I get my recommended daily allowance of green leafy vegetables in OLAH.

In participating in CC, I have not packed my marbles and fled the playground, I'm just over in one area enjoying the game. It has given me a lot more hope in the one fandom, let me tell you. The screen door was just about ready to whack me on the bottom when I turned around and headed back in the house."

Issue 1

September or October 1994

Issue 4

The Classic Connection 4 was published in January 1995.

Topic: Discuss the episode 'Beast Within' (first season, of the early episodes). Possible aspects to comment on might include the bond, characterizations, dialogue, plot, tie-ins to other episodes, favorite scenes, annoying aspects, contradictions, trivia, etc.

Issue 9

The Classic Connection 9 was published in May 1995.

Topic: Discuss the episodes 'The Alchemist' and 'To Reign in Hell' (14th and 21st episodes of the first season, aired on 1/22/88 and 3/18/88 respectively). 'The Alchemist' was between the episodes 'China Moon' and 'Temptation', while 'To Reign in Hell' was between 'Everything is Everything' and 'Ozymandias'. Concentrate on 1) the mind and actions of Paracelsus, 2) Paracelsus' relationship to and effect on Vincent, 3) Vincent's feelings and actions regarding Catherine.

Issue 15

The Classic Connection 15 was published in November 1995.

It contains a fan survey.