As Slash Newbies

[riverfox]

Upon finding Slashfic, why do we first find the stories that tend to characterize Daniel as a teenage girl and Jack as his daddy? The corollary would be why are those characterizations predominant in our slash part of the fandom? Does this happen in Ship, too?

I expect that sort of thing when we're younger since we learn as we go, but for those of us who're older, it's a mystery. I've never been able to figure it out in the 14 years I've been writing slash.

Is this a Harlequin Romance thing perhaps? Do those of us who like those stories transfer that to slash? Or is this just a case of reading everything and whittling down our preferences over time? When I found slash, I read the sappier characterizations, but it didn't take long for me to gravitate to the more realistic representations. But it still begs the question: Why do we, as newbies, find the sappier, less accurate portrayals first?

What did you do when you found slash?

Comments

[riverfox]

I know just what you mean. Back in 2002, I read hundreds of fics from Area 52 as well as the Alpha Gate group on Yahoo. Given my artistic background, it was inevitable that my Art muse would spawn a mutant bunny version that resembles Neanderthal Bugs Bunny. ;) I started with mushy writing and silly copycatting--specifically, writing out the billion-vowel orgasmic vocalizations by Jack and Daniel. It's something that seemed to partner with the reading of Baby!Daniel and Daddy!Jack. And then after a while, by 2003 or so, I decided that the characterizations were extremely immature. I was 43, fcol. To this day, I don't know why I began my fandom love with the Harlequin angles, in reading and writing.

Thankfully, I'm glad that you and I and dozens of other writers have matured and improved and walked as far away from the Harlequin Baby/Daddy thing as we started from. I don't even know how to write that sort of stuff anymore without making it sound like a parody.

[ivorygates]

Word.

I still remember one phrase from one story of my early reading, because it is burned eternally into my soul: Jack calls Daniel his "angel-eyed love Muppet".

I hope to all that is holy that this was one of TWTID (The Wonder That Is Daniel, urgh) parody slash stories. But I am terribly afraid that it wasn't. (Second runner up in this category: the one where Jack's internal monologue is primarily quotes from minor Elizabethan poets. BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW THAT NOTHING SCREAMS JACK O'NEILL LIKE MINOR ELIZABETHAN POETS.)

*ahem*

Yes, it is a very good thing that most of us in the fandom moved beyond that phase. Very quickly. Very, very quickly...