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pronkerWhat in your mind is slash?
Stories and art about men having sex with men. Women having sex with women. I think that slash comes from the attraction that viewers or readers experience with characters that they see having chemistry, whether in movies, books (including graphic novels or comic books) or the entertainment world, such as with boy bands. I limit my own attention to non-real-person slash, although RPS exists and I read an extremely entertaining Real Person (actor)/Fictional Person (the character he portrayed in a movie) and was astonished how it was in character as written for both real actor and his role. This was the only case of me reading RPS (or half-RPS, I guess) and I liked it because of the truly imaginative premise. The slash involving men with men is the one I mean mainly when I say, "slash." So "slash" has been pruned from same-sex to fictional personae to male fictional personae. I find femslash uninteresting and will say why later on.
What originally led you to slash?
Whoa, anecdote time. At the end of Star Trek's first run in 1969, we fans were sad. We had written letters and signed petitions and my friend the Superfan had written fanfic, mainly of the hurt/comfort variety and we input to it on weekend sleepovers (we were 16) while she wrote furiously in ballpoint. Such darn fun. But Star Trek ended, we lived our lives and until about the mid-70's, when I went to my first nostalgia show (now called collectible/comic conventions), I hadn't heard of slash, though Superfan's stories were redolent with Spock being tenderly comforted by Kirk as Kirk tended to his wounds/fever/coma, what have you. It was all straight, though. At comic book conventions, there were under-the-table boxes with 'zines with fanfic stories in them. I bought some each time I went to a show and in a few of them were slash stories (K/S, mainly, but also smaller fandoms like Wild, Wild West, Laredo, Rat Patrol, etc.). Nearly all were entertaining or at least interesting, but I liked the het/gen ones better and concentrated on reading them. Time passed, families were born and reading time dwindled. About 1988, I became involved in a small fandom based on the 60's TV series, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, featuring an all-male (maybe 15 female guest stars in its 4-season run, literally a nearly all-male program, ha) cast that had fine VTBS het/gen 'zines (with occasional slash stories in them) recommended in the letterzine that I joined. Of the slash stories included in these 'zines, some were okay, but the het/gen ones were better written. The slash ones were extremely graphic and repetitive; however, I was polite to the one slash author that I met in person. Yes, het/gen stories were my focus until Lucas' 'Revenge of the Sith' came out in May '05. From the minute Obi-Wan said, "You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you!" a big ka-zing! went off in my head. Lucas used the L-word! Wow! But I didn't go to conventions anymore.
What leads you to continue to write or draw or read slash?
Starting in September '05, whenever I went to the library for their computer for their one-hour daily per person limit (taking turns in twenty-minute installments if there were other patrons), I read first on starwars.com, which led me to TheForce.net with its trove of wonderful stories (but no slash). I got my first computer ever in December '05 and on TFN, a February '06 random comment to someone else of, "Well, you could always join the SlashGirls over on MasterApprentice.org" got me started with Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan, among others, in the Star Wars galaxy. I pronked around reading there for some time, eventually stotting to many sites including TOTO (The Obi-Wan Torture Oasis) and fanfiction.net and then livejournal.com, where I've found an unending supply of fics of all genres to read and ficcers to discuss them with. I am a former copywriter; I started to write slash in November '06 and my main focus is Anakin/Obi-Wan, but all Star Wars flavors are yummy. It's been great. I started to draw some pictures in October '07, in the lack of any Photoshopping experience, and learned how difficult it is to draw with a mouse. Lack of artistic talent is a drawback, also, but I did learn more about my laptop's (and my) abilities.
What in your mind is the internet's role in your experience with slash? What has the internet helped you do?
The internet compresses 'zines into downloadable stories (one site has old 'zines for sale and I've found a number of my old 'zines on the site that were lost to movings and housecleanings), it expands the mind into femme-slash and then out again, and it cuts down the time that we in the early 90's used to wait for responses to our letters of comment in the letterzines: from three months to three minutes! Speed is the name of the game. 'Zines had some lovely artists who illustrated their own and others' stories and that I miss. It had some money distribution problems and mailing mishaps and bizarre feuds-by-letters between fans, which I don't miss. Even a fairly small letterzine involved someone with sore wrists typing the letters up for printing, which they don't miss. Some people I met in 'zines are now online, which is marvelous and gives one perspective to the years that have passed and the changes that have happened in fandom. I honestly shy away from real person slash or het or gen fic; it disturbs me. I feel for the actors, even though they may say that "at least they spelled my name right." Whether the actors are more magnanimous than I am, I cannot say.
If you could say something to people who don't understand you as a slasher, what would you say?
I would say that, as a female long-term married person (to a male) for well over twenty years, I find that the hurt/comfort stories that I enjoyed as a girl mutated to an interest in male/male emotional/sexual expressions. I would add also that, as a female long-term married person (to a male) for well over twenty years, I have done all things sexual that I care to do within my spectrum of interest [no BDSM, wife-swapping, threesomes with my best gal pal (hence the lack of interest in femslash) = tame interests] and that slash a) is new territory, b) has some darn good writing in its fandom (Star Wars, mainly) and c) at 54, I would still be embarrassed if any family found out about my reading and writing slash, but less so than at 44, less so than at 34, less so than at 24 ... so interests evolve, tastes evolve and to be understood is not all that it's cracked up to be.
Yours pretentiously,
pronker
What originally led you to slash?
