White Mutiny

Fanfiction
Title:	White Mutiny
Author(s):	Vanessa Mullen
Date(s):	1997
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Blake's 7
Relationship(s):
External Links:
originally here, now at AO3: White Mutiny
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White Mutiny is a 1997 Blake's 7 story by Vanessa Mullen.

It was published in Forbidden Star #2 and is now online. It was originally serialized on the Space City mailing list.

Topic of an Intense 1997 Discussion

This fic was the topic of the discussion Slash - for and against.

Ed's note - this article grew out of my response to *White Mutiny*, a story by Judith which she passed around on one of the B7FWN's circuits. It's only fair to point out that she did so knowing that none of the other participants would be outraged, offended etc at having some hard slash pop through their letterbox. I won't summarise the story here, since that wouldn't be fair on any slash fan who hasn't read the story but might get to do so one day. Suffice it to say that it is a B/A piece which gets pretty explicit towards the end. My comments here may have been provoked by *White Mutiny*, but I feel they are pertinent to a broad swathe of slash, *WM* being what I construe to be a representative example of the genre. Judith has asked me to point out that although she and I disagree very strongly on this issue, this is not a bitter falling out as sometimes happens between fans etc. I would like to think that anyone else with strong views on this subject can maintain the same sense of proportion.

Some of the author's comments:

Motives for writing slash are manyfold and it is as inaccurate to lump all slash stories together as it is to pump all gen ones. If a kinky thrill was all that was required, *White Mutiny* would have come out very differently. I got stuck for a couple of weeks in the middle of writing the story because I needed a way for Avon to defeat Blake by giving in to him. Once I had that (with a little help from M Fae) then I was able to resolve the story. The relationship, as almost any slash fan will tell you, is as important as the sex. If the relationship feels wrong then the sex usually fails to be erotic. Some slash fans enjoy mainstream porn, but the majority don't. It holds no interest because the relationship isn't there.

I suspect *White Mutiny* is probably the most explicit story I've ever written, and I'll freely admit that I find it very erotic, and others do too. But - and it is a big but - slash covers the whole range. The story I wrote after *White Mutiny* had no sex at all. It's a moot point as to whether it was even technically a slash story - the only kiss in it was non-sexual in intent. I didn't write that story because I felt guilty about sex - far from it. I wrote it because I wanted to explore the Blake/Avon relationship and for that particular story, this was the best way of doing it. A lot of slash writers also write gen. At least three B7 slash editors also publish genzines. There's almost a continuum from Hard SF through h/c to slash stories without sex (of which there are quite a few) all the way to extremely explicit material. Slash has just as high a percentage of badly written stories as genzines do, and any comparison on the grounds of plot quality should at least be based on a broader reading. I'll freely admit that some is totally dire, but there are also writers who can produce a sex scene from minimal plot without making it look at all forced.

From the author:

It's quite amusing to re-read this article after all this time. Coincidentally, White Mutiny, the story that started the discussion, has now just made it into print in Forbidden Star Two. (It's no use Russ, <grin> I bet you'll never convince them that it really *is* coincidence).

He made his original comments on the writers' cicuit if memory recalls correctly and I felt he'd said some things that were interesting enough to throw into a wider debate, so it got into AltaZine and eventually here. Neil and I love to argue - always have done.

Neil is wrong in one respect though (and it's his lack of experience of slash that leads to this particular mistake) White Mutiny is not typical of the slash genre. It was originally aimed at Oblaque, and readers of Oblaque will know that it was far more explicit and psychological than most other slash zines. (I think Neil had been loaned some copies of Oblaque by another fan) It has to be said though, that I am sure Neil would dislike the 'holding hands, tender loving care' style of slash even more. His dislike of the genre is largely based on what he percieves as the emotionalisation of the characters, and as a very rough rule of thumb, the milder the sex, the flowerier the flowers and the more bleading the hearts.

[snipped]

White Mutiny has a concept too, or a theme as I'd rather call it. It's about the nature of power and the way that a person percieves himself. How important is a man's self-image to him? This is critical to the story's resolution and also means that even though the story comes to an end, the characters cannot go back to exactly where they were before.

Reactions and Reviews

Topic of a 1996 Essay

... Slash - for and against... grew out of my response to *White Mutiny*, a story by Judith which she passed around on one of the B7FWN's circuits. It's only fair to point out that she did so knowing that none of the other participants would be outraged, offended etc at having some hard slash pop through their letterbox. I won't summarise the story here, since that wouldn't be fair on any slash fan who hasn't read the story but might get to do so one day. Suffice it to say that it is a B/A piece which gets pretty explicit towards the end. My comments here may have been provoked by *White Mutiny*, but I feel they are pertinent to a broad swathe of slash, *WM* being what I construe to be a representative example of the genre. Judith has asked me to point out that although she and I disagree very strongly on this issue, this is not a bitter falling out as sometimes happens between fans etc. I would like to think that anyone else with strong views on this subject can maintain the same sense of proportion. [see that essay for more]

Unknown Date

There's stories with all the sex off-stage and there are stories like White Mutiny where the sex is definitely on-stage. There's a couple of rape stories and some that don't go beyond holding hands. I have wide ranging tases in smut, and this zine tends to reflect what I like.

This is an excellent zine, very strongly recommended. Everything in it is good, but the stories I particularly liked were "White Mutiny," "Mardi Gras," and "Passing Through Fire."

2014

Vanessa Mullen, "White Mutiny" (S2, post-Redemption; B/J, A/B) (I have a weird relationship with this fic, which I read quite early on in fandom. At that point I was sick of the 'Blake as rapist' trope and couldn't see past that. I still do hate it, but I must admit that this is very best example of the genre there is or could be. It bothers to give Avon a lot of cleverly acquired power, it takes the time to say more things about Blake and about this relationship than just 'Blake's the kind of guy who is a rapist', and I do find it interesting. Nice dialogue too. This is what happens when you give a great writer a prompt you hate - they make it interesting. Grr.)