Weyr Horror Stories

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Title:	Weyr Horror Stories
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Date(s):
Medium:	online
Fandom:	Dragonriders of Pern
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External Links:	New Landing :: View topic - Weyr Horror Stories, Archived version
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Weyr Horror Stories is a 2004 post to New Landing. It starts with the question: "Do you have any horror stories that will make the rest of us cringe? Do share!"

The whole set of replies is 5 pages long, but the link above only goes to the first page in which fans discuss Pern fandom gossip, including Anne McCaffrey, the 1997 rulings, and The Tent Peg Statement.

Some Comments

[katie hollands]:

Does living through the Oct '97 rulings, losing characters and dropping out of clubs because of it count? Oh how about reading the transcript of the Tent peg interview when it was first posted? Oh wait, those are Anne McCaffrey horror stories, not fan Weyr ones.

[Ariel]:

I was 12 when the renewable airforce came out. I'd been in fandom less than a month. It was tramamtizing and I almost quit because I had wanted my twinky candidate to Impress a blue but didn't really understand what it meant to be bisexual so I wasn't comfortable writing it. (Hey, I was a sheltered preteen!) I almost left fandom for good! I missed the tent peg interview. It seems to have disappeared and seems taboo in some fan circles. When did it come out?

[katie hollands]:

Tent peg is taboo in most fan circles because it is really, really offensive. Still, it was an actual interview, even if the Anne McCaffrey team has been working their little tails off to see that all copies are destroyed. Which is why I keep a copy of the most offensive snippet. Education is important, so here it is:

Anyhow, it's a combination of this section of an interview transcript between Anne McCaffrey and somebody (the full transcript has been pretty systematically removed from the 'net-- I wonder why):

The situation will arise where two males will enagage in sexual activity. Greenriders, have to be homosexual.

Q: Some fandom Weyrs choose to seperate sexual tendencies and flight related sex experiences...

A: Let me stop you right there, there is no seperation. Two men engaging in sexual activity with one another are gay. The dragons choose based on their own drives.

Q: *audible pause* *sounds of paper rustling* But, uh, some people say one experience, especially under the control of outside forces dosen't really make you *emphasis* gay.

A: It's not a matter of the rider *emphasis* becoming homosexual. Green and blue dragons choose people who are already homosexual. And even if circumstances arose, and a green dragon chose a heterosexual lifemate... Well, he would become homosexual. It's a proven fact that a single anal sex experience causes one to be homosexual. The hormones released by a sexual situation involving the anus being broached, are the same hormones found in large quantities in effeminate homosexual males. For example, when I was much younger I knew a young man who was for all intents and purposes, heterosexual. He was mugged, and involved in a rape situation involving a tent peg. This one event was enough to have him start on a road that eventually led to him becoming effeminate and gay.

[Marasai]:

You know, I somehow managed to escape reading that during the whole '97 debacle and in the years since. I got very militant during the whole business -- and to this day won't join any group that attempts to tie sexuality to dragon colour -- but man, if I'd read that.... The woman is a headcase, I swear. And I think that for the good of the fandom, copies of that sucker need to be kept in safe places to remind the newer McC-worshipping types that Anne really DOESN'T know all.... Wink

[Gwierth]:

OH GOD!!! ::shudders::

Oh lord...that's what the tent peg interview is. Wasn't sure for a moment, I forget the specific mention, and I also only have read that for even the first time in the last year.

Things that make you want to shoot someone for being *dumb*... *eye-rolling*

oy vey!

[Crystal]:

PostPosted: Wed Feb 04, 2004 12:53 am Post subject: Reply with quote

Hrmm .. Weyr horror stories. *taps fingers on desk* Let's see. Well...

Scene: pre-Pern's Renewable Airforce. I'm serving as adjunct on a BOD of (let's call it) Some Weyr. Now, Some Weyr has a reputation among fans for being extremely, ah, paperwork-intensive. There are files for _everything._ Someone has done a crazy amount of research to write all these files and keep them updated. If you want _anything_ approved it has to come with the appropriate forms filled out -- double-spaced, 12-point font, stapled with a single staple in the corner. That sort of place. So if you wanted to do something radical and anti-canon, you'd probably have to make it through ten pages of paperwork first. Not really a liberal, rule-breaking Weyr.

So one day Some Weyr's BOD is tossing out a bunch of silly ideas, and someone wonders, hmmm, is it possible, at all, by the laws of Pernese science, to have a female Impress a bronze dragon? (Apparently they hadn't read D'Dawn recently, and neither had I. So sue us!;)) We figured, hey, why don't we ask? We wouldn't want to get in trouble for it, after all. So we mail somebody official (ahem) and recieve a reply that basically amounted to this:

DEAR GOD NO! NONONONONO! BRONZES WILL NEVER IMPRESS FEMALES! In fact, HERE's something to PROVE IT! (*sound of Pern's Renewable Airforce being slapped onto Some Weyr's BOD*) And on top of that, YOUR CHARTER IS REVOKED! THAT will teach you to ASK QUESTIONS!"

So for the longest time, I thought Some Weyr had provoked Pern's Renewable Airforce, which only after that started spreading visibly over Fandom. ;) I'm still not convinced we didn't, really...

[Cass]:

Just curious...being new to fandom but not Pern...what were the '97 rulings all about? And what is this Pern Renewable Airforce everyone refers to? Was it a specific event??

[Ariel]:

The Renewable Airforce was a document written by Anne McCaffrey that appeared online late in 1997. (Oh my, has it been that long already?) It caused quite an uproar and I believe several clubs were closed as a result. I did a Google search and found a copy of the original document. Be warned, it can be offensive.

[Silmaneero]:

That's a pretty...ah, severe document. o.o I suppose I can understand her getting ticked with some of the things happening, but it seems that she likes to keep a pretty tight lock on *everything*. ...wee, now I'm afraid that someone's gonna come along and yank the Charter out from beneath my clubs. o.o;; Wee, paranoia is fun.

[Ariel]:

The late ninties were scary times! Everyone was really paranoid someone would not like what a club (like if they allowed female brownriders, for example) was doing and then go tell Anne about it, then worried she'd shut down fandom for good.

[Crystal]:

Yeah, it's true, but then, feeling in danger lent a bit of a charming roguish air to some clubs, didn't it. *sniffles* Ahhh, nostalgia...