I don't read fanfic.

[conuly]

I don't write fanfic. I don't write at all, in fact, not fiction, anyway. But a lot of my friends read/write fanfic. Nothing wrong with that, really, though after a few disturbing incidents (including a Sinfest li'l devil/godfanboy slash suggestion) I need to ask...

What's the point of slash? Why write it? And is it slash if the characters are supposed to be gay in whatever you're basing this off of?

Comments

[joeymew.livejournal.com]

What's your definition of slash? I have yet to hear a good definition. I have written male/male fanfiction, but I don't know if it classifies as slash or not. Maybe if you define what it is, I can tell you if/why I write it.

[conuly]

The definition I've heard (which is subject to change due to my general ignorance) is it's gay romance/porn involving characters from *blank*.

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

Why write any fanfiction that's not strictly canon?

I can't answer that. The idea of writing someone else's character horrifies me, though sometimes I'll gladly play in their world.

[joeymew.livejournal.com]

Ah, ok. Then it's not just porn, and what I've written counts. So after thinking about it over a twix bar, I've thought up three reasons for why I wrote that Lance/Bruno fic.

1: It was fun, and I was bored.
2: They make such a cute couple.
3: I'm subconciously overcompensating for romance that I'm not getting.

[meteorie.livejournal.com]

I really don't know.. I never got into it. I like writing about strictly canon stuff.. Except once or twice.

I wrote a Dragonball Z fic once that involved taking popular characters names in a hat, drawing one name from one pile and one name from another pile and writing a get together story about whichever two I picked. It was a lot of fun and people liked it, but I made sure to put all the female characters in one group and all the male characters in another group.

Sorry I'm off topic, I guess I can't really say much about slash :/ I want to go write some humour fics now..

[mhari.livejournal.com]

Gee, would you like that can of worms fried?

It depends on the slasher.

[strangelette.livejournal.com]

I used to write fic and I still read it pretty regularly although I took a few very big steps away from fandom a bit ago.

Slash can be anything from a serious case of unresolved sexual tension (UST) to a really well written buddy fic, to pure smut.

The point of slash can be anything from "I like pretty boys/girls fucking" to "I'm subverting the heteropatriarchal normative structure of consumption". I wholeheartedly agree with the former and I may have written a rather long paper on the latter :)

It's fun. I'm a firm believer that most things are much more fun in my head and slash confirms it. I'm also working on fleshing out a theory on the extremely sexualized female only "spaces" slash fandoms provides, but it's only half worked out.

As to the last question I think you'll get answers from "yes" to "sure, but it kind of takes the fun out of it". There's a pretty big QAF fandom, if that helps.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

I write slash for many reasons. For me, writing fanfic is easier than writing original fic because the characters and their personalities are already established. Sometimes I write a character having a problem I've had as a way to work out what I think or feel about the problem. I write slash because, to my 'queer eyes', there are some characters on some shows who I think are obviously madly in love with each other even if they never say anything about it. :) Starsky & Hutch is a good example of this. It's also a way of fighting heterosexism, the assumption that everyone is heterosexual. I'm also a romantic, and I like to write mushy romance stories that aren't m/f, because you find those anywhere.

[nightsea.livejournal.com]

I personally don't write fanfiction or slash - the first because I dislike writing about pre-existing characters (character creation is half the fun), and the second because I have a hard enough time writing heterosexual romance.

However, I do have a few friends who write both fanfiction and slash, and the reasons I've been given vary. Some say that they enjoy pairing together two characters who would otherwise never be together in canon. Others say that homosexual relationships are refreshing in a society (American, etc.) that is by and large against them. The anime and manga worlds are exceptionally casual regarding homosexual relationships, and many people find that attractive.

[conuly]

Yes, please, Ms. Not-helpful!

[the-lady-aurora.livejournal.com]

I find most fanfic extremely creepy. Although, I did read some Buffy/Spike stuff a while back (before they became a couple) that was so good I actually cried when I read it. As for slash - I'd never heard of it until you mentioned it. It doesn't sound like something I'd be interested in reading.

[conuly]

It's a little disturbing. Fun, sure, I like reading just about anything (no joke), but not what you wanna find when scrolling down your friend-of-friend list.

Especially when Percy and Oliver Wood are SO wrong for each other.

[kuriku.livejournal.com]

[mhari.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but there *is* no comprehensive answer. *shrug* Some of us don't even have the same reasons from one story to another, so...

[eofs.livejournal.com]

I know where the term slash comes from, but not why it's used. It's from the way of denoting relationships by writing them J/D (ie Jack/Daniel.) But I don't get why it was then applied strictly to homosexual pairings (and usually male/male - certainly amongst Stargate slash female/female seems to be pretty universally called femslash.)

As for why to write slash... I read an interesting piece on once somewhere, possibly Pink Khaki. I believe the main reason being given in that case was that it's the same reason blokes like watching lesbian porn (the article was on why women specifcally write slash, since most slash writers are female.) If you're a heterosexual reader and your writing/reading/watching what essentially amounts to pornography, do you *really* want to see limbs and body parts flailing that belong to your sex?

The other reason I used to read slash was because it was a good place to get angst. I used to read a lot of Paris/Chakotay stuff when I was 14 or 15 because at that time I was really into angst fiction (I had a strange habit of reading it when I was feeling really crap about myself. Possibly not the healthiest habit.) As it happened, a lot of angst fic about Paris (who was my favourite character) was slash, so slash I read (I used to skip past the graphically sexual bits.) Plus most non slash stuff on him was Paris/Torres and I really couldn't be doing with that :0P

So there's a couple of reasons there.

