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Dec. 26th, 2003
Tech Glee!
Dec. 26th, 2003 01:10 pmMy handwriting being what might be best described as bloody awful, I'd taken to firstly writing notes during my gaming sessions on my Palm and then to typing them with the keyboard accessory. Having done so, I'd slide it across to Hugh to read when he had a moment.
Today Hugh got a Palm for his birthday. 5 minutes ago we got bluetooth working, so now I can write notes on my palm, send them across the ether and have him read them, without anyone knowing when I've passed them across.....
Today Hugh got a Palm for his birthday. 5 minutes ago we got bluetooth working, so now I can write notes on my palm, send them across the ether and have him read them, without anyone knowing when I've passed them across.....
I've been thinking about Slash ever since I opened my mouth without bulletproofing myself.
Having read the Schindler's List Fanfic/Slash a little later, it's not actually that bad. Well, it's not terrible writing, and it's not offensive.
Except.... except it's solidified something that's been nagging at me for a while - the thing that I've realised I don't like about Slash.
It started with a link that Yonmei sent me to a FAQ page about Slash-writing, which gave various examples of relationships between people, and then said "They sounded romantic, yes? But we changed the genders around, and the people in each case were both men!" (and yes, I'm parapgrasing from memory, as I can't find the page again). This had the implication that as these relationships _could_ be romantic, therefore reframing them as romantic was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
And I then realised that the problem was that the Slash people seem to think that it's impossible for any relationship to be non-sexual. That if one person cares for another, it must be because they want to have sex with them. If a person enjoys another's company it's because they are desperate for sweaty lovemaking with them. If a person loves someone else, it's because of lust.
Taking the relationship between Oskar Schindler and Itzhak Stern and saying that they worked together to save thousands of lives because Oskar couldn't get Itzhak's sexy looks out of his head takes an incredibly noble act and a great friendship and reduces it to animal attraction. And while I have nothing against animal attraction (it's great!), it's as bad as the idea of Aragorn fighting for Middle Earth because Arwen is threatened - suddenly he's not a hero fighting for all mankind - he's just some guy protecting his girlfriend.
It's reminiscient of the people that think that Men and Women can't be friends, because Men want to shag any woman they know - apparently men and men can't be friends, because deep down they want to shag.
(Oh, and all of the above applies to male/female relationships too, 'Het' fiction annoys me just as much.)
Having read the Schindler's List Fanfic/Slash a little later, it's not actually that bad. Well, it's not terrible writing, and it's not offensive.
Except.... except it's solidified something that's been nagging at me for a while - the thing that I've realised I don't like about Slash.
It started with a link that Yonmei sent me to a FAQ page about Slash-writing, which gave various examples of relationships between people, and then said "They sounded romantic, yes? But we changed the genders around, and the people in each case were both men!" (and yes, I'm parapgrasing from memory, as I can't find the page again). This had the implication that as these relationships _could_ be romantic, therefore reframing them as romantic was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
And I then realised that the problem was that the Slash people seem to think that it's impossible for any relationship to be non-sexual. That if one person cares for another, it must be because they want to have sex with them. If a person enjoys another's company it's because they are desperate for sweaty lovemaking with them. If a person loves someone else, it's because of lust.
Taking the relationship between Oskar Schindler and Itzhak Stern and saying that they worked together to save thousands of lives because Oskar couldn't get Itzhak's sexy looks out of his head takes an incredibly noble act and a great friendship and reduces it to animal attraction. And while I have nothing against animal attraction (it's great!), it's as bad as the idea of Aragorn fighting for Middle Earth because Arwen is threatened - suddenly he's not a hero fighting for all mankind - he's just some guy protecting his girlfriend.
It's reminiscient of the people that think that Men and Women can't be friends, because Men want to shag any woman they know - apparently men and men can't be friends, because deep down they want to shag.
(Oh, and all of the above applies to male/female relationships too, 'Het' fiction annoys me just as much.)