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In defense of slash
Sep. 2nd, 2002 10:42 am(Contains LOTR plot spoilers, should you wish to avoid those.)
Another troll popped up on an LOTR community the other day to announce in all caps that she HATED SLASH and that all writers of it were PATHETIC and were not TRUE TOLKIEN FANS. This is nothing new; there's a deep anti-slash feeling in lots of fans, and it invariably sparks a big debate when someone decides to yell about it. (Not that the LOTR community in question was discussing slash, mind you, until this troll appeared. Like good Tolkien fans we had been discussing the plot, the movies, the characters, the tie-in merchandising, etc.)
I don't count myself a slash writer, but I've read enough of it, and I've written enough about slash, that I wanted to take this space to say something in its defense. I know I sort of made fun of LOTR slash just a few months ago on this very journal, but I've softened on it since then. It's the sort of thing you can get used to, even if you do make fun of it. And that's just it: it's FUN. Slash is for fun. Even the angsty slash is fun, as far as I can tell.
Here's the basic argument: people love these books and these characters, but unfortunately Tolkien is dead and cannot write any further of the Fellowship's adventures. We'd all like to see more adventures anyway. And, ideally, these adventures should be interesting and should bring us pleasure. This is the point at which the slashers and the anti-slashers part ways: the slashers think that pleasure can include sex; the anti-slashers think sex should be off limits.
I think there's enough sadness and pain in the books already. We all had to dab away tears when reading "The Choices of Master Samwise," and though most of the characters live to see the end of the trilogy, there's still a great deal of poignancy, in Frodo departing for the Grey Havens, the Fellowship getting scattered all over the map, Elves still dwindling in population and some of them (like Arwen) giving up their immortality... So if I can laugh when reading these further adventures that the fanfic writers come up with, I'd be much obliged. And like it or not, sex is inherently pleasurable, and thus is rich material for comedy. Or at least fluff. Is it so wrong to grant our dearest characters a few paragraphs of lighthearted bodice-ripping? (Breeches-ripping, I guess, in this case.)
Now, if you don't want to think about the characters that way, fine, don't read it. I don't read the Gandalf slash stories or the Gimli/Legolas ones or the incest ones (Faramir/Boromir, anyone?) because those ideas don't appeal to me. But I'd never claim that these writers weren't "true Tolkien fans."
Let's pick apart the claims of the anti-slashers:( Read more... )
Another troll popped up on an LOTR community the other day to announce in all caps that she HATED SLASH and that all writers of it were PATHETIC and were not TRUE TOLKIEN FANS. This is nothing new; there's a deep anti-slash feeling in lots of fans, and it invariably sparks a big debate when someone decides to yell about it. (Not that the LOTR community in question was discussing slash, mind you, until this troll appeared. Like good Tolkien fans we had been discussing the plot, the movies, the characters, the tie-in merchandising, etc.)
I don't count myself a slash writer, but I've read enough of it, and I've written enough about slash, that I wanted to take this space to say something in its defense. I know I sort of made fun of LOTR slash just a few months ago on this very journal, but I've softened on it since then. It's the sort of thing you can get used to, even if you do make fun of it. And that's just it: it's FUN. Slash is for fun. Even the angsty slash is fun, as far as I can tell.
Here's the basic argument: people love these books and these characters, but unfortunately Tolkien is dead and cannot write any further of the Fellowship's adventures. We'd all like to see more adventures anyway. And, ideally, these adventures should be interesting and should bring us pleasure. This is the point at which the slashers and the anti-slashers part ways: the slashers think that pleasure can include sex; the anti-slashers think sex should be off limits.
I think there's enough sadness and pain in the books already. We all had to dab away tears when reading "The Choices of Master Samwise," and though most of the characters live to see the end of the trilogy, there's still a great deal of poignancy, in Frodo departing for the Grey Havens, the Fellowship getting scattered all over the map, Elves still dwindling in population and some of them (like Arwen) giving up their immortality... So if I can laugh when reading these further adventures that the fanfic writers come up with, I'd be much obliged. And like it or not, sex is inherently pleasurable, and thus is rich material for comedy. Or at least fluff. Is it so wrong to grant our dearest characters a few paragraphs of lighthearted bodice-ripping? (Breeches-ripping, I guess, in this case.)
Now, if you don't want to think about the characters that way, fine, don't read it. I don't read the Gandalf slash stories or the Gimli/Legolas ones or the incest ones (Faramir/Boromir, anyone?) because those ideas don't appeal to me. But I'd never claim that these writers weren't "true Tolkien fans."
Let's pick apart the claims of the anti-slashers:( Read more... )
