The K/S Press/Issues 091-100

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The K/S Press 91 (April 2004)

  • a fan describes one way she spent K/S Day:
    Another K/S Day has come and gone. This year I was convinced it would be a big flop. I was scheduled to work late and then there’s supper to prepare and all that follows. Imagine my surprise when not only did I not have to work late, I was home alone with some very rare free time to spend on K/S! Believe me, I took full advantage of every moment. I love doing photo manipulations of Kirk and Spock, so that was the first thing on my list. These are always fun for me because it is a way for me to see the minute detail and they practically do the pictures themselves! They want to look beautiful, they want to be together and to do things they were never allowed to do on TV! I finished a computer wallpaper design and then improved upon (read: moved them closer together) a photo from William Shatner’s Movie Memories. This is a great picture that I had completely missed until someone pointed it out to me. In it they are facing each other, wearing the clothes from the mountain climbing scene in STV, and laughing hugely right into each other’s eyes.

  • a fan comments on music videos:
    Music videos continue to be a marvel to me. I am not a musically inclined person, in fact I rarely listen to anything except instrumentals and classical. But this miracle that occurs when one of our skilled technicians/artists bring scenes of Kirk and Spock together with haunting words of love is something very special.

  • a fan tells others of something she found interesting:
    Something I saw on the news recently made me think of Kirk and Spock. Surprise! A broad-minded historian had realized that his city had likely always had a gay community, or at least gay citizens. But there was no historical record. He began to search through old documents and photographs from the early part of the century. The photographs shown in the article were amazing considering their age. Here were a couple of fellows, regaled in their finest suits, with their arms draped around each other, circa 1900. Obviously this was done by a professional photographer. There were so many of these, folks of both genders, showing to the world that they were special to each other in photos where they were standing closer than necessary, touching, gazing lovingly at each other. How strong their love must have been in those days to have risked public ridicule to have such permanent records made. What struck me was the similarity of the poses to those we see in all the TOS episodes. It reinforced what needs no reinforcement for me: Kirk loves Spock. Spock loves Kirk.

  • the winners of the KiScon art contest were announced and this is some information about the art show:
    COMPUTER-GENERATED ART -- First Place was a TIE!!!!! We tried hard to break it, but the votes were absolutely similar all the way down the line, so we awarded two first place awards. First Place: Passion by Virginia Sky, First Place: Two Hearts One Soul by Helen, Second Place: The Kiss by Lovin' James T, HAND-DRAWN ART -- First Place: After the Seduction by Liz, Second Place: Swept Away by Shelley Butler, Third Place: Concern by Shelley Butler.... Just a few words about the Art Show. We had over one hundred pieces entered in the art show. Most of those were originals, a few were prints. Many were CGAs, though I can't give a breakdown of how many. Maybe 20%? I really am not sure. We ran out of space for display and [Linda W], our extraordinary Art Show Chair person, came up with a brilliant solution that allowed all the art to be appropriately displayed, though the hotel people thought it rather odd when we asked that chairs be placed on top of tables! But that allowed art to be shown up on the chair, then propped in front of the chair as well, on two levels. It worked fine, but our space was definitely all used!... Anyway, the most expensive piece went for $320. That is a color pencil drawing by Shelley Butler but owned by a secondary seller. There were also pieces that went for $290 (the very first one up for bidding; that was scary!) and for $250 and $200 and on down the line. But there were also many pieces that went for $20 and $30, so it was an equal opportunity auction. Some pieces were hotly contested and others went to the original, single bidder. I think everybody went away happy, or at least I hope so!

The K/S Press 92 (May 2004)

