The Ring of Soshern

Zine
Title:	The Ring of Soshern
Publisher:
Editor:
Author(s):	Jennifer Guttridge
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	1968 as a privately circulated copy
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
Language:	English
External Links:
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The Ring of Soshern (often mistakenly referred to as "The Ring of Shoshern") is a slash K/S 40-page (single-sided, single-spaced) novel by Jennifer Guttridge. It was originally a privately-circulated Kirk/Spock story, and possibly the first of its kind.

It was written in 1968, and passed around among friends. Once in the wild, fans began to distribute it further than its author probably intended. Many fans remember it being a little more available (available being very relative) starting in 1973 or 1974.

In 1987, "The Ring of Soshern" was published in Alien Brothers, a highly controversial print zine. Many fans claim this was done without the knowledge, much less permission, of the author. Morgan Dawn remembers this topic coming up on the KirkSpockCentral mailing list in 2013, and at least two fans stated that they believe the editor had obtained permission. And that given that the editor/publisher was unpopular at the time, her publication without permission would have certainly become widely commented and widely condemned. But there was little commentary at the time of the printing in 1987 or in the years after. . Given the difficulty of communication in the pre-Internet days and the passing of both the author and the publisher, the exact nature of the permission, if any, will remain unknown.

Another Pioneer

Audrey Baker was another earlier pioneer. A fan in 1985 wrote: "A word here about the stories of Audrey Baker: She may well have been the first K/S writer. My Love Has Wings was written about 1970, before she knew about fandom or had read any Trek fiction."

A fan in 2007 said:

Around the same time I met Jennifer G. [in 1974], who gave me a copy of “Ring of Soshern,” and I think that persuaded me into K/S more than Audrey’s stories did. Many of the early stories, as I remember, used pon farr as the reason for Kirk and Spock getting together, but at that time (mid 70s) slash was still a very underground subject. Jennifer told me that “Ring of Soshern” would never be published anywhere, because “she wanted to meet Nimoy, but not in a court.” There was a...fear, I suppose, that if the actors heard about it, they’d sue.

Introduction: From the "Unauthorized" 1987 Printing

From the editor of Alien Brothers:

Written probably before 1976, this story has never before appeared in a fanzine. It is one of the first—and certainly the best — "underground" K/S tales, circulated very privately and discretely in manuscript photocopies only. RING OP SOSHERN set the pattern for many early K/S stories, and had many imitators, but none surpassed it. The British author is well known for her sensitive and accurate character portrayals, and skillful handling of plot, action, description, and unusual themes and ideas. A collection of her stories has recently been printed by ScoTPress.

Dates

"The first known K/S story was Jennifer G's "The Ring of Shoshern"; the author says that she wrote it in 1968. It was a "pass-around" circuit story for quite a number of years after.

It was circulated privately in Great Britain, at least by 1973 (date on one early copy).

a clue to date of creation? -- from the last page of a early typed copy

Jenna at Beyond Dreams Press notes that "my personal information from contact with the author dates that story several years earlier, to 1968 and possibly slightly before that." Because it mentions pon farr, it could not have been written earlier than mid-September 1967. (The episode "Amok Time" was not shown on BBC until November 25, 1970, but Guttridge was a well-connected fan and would have received literature describing the episode -- perhaps even a copy of the script -- long before that. If she attended Worldcon in 1967 she could have seen the episode two weeks before it aired on NBC.)

Contents

Title

"The Ring of Soshern," as revealed in the story:

From the story:

Spock grinned. "It is a classic example of the Ring of Soshern."

"Huh?"

"It is a condition of being first theorized by an early Vulcan philosopher of that name. He propounded that if wanting leads to having, the having inevitably produces more want. It is a continuous process and only within the circle lies contentment. It is a supremely logical theorem."

Kirk had a remote feeling that he'd been complimented, but he wasn't sure how, or why, and it didn't answer his question. "So it doesn't all end here?"

"It can if you wish it to." A frown clouded Spock's face. "The circle can be broken. Wanting can be suppressed and the yearning to have, denied."

"But only within the circle lies contentment," Kirk repeated.

"If you wish..."

"You know what I wish," Kirk said, and moved closer.

This Story, and "The Premise"

It became one symbol of the stress and conflict in Star Trek fandom over the idea that Kirk and Spock could have a sexual relationship. Most fans in the 1960s and early 1970s would not have accepted this premise. Many copies were purposely destroyed. "A certain K&S relationship fan in the southern U.S. bought up as many copies as she could find and burned them -- a singularly, reprehensibly unfair form of censorship!"

The story is often cited as one of the example of an informal K/S circuit that pre-dated fanzines. (A few Star Trek fanzines, including Spockanalia and ST-Phile, actually appeared as early as January 1967).

