Predatrix wrote:
I'm not sure this is true any more: early slash in any fandom falls victim to that particular syndrome (originally described for K/S as "Kirk's not gay, he just wants to suck Spock's cock"). In K/S's case, I suppose the writer has to retcon the Dead-Girlfriend-of-the-Week thing *somehow*. Nowadays, there are any number of ways to deal with sexual identity--and slash writing does sometimes deal with them. Read Executrix's Pink-Triangle-Avon stories for writing where sexual identity is the heart
of
the story, for example. There are quite a few Julia Stamford stories where the politics of sex are an integral part of the story. My stories tend to assume that Blake is gay or bi and Avon is bi and leave it like that, I suppose, because I'm more interested in sex than politics and I find the concept of bisexuality more understandable than the sort of writing you're talking about where neither of them has ever thought about another man
until
they're in bed together.
That's the difference between us, Predatrix (like the name, btw-- "female predator"-- do you read Latin then?)-- you're interested in the sex and I'm interested in the politics. But the original show was about politics, not sex, after all, and we shouldn't let the politics of it be overwhelmed by the sex. I'm sure there's very political slash out there but most of it does seem to be just PWP.
and doesn't give much of a voice to lesbians, or address the real
political issues
Am nonplussed. I'm straight myself,
Why do you find it necessary to say this?
but I know of several gay women (including the writer Joanna Russ, viz one of her essays) who have been known to turn on to slash, because slash is a mental kink
That wasn't what I meant-- I meant the relative lack of f/f slash out there. Could you explain what you mean by "kink," anyway?
(like h/c or torture or rape-fantasy) which isn't clearly about what one wants to
happen
to oneself.
No, but one is willing to inflict upon the fictional characters, who the writer must surely have some fondness and liking for.
Do you also dislike gay men who have a (not necessarily sexual) fantasy about women (Dave W having a thing about Servalan, for example?)?
The operative phrase is "not necessarily sexual." In my experience these men don't want to shag her, they want to *be* her. Seeing that Dave's on the lyst, though, perhaps he should answer this himself.
I'll admit that slash sensibility is much more to do with the women
writing
it than it's to do with gay sensibility in writing by gay men, but is that really so bad?
Very true. In the end it just comes down to individual fantasy.
Shane
"I made them pay for it" --Arlen
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Shane said:
But the original show was about politics, not sex, after all,
The original show wasn't really very much about politics-- we don't even know the name of the last President before Servalan, for instance, or what Sleer was Commissioner of, or how the Federation was structured and administered, or how the caste system worked...The original show was in large part about blowing things up, which may have had an element of sublimation for the characters. and we shouldn't let the politics of it be overwhelmed by
the sex. I'm sure there's very political slash out there but most of it
does
seem to be just PWP.
There are several different issues here. Actually I'd say by now most slash stories are NOT PWPs, the sex occurs in the context of a plot (although it might be a romantic rather than an action plot). A story might concentrate on science, or anthropology, or fashion, with a greater or lesser degree of explicit depiction of sexual activity between some pairing(s). (If I'm in a good mood, I tend to write stories where all the characters get involved with someone--either that or I just like making life difficult for cataloguers.)
It's very much a question of the author's intention, what s/he thinks writers are interested in (or will stand for) and also how well the author can handle the political element--I did a fairly long story about the crew's encounter with a kind of Taliban Planet (and Cally's rather alarming original-character girlfriend). It is universally acclaimed as the worst story I ever wrote, not because there's anything wrong with political B7 but because I couldn't integrate the political material into a story with any degree of subtlety.
I certainly wouldn't say that all slash stories are terrific--some of them are perfectly awful--or even that they necessarily involve any psychological subtlety--just that a slash story doesn't rule out the possibility of being good science fiction, sociology, psychology, action/adventure, etc., merely by adding the potential for being effective smut.
-(Y)
-
Dana Shilling -
Shane Little