Website Review: The Flambeau Factory (Torch's Archives)
After reading some slash fiction both in the newsgroups and on the web, I thought it was time to review a site by a writer of this genre. I picked Torch's, both for her reputation among slashers (she's very good) and for the amount of material she keeps on her site.
I've talked about slash fiction before, but to reiterate, it's any media- oriented fanfic where two heros or heroines of the same gender enjoy a sexual relationship with each other. Such relationships often include elements of D/S and B/D; the explicitness of the portrayal ranges from saucy talk to full-blown erotica. The porn and slash genres cross over to some extent but though both contain explicit sex, they portray that sex very differently. As science fiction writer Pat Cadigan once postulated, porn is anything that gets you excited, and not necessarily for sex. Instead, it's the state of me-gimmee-mine craving stimulated by images or ideas of plenty, as seen, for example, in a TV commercial. Though slash may contain explicit sex, the me-gimmee-mine isn't focused on it; it's on the relationship and emotions behind the sex. Thus slash is, at its core, relationship porn. It's noteworthy that 95% of slash writers are female, and this type of fiction may serve as outlet to express female desires that are not satisfied by mainstream porn or erotica. The only way to read slash and gain enjoyment from it is to keep this in mind, otherwise it collapses into a tipped jello mold of unadulterated silliness. Which the slashers themselves are well aware of, judging from the amount of parodies they write.
The site has changed since I last visited. The layout is now sparser and cleaner, with a streamlined index page for easier navigation. Harlequin novel-like summary blurbs are given for each story, as well as ratings. Torch is a very prolific writer and has split her site into her many fandoms; originally it began with her X-Files, Star Trek: Voyager, and Vampire Chronicles fanfic, but as of 4/17/00 she's also added Due South, Hercules, Arthurian Romance, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and Jeeves and Wooster stories to her repertoire. Each archive contains, I estimate, at least two books' worth of stories, many of which were posted first on various newsgroups.
I don't care for the X files, so when I first reviewed the site I focused on the Voyager stories. Most of them concerned Harry Kim and Tom Paris. Tom Paris is the cocky, devil-may-care cynical playboy of the series, whereas Harry Kim is the thoughtful, quiet Asian. There are three story series about the P/K (Paris/Kim) relationship (The Sonnet Series, The Playboy Series, and The Legends of the Fall Series), and each may be considered an alternate universe scenario of how the relationship plays out. For my review I chose The Playboy Series and two short stories that dealt with other characters.
First, the short stories. "Rough and Ready" dealt with two males about to have kinky sex on the USS Voyager, but we don't know who they are, as the story is told through untagged dialogue. At the end, the participants are revealed, and it's not who you think it would be. An amusing joke both for and on slashers. "Screwed and Perfect," also told only in dialogue, reveals what happens when Voyager second-in-command wooden Indian Chakotay goes to visit Tom Paris and finds a dildo in his couch cushions, with some naughty repercussions. Both these stories were easy to read and probably easier to write, as the characters and setting were already at hand from repeated viewings of the television show, with the dialogue easily extrapolated from the show, too. It's like the verbal play of my friends who duel in improvised Monty Python dialect with each other: "Know what I mean, know what I mean? Nudge nudge, wink wink, smirk smirk?"
The Playboy Series was much longer, with eight chapters of about 7000 words each. In the canon of the show Tom and Harry are best friends, but in Torch's story they take it one step farther, beginning on the tropical beach of a pleasure-planet resort. The rest of the story deals with the hesitancies and doubts they have about the growing relationship. That's it. No time/space anomalies, Jem'hadar attacks, strange alien diseases, or warp core breaches. They eat, talk about the relationship, get grilled by their friends about the relationship, have hot, kinky sex, talk about the relationship, swap intimacies, visit the holodeck, talk some more about relationship, swap spit, etc. There was no way I could picture a man, gay or straight, acting, thinking and talking like this with another man (or woman), and I loved every minute of it.
The very unreality of it was extremely enjoyable and lent itself well to the Star Trek world. For example, as one's shipboard duties consist of little other than running one's fingers across a plastic board, one's job doesn't interfere with all the interior emoting going on. Likewise, because there are replicators that reproduce any sort of food on demand, there's always an opportunity to sit down with one's love and soulfully discuss things without worrying about buying and preparing food. There's also a holodeck which can create any physical setting from gothic bedrooms to forest glades, thus obviating the need to waste precious story words on travel time. Reading the story was like reading the literary equivalent of a soap opera where the side characters blandly chit chat with each other while the main ones agonize in lots of closeups, and nothing ever happens. If this sounds like I'm being sarcastic, I am; but I also liked the story a lot, and its campiness was one of the reasons. The other was its over-the-top depictions of passion and romance.
