The Slashiest of Profic: K/S Literature 101 - Part I
Susannah Mandel
Tue, 19 Jan 1999 03:54:32 -0500 (EST)
From:
Susannah Mandel <sma...@fas.harvard.edu>
To:
as...@earthlink.net
Subject:
The Slashiest of Profic: K/S Literature 101 - Part I
Welll, folks, I'm sure we've had this discussion before. But for some
reason I can't seem to get my mind off it the past couple of days (I'm
sure it couldn't have _anything_ to do with academic procrastination,
could it, Susannah? No, of course not!) So I figured: this'd be a
great
time to try to stie up another "canonical" literary discussion!
What's the profic that you've read -- the stuff published
under
the aegis of Paramount and its people, the stuff halfway between beast
and
angel^H^H I mean, between fanfic and canon -- that first made you
think
slashy thoughts; that you reread for pleasure and murmur "This writer
really _gets_ it!"; or (and this is my present situation) that you
read
and reread to get your fix between doses of fanfic? (Yes, I admit it,
the
tables have turned; I do in fact scan profic in order to try to get my
K/S
fix during times of drought (or, worse yet, multi-part stories) from
my
favorite fan writers here. Sigh. *fans self*)
Now, I'm a K/S'er myself, so that's the corpus I know (and the
one
for which I'd be most *keenly*, keenly interested in recommendations
for
further reading! ;) But I'd be happy to throw the doors open to hear
about other people's pairings -- if in fact they ever get any page
time.
Whether the later series do, I just don't know.
Anyway, I'm gonna toss out a few titles, and I'd love to hear
people's reactions (and/or, as I said, recommendations.) Hey, maybe
we
can form a reading group... What d'you say, TSU-ers? The Department
of
Semi-Canonical Lit.: Detecting the Subtext in "Official" Serialized
Novels, 101.
SO! If you've read these books, I'd love to hear your
comments;
if not, then this is the stuff that is, IMO, worth raiding your local
used-bookstore -- or library -- for. (Plus stuff not really worth
paying
for, but worth reading anyway, for the "wow, that's REALLY bizarre"
factor.) As I said, I know lots of these have come up before... Maybe
we
really oughtta have a FAQ, actually; eh? "If You Like Slash, Allow us
To
Recommend These Fine Pocket Book Titles!" ;) Just give the people what
they want, eh?
Unto the breach:
1.) First and foremost, there's the two _New Voyages_ collections of
short
fanfic, edited by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, of course.
Originally published in the late 70s; reissued up through the 80s.
There
is nothing in here that is literally slash, but WHOA baby is there
ever
K/S subtext galore! Some of it's h/c; some of it is just humorous,
sweet,
almost unbearably tender. But it's so brimming with love that... well,
this is the sort of thing that makes you wonder whether the editors
were
actually _reading_ the stories. Sweet, excellently written stuff,
too.
I mean, this is sheer beauty. These two little volumes were the
gateway
drug that expanded my thirteen-year-old mind in directions I hadn't
even
realized were lying in wait. I happen to think every K/S fan alive
needs
to spend a weekend curled up with these books, but that's just me.
2.) Marshak and Culbreath, of course, were also responsible for
co-writing
the "official" (but pre-numerical) ST books "The Price of the Phoenix"
and
its sequel, "The Fate of the Phoenix." While the former has some
absolutely beautiful gentle bits (which put the finishing touch on the
warping of my youthful brain, as it happens), I find that the books
swiftly devolve into -- well, they're really sort of hard to explain
(and
have been discussed and debated here before, IIRC). Let's say that a
consideration of these texts, on ANY level deeper than the surface,
reveals them as thoroughly S/M-oriented, homoerotic, violently h/c
(but
a
lot more h than c), and, perhaps most strange of all, weirdly
subverted
all over the place.. by which I mean that a K/S dynamic gets sort of
spread around, onto sadistic torturers, onto clones, onto the Romulan
Commander. I really can't wait to see a paper written on these
books...
You could call them slashily suggestive (and o, they are!),
but
they're also quite sadistic and carry very disturbing psychosexual
overtones... like the episodes suggesting, oh, say, Kirk's rape
(metaphorical? physical? you decide) by his super-strong male captor
(a
gigantically butch immortal guy who runs around his private
subterranean
dungeon in black leather zapping his male captives with torture
devices),
whom Kirk later forgives and... uh...
Look, the books are an _interesting_ read. I find them
weirdly
frustrating and more than a little disturbing, but hardcore h/c -- and
s&m
-- fans may love 'em. (Picture this scene: Spock has gotten beaten up
trying to trace Kirk via their mind-link through the evil dungeon, so
Kirk
has to use the Magic Kool-Whip Of Life to save him, and he literally
taken
off Spock's pants down to the knees and starts spraying, and then
Spock
regains consciousness, and... Um, I'm a-gonna stop right there.)
