Looking For Slash For Non-Fans

[masterofmidgets.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is a bit of an odd request, but here goes.

Background: This week I had a short story workshopped in my fiction class that had a male/male romance as part of the main plot, and several people in the class had problems with how I dealt with that. I mentioned, kind of offhand, that I thought the issue was that I had written it as a slash story more than a gay story, which involves some different dynamics of romance and sexuality. My professor had never heard of slash, but she was kind of intrigued, so she asked if I could bring in something for class on Wednesday.

So my request is: male/male slash fics, any pairing, not too long (since I'm going to have to print it off and bring it in), no graphic sex (because I would die of embarrassment) - just stuff that you think is really well written and really illustrative of the genre as a whole and how it works. Stories that you could give to someone who doesn't read fanfiction or slash at all to get them to understand what this stuff is and why we're so into it.

Thanks for the help!

Comments

[bbuttercup.livejournal.com]

"LikeTheKoschka" (co-authored by LikeTheRiver and Koschka) writes wonderfully plotty stories with a usually mild slash, John/Rodney, bent :o)

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/852967/likethekoschka

[masterofmidgets.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks! I've read a few of liketheriverrun's stories before, and thought they were great.

[ladyyueh.livejournal.com]

Short, slashy, no porn/sex, and a good representation of SGA fandom's insanity. Okay, you didn't ask for the last bit, but...

It took me awhile to find the perfect thing:

Marginally Obtuse (http://pocky-slash.livejournal.com/1098904.html)

Also, look at mcsmooch for other stuff.

[masterofmidgets.livejournal.com]

Heeee, I didn't even think of that one, and it's one of my favorites. So very cute!

[linziday.livejournal.com]

There was a vaguely similar request here about a month ago: http://community.livejournal.com/sgagenrefinders/375241.html

That request turned up both gen and slash stories, but some of the responses might be helpful to you.

[masterofmidgets.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten completely about that request, thanks for pointing me that way. There were some great recs there!

[kirinin.livejournal.com]

I went to my del.icio.us account and typed in 'sga', 'preslash', and 'excellent', and this (http://delicious.com/Kirinin/preslash+sga+excellent) is what came up. Hope you enjoy!

-K

[kirinin.livejournal.com]

Also, perhaps, this one (http://www.thestade.com/js11.html). Oh, and this! this! (http://aesc.livejournal.com/261970.html)

...okay, I'm probably having too much fun with this one. But yay for innocent slash!

-K

[masterofmidgets.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recs! I love me some filthy dirty porn fics, but sometimes it's nice to read kissing and cuddling and cuteness too. :D

[becs8.livejournal.com]

Tarlan is one of the best slash writers I've ever read (and I read a lot). Good luck in class. :o)

<http://davidhewlett.tarlanx.com/fiction/index.php>

[masterofmidgets.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! I'll definitely check them out.

[elderwitty]

How about Eventual Thaw by zinfic? 5,300 words. There's no sex at all, just angst and h/c caused by John overthinking about him and Rodney and Rodney and Katie Brown.
And then falling into a crevasse. :>

Eventual Thaw

Summary: The main reason John decides to break up with Rodney is to avoid being dumped first.


Or Two Years After Tomorrow by the inestimable lavvyan? 1,500 words. No sex. Future fic, outsider POV, following the destruction of Earth.

Two Years After Tomorrow

Summary: Aneen didn't like Colonel Sheppard much.

[masterofmidgets.livejournal.com]

Awwww, I love Eventual Thaw. I have such a soft spot for idiot!Shep. Thanks so much!

[gaffsie.livejournal.com]

Still (http://glitterati.talkoncorners.net/fiction/still.php) by rageprufrock. Ronon asks John a question. G-rated. <-- You must have a heart of stone not to be affected by this story.

Missing in Action (http://crysothemis.livejournal.com/14756.html) by crysothemis. Episode tag for Epiphany and a perfect illustration of the joys of UST. PG-13.

Five Lies John Told by (http://crysothemis.livejournal.com/14756.html) cesperanza. Rodney ends up in a coma and John ends up finally telling the truth. PG-13.

