FAN FICTION, in its simplest definition, is fiction written by the fans of any popular narrative, be it a novel, a TV series, or a film. While private fan fiction may be as old as fiction itself, its origins as a genre for public (albeit esoteric) circulation can be traced back to the start of fan magazines or “fanzines” in the 1970’s. With the advent of the Internet, the genre has suddenly become available to a mass readership, and this has alerted more people to the phenomenon and to its possibilities than a fanzine could ever hope to do. The amount of fan fiction is growing, as is the number of fan writers. The fan writer’s intention is frequently not so much to provide an homage to the fictional universe in question as to rewrite and reinterpret events in the story to suit the desires of the writer. For example, the relationships between characters are often altered or made more sexually explicit; the most popular theme of fan fiction is romance.
Slash fiction is fan fiction with a gay theme, ranging from tender romance with mildly erotic scenes to extreme and sometimes violent pornography. The most prolific source of fan fiction is J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books. In general, the slash fiction is more radical and more “anarchistic” in its appropriation of Rowling’s universe. Although the “het” stories may still outnumber the slash stories, this would be a close call. Indeed the volume of Harry Potter slash fiction is rather staggering. A conservative estimate would peg the number at over 25,000 stories posted on the Internet, but the real total could be closer to 100,000. There are several directories or archives of various sizes on the Internet devoted exclusively to Harry Potter slash fiction, where writers without their own home pages, or who want a larger audience, can make submissions. (See www.fanfiction.net for an idea of what’s available.) Also, it should be noted that some of the “stories” are novel-sized, while others are written as poetry. In fact, “fanart” can also take the form of drawings, montages, or even films. The world of slash is well-established enough to have acquired its own language. In the directories that list them, the stories are usually sorted by “pairing”—the two characters at the center of the story—or by subject category. There are at least a dozen categories, from the straightforward “Romance” to the more cryptic “Hurt-Comfort,” “Death story,” or “Chanslash.” Most slash writers provide a lot of information about their stories on the same page as the story itself, as well as a disclaimer to the effect that Rowling is the owner of the characters and no copyright infringement is intended. The information given usually includes which pairing(s) the story contains, the category of fiction, and a suggested age limit, which gives a potential reader some idea of how explicitly sexual the story is. The slash stories are overwhelmingly about male-male contact. Stories about female characters are rare enough to have a name of their own: “femslash” or “femmeslash.” The number of readers is huge, but hard to nail down. Some estimates might be drawn from an on-line quiz that’s designed to help the novice reader of Harry Potter slash determine which pairing she’s most likely to enjoy. The last time I checked the survey had been taken by more than 37,000 people. Also, Ink Stained Fingers, a slash directory/archive that requires the user to enter a password to access its 2,500 Harry Potter stories, had more than one million hits during one month last year. WHO ARE the slash writers? The general assumption within the community seems to be that the typical slash writer is female, in her mid-twenties, and heterosexual. In order to get some idea of the validity of this picture, I sent off a small questionnaire to a randomly selected sample of 25 slash writers. Beyond the fact that they were slash writers and wrote in English, I knew nothing about the people I contacted, not even their sex or real name, as the majority of slash writers choose to use a gender-neutral pseudonym. Of the 25 sent, ten had replied within six weeks. The questionnaire asked them about basic biographical data—age, sex, sexual preference, occupation, nationality, and highest completed education—along with questions dealing with their fiction. Based on the small sample of answers, it would seem that most slashers are indeed females and in their twenties. All ten respondents were female, and the median age was 24, with the youngest respondent being 17 and the oldest 32. When it comes to sexual orientation, however, the common assumption that slashers are heterosexual is incorrect. Only four of the ten describe themselves as heterosexual, and of the remaining six, three described themselves as bisexual, two as gay, and one as having no sexual preference. Half were full- or part-time students, while all were clearly well-educated, judging by their ability to write thoughtful, grammatically correct prose. Their reasons for starting to write fan or slash fiction sprang from a desire to react to narratives that had made an impact on them. “I’ve always loved reading, and I think it translates quite well into writing, especially when you already have the basis of strong characters and established plotlines,” wrote one slasher. “I write fan fiction primarily as a way to explore the characters who interest me, from various media sources … for me, it is a way of enjoying a media product as more than a passive consumer, and is a vehicle for exploring my own thoughts and ideas as they grow out of what I watch or read,” said another. The personal side of slash writing came out in two more specific motives. The first was frankly sexual in nature and pointed to a fascination with male sexuality in general and