To get back to the plot, the main conflict comes from the nature of the young mens' relationship. It seems Tom is very happy to be a bottom and Harry, the first one to fall in love, is happy to oblige him. The bottoming/topping causes problems, however, as the two characters ponder what it really means in the delicate psychological balance of trust and friendship they are trying to establish. In this the story works as a good character study like the finest D/S porn does. However, the main fault of it--and for all fanfic--is that if you've never seen the show, you have no idea of who the characters are, where they're at, and what they're doing, because intimate knowledge of the show is, in effect, the storyteller's silent partner here. For example, nowhere in this story was it said that Harry Kim was Korean, or that B'ehlanna was half-Klingon. It's just assumed we know. Another common shortcoming with slash fanfic is its treatment of the minor and female characters...they stand on the sidelines and clap approvingly as the affair unfolds, like they've got nothing better to do than gossip about their colleagues. But then, this *is* relationship porn, and the laws of normal earth are suspended when you check in at the gate.
(As I write this I am picturing the nervous, white-mouse look of the actor who plays Tom Paris in my mind, and now I picture the Chinese gymnast build--complete with hamlike upper arms--of Garret Wang, who plays Harry Kim. I can't see the two having sex. I just can't. I can't even picture them without their doubleknit jumpsuits on. I see two Ken dolls. Torch was very smart to leave detailed physical descriptions out of the story...it helps enhance the fantasy.)
I liked the sex in these stories, but it was surprisingly androgynous. I've read a lot of gay stories written by gay men, and the feel is entirely different. If you changed Tom to Tina and substituted pussy for asshole and clit or labia for cock, you'd have het sex. This isn't to say the sex wasn't hot or unbelievable, but to me it seemed more like a female gender-swapped fantasy than something a gay man might write (though a gay man might *want* to have sex like this.) However, it is clear Torch did her homework in the sex department as far as part A goes in slot B, even though the characters always having lubricant at hand was a little unbelievable. Most gay fantasies don't mention lubricant at all. (Saliva is always available if you're caught in a pinch.) And I've never seen the terms finger-fuck and deepthroat occur in gay fiction either--those seem to be het terms--and the orgasms read suspiciously female as well. But, as the purpose of slash is to titillate female gonads rather than male ones, these shortcomings are part and parcel of the genre. If any woman tried to have real sex in the real world with a real man like this, chances are he'd give you a very strange look...then run.
Though Torch mainly writes M/M fanfic, she has added F/F to the site since this original review appeared; and I should add the Star Wars stories are about 2000's hottest slash couple, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan. I am delighted by this retake on the movie -- the authors have taken a piece of crap and turned it into a thing of beauty -- but also mystified, because as sensitive as my slash radar is by now, I just wouldn't have thought of the two as a hot couple, as the script put barely any meat on their roles, and I had the feeling the two very talented actors were left to wing it. Still, given Torch's high marks with the Star Trek stories, they're probably worth a look.
The site also has a rich array of Vampire Chronicles fanfic based on the works of Anne Rice. By the peeks I took, it's high quality slash also. The highlight is the multipart "All my Vampires" a Rice/soap opera spoof that appeared sporadically on the alt.books.anne.rice newsgroup last spring. It proves slashers have the wit and grace to make fun of themselves. There are also many other stories about Lestat, Pandora, Mael, Jessie, and Santino in this site, so if you're a fan of Rice fanfic, take note. I really wonder how the author finds the time to write all this stuff. (She may rival Elf Sternberg any time soon.) But perhaps it isn't surprising considering fanfic is not that demanding to write. Torch's style is technically sound and she does write a hot sex scene, so I can't help wondering what would happen if she turned her talents to some original fiction of her own.
Lastly, this site also has interesting things to say about the slash community. It's a close knit one, and the authors take an obvious delight in their work--they bubble over with the innocent enthusiasm of 13- year-olds who've just discovered the magic of sexual attraction. They cheekily title Dr. Julian Bashir "Deep Space 9's super slut" and I've seen a site devoted to Tom Paris pictures, one with a cartoon balloon over his ass that says "nice butt." It's like these writers are suddenly exploding with all the preteen pent-up sexual desires that have been whipped out of them through the "normal" psychosexual socialization of an American high school. It's a pleasure to witness.
Interface: A-
Content: A+(slash) A-(porn)
Will I visit again: Yes.