Whoa, anecdote time. At the end of Star Trek's first run in 1969, we fans were sad. We had written letters and signed petitions and my friend the Superfan had written fanfic, mainly of the hurt/comfort variety and we input to it on weekend sleepovers (we were 16) while she wrote furiously in ballpoint. Such darn fun. But Star Trek ended, we lived our lives and until about the mid-70's, when I went to my first nostalgia show (now called collectible/comic conventions), I hadn't heard of slash, though Superfan's stories were redolent with Spock being tenderly comforted by Kirk as Kirk tended to his wounds/fever/coma, what have you. It was all straight, though. At comic book conventions, there were under-the-table boxes with 'zines with fanfic stories in them. I bought some each time I went to a show and in a few of them were slash stories (K/S, mainly, but also smaller fandoms like Wild, Wild West, Laredo, Rat Patrol, etc.). Nearly all were entertaining or at least interesting, but I liked the het/gen ones better and concentrated on reading them. Time passed, families were born and reading time dwindled. About 1988, I became involved in a small fandom based on the 60's TV series, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, featuring an all-male (maybe 15 female guest stars in its 4-season run, literally a nearly all-male program, ha) cast that had fine VTBS het/gen 'zines (with occasional slash stories in them) recommended in the letterzine that I joined. Of the slash stories included in these 'zines, some were okay, but the het/gen ones were better written. The slash ones were extremely graphic and repetitive; however, I was polite to the one slash author that I met in person. Yes, het/gen stories were my focus until Lucas' 'Revenge of the Sith' came out in May '05. From the minute Obi-Wan said, "You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you!" a big ka-zing! went off in my head. Lucas used the L-word! Wow! But I didn't go to conventions anymore.
What leads you to continue to write or draw or read slash?
Starting in September '05, whenever I went to the library for their computer for their one-hour daily per person limit (taking turns in twenty-minute installments if there were other patrons), I read first on starwars.com, which led me to TheForce.net with its trove of wonderful stories (but no slash). I got my first computer ever in December '05 and on TFN, a February '06 random comment to someone else of, "Well, you could always join the SlashGirls over on MasterApprentice.org" got me started with Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan, among others, in the Star Wars galaxy. I pronked around reading there for some time, eventually stotting to many sites including TOTO (The Obi-Wan Torture Oasis) and fanfiction.net and then livejournal.com, where I've found an unending supply of fics of all genres to read and ficcers to discuss them with. I am a former copywriter; I started to write slash in November '06 and my main focus is Anakin/Obi-Wan, but all Star Wars flavors are yummy. It's been great. I started to draw some pictures in October '07, in the lack of any Photoshopping experience, and learned how difficult it is to draw with a mouse. Lack of artistic talent is a drawback, also, but I did learn more about my laptop's (and my) abilities.
What in your mind is the internet's role in your experience with slash? What has the internet helped you do?
The internet compresses 'zines into downloadable stories (one site has old 'zines for sale and I've found a number of my old 'zines on the site that were lost to movings and housecleanings), it expands the mind into femme-slash and then out again, and it cuts down the time that we in the early 90's used to wait for responses to our letters of comment in the letterzines: from three months to three minutes! Speed is the name of the game. 'Zines had some lovely artists who illustrated their own and others' stories and that I miss. It had some money distribution problems and mailing mishaps and bizarre feuds-by-letters between fans, which I don't miss. Even a fairly small letterzine involved someone with sore wrists typing the letters up for printing, which they don't miss. Some people I met in 'zines are now online, which is marvelous and gives one perspective to the years that have passed and the changes that have happened in fandom. I honestly shy away from real person slash or het or gen fic; it disturbs me. I feel for the actors, even though they may say that "at least they spelled my name right." Whether the actors are more magnanimous than I am, I cannot say.
If you could say something to people who don't understand you as a slasher, what would you say?
I would say that, as a female long-term married person (to a male) for well over twenty years, I find that the hurt/comfort stories that I enjoyed as a girl mutated to an interest in male/male emotional/sexual expressions. I would add also that, as a female long-term married person (to a male) for well over twenty years, I have done all things sexual that I care to do within my spectrum of interest [no BDSM, wife-swapping, threesomes with my best gal pal (hence the lack of interest in femslash) = tame interests] and that slash a) is new territory, b) has some darn good writing in its fandom (Star Wars, mainly) and c) at 54, I would still be embarrassed if any family found out about my reading and writing slash, but less so than at 44, less so than at 34, less so than at 24 ... so interests evolve, tastes evolve and to be understood is not all that it's cracked up to be.
Yours pretentiously,
pronker
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-17 02:10 pm (UTC)As for me, I'm pretty new to fanfic in general, and even moreso to male/male slash fic (the funny thing being that the majority of slash IS male/male). I'm bisexual (and no, not 'trendy bisexual'; at almost 33, I'm way past caring about appearing 'trendy'), and have plenty of gay folks in my life, and am a tremendous Queer As Folk fan, but I'd never really before been interested in reading male/male. It's something that's very much come as a pleasant surprise. Right now, I still lean way more to the het/gen genre (both as a writer and reader, though moreso as a writer) with some splashes of f/f slash, but m/m slash is definitely moving up. The Star Wars universe is just so rife with good, meaningful slash fodder.
no subject
Yeh, looking back was a hoot. Gotta wonder at all those legal pads that Superfan scribbled on and our efforts at plotting, characterization, etc. Superfan and I later shared an apartment and we still correspond after all this time. It's been fun.
Queer As Jedi link
Date: 2008-01-18 09:58 pm (UTC)http://web.archive.org/web/20070201231937/http://queerasjedi.com/
Re: Queer As Jedi link
Date: 2008-02-08 01:06 am (UTC)I borrowed their dirty old man Plo Koon ;P
Re: Queer As Jedi link
no subject
Date: 2008-01-17 10:48 pm (UTC)I am glad to be of the same generation as you, even though I just sent her the email and did not publicize the answers.
Now that I have Net again I think I shall do as you did and post about her project.
A Dry, Pretentious Story