gay male sex in particular: “I have a fascination with homosexual sex. I find it erotic and arousing to read about two men finding each other.” “Because two guys together are hot.” “I think it’s really sexy if it’s written well.” “I can never resist the opportunity to describe a male body, and two is even better.” “I enjoy the idea of two men together.” “I find m/m sex arousing.” “I fantasize about being with two men.” The other motive might be called “political,” a desire to address the fact that homosexuality figures too rarely in popular entertainment: “I get frustrated reading literature which ignores the existence of queer people. Writing slash gives me a chance to respond to that exclusion, and I’ve never been a passive reader. … It’s really fun to me to get behind the characters’ stated relationships and find out how I can, well, make them gay. So it’s a bit about social injustice and a bit about just plain fun.” “[There’s] already too [much]heterosexual stuff out there.” “I prefer to write material that is unlikely to be mirrored by anything the canon might later produce.” When asked what attracted them to the Harry Potter universe in particular, the respondents repeatedly pointed out that there are considerable gaps in Rowling’s story. The novels are told from Harry’s perspective, and he often has only the most tenuous understanding of his surroundings. This leaves a lot of leeway for fan writers: “While there’s not a lot of overt homoerotic subtext, there’s a lot of possibility. Very few of the large and interesting supporting cast are confirmed heterosexual, and … there’s a lot of room to hypothesize about characters’ pasts, motivations, and inclinations.” “J. K. Rowling leaves too much to be desired. She never lets any of the characters have relationships. … She does leave it very open about her characters’ sexuality. Personally I think she did it on purpose so the reader could come to his or her own conclusion.” “[N]o clear-cut sexual orientations for any of the characters.” “[T]he author left a lot of ambiguous clues and … there are a lot of ends not quite explained.” “You have to admit, there are an awful lot of single men and women hanging about in the Harry Potter universe seemingly without spouses or visible love interests.” Indeed the slashers are quick to point out that the Potter series encourages a gay reading. As one of the respondents put it, “there is a certain gay feel about the HP books.” Harry discovers that he’s different from his non-wizard foster family at the beginning of puberty, when he is eleven. His foster family is deeply ashamed of his magical abilities and terrified that the neighbors will find out. Harry’s foster father even refuses to discuss his tendencies in Sorcerer’s Stone: “I will not tolerate mention of your abnormality under this roof!” Furthermore, the wizards keeps to themselves, have a secret world about which non-wizards know nothing, have their own language and social codes, and tend to recognize each other in crowds of non-wizards. The character of Remus Lupin is another source of inspiration for those who look for the possibility of a gay reading of Harry Potter. He’s a secret werewolf who’s regarded with suspicion or hostility by most wizards. When exposed, he resigns from his job as a teacher, since he knows that parents will not want their children to be taught by a werewolf. Several of the respondents single him out as particularly interesting: “[Rowling] has already made a commentary about acceptance in her work, in the character of Remus Lupin. He is a victim of society’s perceptions; he has to keep quiet about being a werewolf, he can’t get a job because of prejudice, poor dear, and he is frequently suspected of being a collaborator with Dark Wizards. … Remus has done nothing wrong but get bitten when he was a small boy (the age when many gays discover their difference).” “I don’t think that Remus Lupin’s experience of being ‘outed’ after hiding his true self from the public in fear of their reaction is a coincidence.” “He’s a werewolf and the Ministry counts him as a dangerous minority.” THE CONTENT of Harry Potter slash derives from the pairing of any two characters and the creation of a story for them, and almost every conceivable pairing (including extra-human ones) has been explored. Some of the pairings take off from those already in the books, such as that of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, who are obviously close emotionally and who both lack a known history of heterosexual relationships. In Order of the Phoenix, the two live together and give Harry a joint Christmas present. But by far the two most common pairings involve Harry and the two people he likes the least in the books. The first is with Draco Malfoy, Harry’s perpetual foil. Draco is rich, spoiled, occasionally cruel, and frequently petty, and he’s a member of Slytherin House. Harry, by contrast, is poor, generally well-meaning, and noble, and he belongs to Gryffindor House. Harry and Draco have the same position on their house sports teams, but Harry got there based on skill, whereas Draco got there through bribery. There’s even a deliberate contrast in their looks: Draco is grey-eyed and fair while Harry is green-eyed and dark. Harry’s second most popular pairing is with Severus Snape. Snape is a teacher, head of Slytherin House, and the same age as Harry’s late father. He’s a complicated and largely unsympathetic figure, has a past as a Dark wizard, and may or may not still be on the side of the series’ evil Other, Lord Voldemort. He treats Harry unfairly, motivated at least in part by the fact that Harry’s father bullied him when they were at school together, but has saved Harry’s life on at least one occasion. He is “Harry’s least favorite person at