Novelizations
- Thread starter nothinglikesun
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I'll hide this in spoiler tags because I just posted it in another topic three days ago...
Quoting from my own website:
In 1985, Pocket Books published Della Van Hise's novel Killing Time, then withdrew it from publication. The wrong draft of the novel had been printed. Pocket had the correct version in the stores pretty quickly, but didn't publicize the change. Van Hise was apparently active in the "slash" fan fiction scene (i.e., fiction about Kirk and Spock as lovers), and she worked a slash subtext into this novel, more overtly in the accidentally printed early draft. The editor at the time had Van Hise rewrite the book to get rid of that subtext. The revised version was used for later printings.
There are at least fifty changes from the first version to the revised version, some as short as a single word, others as long as a paragraph or two. Most of the excisions involve scenes in which there is physical contact between Kirk and Spock (for example, describing the warmth of Spock's hand on Kirk's face during a mindmeld). But there was also a sentence that described Spock's realization that Kirk was the person Spock was meant to spend his life with.
If the cover has raised letters for the title, it's likely to be the original; if not, check anyway, because at least some copies without raised lettering have the unexpurgated text. Better yet, just check page 41 for a passage that begins, "I understand that you were probably playing with dolls and wearing lipstick until you were twenty!" That appears only in the original.
In 1985, Pocket Books published Della Van Hise's novel Killing Time, then withdrew it from publication. The wrong draft of the novel had been printed. Pocket had the correct version in the stores pretty quickly, but didn't publicize the change. Van Hise was apparently active in the "slash" fan fiction scene (i.e., fiction about Kirk and Spock as lovers), and she worked a slash subtext into this novel, more overtly in the accidentally printed early draft. The editor at the time had Van Hise rewrite the book to get rid of that subtext. The revised version was used for later printings.
There are at least fifty changes from the first version to the revised version, some as short as a single word, others as long as a paragraph or two. Most of the excisions involve scenes in which there is physical contact between Kirk and Spock (for example, describing the warmth of Spock's hand on Kirk's face during a mindmeld). But there was also a sentence that described Spock's realization that Kirk was the person Spock was meant to spend his life with.
If the cover has raised letters for the title, it's likely to be the original; if not, check anyway, because at least some copies without raised lettering have the unexpurgated text. Better yet, just check page 41 for a passage that begins, "I understand that you were probably playing with dolls and wearing lipstick until you were twenty!" That appears only in the original.
Supposedly there was a recall, but I don't remember bookshops actually returning copies. Many of us swooped on every ST book the minute they hit shelves. Check out the page with the publishing details. You'll see a row of tiny numbers.
eg. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
would be a first printing. But if you're missing the "1" on the end, then it's a later printing and the offending portions might have been removed.
http://www.well.com/~sjroby/lostbooks.html
says: "If the cover has raised letters for the title, it's likely to be the original; if not, check anyway, because at least some copies without raised lettering have the unexpurgated text. Better yet, just check page 41 for a passage that begins, 'I understand that you were probably playing with dolls and wearing lipstick until you were twenty!' That appears only in the original."
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I thought I'd heard somewhere along the way that for some reason the printing number wasn't always a reliable indicator, but based on my limited sample (two accidentals and one corrected), it works. And my memory isn't always a reliable indicator either.
I don't think there was a recall. It took me several visits to used bookstores to track down the corrected version once I decided I needed one, about ten years ago. I kept finding the first printings instead.
I don't think there was a recall. It took me several visits to used bookstores to track down the corrected version once I decided I needed one, about ten years ago. I kept finding the first printings instead.
^ Fascinating! Well, what I have is probably the first version, then--tonight I'll dig it out and have a look. Even if so, I still don't remember anything overtly "slashy" (I just don't know what else to call it 
), but it may be because I was young and naive at the time (as opposed to old and bitter, as I am now).
), but it may be because I was young and naive at the time (as opposed to old and bitter, as I am now).
I still don't remember anything overtly "slashy" (I just don't know what else to call it
As I said, fans who already knew the name "Della Van Hise", from underground slash fanfic circles, were hanging on every word for any suggestion of K/S - and those who were looking found the references easily. Others recognised the author's name as being that of the wife of James Van Hise, editor of "Enterprise Incidents", the prominent pro-zine of the day. Some light, slashy fanfic from Della received wider-than-usual distribution from being published in Van Hise magazines. Those oblivious to that kind of thing (including the editor, it seems) were mostly oblivious and enjoyed "Killing Time" as "the next novel".
I knew a fairly large group of female fans who read and/or wrote ST slash fanfic. Very few of them bothered with most of the licensed novels - "too tame". According to a few of them, there was a black market where one could pick up "bonus chapters" for all four Marshak/Culbreath novels, supposedly penned by the authors of those books.
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