Fuck-julian - "I Can't Sleep Id Rather Die"

Fanfolks today need to remember how important The Premise was.

Y'all have heard of The Premise, right?

See, historically there have always been people who saw an extra layer of gayness on certain pairs of fictional people (you just thought of several), and people Back Then even wrote their own fanfic (or as they were called at the time, "pastiches"), but the first widespread queer fanwork to really define the fanfiction genre was KIRK AND SPOCK. Kirk/Spock. K/S. The very first slashfics.

Why this work was vastly, overwhelmingly written by straight women is a discussion for another time, but it was, so that's the main perspective I'm gonna consider here.

How do you - a statistically middle-class, 30+, stay-at-home wife and mother - how do you write slashfic ao3-style in the 1960's before the internet?

Carefully.

Through letters with friends, phone calls, pen pals, and sometimes - sometimes - clandestine meetings of small groups. Whole novels were written communally, round-robin style, by sending typed or handwritten additions chapter by chapter to each other. These were all underground, some deep underground; even the early Trekkie fanzines of the time wouldn't touch them.

And keep in mind, few of these stories were explicitly even sexual! But they were all about a very, very close relationship between two men. In the 1960's.

Guess how cool everyone else was about this.

Actually, for their part, Gene Rodenberry and the other writers were fine with it, saying that they had deliberately written the characters to be two halves of a whole, and if you wanna read it that way, yeah sure, go right ahead. Shatner and Nimoy took it all in good humor, and seemingly still do, each guy basically gesturing to the other and chuckling "I mean, who wouldn't?"

(CORRECTION: At least, they did until Nimoy passed away in 2015. Thanks @richie-is-rich!)

But elsewhere there was vicious backlash against The Premise, and not just within the fandom. This was still at a time in the US and UK when various "sodomy" and "decency" laws made no distinction between homosexual sex acts and just, like, directly lighting another man's cigarette with your cigarette in public. (That, sadly, is not a fucking joke.)

It was probably the closest some suburban cishet women came to understanding the pain of being in the closet. They had to protect this secret from their friends and family at all cost. There were cases of divorces where women lost custody of their children because their writing had come to light.

Can you imagine having such a burning desire to write for your OTP that you were willing to lose everything over it? Even if you were never caught, you still had to be willing to wait weeks, months, to receive a letter in the mail that you had to carefully intercept, read in secret, and then add your own chapter t, also in secret, and then send off, perhaps never to be seen again.

These people were goddamn heroes, and they laid the foundation for the world we live in today. A world where we can read, write, comment on, or share - in a matter of seconds! - literature about two background characters from two different franchises enjoying a really specific kink involving vacuums or something. And that's objectively amazing.

Raise a toast to our fanfiction elders, who simped in the darkness so we could simp in the light of day.

i move out in 5 days and it really dont feel real, like hah, i never have to go home? i have to be my own adult? what? huh? like what?

Guys its officially my 4/5 week of college. like i am living this life. its so fun and i am doing amazing

i move out in 5 days and it really dont feel real, like hah, i never have to go home? i have to be my own adult? what? huh? like what?

oh gee discord should I try adding numbers? should I try that???? should I try adding numbers to the end of my username so that it's individualized and only mine???? should I try adding numbers??????????

BALLISTER BOLDHEART DOES NOT LOOK LIKE PEDRO PASCAL

Seeeeee! They dont look alike! He literally looks like his voice actor.

LIKE THE EYES! LOOK AT THE EYES! HR IS LITERALLY BALLISTER

Funny because im actively crocheting while watching this.

Also the fact that none of these characters except pugsley is even close to their true characterisation

sitting in sand

my soul, though dark and bleary

shines at the thought of you standing beside me

looking out over the sunlit sea

eyes shining with the rays

your beauty strikes through me

and all i can do is gaze at you with love filled eyes

#next up? giant detailed lobsters 😏

Actually perfect

this is a fun style to work in

The Independent

How two trans women ran a legendary underground surgical clinic in a rural barn

The neighbours had no idea. The medical equipment came from eBay. But in a dark time for transgender people, these anarchist medics treated

extremely cool article you should read if you haven’t already

i just spent the last hours in this and let me tell you tears. like ahhhh, just nine please why did you have to make me feel emotions.