такая вот любопытная типа статья, от Calysta Rose, которая создала в декабре 2000-го известный всем читающим англоязычные фики сайт Across The Pond
www.qaf-fic.com/atp/index.php, изначально у него был другой адрес, поэтому дата в дисклеймере на современном сайте более поздняя, но начал он жить и функционировать в декабре 2000)
спорный для некоторых был вопрос)
пункты "против", возражения на них автора статьи, рассуждения, почему же стоит... может кому любопытно почитать будет)
from citybeat.slashcity.org
This month, Caly Rose takes a look at Queer as Folk. Is it slashable? Or is there too much homoerotic text in the series to make that possible? (This article contains spoilers for both the American and British QaF series.)
Slashing Queer As FolkCalysta Rose
This article contains general spoilers for both the British and the Showtime versions of Queer As Folk. Some plot points are discussed.
Ever since the Showtime version of Queer As Folk came on the air there has been discussion about whether or not it was slashy. Certainly the show appealed to slashers, getting to finally see guys going at it was and still is a major thrill. However, several people have contended that not only is there nothing for slash writers to write about, but that the show itself is not slashy at all. I have heard very little argument against the British Queer As Folk being slashy, however I will touch upon it as well. I will examine and refute the major arguments against USQAF being slashy. I will also talk a little about how this fandom, and to a lesser extent the Velvet Goldmine fandom, is a brand new territory for slash fans.
Let's begin with the arguments against slashing the show. I found these arguments/complaints in different places on the net and on e-lists.
Reasons why USQAF is supposedly not slashy, slash worthy, etc.
1. it's only slash if it's sub-text, since we see it on the show it's not slash
2. it's not slash if it's a canon pairing
3. homosexuality is the norm on the show, there's nothing forbidden about the relationships outside of age differences
4. no heterosexual freak-out, none of the characters struggle with the realization that they're attracted to members of the same sex
5. canon relationships are satisfying as is
6. no First Time stories, we already know how they got together the first time
7. no angst over whether or not they will admit their love/desire - we see them do it on the show
8. almost nothing left to write about, only POVs, AUs, Missing Scenes and Fixit fics.
The first argument doesn't applies not only to QAF but has been used against crossovers as well. Back when slash first started there were no on-screen homosexual relationships, so by definition slash could only ever be sub-text. With QAF, we are fortunate enough to have the veil removed. The tensions are still there, as are the subtle signs of characters feeling more than they let on. We are still talking about men after all; they are not all that emotionally open. With QAF we get to see homosexual relationships on-screen. Potentially, if Brian wants a guy he can just go and get him. But that's not necessarily going to happen, and in fact doesn't always happen. Michael's desire/love for Brian goes nowhere on screen. Brian may kiss him from time to time, but Michael is not going to be seeing Brian falling for him anytime soon. I have it on good authority that these two are particularly rife with angst. Most certainly their British counterparts were. Vince and Stuart just screamed sexual tension, and that was never consummated on screen.
Taking into account the fact that until recently we had no on-screen same sex relationships at all, we could reasonably say that all those fandoms where there is significant sub-text are equivalent to the on-screen pairings on QAF. In other words, Jim and Blair are a canon pairing, as are Brian and Justin. It's only a matter of degree. Jim and Blair date other people; Brian and Justin fuck other people. Therefore, we could say that if Brian and Justin aren't slashy due to canon, then Jim and Blair aren't either.
читать дальшеI mean, Jim and Blair live together and their soul's merged for goodness sake. Can you be any more explicit than that within the constraints of regular television? But I've noticed that there aren't very many people who are writing Jim/Blair stories, for some strange reason. There is also the Xena/Gabriel fandom, which you'd have to be rather mad to argue against it being slashy. The sub-text on that show is more text than sub, and most everyone knows it. Does that take away from the slash fiction? Not from what I've seen. It certainly hasn't kept people from writing about it.