"“Ring” contains many of the elements K/S fans have come to know and love: pon farr forces their first sexual encounter in a cave on a prehistoric planet fraught with danger. The sex is brutal and unromantic at first, and both men regret the necessity for it, yet Kirk refuses to let his friend die in pain and humiliation. Hurt/comfort abounds for both Kirk and Spock. “The Ring of Soshern” is well written, truly a trailblazer in many ways. What today may appear clichéd was definitely cutting edge in 1975."

"Unauthorized" Printing and Alien Brothers

According to a fan writing in The K/S Press, Guttridge never intended the story to be published and had meant it to be a pass-around story.

The story was later published in the zine Alien Brothers. Many believe that this was done without the author's knowledge, and that Jennifer Guttridge did not learn of the publication until decades later. Most fannish communication in the 1980s took place via mailed letters, so the prominent ads placed in the letterzine Not Tonight Spock that announced the publication of the story might not have reached the author or even if they did, communication between author and publisher might have become garbled over time and distance.

The version published in Alien Brothers contains a few minor spelling and grammar corrections (ex: 'Kirks'" being changed to "Kirk's", "payed" to "paid") that are typical of copy-editing. Three stylistic changes were made, and they may have been due to changing fandom practices between the time the story was written and when it was published Alien Brothers in 1987.

The three changes are:

1) Jennifer used the word "half bred" and the Alien Brother's story used "halfbreed."

2) Jennifer used "Star Fleet" and the Alien Brother's story uses "Starfleet". "Starfleet" is the more modern term. Franz Joseph's "Star Fleet Technical Manual" is an example of how the term didn't have a fixed canon spelling early on.

3) Jennifer used "Pon Farr" and Alien Brothers used "pon farr" -- no capitalization.

In retrospect many fans are pleased that the story was finally published, irrespective of whether the communication between publisher and author was garbled. In the fan written history Legacy:

In 1987 “The Ring of Soshern” finally got the recognition it richly deserves when it was published for the first time in the zine Alien Brothers edited and published by Helena S.

Gallery: Early Copies

• 

  first page of an early typed copy, provenance and typist unknown

• 

  cover of a printed copy, title is missing "The" -- this copy is not the same as the other one in this gallery

Gallery: From Alien Brothers

Jennifer Guttridge's story did not have any illustration. The art below is a sample by Juanne Michaud, created for the story when it was printed in Alien Brothers.

• 

  photocopy, modified Dover clip art by Jana Desorcy

• 

  original printing

• 

  photocopy

• 

  photocopy

• 

  photocopy

• 

  photocopy

• 

  photocopy

Reactions and Reviews

Unknown Date

One of the earliest K/S stories. Photocopies of the manuscript circulated very privately, before it was finally published in 1987 in Alien Brothers. In the story Kirk and Spock beam down to a previously unexplored planet to investigate some mysterious sensor readings. Through a miscalculation the Enterprise gets caught in an ion storm and must leave them behind. Kirk and Spock are left deserted on the planet, not knowing when the ship will be able to return for them, for there will be much damage from the ion storm that Scotty will have to fix first. Over the next days Kirk and Spock have to deal with dangerous plants, dinosaur-like creatures, and even some shaggy humanoids. They each in turn get wounded and must be tenderly ministered to by the other. But the real crisis comes when Spock begins to go into pon farr. Although Spock is only half-Vulcan, he still goes into the heat suffered every seven years by all Vulcan males. He will go into a blood fever, become violent, and finally die if he does not mate. And he cannot mate with just anyone; it must be someone with whom he is already empathically bonded. Kirk realizes that there is a bond of love between him and Spock because of the years they have worked together. Kirk goes to Spock, who at first refuses his offer but then his blood fever takes him over and he has no choice. Not only does their sexual act save Spock's life, it makes Kirk realize that he does not just love Spock, he is in love with Spock. Spock too realizes his love for the captain and they spend all their remaining days on the planet exploring both the planet and each other's bodies.

1984

"RING" is essentially an action-adventure tale, with very good descriptive details, heavily laced with a most tender and intense, yet realistic and unsentimental K/S relationship. The sex is masculine, strongly realistic, not romanticized at all -- anal sex is like anchovies, folks; you have to develop a taste for it! -- as are the descriptions of various physical injuries, and there is no gloating, tearjerking over-sentimentality at the less-than-pretty descriptions.

1988

My favorite story in the zine is Jennifer Guttridges's "The Rings of Soshern". This novella was written in the early '70's before the existence of K/S zines, and is published for the first time in ALIEN BROTHERS. The story could be categorized as K/S, hurt/comfort, and action/adventure, and is satisfying on all levels. It is smoothly written, interesting, and very sensitively done. It concerns Spock and Kirk being stranded on a primitive planet, whore there is danger from dinosaurs and ape-like natives. (Both suffer their share of illnesses and injuries, and Guttridge graphically depicts acts of vomiting and other symptoms of physical anguish.) Spock goes into pon farr, and Kirk, of course, must 'save' him. The sex scenes are tastefully done, with much left to the reader's imagination. My one complaint is that the ending is rather weak once the two return to the ship.