Interestingly although I've read a LOT of slash over the years, I've never had a desire to write it. *Shrugs*

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Harry Potter slash disturbs me, because of the age of the participants. *Shudders*

[kuriku.livejournal.com]

[joeymew.livejournal.com]

What's your definition of slash? I have yet to hear a good definition. I have written male/male fanfiction, but I don't know if it classifies as slash or not. Maybe if you define what it is, I can tell you if/why I write it.

[conuly]

The definition I've heard (which is subject to change due to my general ignorance) is it's gay romance/porn involving characters from *blank*.

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

Why write any fanfiction that's not strictly canon?

I can't answer that. The idea of writing someone else's character horrifies me, though sometimes I'll gladly play in their world.

[joeymew.livejournal.com]

Ah, ok. Then it's not just porn, and what I've written counts. So after thinking about it over a twix bar, I've thought up three reasons for why I wrote that Lance/Bruno fic.

1: It was fun, and I was bored.
2: They make such a cute couple.
3: I'm subconciously overcompensating for romance that I'm not getting.

[meteorie.livejournal.com]

I really don't know.. I never got into it. I like writing about strictly canon stuff.. Except once or twice.

I wrote a Dragonball Z fic once that involved taking popular characters names in a hat, drawing one name from one pile and one name from another pile and writing a get together story about whichever two I picked. It was a lot of fun and people liked it, but I made sure to put all the female characters in one group and all the male characters in another group.

Sorry I'm off topic, I guess I can't really say much about slash :/ I want to go write some humour fics now..

[mhari.livejournal.com]

Gee, would you like that can of worms fried?

It depends on the slasher.

[strangelette.livejournal.com]

I used to write fic and I still read it pretty regularly although I took a few very big steps away from fandom a bit ago.

Slash can be anything from a serious case of unresolved sexual tension (UST) to a really well written buddy fic, to pure smut.

The point of slash can be anything from "I like pretty boys/girls fucking" to "I'm subverting the heteropatriarchal normative structure of consumption". I wholeheartedly agree with the former and I may have written a rather long paper on the latter :)

It's fun. I'm a firm believer that most things are much more fun in my head and slash confirms it. I'm also working on fleshing out a theory on the extremely sexualized female only "spaces" slash fandoms provides, but it's only half worked out.

As to the last question I think you'll get answers from "yes" to "sure, but it kind of takes the fun out of it". There's a pretty big QAF fandom, if that helps.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

I write slash for many reasons. For me, writing fanfic is easier than writing original fic because the characters and their personalities are already established. Sometimes I write a character having a problem I've had as a way to work out what I think or feel about the problem. I write slash because, to my 'queer eyes', there are some characters on some shows who I think are obviously madly in love with each other even if they never say anything about it. :) Starsky & Hutch is a good example of this. It's also a way of fighting heterosexism, the assumption that everyone is heterosexual. I'm also a romantic, and I like to write mushy romance stories that aren't m/f, because you find those anywhere.

[nightsea.livejournal.com]

I personally don't write fanfiction or slash - the first because I dislike writing about pre-existing characters (character creation is half the fun), and the second because I have a hard enough time writing heterosexual romance.

However, I do have a few friends who write both fanfiction and slash, and the reasons I've been given vary. Some say that they enjoy pairing together two characters who would otherwise never be together in canon. Others say that homosexual relationships are refreshing in a society (American, etc.) that is by and large against them. The anime and manga worlds are exceptionally casual regarding homosexual relationships, and many people find that attractive.

[conuly]

Yes, please, Ms. Not-helpful!

[the-lady-aurora.livejournal.com]

I find most fanfic extremely creepy. Although, I did read some Buffy/Spike stuff a while back (before they became a couple) that was so good I actually cried when I read it. As for slash - I'd never heard of it until you mentioned it. It doesn't sound like something I'd be interested in reading.

[conuly]

It's a little disturbing. Fun, sure, I like reading just about anything (no joke), but not what you wanna find when scrolling down your friend-of-friend list.

Especially when Percy and Oliver Wood are SO wrong for each other.

[kuriku.livejournal.com]

[mhari.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but there *is* no comprehensive answer. *shrug* Some of us don't even have the same reasons from one story to another, so...

[eofs.livejournal.com]

I know where the term slash comes from, but not why it's used. It's from the way of denoting relationships by writing them J/D (ie Jack/Daniel.) But I don't get why it was then applied strictly to homosexual pairings (and usually male/male - certainly amongst Stargate slash female/female seems to be pretty universally called femslash.)

As for why to write slash... I read an interesting piece on once somewhere, possibly Pink Khaki. I believe the main reason being given in that case was that it's the same reason blokes like watching lesbian porn (the article was on why women specifcally write slash, since most slash writers are female.) If you're a heterosexual reader and your writing/reading/watching what essentially amounts to pornography, do you *really* want to see limbs and body parts flailing that belong to your sex?

The other reason I used to read slash was because it was a good place to get angst. I used to read a lot of Paris/Chakotay stuff when I was 14 or 15 because at that time I was really into angst fiction (I had a strange habit of reading it when I was feeling really crap about myself. Possibly not the healthiest habit.) As it happened, a lot of angst fic about Paris (who was my favourite character) was slash, so slash I read (I used to skip past the graphically sexual bits.) Plus most non slash stuff on him was Paris/Torres and I really couldn't be doing with that :0P

So there's a couple of reasons there.

Interestingly although I've read a LOT of slash over the years, I've never had a desire to write it. *Shrugs*

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Harry Potter slash disturbs me, because of the age of the participants. *Shudders*

[kuriku.livejournal.com]