Slash Fiction: From Creation to Present
By Lareda Webb
Now I know you’re asking yourself,
“What in the world is slash?” Well, sit
back, relax and I’ll tell you. I’ll also
explain why, in some part, it is written and by whom. You’ll get a brief history of slash and then
we’ll delve into the development of a slash community and why such communities
even exist. After all of this we’ll
discuss how slashers get ideas for their stories.
Slash fiction is fictional stories
based on movies, TV series’, books and even cartoons that depict a relationship
between two male characters (Encyclopedia4u.com 1). These stories contain a pairing of two male
characters, for example The Lord of the
Rings’ Aragorn and Legolas. These
pairings are usually listed in the title with a “/”, this symbol is where the
term slash originated; the example above would be listed as
Aragorn/Legolas. Slash is reported to
have gotten its start back in the 1970s when Star Trek arrived on our television screens; the first slash
pairing was Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock (Encyclopedia4u.com 1). The first means of reading such stories was
through fanzines that were distributed via mail or during fan conferences. Although they were sold, not given out
freely, the purchaser was only charged enough to cover the cost of printing the
zine (Kustritz, 371).
As the Internet emerged into our
everyday lives, in the early 1990s, so too did slash. With free webpage hosting anyone who wanted
to could put up a website hosting their own stories as well as those of other
writers if they wished. If one did not
have the ability or time, an author could be hosted on an archive for the
particular fandom that they chose to write in.
Once slash found a home on the internet, more and more fandoms arrived
on the scene (Kustritz, 372). Today
there are so many different fandoms on the internet it would take me several
pages just to cover them all. However,
if you would like a small sampling please see the Renegade Slash Militia
website.
Before we discuss why slash is
written lets discuss the development of slash fiction. When the first stories began to emerge they
were not truly slash (at least not the type that you will find today) but what
is known as “Smarm”. Smarm are stories
that dealt/deal with the “hurt/comfort” plot.
This plot usually involved one of the main characters getting hurt,
either physically or emotionally, and then being comforted by the other
character (Kustritz, 371). Slash evolved
as the authors took the friendship based “hurt/comfort” plot to a sexual
relationship (Kustritz, 371-372). Today there are many variations of Fan
Fiction; an interested reader could spend days going from slash, to general
fiction (no pairings at all), to femslash (a subgenre of slash that depicts two
female characters together, to heterosexual stories [Encyclopedia4u.com
1]. One subgenre of slash has come under
close scrutiny because it does not make use of characters that are portrayed by
actors but is based around the actors that play the characters, musicians or athletes. This type of slash is known as RPS or Real
Person Slash and is the most controversial of all fan fiction because it is
based on real people, and not on characters created by a professional writer.
Although most slash found on the
internet is English based (written in English) we must not and can not come to
the conclusion that Americans are the only ones reading and writing slash. It seems that slash became popular in many
countries (US,
The most intriguing fact about slash
writers (at least to those who feel they must study them) is that a majority of
the writers are heterosexual females. If
one were to go on the Internet at any given time and take a survey of any list
or site’s authors you would find that at least 90% are women. These women can range from a teenager to a
woman in her late forties, although there are a few that I’ve run across that
are even older than this. They can be
highly educated or still in high school; however, the best written stories
usually come from the more mature writers (Plotz, 2). The one thing these authors have in common is
the fact that they are amateur writers: they do not write for money or fame
(Kustritz, 371). However, some have
taken the knowledge and experience they have gotten from writing slash stories
into more mainstream writing. One author
that I used to read religiously recently had to stop writing slash because her
newfound career as a journalist was taking up all her writing time.