Sorry about the coding failure

[gaffsie.livejournal.com]

Argh, and even more fail. The correct link for Speranza's story is: http://cesperanza.livejournal.com/207126.html

*head-desk*

[ancientreader]

Wow, just want to thank you for the link to "Still." I'm kind of a Rodney/John OTP, but that was ineffably lovely. And yeah, about that heart of stone ...

[masterofmidgets.livejournal.com]

I don't read a lot of John/Ronon, but that melted my crusty bitter heart. So cute! Thanks so much!

[8dreamcatcher8.livejournal.com]

No recs for now but I'm curious about what differences you see between slash and gay dynamics. I'm not an English native speaker so subtlety is not my strong suit.
Could you explain?
Thanks.

[masterofmidgets.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is my extremely biased and non-formal opinion (and I'm making some wild generalizations here) but I think that slash, out of necessity, takes some more fluid ideas of romance and sexuality for granted. Because most of slash is written about characters who are written as nominally or explicitly heterosexual (as strongly as I think John reads as gay, for example, you could say pretty confidently the writers mean him to be straight), you end up with a ton of characters who are either written in fanfiction as a) bisexual, or b) capable of pursuing a romantic relationship with a same-sex partner despite being predominantly attracted to the opposite sex.

My knowledge of gay fiction is admittedly limited, but from what I've seen, this isn't nearly as much of a theme (anyone feel free to correct me on this), which I think makes sense. Gay fiction writers are making their own characters, so they don't have those pre-defined limits. And really, why would they want to make characters who don't identify as gay, when the whole point is writing stories that speak to that population?

The other, and related, difference I see in the relationship dynamic is that the sexuality aspect gets played up a lot less even in stories that are about the character discovering an unexpected attraction for another guy. I honestly don't want to read a dozen stories about John's Big Gay Panic - I want enough internal conflict to make it believable to me, and then I want the writer to get on with the more interesting stuff. There's a lot of authorial hand-wavy 'I'm just going to make the characters be into each other and run with it' glossing over it, and I think a tendency to focus on why a relationship with that particular, fucked-up, mental, inappropriate person is a bad idea, rather than why dating men in general would be bad.

It's not probably a very realistic treatment of things, but then I personally don't want realistic out of my slash fic. I want believable, but mostly I want romance, with a lot of obstacles caused by both characters being deeply screwed-up people, that ends with them together and happy about it.

My two cents, with the caveat that there are plenty of slash stories that really get into the sexuality stuff, and I'm sure plenty of gay stories that don't bother and just get into the shiny plotness. So, you know, your mileage may vary drastically. XD

[8dreamcatcher8.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your point of view. It's really interesting.

[8dreamcatcher8.livejournal.com]

Maybe this one?
http://www.wraithbait.com/viewstory.php?sid=8580

Summary: John gaped. "Your girlfriend told you you couldn't have sex with me?"

"*Anymore*," Rodney appeared to believe this was clarification enough. "My girlfriend told me I couldn't have sex with you *anymore*."

[masterofmidgets.livejournal.com]

*dies laughing* That is completely awesome. Thanks so much!

[candymike.livejournal.com]

Might I suggest (very, very respectfully) that, whichever story you choose, you remove the author's name and identifying information before distributing it? You could provide it to the professor, of course, but I'm just thinking about a potential situation where people who don't necessarily care for slash take it out on some unsuspecting author whose work was used as illustration of a genre. Ideally, I think I would try to get the author's permission before using their work (I know I'd prefer to know about it) but at the very least, I would take steps to protect their identity, cloaked as it may be by screennames and archives.

(I am thinking primarily of a situation that occurred in another fandom, but it happened to someone I know and knocked a fantastic and incredibly prolific writer right out of the fandom and severely hampered her ability to write *at all*. I'd hate to see that happen to someone else, so please take this advice as gently as it was intended...)

[masterofmidgets.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I hadn't thought about that at all. I can't believe people could do something senseless and mean enough to force a writer out of fandom, that's really horrible.

I can't imagine anyone in my class doing that (it's a small group class, and no one had a problem with my story, or the story last week about a guy who accidentally dates a trans man), and I won't be using it for anything formal, just a quick discussion because my prof wanted to know what I was talking about, but yeah. I'll definitely keep this in mind and make sure I protect the author's privacy. Thanks very much for the advice.

[(Anonymous)]

One of my favorite story

Scenes from a Lesser War by amific:

http://amific.livejournal.com/4455.html