The lure of the forbidden and the naughty. Many people, myself included, were drawn to slash because it is considered 'naughty' in our culture. That which is forbidden often exerts a powerful draw on people. And while that was why I entered slash fandom, it's not why I stayed. I grew as a person; going from getting titillated by the naughtiness, to falling in love with the beauty of people loving one another regardless of gender. On the show the majority of characters are openly homosexual, but the world that they live in is not. Granted, the writers are putting most of their focus on what goes on in the 'gay areas' of the characters' lives. However, Justin got beat up at school. Justin's father attacked Brian. Michael and Ted hide their orientation for fear of reprisals at work. Those areas are still wide open for exploration. The world at large still hates, condemns and wants to see dead or gone all homosexuals. Emmett was seduced into a cult that tried to strip him of his self-identity, tried to force him to stop being evil and go straight. These people don't live in a happy homosexual wonderland. They live here and now. Yes, the writers are more interested in showing gays being gay and that being normal. However, they are not ignoring the realities of this world, and that gives fiction writers quite a lot of space to play with. There is an on-going USQAF series by Justin-Nathaniel O'Rourke that deals with the hardships of being homosexual in these United States. Nath's stories illustrate the sweet, sweet angst of love unreturned. The pain of trying to love someone of the same gender in a world that hates you. The potential is there, folks it just takes some imagination.
As for there not being a heterosexual freak-out moment, or moments, no there isn't; not on-screen. If that's your kink then the show isn't going to give it to you, and most of the fanfic won't either. Certainly a writer could go back, say with the character David (who has admitted to being gasp married to a woman, even has a kid), and describe that moment of realization. Or, since there are a couple of straight characters on the show, maybe Daphne could experiment with lesbianism. The girl has indicated that she felt left out of Justin's new world. What would happen with her, to her, should she try to be part of the 'cool crowd'.
I'd really like to know who is satisfied by what they see on the show. I'm partial to Brian and Justin, but there is not nearly enough angst in that relationship for me. Brian and Michael? I know there are people desperate for them to get together. Michael and David? David's leaving the show, which was planned, and I know that there are people who consider these two to be the best pairing on the show. How about Ted and Emmett? Does anyone doubt that Ted loves Emmett after episode 114? Will they discover that they love each other, will they ever become more than friends? No, I don't see the relationships being completely satisfying as they stand now. I see tons of possible moments of angst, self-reflection, h/c, romance, heartbreak, etc.
The complaint about no First Time stories is one I thought I'd always agree with. First let's clear up one thing though. Not everyone's favorite pair has had a First Time. Brian and Michael or Ted and Emmett, for example, have not had a first time. Surely we can find numerous ways to bring them together, full of angst and heartbreak. Back to the need for First Times, for nearly two years that's just about all I would read. If a story didn't contain the First Time then I wasn't terribly interested in it. I needed to know how they got past all the things that were obviously keeping them apart, obvious because they weren't together on screen. Well, now they are together on screen. At least some of them do have sex together. However, that doesn't mean they are together. In fact, it seems almost the opposite. So you've got two choices, read/write First Times for the characters that are just friends or realize that even if they have had sex the drama and angst aren't over.
Now let's be serious for a moment, folks. This show is for the most part about men. Granted they are gay men, one of whom is a touch queeny (more than a touch if you count the British version), but they are men raised in a thoroughly heterosexist culture. They've been taught all the same emotion-inhibiting social skills that the more 'traditional' slashed characters have been taught. None of these guys, despite fic to the contrary, is going to confess their undying love to their beloved snookums. It ain't gonna happen. Sex does not equal a declaration of love and fidelity. Let's take Brian and Justin, for example. Brian and Justin have sex, lots of it. Nevertheless, their relationship is not a bed of roses. Brian doesn't acknowledge how far he's transgressed his normal behavior by repeatedly taking Justin to bed. Justin would be smart not to hold his breath for Brian to even acknowledge that he likes him. Brian and Justin both fuck around with others. Brian is insistent that he's not Justin's boyfriend. That tension of whether or not Brian will admit his feelings for Justin is an ongoing thing. And how about Michael? He's been in love with Brian for 16 years. Will he ever tell Brian how he feels? Will he ever demand that Brian tell him how he feels? It's still there, folks, you just have to look past the sex. Sex does not, as I've heard many a slasher say, a relationship make.
