When Frodo Met Sam

News Media Commentary
Title:	When Frodo Met Sam
Commentator:	Milly Chen
Date(s):	July 2004
Venue:	Sunday Times Magazine, print
Fandom:	The Lord of the Rings
External Links:	When Frodo Met Sam (TheOneRing.net)
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When Frodo Met Sam is an article about slash fanfiction that was published in the July 2004 issue of Sunday Times Magazine 'style' section. It uses a Sam/Frodo manip by The Theban Band but doesn't credit it.

The article's topic line says: "It's the ultimate fantasy: your fictional heroes getting down and dirty in a steamy gay clinch. Milly Chen takes a peek at slash fiction." And she does.

The article begins with a quote from a Sam/Frodo story and then asks incredulously "Frodo and Sam? In bed together? Who could write such a thing?" Slash is then explained as "one of the biggest crazes on the internet" and a few pairings are mentioned. The whole article has a 'look at the freaks' vibe and describes how the author of the article discovered slash when she "blundered onto a slash website", "naturally assumed they were written by some lunatic-fringe cult of gay nerds" and then was shocked when a friend told her "that amost all fan fiction, slash included, is written by bright young heterosexual women." She then gets over her shock and takes a stab at the Why Slash game.

Slash is described as something that has met with resistance in gay circles and "prolific slash writer" Kirby Crow is quoted in that context. Another friend of the author finds it fascinating that women write it but ultimately thinks it's rubbish and boring, like Mills & Boon, and surely the author of the article doesn't find it sexy. At that point the author finally admits to the audience that yes, they do find it sexy, and even wrote some of her own.