1999

This was apparently the original “Pon Farr in a cave” story!!! Although to classify it so simply rather does it down, as this story is really more complicated than that. They both (K and S) seem to get injured an awful lot in this story by big fish, dinosaur creatures and ape men etc., etc. Whilst this story seemed basically well written and thought out—although I would have liked more explanation of this ‘ring of soshern’ which seemed an interesting idea—there were a few things which spoilt it for me. Firstly I never much like Pon Farr stories anyway because of the inherent violence in many, (this is a personal bug-bear of mine). Secondly there was just too much retching, vomiting and general diarrhea, now I accept that being unable to keep food down is quite probably one of the symptoms of Pon Farr, but when Spock fell in the river and “Vomited...several pints of thick foul smelling fluid...with several blackened clots of blood.” I began to be unable to shake the feeling of yuckkyness. Poor Kirk is not spared either as apparently, “Vulcan semen acts as an enema!” Unfortunately I think that these things are the mental equivalent of a cold shower, and I admired Kirk’s love as he curled up with Spock at night despite the phlegmy and hacking cough. Seriously though it was interesting to read such an early K/S story and I was pleased at the complexity of the story considering it was not written for the large zine ‘audience’ of today. If it had not contained so many bodily functions then I probably would have enjoyed it despite it being a Pon Farr story.

2000

… well written but contained far too many icky bodily functions for my taste --no vomiting or diarrhea for me thanks! Still good on her for writing it without all the background we have today.

The first K/S I encountered was in a spirit duplicated zine that someone said had come from Australia, in 1975. Three stories, and of the three, the one I remember least about was the most K/Sy one. Then I got a copy of Ring of Soshern from Jennifer Guttridge. But at that time K/S was -very- underground, at least in Britain.

2007

A far better known and certainly more explicit story than “A Fragment Out of Time” is “The Ring of Soshern” by Jennifer G., a British fan who wrote for the gen zine Tricorder Readings. Among her gen pieces is the hurt/comfort story “Tower of Terror” —heavy on thehurt, light on the comfort—an example of the sub-genre known as the “get ‘em” story.“Ring” ran 105 single-sided pages and was typed by American Carol F. about 1975 according to Khrys N., who wrote a column for an early letterzine called Not Tonight Spock!(issue 2 March, ‘84); but Jenna Sinclair has ascertained from the author that it was written much earlier, in 1968 or late 1967, and privately circulated from fan to fan. Since Amok Time,the episode that introduced fans to pon farr, first aired in the U.S. in September of 1967, it is easy to see that K/S had been envisioned almost from the beginning of the series. According to the same issue of Not Tonight Spock reaction to it included that of one K & S fan who was so vehemently opposed to the concept of K/S that she gathered and burned as many copies of the story as possible. In 1987 “The Ring of Soshern” finally got the recognition it richly deserves when it was published for the first time in the zine Alien Brothers edited and published by Helena S.“Ring” contains many of the elements K/S fans have come to know and love: pon farr forces their first sexual encounter in a cave on a prehistoric planet fraught with danger. The sex is brutal and unromantic at first, and both men regret the necessity for it, yet Kirk refuses to let his friend die in pain and humiliation. Hurt/comfort abounds for both Kirk and Spock.“The Ring of Soshern” is well written, truly a trailblazer in many ways. What today may appear clichéd was definitely cutting edge in 1975

2009

A few months ago, I briefly mentioned “The Ring of Soshern,” an early example of Kirk/Spock slashfiction.

[...]

Unfortunately, I can’t find the story online. I’m not sure why it hasn’t made the jump to the Internet; you’d think that as a nonprofessional, pseudonymous, but highly sought-after work, it’d be easily accessible. And yet. I’ve discerned that it was first distributed via photocopies around 1976, so about 7 years after TOS ended. In her essay “Feminism, Psychoanalysis, and the Study of Popular Culture” (published in, among other places, Cultural Studies), Prof. Constance Penley of UC Santa Barbara describes “Soshern” as a “highly revered and imitated story.” In 1987, it was anthologized in Alien Brothers, a high-quality fanzine that collected K/S stories.

From there, however, I have no idea where “Soshern” is gone or how to find it. Tracking down a copy of Alien Brothers would probably be the next step. As Penley’s essay suggests, K/S slashfic, and slashfic in general, evokes some worthwhile questions about free speech, homoeroticism, and the subjectivity of female fans. E.g., issues of obscenity – since slashfic is usually just glorified porn – or, for Penley, whether Kirk and Spock, as portrayed, are intended to actually be homosexuals, or whether other psychosexual processes are at work here in the mind of the author.

