|
One of the joys of B7 pornography is its enormous variety.In a series that included as regular characters at various times atotal of six men, five women, and three AIs, there are a great manypossible pairings (not to mention more complicated groupings), anda surprisingly high percentage of them have been written up asstories. Nevertheless, amidst all this variety, there are twofavorite combinations that account for more stories than everythingelse together. Both are male/male slash. Explanations for whythis should be so include the general popularity of slash (whateverthe deepseated psychoanalytical reasons for that may be), and thefact that on the original show, the male characters were betterdeveloped than the female ones. But I think there is yet anotherreason for the popularity of these two types of stories: theycorrespond to classic prototypes in romantic fiction.
It has been noted by a number of people that slash isessentially a specialized form of romance. The overwritten style,the torrents of torrid emotion, and even the explicit sex are allcharacteristic of the romance field. In fact, a great deal ofamusement can be had by taking the commercial romance of yourchoice and substituting the names of your favorite media slashcouple, with appropriate changes in the plumbing wherevernecessary. (I am indebted to Jennara Wenk for introducing me tothis game.) Romance as a genre is known for its very clearlydelineated parameters; certain specific types of stories recur overand over again. The two that are most readily recognizable in B7slash are, in chronological order of appearance, the bodice-ripperand the Gothic.
The classic romantic scenario that applies to first- andsecond-series B7 is the Taming of the Shrew plot-- what I'd call abodice-ripper. Apparently the term "bodice-ripper" has even moredefinitions than "Mary Sue," but I use it to mean a story set insome previous century, with elaborate and colorful costumes, inwhich a feisty, argumentative heroine succumbs more or lessreluctantly to the overpowering charm of a masterful hero. Theirencounters are always emotionally intense and sometimes physicallyviolent. In recent years the bodice-ripper has gone out of favorin the romance field because it is so blatantly politicallyincorrect, but it is alive and well in B7 fanfic in the form ofBlake/Avon slash. It is, after all, a rather obvious eroticizationof what was actually going on on the show. Which characters hadthe most intense relationship? Who was constantly arguing? Whoalways won the arguments, not by logic but by force of charisma?The political seduction that was seen on the screen can bereinterpreted in fiction as a romantic and sexual seduction bythose so inclined. It's true that leather doesn't rip very well,but black silk shirts tear nicely.
The show itself changes greatly in the third and especiallythe fourth series, and so does the associated romantic storyline.Now the classic prototype is the Gothic: a sweet little thingfalls for a dangerous man, even though she knows he's bad news byany rational standard. By the fourth season, you've got theperfect Gothic hero-- sinister, smoldering, tormented by his darkpast, and quite possibly crazy. But when you start looking for asuitably hapless, put-upon Gothic heroine, you run into problems.None of the women will do; they just don't cower properly. (A fewwriters have tried to force Cally into this part, but most don'tsee her as such a wimp. Besides, by the time Avon gets trulyweird, she's out of the picture anyway.) There's really only onepossible choice for the role of Gothic heroine, and it ain't agirl. A B7 Gothic romance has pretty much got to be Avon/Vila.
What's so bizarre about B7 slash overall is the drasticallydifferent role played by one and the same character in the twofavorite scenarios. The spitfire heroine of the bodice-ripperbecomes the brooding hero of the Gothic. It's as if halfwaythrough the story, Scarlett O'Hara turned into Heathcliff. Note,however, that the focus of erotic attention remains the same.We've gone from "She's a hellcat, but I love her anyway," to "Ithink he's trying to kill me, but I love him anyway." No doubtwe'd all like to think that we could be as nasty as Avon and beloved anyway, which I suspect has much to do with the appeal ofboth types of story.
Ever since I identified these two plotlines, I've wonderedwhether there might be any other classic romantic set-ups that B7characters can be shoehorned into. I've been speculating about anAvon/Tarrant scenario. This one would be a contemporary, I think,about a couple who have to work together even though they don'tmuch like each other, and who fight constantly until, to theirmutual surprise, they finally squabble their way into each other'sarms. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in Woman of the Year,perhaps? Or maybe Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in TheAfrican Queen? I can't quite see Tarrant as Katharine Hepburn, butI suppose it's no worse than Avon as Scarlett O'Hara.
A late addendum: Pat Jacquerie, the Queen of A/T, suggests thatthe genre romance prototype for her favorite pairing is a Regency:a battle of wits between an impulsive young beauty and a cynicalolder man.
|