I kind of know what it’s about and plan to look it up myself, but I’m new to the net and only heard about it recently. Does anyone read it or write it? Would I find it a rewarding experience or what?
“Slash” fiction (from how I’ve always seen the term used) is SF fan fiction that depicts sex between two characters on TV.
It started out as Star Trek fan fiction featuring love affairs between Kirk and Spock. This was called “Kirk/Spock” and later “K/S.” Eventually, the middle character (the “slash”) was used to designate all sorts of fiction with a sexual – usually homosexual – theme. Oddly enough, it was most often written and read by women.
I don’t follow it, so it’s possible that the homosexuality isn’t required any more (I suspect there is Muldur/Scully slash).
Whether you’re like it or not depends on your taste.
“What we have here is failure to communicate.” – Strother Martin, anticipating the Internet.
Oh my GOD! A GQ topic I know something about!!!
RealityChuck did a good description of the history. Fiction about ANY TV or movie is commonly known as fan fiction, or fanfic for short, however. Slash is still, and has always been, fanfic that is homoerotic in nature. The term “gen” has been coined to indicate fanfic that isn’t slash. A few people also use “adult” to signify gen fanfic that is rated higher than NC-17. Mulder/Scully is just fanfic, Mulder/Skinner is slash. And yes, most of it is stil written by women. I read a lot of slash, and I write a little too. And in talking to people…I know about 2 guys who write/read it.
As for whether you’d like it…who knows. Depends on your tastes, really. Personally, I like it. I know people who don’t. And as with everything else, there is good and bad slash. For links to all sorts of fanfic, both gen and slash, try this link: http://members.aol.com/ksnicholas/fanfic/index.html It’s a listing of almost all the fanfic sites on the web.
“You are sweet, kind, and considerate… Like a grown up boy scout with tits!”
- Brian, aka SDMB’s one and only Satan.
Ack!
Slash! Ack! I never did get it.
During art school (and even recently) I have been known to do artwork for fan fiction. I’ll do the cover of a “fanzine”, or illustrate a story. Lots of fun. Usually can sell the original artwork for a nice sum at a convention art show.
However, I don’t get slash, never will. I occasionally will read fan fiction, it’s fun, and man of the fan authors are damned good. In fact, I once illustrated a fannish Star Wars novel by now-reasonably famous S.F. author Melanie Rawn. (She got her start writing Starsky and Hutch fan fiction.)
But, I don’t like slash. I like the characters the way they were originally written - I like to read about the characters in a situation that I find vaguely plausable. So, Mulder/Skinner doesn’t do it for me, never will. I also have found some slash fiction downright offensive. Remember that 80s detective series, “Simon and Simon”, with Gerald McRaney, about the two brothers? It had a strong fan following…and you guessed it…there was some slash fiction written depicting sex between the two brothers. Major ick.
Hey, I don’t find any problem with homoerotic fiction per-se (not that I’d be interested in reading it) but I don’t get slash fiction. But, you know what? Who gives a shit what I think? I don’t have to read it, and I won’t try to stop anyone else from reading it.
However, it became an issue at times when fanzine editors would try to get me to illustrate their zines. (I was reasonably good, and good fan artists were not plentiful when I was my most active illustrating.) More than a few feathers were ruffled when I would refuse to illustrate any fanzine that had slash in it. Not because I was trying to “boycott” slash fiction, but because all my illustrations were done for free. My only “payment” was a copy of the zine - and if there was nothing in the zine that I wanted to read, why the hell would I want to illustrate it? But still, it could be a difficult thing - not all editors would immediately tell me that a zine they wanted me to illustrate had slash in it.
Others have given the traditional meaning of the term, but there may be another definition of “slash fiction” emerging. I recently read a discussion about celebrity adult stories and the moderator was deploring what he called slash fiction. From the context, it was clear he was not talking about stories that portrayed the characters as gay, he was talking about stories about the rape and/or torture of characters.
Kinda makes you look twice at slash.org, doesn’t it?
My board got hacked and all I got was this lousy sig file…