What’s happening to Neveridol? Once again I am obliged to start a post with a confession. If I want to discuss how I first heard about the ’slash’ fan fiction phenomenon, I am forced to admit that I once watched an entire season of Smallville. For anyone who lives on some kind of higher plane insulated from the vexations of US popular culture, let me inform you that Smallville is a television series, originally produced by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, that centres on the early life of the fictional Clark Kent, before he became Superman. (Although shot in British Columbia, the series is set in the fictional middle American town of Smallville). This flaccidly written, boring and repetitiously plotted show is so dire that a former colleague of mine at the Hill eventually prohibited her young teenage daughters from watching it on the grounds that it was rotting their brains.

If I continued viewing it for any reason other than inertia, it was in genuine  appreciation of the reflective and nuanced performance of Michael Rosenbaum as the young Lex Luthor. When I once admitted this to a friend, H, she suggested I might be interested in Clex fan fiction.  Clex? I asked. H explained that the expression ‘Clark/Lex’ or ‘Clark slash Lex’ has been condensed into ‘Clex’. The word ’slash’ (as in forward slash) was an indicator of a gay relationship between the two fictional characters, inspired by a few scant clues to a possible homoerotic subtext in the storylines, and (in my view) a great deal of fantasy-driven wishful thinking.

Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) and Clark Kent (Tom Welling) in Smallville

Eventually H put me onto Clex fan fiction sites. What astonished me was the superlative quality of some of the writing. Couldn’t these clever amateur authors who routinely came up with tongue-in-cheek erotic scenes, some genuine suspense and various sci-fi contrivances about assisted reproduction, get out there and write the great American novel, plant some trees or work on world peace? Well, I mused, maybe Clex is their escape from more difficult and meaningful undertakings. Or maybe not.

Then H and V let me into a wider secret: there is a whole wide world of slash fan fiction out there. One of the prototypes of the genre is Star Trek based: Captain Kirk/Mr Spock. Of course, why hadn’t I thought about that before?

Mr Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Captain Kirk (William Shatner) in the classic sci-fi series: subjects of slash fan fiction

By this stage I had begun  to wonder about the ethics of all this. Was the world of slash fan fiction, that sometimes overheated and stereotypic fantasy land, insulting or injurious to gays? I hastily canvassed a few friends in same sex relationships and came up with mixed results: some thought it was stupid and ignored it, whereas others thought some of it was funny and cleverly written. ‘That’s like Kirk and Spock, right?’ asked J. ‘I always thought they were gay, anyway.’

It then occurred to me that slash fiction has an even more venerable precedent than the Kirk/Spock relationship. It is the well-known story of celebrated novelist Gore Vidal’s famous additions to the script of  the 1959 Biblical epic Ben-Hur. As recounted in the Epstein and Friedman documenatry, The Celluloid Closet (1995), Vidal was concerned that there was nothing other than the usual Judaeo-Roman politics in the script that could account for the suddeness of the transformation of Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) and Messala (Stephen Boyd) from boyhood comrades to the bitterest of enemies as adults, so  he wrote in some steamy yet heavily coded scenes suggesting they had been lovers in their teens. Hilariously, hunky Boyd played up the gay elements, while  stiff-jawed Heston remained oblivious.

Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Ilya Kuryakin (David McCallum) in the Man from UNCLE

So recently, after having watched a few old episodes of 1960s spy spoof, The Man from UNCLE, I did not hesitate in seeking out some Napoleon Solo slash Ilya Kuryakin material. It was out there all right. Within minutes I’d uncovered a very amusing short, PG-13 rated piece by Ceindreadh entitled The My Partner the Gorilla Affair. It is apparently based on an episode invoving undercover work in a gorilla suit. What follows is only an extract:

‘Napoleon glanced over at the passenger seat and tried to stifle a smile as he looked at the disgruntled gorilla that was sitting in it. “It won’t be so bad you know,” he said. “All we have to do is stand around and keep an eye out for trouble. It’s not as if Mr. Waverly is expecting anybody to raid this Halloween party, but when there’s so many diplomats kids attending, he’s just taking every precaution necessary.”

The gorilla stared out the window, pointedly ignoring his words. 

Napoleon tried again. “It’s only going to be for a few hours. And then we’re off duty for the rest of tonight and all day tomorrow.”

Still no reaction. “If you behave, there could be a banana in it for you.”

The gorilla turned to look at Napoleon with baleful blue eyes. “Very funny Napoleon,” it said in a Russian accent. “But a single banana can not make up for this…this costume.” He gestured at the hairy gorilla suit in disgust…’

Source: Written for the MFUfic@yahoogroups Halloween Challenge. Collected here.

Has the slash concept ever been applied to Taiwanese drama series and popular music, I wondered. I soon discovered to my alarm that there is at least one thread on a fan forum alleging a gay relationship between two members of a prominent boy band. I read a few posts then decided that where fictional characters might be fair game, this sort of speculation about idols’ personal lives was out of bounds for Neveridol. But, speaking of fictional characters, I was reminded of the last episode of my favourite of all Taiwanese drama series: Heaven’s Wedding Gown. This was, after all, soap in which the male leads seemed to have spend more time trying to impress and outdo each other than they did pursuing the ingenue heroine.

Chen Hai Nuo (Ming Dao) and Lu Zihao (Leon Williams) exchange confidences in Heaven's Wedding Gown.

Chen Hai Nuo and Lu Zi Hao seem to plight their troth at the latter's wedding reception.

Dedicated followers of slash fan fiction would hav e no difficulty in recognising the screen captures above as evidence that the motorcycle racer and the fashion designer were more than just rivals in love. Chen Hai Nuo slash Lu Zihao, anyone? Come on, I dare you!

P.S. Read some Pizi/Ying Xiong slash from the police series Black & White here.

Image credits: 1 and  2 and 3 and 4-5.