  • a fan writes:
    I wanted to take a moment to discuss a topic that was touched upon at KiSCon and is perhaps one of the most controversial to come along in recent years and that is BDSM and K/S and would Kirk and Spock choose to have that type of relationship. While personally for me these stories are not ones I would deliberately seek out to read, I am not opposed to reading them (or any K/S story, for that matter), as long as they are done right. Let me explain what I mean. There is a story written a long time ago by Cynthia Drake, one of the first and finest K/S authors ever to put pen to paper. This particular piece is a true BDSM story in every sense of the term. It is titled "And a Bottle of Rum" and in it, Kirk and Spock beam down to the Shore Leave planet where Kirk wants to play out his fantasy of captain of a pirate ship, with Spock his helpless victim Kirk captures and "ravishes" (Shelley's new word she discovered at the con) aboard the vessel. The story starts out with Kirk waylaying Spock on the beach, tying his hands behind his back, gagging him, and giving the Vulcan one hell of a blow job. After he's done, he asks Spock if the Vulcan wants to continue with the game and Spock agrees. So Kirk picks the Vulcan up and heads for the pirate ship. As he is walking down the beach, Spock is just laying docilely in his arms and Kirk finally says to him, "You know, you're not doing this right. You're supposed to resist me, not just lay there." So Spock tells him he didn't realize this, but will do his best to play along. So the next line of the story is: "So Spock dutifully called out, "Help, help!" At that point I burst out laughing and Kirk laughed so hard he dropped Spock on the beach. And it is this moment in the story, more than anything else, that sold it for me because I have absolutely no problem picturing the Spock I see and know from Star Trek behaving in this manner. It was the author's rendition of these characters in this story, a rendition strikingly similar to the "real" Kirk and Spock, that makes "A Bottle of Rum" a true K/S story. Then there is another story which has been on the net for a number of years titled "Entreat Me Not to Leave Thee". This is a very heavy BDSM story with Spock as the dominant partner and Kirk as the submissive. I won't go into detail exactly what this story is about, save to say it is quite graphic and not for the faint-hearted. This work came up in the BDSM panel at KiSCon and what I found most interesting was that a number of K/Srs present who enjoy seeing Kirk and Spock in this type of scenario were sitting right behind me and as soon as this story was mentioned, their immediate reaction was, "Oh, wow, what a hot story, BUT I didn't like the characterizations, especially Spock." Well, that statement proves a very important point when it comes to writing K/S and that point is when someone sits down to write a K/S story, creates two characters in her head, puts them on paper, names them Kirk and Spock, describes them as looking like Kirk and Spock, but doesn't make the effort to give them the characterizations of Kirk and Spock, then what you end up with is a slash story, not a K/S one. If, however, the author takes the characters of Kirk and Spock as created by Gene Roddenberry, fleshed out by the writers of the series, and brought to life by Bill and Leonard, and puts THOSE characters down on paper, then I'll believe her story, regardless of the subject matter. Now granted while no two K/Srs are ever going to agree completely as to how they envision each of these two men, there is a core personality they each have which must be respected and maintained when writing a story. It is only when those basic personality characteristics are adhered to by the author that her work becomes a true K/S story. The best of the best K/S authors, both past and present, have learned this lesson well which is why no matter what she/he has them doing, I'll buy it every time.

The K/S Press 93 (June 2004)

  • the editors announce that "The KSP now happily welcomes LOCs of online stories... Please wait six months before you submit any LOC printed in the KSP to the Online Review site."
  • a fan writes:
    I wanted to comment on [Ivy H's] review of PROGRESSIONS by Merle Decker in April issue. Ivy’s LOC's are always fabulous. She expresses unique, perceptive ideas and feelings so lucidly. I have always appreciated her LOC's to the utmost, and these last ones were no exception. What a lovely idea to review this zine from 1985. How much more daring these women were then, to dream up and express the almost inexpressible love between Kirk and Spock at that time. (Even more so in the 70's, but still, 1985 was early days.) For better or worse, when things are new (and not so acceptable in society) they can be even more exciting. Besides a whole almost-empty field of ideas to write about. Anyway, Ivy is such a gem, for the spirit she infuses into our reading. The stories obviously touched her deeply; and her LOC's really moved me.

The K/S Press 94 (July 2004)

The K/S Press 95 (August 2004)

  • a fan comments on "what is an alternative universe:
    I was interested in what [Joyce B] has to say in her reviews this month about two of the stories in Beyond Dreams 7 (“Debt of Honor” and “Ties That Bind”) being alternate universe presentations. It's always a tricky question to me as to what is a/u and what is not, so I thought I'd write what I think on this issue and see if anybody agrees. To me, “Debt of Honor” is a/u because it clearly postulates a situation that is not consistent with what we saw in the episodes on the screen. Although Brianna does a great job at the end of the story so that we can imagine that the voyages of the Enterprise will take place more or less as we saw them in the series once we finish the last page, it's pretty clear to me that something about a war between the Federation and the Vulcans prior to the five year voyage would have been mentioned! Not to mention the history Kirk and Spock have between them.... However, I would not call "Ties That Bind” an alternate universe story. In the series of stories of which this tale is a part, Elise postulates that Kirk and Spock are court-martialed because of their relationship. And it's easy to put that as happening sometime after “Turnabout Intruder”, in the fourth or fifth year of the five year voyage. It's easy to fit all the events of her series stories into the Star Trek universe that the episodes present; it's just that they all happened after we got to see what was going on. I don't find anything in TTB that contradicts aired Trek. So. It's a very small issue and not important in the grand scheme of things, and I bet there are loads of folks who don't give a darn, but Joyce's opinion caught my attention and I wondered what others thought on this.