So why do they write you ask? That is the one question that seems to get
the most debate. Some believe that women
write slash because it “is attractive to women who feel oppressed by patriarchy
because it provides a glimpse into the attainment and preservation of
relationship based upon mutual trust and egalitarian values” (Kustritz, 380). Another reasoning is that most people are
expected to passively watch television, movies or whatever without any type of
interpretation. They are expected to
take what they see at face value and not question it in any way, shape or form
(Kustritz, 373). Some experts believe
that we, as a society, have lost the art of folk stories: that is the ability
to relay stories from one generation to another. These same experts believe that, “Not only
are most individuals not allowed to express their own versions of actual events,
but they are also restricted from sharing their dreams, fantasies, and desires”
(Kustritz, 373). Henry Jenkins wrote the
below as his way of explaining why slash writers, and fan fiction writers in
general, write:
In practice, of course, any act of cultural creation builds
upon what has come before, borrowing genre conventions and cultural archetypes,
if nothing else. Fans respond to the
situation by preserving the traditional practices of a folk culture in responding
to mass culture, treating film or television as if it offered them raw
materials for telling their own stories and resources for forging their own
communities (3).
However
wonderful all these reasons might be, I am inclined to agree with Helen Razer’s
opinion, “Slash has a canon and a system of mentorship, or “beta reading”, that
[sic] ought to inspire envy in any emerging novelist” (1). In my personal experience the feeling of
“family” is what keeps me involved in the community. The people I have met through this community
have helped me through the death of my father and given me the encouragement to
continue writing when I have lost all inspiration or will to write.
The basis for most slash stories is
“filling in the motivations, emotions, and personal histories of the main male
characters, or rescripting and replacing those elements of the characters
emotions, and actions that were provided in the source product” (Kustritz,
374). Slash writers might be limited by
the actors who portray the characters they are writing about (i.e., Viggo
Mortensen and Orlando Bloom are both about the same height), however, leeway is
given in slash that allows the author to portray one character as lighter,
weaker or more open to emotions (Salmon, 10).
A couple can be slashed for many reasons and many things may start a
story, however, most stories portray the two main characters as equals
(Kustritz, 377). What makes a slash
story different from most of its fiction counterparts is the fact that “slash
is based on shared adventure, and it’s [sic] protagonists slay each other’s
dragons” (Salmon, 11). That is to say,
in most stories, the two main characters started out as friends, have fought
together in battle (or lived basically the same type of life), and have created
a bond of friendship that is strong enough to withstand a sexual or romantic
relationship (Salmon, 12). This one idea
is the main draw for most people who read slash and is what keeps many people
reading for many years.
Although a majority of slash is
explicitly sexual in nature, the sex usually serves to move the plot along
rather than become the plot. There is a
subgenre of slash that is based solely on sexual scenes that is known as PWP
(Plot? What Plot?) (Lee, 4). This is
just one of many different branches of slash (or fiction as a whole). When a writer posts a story to a list, sends
it to an archive site or posts it on their own site, there are certain things
that must (per slash etiquette and to save from harassment) be included in the
header of a story. These things include,
but are not limited to: title, author, pairing, rating, and disclaimer. Other items that can be included are
dedications, thank yous to beta readers, a feedback address, and the author’s
notes about the story. The disclaimer is
a warning about the story’s contents that the author does not know any of the
people she is writing about, and that she is making no money on the writing of
the story. Below is Khylea’s disclaimer
from her story Cold:
Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings….duh….but
considering how many times I’ve seen TTT, I think Mr.
Tolkien’s estate is far ahead in the money game anyway. I promise to be nice and to put his toys back
when I’m done playing with them.
Below is
another Disclaimer from Brandi’s story Hannon
Le:
Disclaimer: I desperately want to possess all characters
involved, especially the fair Elf-prince, but alas, I own nothing. Tolkien is one lucky guy to lay claim to
them. And I have precious little money,
so sueing [sic] me would only serve to be extremely disappointing for you and
fiercely entertaining for me.
As you
can see, the disclaimer does not have a set statement and sometimes gives you
an insight into the author of the story, or at least lets you in on what she
might be thinking as she wrote this particular story.
When one writes a slash story one
must try to avoid what is known as “fanon”.
