Shane wrote:
But if they're presenting two characters in a gay relationship, then they_are_ writing about my lifestyle. I'm a gay man in a gay relationship.
Hmm. This might sound pretty strange coming from a straight woman who's never had a gay relationship in all her [cough] years ... but I know a lot of gay men, both in and not in gay relationships, and there is no 'lifestyle' that they all follow. In fact, a more diverse bunch of people living in a more diverse bunch of ways could hardly be imagined.
I'm sure Neil Faulkner and the other gen writers out there are delighted
to
hear that their writing is boring, as compared to a PWP.
As one of those who has muttered about genzines appearing boring in the past, what I personally often find boring about gen writing is the lack of *potential* for sexual expression. Sometimes I feel as if there's a little censor cutting things out.
However, I was talking recently with Una about an ideal B7 zine -- you know, the one containing all one's lifetime favourite stories -- and it struck me that most of mine would comprise gen stories. There's a lot of good ones out there, and one or two of them were written by a certain Mr Faulkner. It is certainly possible to like excellent fiction on an axis orthogonal to slash--het--gen demarcations (although I agree that if one feels slash perverts the characters then one is unlikely to like a slash story).
Tavia