  • a fan writes:
    Please remember that The K/S Press welcomes reviews (LOCs) of online K/S stories. Thanks, Christine, for your interesting analysis of “Entreat Me Not to Leave Thee”, an online story with bdsm content. I don't agree with you, but am really glad that you took the time to write about a story that others will run across when browsing online.

The K/S Press 96 (September 2004)

  • a fan encourages others to share their reviews:
    I wanted to discuss Kira’s new zine review website. A few people (myself included) have submitted reviews for it, but it needs a lot more reviews in order to be really useful. I hope many of you who have submitted LOC’s to the KSP will seriously consider resubmitting some of them to Kira’s website. You will be doing a tremendous service to people interested in buying zines. The website had only been up two weeks when Kira received an email from someone who had never bought zines before, but was inspired to do so by the reviews on the website. If you are new to K/S fandom, the number of zines available is quite daunting. What do you choose? I remember feeling completely overwhelmed by the sheer numbers out there. I wrote a couple of people and asked for recommendations for zines to buy. One said tastes differed too much and she didn’t want to specify any titles. The other did recommend some, but her tastes and mine were not very similar. But then I was lucky enough to write Jenna, who wrote me a three page letter with all kinds of recommendations. That got me started, plus then I subscribed to the KSP and started buying zines based on the LOC’s. I also had the luxury of being able to afford to indulge myself, and so was able to buy hundreds of zines. But some zine buyers don’t have that luxury, and most net based K/S fans don’t subscribe to the KSP. So I think this website will encourage more people to buy zines and that can only be a good thing for our fandom.

  • a fan begins a new zine and learns a new term:
    I'm really happy to be starting a new zine called Bondmates. I've always wanted to read a zine where it goes beyond the first time. What is it that K/Sers see in Kirk and Spock that wants them to get together and stay together? With 79 episodes and 6 movies, there so much to choose from for stories. A lot of feedback that I got when I told people I was doing an established relationship zine was the word tupperware which I didn't even know what it was until I decided to start on this project. I can safely say it doesn't have to be just about tupperware.

The K/S Press 97 (October 2004)

  • a fan writes of her preferences:
    I think it is important to write reviews, and I wish more people would do it. For every five people that read a story, there will be five different reactions, even if everyone likes the story. We all see things differently. And we all have our likes and dislikes which are going to influence how we see a story. I, for instance, really love BDSM and rough sex stories. But I hate underage sex stories. And I really have a hard time with the view that Spock and Kirk aren't gay—which is a very popular belief in K/S. I like Command Decision, for instance. And that's a novel some people dislike. And I have great affection for the early novels and zines in K/S. When I got rid of my K/S collection a few years ago, the last things I kept were almost all done in the 70's and 80's. But anyway, it is important for lots of people to do their reviews because it encourages writers to write different things. If everyone, for instance, loved BDSM, then the romantic K/S would disappear. And if everyone liked romantic K/S, then there would be nothing new for those of us like me who like BDSM to read. I personally like death stories. Some people hate them. And so it goes. K/S is a greatly varied fandom, even though we do have the same pairing in mind. It's certainly not boring, that's for sure.

  • a fan comments about style and grammar:
    I really have no proof but I think that spelling and grammar in today's zines is superior to older zines in the 70's and 80's. I can remember reading some very nice stories in both K/S and Blake's 7 that were atrocious when it came to the mechanics in some of the older zines. And I think one of the common complaints about stories online from some people is that some stories have tons of errors in them—errors that would have been caught by a zine editor. But again I can't prove any of this because I frankly don't read any K/S online and the majority of the Blake's 7 I read online are stories that were originally in zines. I am not into Live Journal nor do I generally read B7 list stories, even on the two lists I am on, so I am not aware of what is basically happening online in B7 either. I have, however, read some Lord of the Rings online fiction (not that I am a fan) because I was printing some stuff off for a friend and did notice something that I really, really hated and that was all the people who not only didn't indent paragraphs but also didn't put spaces between them either. So there were stories that would run on for something like 20 pages looking as if they were all one paragraph. What a horror story those things were to read!...Anyway, this is a verbose way to say I think the K/S zines in general today have very good English usage in them. Actual English errors are rare. And sometimes I think the errors I do see are caused by typos or spell check errors.