Fanon is the formation of a consistency, within several different
stories, that is developed inside the fan community but not in the source
(Kustritz, 381). Use of these fanon,
usually give a new writer away as someone who has not done much research into
their fandom and may even lead to critism from older fans. Usually the critism is of the type that helps
to improve the author’s understanding of a particular point within the plot but
may even extend to another author offering to ‘beta read’ the story before it
is posted for all to read. These
seasoned authors may also point the beginner to a website that may assist the
new writer to improve the quality of their sex scenes, such as Minotaur’s Sex
Tips for Slash Writers, or how to speak/write elvish, Ardalambion is the most
widely known of these.
Now that we have discussed some of
the whys of slash writing, let’s talk about some of the ways in which a slash
story can come about. First off, we must
have a source.
Source products drawn upon by fan writers are full of
contradictions, inconsistencies, and ambiguities. They present a fascinating idea, but their
potential is never realized within the professionally published text (Kustritz,
374).
For the
purpose of this paper we’ll use the pairing of Legolas/Aragorn for our
examples. In The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring our first chance to
witness one of these inconsistencies is when Legolas stands up and defends Aragorn
during The Council of Elrond. Since
the moviegoer has not seen Legolas or Aragorn together prior to this, the first
question for most of them is “How does Legolas know who Aragorn is, let alone
his heritage?” Since the movie never
truly delves into the topic we have great fodder for a story. In her story, Cold, Khylea tries to give us one explanation as to how Legolas
would know Aragorn.
An example of contradiction would be
during The Lord of the Rings: The Two
Towers; we have grown accustomed to Legolas being a very quiet elf that
seems willing to follow Aragorn anywhere, no matter what. All of a sudden we have a scene, conveniently
placed after Aragorn’s “almost” death, where Legolas has reservations about fighting
in the impending battle. The look on his
face as he tells Aragorn that they are all going to die is enough to send any
slasher into a flurry of writing. In her
story The Deep of the Soul,
feaglin_sindar attempts to give us a reason why Legolas would be so upset as to
vocalize his concerns. Another attempt
at explaining this outburst comes from Tricia’s Deep Within.
As an example of ambiguity within a
storyline: Have you ever wondered why
Aragorn, not Haldir was put in charge of the elves at Helm’s Deep? Is it possible that Haldir had somehow found
out that he would not make it through the battle? In her story The Deep of the Soul feaglin_sindar not only answers these
questions but several others.
The inspiration for a story can come
from anything. When asked what inspired
her to write Lemur710, who writes in several fandoms, responded with the
following:
Anything can be
inspiration, fortunately – or unfortunately.
A song, a scene from the film, a scene from a
different film, a sign along the road, an item on sale at the store. For me, however, it’s [sic] usually starts
with the question “What would that be like?”
Often, I write because I want to know what it might have been like to
experience something – the day-to-day on the set of Lord of the Rings, or the
creaking decks of the Black Pearl – and the only way to get there is through my
imagination. Once I’ve gotten that far,
I feel compelled to write it.
One of my
favorite examples of Lemur710’s writing technique is Deconstructing Legolas, in which she has the characters attempt to
figure out Legolas and how he would act because Orlando is having trouble
‘getting into his character’.
Once the inspiration begins to flow
it is only a matter of time before we have such stories as Cold, The Deep of the Soul
or Deep Within. Sometimes the inspiration can come from a
challenge, such as the monthly challenge issued on Characters In Bloom (aka.
CIB Challenge) whose April Challenge was as follows:
This
month’s challenge is all about a weekend holiday.
And what’s a
weekend holiday without a fling? Give
Orlando or one of his characters an adventure away from home during
which he has a memorable encounter with a man he does or does not know. It must be a city he’s never visited before
(make one up, if you like) and he must meet his fling in that city. Other than that, let your minds go wild!
Fics of 500 words
or more only; no drabbles, please. We
will accept the beginning chapters of works in progress. All stories must feature Orlando or one of
his characters going on holiday, but pairing, rating, fandom and genre are all
up to you. We request that all stories
be written originally for the challenge; no previous works, please (http://www.
charactersinbloom.com/challenge_april.htm).
Each
challenge is then judged and ranked, however all responses are placed on the
sight for slash reading enjoyment.
