Discouraging Kirk/Spock slashers...

[Cakes488]

It's exactly the same as fantasy male/female coupling in fan fiction except for same sex couples. Get over it.

Are you suggesting I have an issue with same sex couples? It's amazing the assumptions that go on around here when you have no idea who you're talking to. So please advise if that's what you're saying.

Referring to same sex coupling as "a new world of sick-o-ness" is a good clue but fair enough if I got the wrong impression, apologies.

OK I can see how it could of been taken that way -- that's my bad...my bad...I'm sorry for putting it that way.... I sincerely didn't mean it that way as I love gay people and have had and still have many gay friends, both male and female. But I just meant it because it's Kirk and Spock...not because it's two men...but Kirk and Spock!!!! Again I'm sorry for putting it like that and in no way, shape or form do I think being gay is any sort of sickness. I'm totally pro-gay...sorry mods' if this convo doesn't belong here but we had to clear this up!

 

[Ashramsgrl]

I was there; and rest assured, that aspect was everything it was cracked down to be.

<-- Is jellious.

Well, if you wanted to work, you could be a nurse or a secretary -- or a teacher. Or possibly study home economics in college until you found a husband.

I know I know. Most likely I wouldn't be doing any of those things. I would be in jail because I fight my designated place in society, or I would have thrown my picketing sign and someone else's at a someone with a grrr face.

You win, I'll take 2009. But I can sure dream.

 

[Ashramsgrl]

Oh the 60's, WHY WASNT I THERE!!!!

You wanted to experience the Roddenberry casting couch?

For a chance a Trek...um, dang it!!! I have to actually sit here and think about that.

 

[seniorsleuth]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk/Spock

Do you agree with the above entry that Uhura is paired with Spock (with Kirk also salivating after her), largely to discourage slashers in nutrek?

If the creators of the film knew or cared that much about slashers, they would understand that putting one of the male heroes in a relationship would do nothing to discourage them.

It's a marketing thing. Films that target two or more of the following groups are more likely to be successful: 1) Men under 25; 2) Men 25 or older; 3) Women under 25; 4) Women 25 or older. They are going for more women by giving Uhura more significance and including more romance. Slashers are but a teeny tiny sliver of the potential audience.

On edit, if they wanted to attract a gay audience, that would be fine. But they would more likely do it by introducing a gay character.

 

[Captain Fine]

Although I can certainly understand Kirk/Spock slash, it's not something I've ever been into. Although I could see Pine and Quinto having some fun, I don't really see the Spock and Kirk characters doing so.

 

[Islander]

Plus slash fiction was only a succedaneum for real gay relations in movie, which ended with movies providing actual real relations like broke back mountain.

 

[Jeri]

You win, I'll take 2009. But I can sure dream.

I'm glad I was there; I get all the references in Mad Men. And they were some exciting, unique times that still resonate; clearly they do. I wouldn't want to go back, though.

 

[indranee]

What the hell is this slasher shit all about....K&S together and doing it? I've never even heard of this until recently upon joining this board....it's just opened me up to a whole new world of sick-o-ness. Hey whatever your into I guess and as long as you're not hurting anybody....I don't think Uhura was used as a ploy to break up K&S...LOL, no I don't think so. But I do find it interesting that this wiki article....for whatever it's worth...echos my sentiments about her function in the film. VINDICATION!!!!

where have you been?!?!

 

[indranee]

If you look at the link in the original post - even Roddenberry acknowledges "there was certainly some of that"... the guy was kinky, that's no secret. TOS was full of sexual tension of all kinds, astonishing so... but hey, it was the 60's.

it was in his TMP novelization. he certainly enjoyed the interest it generated.

the thing is, like it or not, TOS was powered in part by the enormous chemistry (whatever it was) between Kirk and Spock (Nimoy and Shatner).

and the biggest irony of this new movie?

Pine and Quinto have captured lightening in the bottle, yet again.

K&S is never going to completely disappear, no matter what they write or what is done. it's somehow at the heart of TOS and always will be. and we wouldn't want it to. it leaves everybody just a little bit curious. it harks back to the myths -- Alexander and [FONT=Verdana]Hephaestion, Achilles and Patroclas etc... it's the stuff of lusty dreams and endless speculation. it fuels drama and interest. it's partly what made TOS survive for so long. because, don't forget, when TOS was almost dead and gone, it was those K&S slash zines that kept it alive and simmering.

it'll always be around. [/FONT]

 

[EnsignRicky]

I never understood slash. Why the hell would anyone be interested in the idea of Kirk and Spock cutting and slicing each other up?

"Ha Ha Spock, I just slashed TWO of your tires. Let's see you reason your way out of that, you pointy eared prick."

I don't see the humor.

 

[An Officer]

it was in his TMP novelization. he certainly enjoyed the interest it generated.

I haven't read this. What exactly did he put in there?

 

[Ashramsgrl]

Are you suggesting I have an issue with same sex couples? It's amazing the assumptions that go on around here when you have no idea who you're talking to. So please advise if that's what you're saying.