The K/S Press 98 (November 2004)

  • a fan writes her thoughts on the documentary Trekkies #2, see that page
  • this issue has a long and thoughtful letter about the relationship between Spock and his mother, one that concludes that the relationship was more complicated and darker than one would first imagine

The K/S Press 99 (December 2004)

  • contains 34 pages
  • has LoCs for the fiction Bonds of Love and Hate, A Common Odyssey, Buster, Don't Mess Around with Jim, "Great Expectations", Learning Home, The Road Not Taken, T'itanic, The Art of Love, Winds of Chance, Odds and Abbs, Field of Screams, Animal Magnetism, Charisma, Private Dancer, see those pages
  • fans discuss the episodes "The Corbomite Maneuver," "Mudd's Women", "The Blink of an Eye", and "Where No Man Has Gone Before"
  • a fan brings this Live Journal 2003 entry by The Brat Queen to attention:
    ... this essay got me to thinking about the origins of K/S and whether it does need to be justified. I mean, I can’t watch Star Trek these days or think about it without putting Kirk and Spock at the center in a sexual relationship. It feels right and normal and natural to me because I’ve invested so much time and energy into that relationship! But most Star Trek fans don’t see it that way.... It’s clear from some of the older letterzines, etc., that in the seventies and even in the eighties there was some conflict between those who thought that K/S was ruining Star Trek fandom and those who thought it was a reasonable, shall I say “logical” extension of it. I have always sort of wished that I could have been active during those days because I would like to think that I would have been able to join in the conversation, sort of advance the cause, so to speak. But the truth is that it took a lot of years for me to finally get up the courage to read K/S; I learned of its existence in 1978 and didn’t read any until 1990. I had a lot of growing up to do while I was raising my children! I have a feeling I would have remained silent during this critical period, and maybe I’m overcompensating for that lack now! I’ve tended to think that K/S hardly needs any explanation; the bond between the two men is so strong that I can’t see them with anybody else. Kirk’s sacrifice in "Amok Time", Spock’s emotion unveiled in "The Empath", and then Spock’s absolute declaration in "Requiem" for Methuselah all culminate in the third movie when Kirk says he’s responsible for Spock’s soul as surely as if it were his very own. Gulp! I mean, this is an extraordinary relationship no matter what way you look at it. Their focus on each other is very concentrated and, to my way of thinking, exclusive of other equally intense relationships. I know that I would not be capable of having such a powerful interaction with someone and then go and have a passionate love affair with someone else. The reason I’ve had a passionate love affair with my husband all these years is because I found that concentrated relationship with him. I recognize the texture of the space between Kirk and Spock in the series; I recognize even more the texture of the space between Kirk and Spock in the movies. According to the live journal essay that I’ve cited above, it seems that the author believes there is some more-or-less intentional homoerotic subtext injected into some modern television dramas by creators and writers even when that might not be approved by The Powers That Be. We don’t have the possibility of that with Star Trek the series, though I’ve always wondered how they could have possibly missed it in the movies. We know TPTB didn’t want us to recognize K/S! But it is there nevertheless, isn’t it? I think K/S became the first slash fandom because the interaction between Kirk and Spock on a pre-sexual level is too obvious to miss, sort of like a matter-antimatter overload. An explosion is on the way....

  • a fan describes her introduction to K/S:
    I got into K/S in 2003 in a roundabout way. I've always loved the original series but for some reason last year fell madly in love with our hunky captain. I owned nothing Trek at all so went on a big spending spree. Ordered in the videos from Amazon.uk, which was fantastic. Some episodes I hadn't seen in years and I could do lots of gazing at Kirk’s gorgeous face. Hunted down all the pro novels, eventually found a used copy of The New Voyages and realised what had been missing. Emotion and interpersonal relationships. I needed to find more fan written material. It was a Best of Trek book that first mentioned A/U and K/S. I had never heard of slash but I was entranced by the idea. Stumbled onto the web and that was it. I read everything I could find over the next few months. Ordered my first zine and nearly fainted when I saw the art. Naked men! Embracing! I hid it as fast as I could. Now I appreciate it slowly and especially love photomanips. I own about 40 zines now, mostly pre-loved and no Gen. I am completely in the closet so all my K/S reading is done in private.

  • a fan writes of K/S:
    Curiosity about a same-sex relationship and the concept of forbidden fruit have nothing to do with why we want to see Kirk and Spock together in every sense of the word. Love is what it’s about. Every episode has evidence, and to prove this to myself, I’m going to pull a DVD at random as I write this, watch and review it, no matter how unpopular an episode it might be. I’ll bet you I find love there! The original 79 episodes are, after all, the genetic material from which K/S was born.

The K/S Press 100 (January 2005)

See The Celebration Zine

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