Although this is a personal favorite of mine, there are many sites,
groups and live journal communities that issue challenges. These sites will normally host the stories
written for said challenges. Many
fandoms also have awards (such as the Mithril Awards at http://www.viragene.com/tolkien/)
which reward authors for accuracy, story content and many other categories.
Although there are many fandoms
within the slash community, the fandoms seem to flourish when there is some
active inspiration. We’ll use the The Lord of the Rings trilogy as our
example again: when the first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, hit theaters
Lotrips (Lord of the Rings Real
Person Slash) and LotR’s (Fictional and RPS) communities began to spring up all
over the Internet. The activity in these
communities lulled once the movie had been out a while (although stories were
still being written, just not as many) but once talk of the release of the DVD
began, activity began to pick up.
Although the writers slack off on
writing during these slow periods, they do not slack off in the
communities. Within these communities
you will find people with a great passion for their topics who are willing to
help with almost anything. Once you are
accepted into one of these communities (which is not difficult) one could truly
have friends for life. These people are
some of the most caring, interesting and passionate people I have met and I
claim many of them as friends. People
are brought together within these communities via a common interest and become
friends with many of the readers and other authors. They share information on the movies, help
each other get through hard times in their real life and sometimes even inspire
stories themselves, such as Dr. Pepper
and McFlurries by Lareda: where a discussion of JC Chasez’s love of Dr.
Pepper was the main discussion for me and a friend over AOL Instant
Messenger. Sometimes through these
discussions two authors will discover that they have been thinking of writing a
story with the same plotline and once in a while we are privileged enough to
see these two authors combine their talents and write a story together: for
example, The Love of Elves by Lemur
and Maeve who post together under the name Ellon
Melethril. These stories are usually
chapter stories although they do not have to be. Another good reason for these communities is
to pool information about a fandom.
Although the Internet is a vast storage place of information it is
sometimes difficult to find the information that one may need or wish to
include in a story. If one is involved
in one or more of these communities, they can ask the other members if they
know where the information is stored and may save a great deal of time in
researching said information. Any one
community could have anywhere from 10 to over 1,000 members. That is a wealth of knowledge on one topic
and most of these members are happy to give advice, answer questions or give
recommendations. These communities’
members can range from teenagers (the youngest I’ve met online was 12) to
people in their mid to late 40’s.
Although the majority of the members of slash communities are
heterosexual women, you will find men (mostly gay), as well as bisexual and gay
women. They can represent many religions
and professions, as well as a number of different cultures and nationalities,
but a friendlier group of people will be hard to find.
Although many experts attempt to
depict fans as dangerous and overzealous, they are in fact some of the most
caring, understanding and intelligent people I have encountered in my
life. Lisa A. Lewis states in her book,
“The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media”:
Perhaps only a fan can appreciate the depth of feeling, the
gratifications, the importance for coping with everyday life that fandom
represents. Yet we are all fans of
something. We respect, admire, desire. We distinguish and form commitments. By endeavoring to understand the fan impulse,
we ultimately move towards a greater understanding of ourselves (1).
Perhaps,
instead of fearing and mistrusting fans, the experts should be studying them to
find out how they benefit each other within these communities.
Now that you have been given a small
guided tour into the life of slash fiction, how about a small sample of a drabble that was written by a wonderful author? This drabble (story
that is less than 500 words) was written by Juniper entitled And the Silence is Broken:
The silence is
broken by the soft tapping of rain on a misty moonlit window. Darkness pervades the warmth of the room in
which no words are spoken. A moonbeam
fights its way through the darkness to caress the shadows that move languidly
on the bed.
And the silence is
broken by lips that kiss and tongues that linger as the night grows ever
darker. Fingertips ghost over curves of
muscles and the hardness of arousal. The
texture of a lover’s skin is memorized by the reverent touch.
And the silence is
broken by the whisper of skin against skin as the urgency grows beyond
control. The flames of desire are fanned
ever higher by the rocking motion that outdates time. Bodies collide and freefall in the darkness
of the night.
And the silence is
broken by the soft sighs of release, the gasping breath of a man drowning in
passion. The darkness slowly begins to
fade into the soft morning light. ‘I love you.’
And the silence is broken.