On Fri, Mar 23, 2001 at 11:11:53PM +1100, Cheryl _ wrote:
I honestly read each story with an open mind - it's not as closed as it may sometimes come across as - so far, in all honesty - I have either not enjoyed the story at all or I have (as in the abovementioned story) really been enjoying it - until the sex enters the picture, it's usually crudely outlined and sometimes quite intrusive...
How true... (sigh) Me, coming from a slightly different angle -- because I don't like reading Adult either; for hetsmut stories I just wish they could write the story without the sex! I have gone so far as to, twice, get zines which were reccommended to me, which happened to be Adult, get someone to go through and censor all the sex bits for me beforehand, and then read the story. (My attitude towards hetsmut is that I'd rather it stayed privately in the bedroom without me watching it) Mindfire was one of them -- a great story, IMHO, which would have been even better without the sex (grin) (And some aspects of that I didn't like anyway, even when I didn't read the actual scenes... the Auron idea of group-marriage... (shakes head))
for me, the story I have just read was a wonderful idea and the author possesses a fine writing style - Avon suffers from amnesia after saving Blake - the parts of his life which shaped his personality have been wiped and we are left with a much more approachable man (the author manages to do this but still keeps Avon recognisable) he is then faced with discovering the man that he was
- I was enthralled -
It does, indeed, sound enthralling, and a very interesting plot...
until it changed direction into the story it was designed to be - for me, it then ceased to explore and just shuddered to a rather abrupt end.
For me, that sounds like a good story completely ruined by making it slash! (wry smile) (wails) Why does everything have to be about sex? So far as I can tell, the story you describe above, could have been written as a cracking good gen story... with friendship instead of sex. Philia, as someone said in a previous thread. Maybe even agape. Just toss the eros and I'll be happy.
To refine: I find slash stories more upsetting than hetsmut because of the moral issue, even though I don't like reading either one; for me, het sex out of wedlock is, while not good, not half as sinful as gay sex. (Particularly if the het sex is monogamous; at least they're being faithful...) So it upsets me to see characters I admire suddenly having gay sex. That's where my compass is set, and if that upsets anyone, then go ahead and call me insulting names if it makes you feel better.
"toss the eros..." Hmmm... I wonder what a good slash story would be like if someone went and rewrote it as a Sime~Gen story, with one party Sime and the other Gen...
Kathryn Andersen -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- If they outlaw Guns, can we use Swords? -- found by RER7691@TNTECH.EDU (DEATH ANGEL)