Hogwarts. Harry’s loathing of Snape was matched only by Snape’s hatred of him” (Goblet of Fire). The output for this pairing, only recently classified as “rareslash,” has exploded in recent years. The choice for Malfoy and Snape by hundreds, if not thousands, of slash writers undoubtedly relates to the sheer intensity of emotion—albeit negative emotion—surrounding Harry’s relationship with these two characters. When turned into slash fiction, this antipathy must be negotiated and reinterpreted in order for a romantic relationship to make sense. Some writers sidestep the problem by writing so-called “Plot What Plot” stories, usually frankly pornographic tales with little other action than sex. Most, however, take the development of the relationship from mutual hatred to mutual love or lust as their main theme. The stories that feature a relationship with Draco Malfoy have several obstacles to overcome. Draco Malfoy’s father is one of the leading Death Eaters, and it looks as if Draco is going to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a Dark wizard, opposed to the values of stability and peace espoused by Harry. Draco is a rather two-dimensional character, and there is little encouragement in Rowling’s books for those who look for redeeming traits. The different slash writers negotiate this problem in much the same way, basically using Rowling’s words against her. She emphasizes time and again the diametric contrast between the two characters; the slashers take this to mean that they are complementary opposites. By the same token, if Rowling stresses Draco’s privileged family background, the slashers treat it as an extenuating circumstance. Draco’s father is dark, sadistic, and powerful, so what choice did Draco really have? Rowling repeatedly shows Draco as trapped in a situation from which he cannot extricate himself. In the Severus Snape stories, or “Snarry” fiction, the number of obstacles that must be negotiated is truly staggering. In Rowling’s books, their mutual animosity is fired by several acute problems: Snape has a history as a Death Eater, was hated by Harry’s father, might have been in love with his mother, and has tried at every turn to get Harry expelled. Harry is disrespectful and disobedient to Snape, showing little reluctance to break into Snape’s most private memories or help his friends break into Snape’s office. Of course, Snape is Harry’s teacher and more than twice his age. One pressing problem in this pairing is that it would be illegal—Harry is fifteen in the latest book—so most of the slash writers simply place the action in the near-term future, making Harry either an older pupil or a teacher returning to Hogwarts. There are some stories with an underage Harry in a relationship with Snape, but they are rare. Generally, the writers try to avoid the potentially sinister feel of this pairing: even the stories that feature an adult Harry almost always include a scene in which Snape agonizes over the impropriety of a relationship with such an age disparity. Snape has also developed what is almost a set character: slash writers the world over have determined that, behind the cold, controlled exterior that Rowling describes, the man is deeply unhappy, tortured by his past, and insecure about his looks. In both of these pairings there is an underlying humanism on the part of the slash writers in their desire to reconcile two enemies. It might be argued, in fact, that slash writers tend to demonstrate greater compassion and psychological insight than does Rowling, for whom the nature of good and evil seems comparatively simple, and who often judges her characters moralistically rather than based on their actions. The Headmaster, for example, is always seen as a wise, grandfatherly type, someone who’s above reproach, yet he indulges in favoritism, and it was he who placed Harry with an abusive foster family. Also, as indignant Snape slashers have pointed out, on one occasion he rewards Snape’s loyalty and courage by mocking him in front of his pupils. Perhaps oddly, homosexuality is not a major “political” focus in the slash stories. To be sure, the ultimate aim of most of the plots is to get two male characters into bed together, but very few stories have the characters express any angst about their sexual identity. In most stories the world of witches and wizards is an idealized one, at least in terms of sexual tolerance, in which someone’s sexual orientation is a matter of indifference. Indeed there are many love stories between two people of the same sex in which sexual identity or orientation is not even mentioned, let alone pondered or contested. In contrast to this relaxed attitude toward sexual orientation in their stories, almost all of the respondents had received hostile feedback in the form of critical e-mails from readers who objected to a gay Harry Potter. They also disclosed a rather pessimistic view of the acceptability of homosexuality in the outside world: when asked whether they thought Rowling could get away with including an openly gay character in her books, the answer was almost uniformly negative. Notwithstanding the uncertain legal position of slash and fan fiction, the survival of this genre seems assured for now. The Internet has provided a tool that is ideally suited to this form of fan activity, and several of the respondents believe that fan fiction is here to stay. As one respondent declared: “Slash begets slash. Most of the old-school HP slashers I know will admit to first reading the books after reading what slash there was on the Net. And it grows from there: younger folk troll the websites for info on their favorite books, discover slash, and start looking at Harry and Draco in a whole new light.” Marianne MacDonald is a writer living in England.
