Awesome post........
wow does this bring back memories.
Read on lobelia321 but written by seperis. Remember the days before google.
After reading the above post (and comments) as well as this epic one, I thought I'd reminice a bit myself. Feel free to read along, or not. But be warned, it may run on.
Cut for my own little visit down I'd always loved to read stories with gay men; sneaking my mom's copy of "The Frontrunner" and reading it over and over until the pages fell out; buying gay erotica novels when I stumbled onto them. Reading all the Anne Rice vampire books until she went batshit crazy with her story lines.
I'd also always been kind of a dreamy kid who made up stories in my head involving my latest infatuation; sometimes from real life crushes and sometimes from whatever interest I had at the time. I think it must have been kind of a coping mechanism for a shy kid.
I shake my head at the thought of some of these now. Mark Messier and Kevin Lowe of the Edmonton Oilers. Jeff Gordon and his crew chief Ray Evernham from NASCAR. And always, there I was, on the perifery as a trusted friend and sometimes lover, a Mary Sue before I even know what one was.
I vaguely knew what slash was. I'd always been a star trek fan and had read about fanzines with stories about Kirk/Spock. I watched X-Files and had read that people were writing stories about the characters......somewhere. I just wasn't that interested at the time.
When we got the internet I looked around a bit for gay erotica and stumbled onto the Nifty Archive which I would read at night on dial up. What a barren and desolate wasteland that was. I can count on one hand the number of stories I found with any sort of characterization or feeling. I despaired, but it was still better than nothing. I'd stumbled onto Usenet and alt groups but had no idea they were of any use in finding stories.
It was only when the first Lord of the Rings movie came out (another one of my obsessions) and I started posting on TheOneRing.Net messageboard that I had my first meaningful exposure to slash. Someone had linked to The Very Secret Diaries that Cassie Claire was putting up on her LJ and I read them avidly. Just realizing that others were thinking the things about Aragorn and Legolas that I was amazed me. The hunt was on.
I think I googled hobbit slash one day (not sure why) but I stumbled onto MsAllegra`s website where she had ever so helpfully linked to great sites like the Whore`s Of The Rings messageboard, the Fellowshippers yahoo group, and to a bunch of great writers who were archiving their fics on their own websites. I wish I could remember them all but a few who come to mind are Buffet, Cimmerene, and WaxJism. It was WaxJism's Void that made me realize that fanfic can be so much more than the source material, it can be art.
Imagine my amazement when I found these great stories, way better than those I was making up in my own mind. And my god, people like the Thebian Band who were doing these awesome manips, like I`d pictured in my head. I wallowed in LOTR fic for a month or two before I was exposed to the crack that was LOTR_RPS. Because I'd found RPS early on I had no idea it was the devil. I read a bit of hobbit slash but soon realized that it was Viggo/Sean/Orlando, in any and all combinations, that did it for me; a OTP that managed to last for years.
So I was all over yahoo groups for a while; CTB, LOTR-Gossip, the wacky Andre Schnieder yahoo group, and a number of other spin offs where we would post catty comments about the larger membership. It was so crazy active at the time. I remember having my hotmail account explode when I set it up to get all the posts, and I still remember the thrill of seeing another chapter of my current favorite fic.
I remember some things as if they happened yesterday. The kerfuffle when Tricia Vegas supposedly approached Ian McKellen and gave him the link to her fic website. When the archivist of Closer Than Brothers packed up her tent when someone gave her fic a less than favorable review. When Andre Schneider confidentially posted a picture of a penis on his group and everyone assumed it belonged to Orlando Bloom (I think that pic must have circled the globe in about 1.5 seconds). When Andre's house of cards came crashing down and he had to confess that he'd faked his acting career on the web and really didn't know Orlando. When Dom and Elijah were a couple and posted how they were going to confirm this by wearing particular colours as described on the Prancing Pony thread at DL.
It was intense, it was fun, and it was wanky. I made some RL friends and I had my heart broken. It was my first exposure with communicating with people over the internet. I remember arguing with people that yes, Orlando and Viggo were so doing it, my points backed by annonymous posts on Datalounge. I could kind of justify my behavior because, hey, there were people on these forums that were MUCH crazier than me. But after a couple years I had to get out.
I still read the slash; mostly LOTR-RPS, only then it was on LJ instead of the groups. Despite having been here for years I still have only a rudimentary knowledge of code. I dabbled in other fandoms like Smallville, Master and Commander, Blackhawk Down, Troy without finding anything as satisfying as the first. I even tried my hand at writing finally which is waaaaay harder than I'd thought it would be. But I didn't post for a long time and left comments even less.
It's just been in the last year that I've become more active again thanks to Mr. Adam Lambert and now fandom is fun again. I enjoy the oggling, and the joking, and the cameraderie of shipping a particular pair. But I'm a different person now. I won't let myself get emotionally invested in any of it. That only leads to stress. And the moment it's not fun anymore, it's time to pull the plug. It's been a life lesson of sorts..