Referring to same sex coupling as "a new world of sick-o-ness" is a good clue but fair enough if I got the wrong impression, apologies.

OK I can see how it could of been taken that way -- that's my bad...my bad...I'm sorry for putting it that way.... I sincerely didn't mean it that way as I love gay people and have had and still have many gay friends, both male and female. But I just meant it because it's Kirk and Spock...not because it's two men...but Kirk and Spock!!!! Again I'm sorry for putting it like that and in no way, shape or form do I think being gay is any sort of sickness. I'm totally pro-gay...sorry mods' if this convo doesn't belong here but we had to clear this up!

I can't believe I didn't catch this before. But once again I can see you doing more posted back peddle... back peddle... back peddle... back peddle.

<-- not surprised at all.

@ Indranee: Teehee on the aviee

 

[cubbie]

I've never enjoyed slash. It's just not my thing. I really enjoyed learning the word bromance this year though. That's the chemistry that Kirk and Spock have always and will always have for me.

 

[Captain Fine]

I've never really gotten the concept of a "bromance". It's probably just a straight thing. Maybe I need to go watch "I Love You Man" to be enlightened.

 

[writergal]

For those interested, Kirk and Spock were the inspiration for the whole "slash" genre. In fact that's where the term "slash" came from. The writers who wrote about Kirk and Spock being lovers called such stories "Kirk/Spock" - notice Kirk "slash" Spock?

As time passed "Slash" came to mean any fanfiction that created a romance between two characters of the same gender, who weren't gay in the original concept. For instance you have Starsky/Hutch slash, but if you wrote about the two characters from Brokeback Mountain - or about two guys from Queer as Folk - that's not slash because they're already gay.

Fan fiction is full of fun subgenres, such as hurt/comfort (what it sounds like: one character gets shot, stabbed, sick, etc., and his best buddy worries about him and helps him out. Not slashy, though. "The Empath" is a good example of hurt/comfort, both Kirk and McCoy get bashed and comforted in that one) and stranger subgenres like mpreg (a male character gets pregnant. Personally, I don't get it, but to each his own.)

"Mary Sues" are very popular, that's when a female writer injects herself into a story by creating a female character who is sparkling, witty, super smart, and impresses all the men with her beauty and intelligence - and of course, the hero falls in love with her.

Before you ask - yes, I've written fanfiction. No, I don't write slash, it's all "gen" (the term for any fic that isn't slash). Horatio Hornblower and the Magnificent Seven television series, mostly. I don't write it anymore, but it was a ton of fun and a great way to learn all about writing because interested fans read your stuff and give you feedback. It's a good thing the Internet didn't exist when I was in high school, though, because I wrote some truly gawdawful 'Battlestar Galactica' fan fiction and I'd die if it ever got read now!! Poor Starbuck, I must have killed him twenty times...

 

[Jeri]

Yep, she's right. Trekkers invented the term.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk/Spock

Do you agree with the above entry that Uhura is paired with Spock (with Kirk also salivating after her), largely to discourage slashers in nutrek?

If the creators of the film knew or cared that much about slashers, they would understand that putting one of the male heroes in a relationship would do nothing to discourage them.

It's a marketing thing. Films that target two or more of the following groups are more likely to be successful: 1) Men under 25; 2) Men 25 or older; 3) Women under 25; 4) Women 25 or older. They are going for more women by giving Uhura more significance and including more romance. Slashers are but a teeny tiny sliver of the potential audience.

On edit, if they wanted to attract a gay audience, that would be fine. But they would more likely do it by introducing a gay character.

Slash has never been the fodder of gay audiences. It's mainly straight women who read and write slash.

I can't see why the producers/writers would want to discourage slash, that's just silly! Slash is fandom and fandom leads to multiple cinema viewings, book buying, action figure purchasing.. you'd be nuts to want to knock any element of fandom on the head.

I actually found nuSpock and nuKirk to be even more subtexty than the originals.

(and as a PS the most intense hurt/comfort ep is VOY's The Chute)

 

[Captain Fine]

Thanks for your post writergal. It was informative

 

[miniglik]

If J.J. was trying to discourage slashers, that's kind of unusual. From my fannish experiences, at least recently, writers/producers seem to encourage/give-a-wink-to the slashing more than they ever discourage it. Keep the slash writing fangirls happy, and they'll keep watching, buying, promoting, obsessing about your product for years to come.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk/Spock

Do you agree with the above entry that Uhura is paired with Spock (with Kirk also salivating after her), largely to discourage slashers in nutrek?

Nope.

1. Nothing will discourage slashers.

2. The reason for the Uhura-Spock thang is that the writers want to drag Spock through a more intense emotional character arc than could be provided by just his relationship with Kirk, which sadly must forever remain an arm's length thing canonically. That's also the reason they blowed up Vulcan real good. Everyone prepare yourselves for Emo Spock.

3. They're also throwing a bone to the female audience. (No double entendre intended.)

I never understood slash. Why the hell would anyone be interested in the idea of Kirk and Spock cutting and slicing each other up?

I don't get the shipper thing, either. Spaceships are boring.