2013

Recent discussions on KSC centered around Jennifer Guttridge because it was learned that unknown to fandom, she passed away several years ago. It’s very sad when we lose someone who had the courage to pioneer what we all take for granted today, so I thought it appropriate to read The Ring of Soshern, written by Ms. Guttridge in the days when K/S carried a disquieting stigma. Apparently the manuscript was passed from hand to hand long before it was published in this zine.

Expecting descriptions of a Saturn-like planet surrounded by sparkling rings, perhaps possessing supernatural powers, I soon learned the Ring of Soshern was nothing of the sort. And no, it wasn’t “those” famous rings, either. They hadn’t been imagined yet. Rather the term was coined by a Vulcan philosopher to describe the circuitous pattern of love and passion. Along with that, there is a wide range of reading pleasure to be found in these pages, written in a conservative style. Adventure abounds, as do suspense, character exploration and of course, the platonic love between Kirk and Spock and how it’s affected by pon farr. While this is far from a new concept today, it was very daring at one time to propose the possibility that Kirk could serve Spock’s needs during the mating fever. This is but one facet of a well-rounded tale combining a ferocious ion storm, a hostile planet and evolving love. Kirk is well described as being a problem solver and a man who never gives up, not in the face of his friend’s pon farr and not in the face of an enemy. Spock is overcome by resignation and shame in the face of the age-old curse that he fully expects will mean his death, but we come to see a new, more confident side of him as the fever subsides. Soshern contains abundant detail, but not too much, just enough to make you “see” the planet, the surroundings that become home to Kirk and Spock, all the dangers they face and their most private moments. My only disappointment was that it isn’t quite as angst-ridden as I thought it could have been, considering how much potential existed.

This must truly have rocked the world of fandom when it circulated among readers in those early days of K/S. It still elicits a gasp now and then.

2020

In 1987, a certain Star Trek fanzine called Alien Brothers was published, including the story “The Ring of Soshern”–the very first pon farr in a cave K/S story ever. The story “The Ring of Soshern” had been quietly passed around since 1968, due to its sensitive content. When it was published in 1987 in Alien Brothers, a few passionate fans banded together and tried to destroy every copy. Only a few pages and illustrations of the forty-page story survived. Or so I thought. Every once in a while, ever since I found out about it, I would check up on ksarchive to see if somehow it turned up. Nothing in four years, no information whatsoever. Monday I’m driving 15 hours roundtrip to finally meet Alien Brothers which was kindly donated to a university. Hopefully, I will be allowed to scan it or take photos. Worst case scenario, I type it up word-for-word, all of it. I really can’t believe it. The fandom has mourned its loss for decades and now it’s back from the dead.

[...]

hotel clerk, noticing the address on my license: what brings you to town?

me, sweating: um, a… rare *book*…. that only the university has.

clerk: …. that’s a new one. haha

me: haha

clerk: so, what book is it?

me: ……….

[...]

I never came here expecting a masterpiece; it was the history I was after. I am blown away! So far I have only had time to read “The Ring of Soshern,” but it’s really worth the read. Although it is quite edgy. Lots of violence and some gross parts, but it’s meant to be convincing. Personally, I love it.

[...]

RIP, Jennifer Guttridge, who loved her story but never wanted “Ring” published. “I want to meet Nimoy,” she said, “but not in a court.”

2021

4/5: Overall, not bad. It's very slow paced, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's well written, though some words have clearly changed meaning over the past 50 years. It's a little generic, but that's probably just because it inspired so many stories like it that I just happened to read first. I'd recommend it, if only because it's a piece of fanfiction history.

2022

Yes, this is the fic everyone talks about. In it, Kirk and Spock are stranded on an alien planet with no way of contacting the ENTERPRISE (that’s how it always looks in fanzines lol) so they try to wait it out until the crew starts looking for them. Unfortunately, Spock seems to be sick, with what we later find out is Pon Farr. They end up hiding out in this cave in the mountains after killing the pterodactyl looking aliens that lived there (the art made them look like those purple flying aliens in tas, but the fic was written before tas existed so idk how accurate that is). They fuck only once and then it’s over, which is interesting because that’s not how Pon Farr is in more modern fics. Because they killed the flying monsters, the local humanoid population regards them as gods and offers them food and stuff. Then the Enterprise comes back and they leave. The end. I'll be honest, I expected more from this. It's still a good fic, the worldbuilding is nice and the writing it good. I've heard some people complain that it's too slow, but that didn't bother me. I think that if I had read this early on in my time in this fandom I would have enjoyed it more, but as it inspired so many fics that I read before, it just kinda fell flat. It's still really interesting to see how certain words and terms have changed meaning over the past 50 years, so as a delve into history, it was quite fun. 4/5

Further Reading

• The Foresmutter's Project
• Star Trek fanzines and sexual freedom (2009)

References

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