Read on lobelia321 but written by seperis. Remember the days before google.
After reading the above post (and comments) as well as this epic one, I thought I'd reminice a bit myself. Feel free to read along, or not. But be warned, it may run on.
Cut for my own little visit down I'd always loved to read stories with gay men; sneaking my mom's copy of "The Frontrunner" and reading it over and over until the pages fell out; buying gay erotica novels when I stumbled onto them. Reading all the Anne Rice vampire books until she went batshit crazy with her story lines.
I'd also always been kind of a dreamy kid who made up stories in my head involving my latest infatuation; sometimes from real life crushes and sometimes from whatever interest I had at the time. I think it must have been kind of a coping mechanism for a shy kid.
I shake my head at the thought of some of these now. Mark Messier and Kevin Lowe of the Edmonton Oilers. Jeff Gordon and his crew chief Ray Evernham from NASCAR. And always, there I was, on the perifery as a trusted friend and sometimes lover, a Mary Sue before I even know what one was.
I vaguely knew what slash was. I'd always been a star trek fan and had read about fanzines with stories about Kirk/Spock. I watched X-Files and had read that people were writing stories about the characters......somewhere. I just wasn't that interested at the time.
When we got the internet I looked around a bit for gay erotica and stumbled onto the Nifty Archive which I would read at night on dial up. What a barren and desolate wasteland that was. I can count on one hand the number of stories I found with any sort of characterization or feeling. I despaired, but it was still better than nothing. I'd stumbled onto Usenet and alt groups but had no idea they were of any use in finding stories.
It was only when the first Lord of the Rings movie came out (another one of my obsessions) and I started posting on TheOneRing.Net messageboard that I had my first meaningful exposure to slash. Someone had linked to The Very Secret Diaries that Cassie Claire was putting up on her LJ and I read them avidly. Just realizing that others were thinking the things about Aragorn and Legolas that I was amazed me. The hunt was on.
I think I googled hobbit slash one day (not sure why) but I stumbled onto MsAllegra`s website where she had ever so helpfully linked to great sites like the Whore`s Of The Rings messageboard, the Fellowshippers yahoo group, and to a bunch of great writers who were archiving their fics on their own websites. I wish I could remember them all but a few who come to mind are Buffet, Cimmerene, and WaxJism. It was WaxJism's Void that made me realize that fanfic can be so much more than the source material, it can be art.
Imagine my amazement when I found these great stories, way better than those I was making up in my own mind. And my god, people like the Thebian Band who were doing these awesome manips, like I`d pictured in my head. I wallowed in LOTR fic for a month or two before I was exposed to the crack that was LOTR_RPS. Because I'd found RPS early on I had no idea it was the devil. I read a bit of hobbit slash but soon realized that it was Viggo/Sean/Orlando, in any and all combinations, that did it for me; a OTP that managed to last for years.
So I was all over yahoo groups for a while; CTB, LOTR-Gossip, the wacky Andre Schnieder yahoo group, and a number of other spin offs where we would post catty comments about the larger membership. It was so crazy active at the time. I remember having my hotmail account explode when I set it up to get all the posts, and I still remember the thrill of seeing another chapter of my current favorite fic.
I remember some things as if they happened yesterday. The kerfuffle when Tricia Vegas supposedly approached Ian McKellen and gave him the link to her fic website. When the archivist of Closer Than Brothers packed up her tent when someone gave her fic a less than favorable review. When Andre Schneider confidentially posted a picture of a penis on his group and everyone assumed it belonged to Orlando Bloom (I think that pic must have circled the globe in about 1.5 seconds). When Andre's house of cards came crashing down and he had to confess that he'd faked his acting career on the web and really didn't know Orlando. When Dom and Elijah were a couple and posted how they were going to confirm this by wearing particular colours as described on the Prancing Pony thread at DL.
It was intense, it was fun, and it was wanky. I made some RL friends and I had my heart broken. It was my first exposure with communicating with people over the internet. I remember arguing with people that yes, Orlando and Viggo were so doing it, my points backed by annonymous posts on Datalounge. I could kind of justify my behavior because, hey, there were people on these forums that were MUCH crazier than me. But after a couple years I had to get out.
I still read the slash; mostly LOTR-RPS, only then it was on LJ instead of the groups. Despite having been here for years I still have only a rudimentary knowledge of code. I dabbled in other fandoms like Smallville, Master and Commander, Blackhawk Down, Troy without finding anything as satisfying as the first. I even tried my hand at writing finally which is waaaaay harder than I'd thought it would be. But I didn't post for a long time and left comments even less.
It's just been in the last year that I've become more active again thanks to Mr. Adam Lambert and now fandom is fun again. I enjoy the oggling, and the joking, and the cameraderie of shipping a particular pair. But I'm a different person now. I won't let myself get emotionally invested in any of it. That only leads to stress. And the moment it's not fun anymore, it's time to pull the plug. It's been a life lesson of sorts..