The final argument is that the only types of stories that can be written are POVs, AUs, Missing Scenes and Fixit fics. To start with, what precisely is wrong with any of these types of stories? I happen to enjoy getting into the character's head, finding out what they were thinking during such and such scene. AUs can be good, even just slight ones such as Brian and Justin reversing ages. Missing Scenes, in good American TV style QAF leaves several spaces. Hell, there are weeks that we have no info on. Filling up those places is a good thing to my mind; it adds to the depth of the world. Fixit fics are not my thing, but I did go through an Apology!Fic jag in the TPM fandom. So obviously, that sort of thing floats some people's boats, and there's nothing wrong with that. Beyond the value of the above-mentioned story types is the fact that we are not limited to these categories. Every single category you could think of is still possible in this fandom. But to make the story good requires a bit of extra work by the author. And maybe that is the problem. In regular slash fandoms the angst is easy to find, the characters have always appeared to be straight so any deviation, yadda, yadda. In this fandom, the angst stems from the same problem (a homophobic world), but because the characters are openly gay there is no keeping it hidden, there is no "I'm not gay, I just love you" crap to hide behind.
Additionally, there is some disagreement as to what to call fiction written for Queer As Folk and Velvet Goldmine. Some have wondered whether it is really slash or if it is in fact gen. The definitions of slash and gen have been growing and changing since they were first uttered. Some say f/f stories are not slash, that only m/m is slash. Some people consider a story with no explicit sex of any sort to be gen, whether or not the main characters are gay or straight. Some consider a story gen only if there is absolutely no homosexuals of any shape or form in it at all. You could even make a case for gen meaning anything that the regular viewing audience of the show could expect to see on the show. Definitions are a bitch that way, changing and evolving without anyone being able to control it. I consider QAF and VG to be slash for two reasons. One, they involve same-sex relationships and two, the world that the shows are set in are still predominantly heterosexual. For me that means they are slash. Feel free to disagree, but that's where I stand on the labeling issue.
There is another aspect of this fandom that bears mentioning. Velvet Goldmine was the first good-sized fandom (to my knowledge) that had canon homosexual relationships. As a result, the VG fandom has not only regular slash fans (mostly straight women) but also gay men. Now this was quite a different experience for me when I walked into that fandom. I'd gotten rather cosseted in my little all-woman slash world. The shine on so many boys being into the fandom wore off real quick. I felt like I'd stepped on to another planet. But you know what? It was a growth experience for me. Here was a chance to interact with people who went through the hardships of being gay on a daily basis. These men actually faced the gay bashing and discrimination that we have our slash heroes angst over when they realize that they love a man. It really opened my eyes to a lot of new things. It made me re-evaluate how I looked at slash fiction.
So, with Queer As Folk, we slash fans have the lovely opportunity to meet and get to know real life gay men. And that can be a really big boon to writers, since the realities of gay men and women's lives are often not what our TV's tell us they are. It can also be disappointing to those who'd rather not actually deal with gay issues. It is a rather emotionally charged issue, and perhaps the author doesn't want to have to face the numerous problems that go with homosexuality in this country. But for those of us who don't care for the "I'm not gay, I just love you" rationalizations, this fandom is rife with opportunities and story ideas.
So yes, Virginia, Queer As Folk is slashy and slash worthy and worth writing about and reading about. But it is different. If the only reason you're into slash is because it's naughty then this is not the fandom for you. If you only like to read about non-canon relationships, and don't realize that all major slash pairings are canon relationships differing only by degree in comparison to QAF, then yeah this is not for you. However, if you like slash because you like men and women falling in love with and having sex with members of the same sex then this fandom is for you. Or if you like to watch people who are meant to be together suffer in beautiful angsty aloneness, taunted with their hearts desire that is so close and yet so far away then come on over.
It's a brave new world, and it takes guts to deal with it.
Calysta Rose