in search of, with a little help from, not quite up to, best of
Does anyone know if the wave theory of slash is written up and posted on the net anywhere? I'm trying to write something halfway thinky and I want to reference it and all I have to go on is my own hazy memory of the_shoshanna telling me about it seven years ago. Google is less than helpful, although I now know a lot more about various kinds of wave theory than
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New Theory poised for criticism, evaluation, and elaboration:
Please be brutal, sarcasm appreciated.
Slash fan fiction has four waves:
1. Character-based stories with slash
A.The relationship between the characters
is the point of the story. Slash
is a means to intensify that relationship.
B.These stories are almost exclusively set
in the "real" broadcast universe as the
writers' love of the show/characters
as presented got them into fandom.
C.The writer invests a great deal of time
making characters presented as heterosexual
having sex with each other "believeable".
In these stories this relationship is
not "homosexual" in the political or
social sense. The sex acts are between
two people of the same sex, but are
not "realistic" in relation to the
lives of homosexual men.
D.The writers are in fandom (in
contact with other fans) and already
writing non/slash stories. They
view slash as the end of a progression.
Would have no trouble classifying
a sexless story as slash.
Writers: Sebastian
Character-based slash: second wave
A. Stories about the characters
involved in a slash relationship.
The slash characterizations are
still tied to the aired ones, but
the writers do more extrapolation
without looking for "proof" in the
aired episodes. Certain aspects
of the first-wave characterizations
are accepted on equal footing as
aired source material.
B. The majority of the stories are still
in the "real" world, but it is a broader
world. The few a/u stories are
the "real" characters in another
time. The reader has no trouble
recognizing "aired" characters
in these stories.
C. The sex in these stories is more
realistic in that the writers have
probably read "The Joy of Gay Sex",
but the sex is still female-oriented.
D. Second wave writers are already a
part of fandom and are readers of
non/slash fan lit, but there is no
doubt that reading slash gave them
the impetus to write.
Writers: Pam Rose
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