The Slashy Response to Have a Conscience: How Can Anyone See a Sexual Encounter After a Suicide Attempt?
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| Title: | The Slashy Response to Have a Conscience: How Can Anyone See a Sexual Encounter After a Suicide Attempt? |
| Creator: | Hayley Douglas |
| Date(s): | June 22, 1999 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | Homicide: Life on the Streets, Fanfiction |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | The Slashy Response to Have a Conscience: How Can Anyone See a Sexual Encounter After a Suicide Attempt?/WebCite |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Slashy Response to Have a Conscience: How Can Anyone See a Sexual Encounter After a Suicide Attempt? is a 1999 meta essay by Hayley Douglas.
The topic: Homicide: Life on the Streets and Fanfiction.
It as part of a series at Fanfic Symposium.
Excerpts
A memorable episode in the, now just recently cancelled, show Homicide: Life on the Streets is Have A Conscience, where Detective Michael Kellerman puts a gun to his head in a fit of desperation. He is 'saved' by his partner, a fellow Homicide detective, Meldrick Lewis- who takes the gun out of his mouth. They are last seen in the episode, walking away, Meldrick Lewis' jacket around Michael Kellerman's shoulders due to the cold. The episode left the stage open for many slash fanfiction writers, myself included, to think on the possibilities of what happened after Meldrick and Michael concluded their walk, having cleared the air somewhat after the few tense minutes with a gun waving around. Mike and Meldrick had always been close partners, why not have something tragic and emotionally stressing bring them together sexually? The real question though, was how could Mike or Meldrick 'fall into bed' with the other after something so gravely serious like a suicide attempt? Does that mean all of the slash written in response to the episode that put them together seems un-realistic? I have seen and read many variations to the theme, even written one myself, and I can see why it would be so easy to see the two men pulled together under the circumstances.
I do not think the fiction that is written in response to Have A Conscience is un-realistic, because unlike some characters, these two men are human. They are susceptible to mistakes, if that is what can be used to describe the encounter they have after returning from 'the walk'. These two men love each other, and have worked together for the last year. If passion was the only thing that could save Mike, from both Meldrick and Mike's point of view, then both men would most likely do what they thought they must to hold on- to themselves, or to the other. I conclude that it would indeed be probable for these two men to engage in intimacy after such a stressful occurrence- where emotions are high, and despair and a feeling of fear control actions. For some, it is the pairing of Kellerman and Lewis that immedeantly does not register. Then the feeling that after a situation where suicide is threatened, where both characters are scared and desperate, is just not a very sexual environment.