3.) Marshak and Culbreath again!: in _The Prometheus Design_ and
_Triangle_. Frankly, I haven't re-read these in several years, and I
get
their plots confused. They're very K/S-suggestive. But, again, they
seem
to try to stifle and subvert the ruling dynamic, diffusing it through
pain
and unhappiness for all the characters, and so I find them intensely
frustrating. One novel maps this tension across the body of a woman
both
desire fiercely, thus setting them against each other (a tactic with a
venerable and still fertile history in fanfic; consider JK's "The
Uneasy
Dancers" in juxtaposition?), and another imports some sort of
hyper-masculine super-Vulcan named Storm or some such, IIRC.
M&C are _very_ into generating "hyper-masculinity,"
super-strength
and literal body growth beyond the normal (but only in men), and then
making the men fight each other and make each other bleed and
graphically
break each other's bones, with all *sorts* of weird psycho[sexual]
sub-dynamics going on underneath. They are also into having a very
"delicate," physically weakened, and fragile Kirk obsessively
protected
by
a super-repressed, nearly animalistic, and painfully on-edge Spock.
This
is OK for a while, I suppose -- it shows up to some degree in fanfic
often
enough -- but I find it annoying as heck when it gets protracted; it
makes
my teeth hurt! Plus, in their full-length novels, M&C *don't provide
release*: no comfort after the tension and the pain. (They also dress
their characters in black leather altogether too often, but that's
really
beside the point.)
All of which, BTW, should be considered in the context of
M&C's
_extremely_ interesting genderfuck story in _New Voyages II_, "The
Procrustean Petard," in which Spock (hyper-masculinized) and Kirk
(turned
into a woman, literally, at last) dance around the edges of all sorts
of
unspeakable chasms. But I find that an extremely well-written (and
politically trenchant) story, and it's a fascinating read in contrast
with
the novels.
4.) Whoa... That's just about enough of that. Okay -- how about
_Strangers From the Sky_, by Margaret Wander Bonnano? (An ST "Giant
Sized
Special" or something; makes me feel as if I'm reading a comic book or
a
Harlequin romance, I can tell you.) But this is actually a great
book,
from my perspective; *lots* of good funny bits, intriguing side
characters, an interesting main plot, and much K-S affection and
mutual
reliance at the core (especially near the beginning of the book.) Our
boys spend just about the whole book locked in a mind meld, if that
tells
you anything -- which it probably doesn't. Anyway, it's one of my
faves.
The K-S affection/bonding stuff is really just the icing on the cake.
5.) Vonda N. MacIntyre, _The Entropy Effect_. This is, like, ST novel
#2,
or something -- it's early. It gets a little hysterical toward the
end
but I generally enjoy it, even its fast-paced "adventure" plot
(alternative future/time-slippage premise; Spock must slip through the
time streams to save his reality!) Features the most damn authentic
death
scene I've ever seen in ST fiction, and *it's Captain Kirk's.* Yowza!
Painful stuff. You can imagine the angst!
(Those who go "aww..." when they read Killa's descriptions of
feeling a beloved's "thoughts under your hands" will like the last
scene,
too -- very nice indeed. Suggestive? Sure. Plus, I'm sure I saw
background characters from this one in "Bitter Glass.")
---
Boy, this is getting ridiculous! I'm gonna split the posting. Um...
yes. As I said, I'd love other people's book opinions (and/or
recc's.)
I suppose you *could* try to make me stop doing this, but I'm avoiding
schoolwork hard, and I may not be able to stop until it's all over.
I suppose we could consider this a substitute for posting
fiction,
actually. Those as can, fics; those as can't...
...um... <stifles insane giggles>
... What I mean is, reviews and out-of-my-butt exegesis is
what I
enjoy, and what seems to come out when I really need to relax. And
what
better forum for it? But do let me know if this seems off topic, or
gets
on y'all's nerves.
More later. I bet you can't wait! ;)
(Did I ever tell you I love this community? Well, I love this
community.
<hic>)
--
cheers,
--;-;--@ susannah };&)
========================================================================
The Devil, having nothing else to do,
Went off to tempt My Lady Poltagrue.
My Lady, tempted by a private whim,
To his extreme annoyance, tempted him.
-- Hilaire Belloc: 'On Lady Poltagrue, a Public
Peril.'
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Susannah R Mandel * sma...@fas.harvard.edu *
************************************************************************
"My God!" ejaculated Phelps.
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