A Hello Tinged With Rabid Curiosity :-)

[ex-darklock507.livejournal.com]

Hey, all! How are you?

I am new to the list and just having a chance to look around. I come to Pros by way of The Circuit Archive, and I think I discovered the archive one day, a few years ago, while looking for new and interesting slash to read. *fans self* Found it in a big way! I spent *days* there. My involvement, so far, in The Professionals fandom has been soley through reading Pros slash at The Circuit Archive. (I've only seen a couple of actual episodes of The Professionals.)

So, I am very interested in what everyone is reading, as well as what you would recommend. And, overall, how did you find yourselves here and interested in The Professionals?

What do members consider Pros staples and must reads? What are your Pros experiences?

Oh! And, this one. Do you find a difference in writing styles due to different eras of writing in the fandom? (I'm not certain I know how to elaborate on that idea.) The Professionals is a fandom with some history, and I'm interested. I'm *really* interested in how your participation in this fandom has changed or developed over the years. :-D

(I've reposted some of this from a comment I made in the previous post by byslantedlight.)

Comments

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Unknown to myself I was completely in-love fannish about Pros back when it was first aired in the '80s, but I didn't find slash and fandom until about two years ago, so I'm pretty much a newbie too...

I hope you get a chance to see more eps, the fanfic is great, but you can get a very skewed impression of the lads if you don't have canon-them to remind you that (for example) Doyle is not a fainting flower!

Fic to read... the recs here at ci5hq are sorted according to source - you can see what's where via the links on the sidebar. There's alot of new fic over at discoveredinalj, and alot of older fic is in the ProsLib cd (as Frances said above) and in the zines which are still around...

I adore alot of the Prosfic that was published by Oblique (http://www.oblique-publications.net/oblique.html), especially M.Fae Glasgow. Lots of people say she's dark, but she's written alot that isn't dark, and I also think that dark and gritty is what Pros is in fact, so I like almost everything she's written...

Apart from many of the authors already mentioned, I especially like Helen Raven (lots of AUs), Courtney Grey, Kitty Fisher, Castalia, Elizabeth O'Shea (Voice-Over is still my favourite Prosfic of all time), Ellis Ward, Rhiannon, Elizabeth Holden, Tallis, The Hag... Oh, Miriam Heddy's The Joy of Camping... It's no good, I have to stop here. Made the mistake of looking down a list of authors so I didn't forget anyone, and that made me go "Oh, but what about..." over and over again!

Oh, and a couple of people have recced Pros at rec50 (one of them being me!), which means there are 100 recs posted here (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=rec50&keyword=Fandom:+The+Professionals&filter=all).

And I'm definitely finding it interesting seeing the way stories have developed over the years, there seem to be definite "phases" (for want of a better word) when authors were more likely to highlight the fact of coming out, or the fear of being discovered, or to use the idea of rape in a positive fantasy-type manner - "ripe for rape" being a compliment in some stories, for example. And there are definitely loads of "modernisms" in some more recent fic, not just in the language used, but in the lads' attitudes to things... "runs like a girl" was not something the lads would have thought back then! And then you get all tangled in making it historically accurate, and making the story accessible to current readers, so...

[ex-darklock507.livejournal.com]

(Got me a probodie icon. ;-))

Phases! That's a good word, too. I find the way 'current' history and social norms affect, or are infused, in our writing. When one in the 2000's tries to write as if they were in the 70's, can they make it work? Everything about that piece would have to be researched. The sentence structure, grammar, construction, not to mention society as it was then, words that were in vogue, attitudes that were in vogue, in that particular era *and* area.

Thank-you for all the lovely author recs, and links. I can see that I am going to be living Pros for 'at least' a couple of months.

I, seriously, had I known of fandom, would have been involved in Starsky & Hutch slash from the get go. Not to mention Kirk/Spock. I just had no names for what I was feeling/wanting. I feel a bit cheated that I missed out on Pros when it was new. I'll make up for it. :-P