Lookback Fic Bingo: 1981

[tinturtle]

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It's 1981. Journey is on the radio. (In a sign of the times, their "Don't Stop Believin'" is the first song I've featured that didn't have a music video.) Here in the USA, the year's top film is Raiders of the Lost Ark. New terms coined include: boom box, canola oil, gateway drug, graphical user interface, infomercial, phone card, snowboard, spellchecker, spreadsheet, and technobabble.

For 1981, I read four fics: one Professionals, one Star Trek, one Star Wars, and one Starsky & Hutch.

The Professionals fic was Confessions of a Shutterbug by Jane (of Australia). In this story, Bodie takes up photography. Yes, like that. It was a pretty fun read. I particularly liked the descriptions of the process of developing photographs. I don't know anything about that, but they seemed authentic. I suspect Jane either had expertise or did quite a bit of of research on the subject (which was not as easy in 1981). 32,105 words. Bodie/Doyle slash.

I had three other Professionals fics queued for this year. One of them I decided didn't interest me after all (due to dated rape tropes, as described on Fanlore), another I started but wasn't enjoying, and a third, Endgame by Tarot, I decided not to read because I aim to incorporate only new-to-me fics into this game, and I had read it before. (I recommend it, but check the warnings if you are into that.)

Accordingly, I went hunting for other fics from 1981 to read. AO3 has been slowly but steadily adding some older zine fics to the archive, so I found a small selection, if none in my favored fandoms. This game's rules call for me to read one to three fics from each year, but I ended up reading three zine fics on AO3, for a total of four 1981 fics. I also started and set aside several others.

The first fic I finished was Circle of Fire by Eileen Roy, a Star Trek story. This was the first K/S fic I'd ever read. I have only a shallow knowledge of this canon, and I've never even liked Kirk very much, so I was definitely not the intended audience of this story. Perhaps predictably, I didn't like it. I think that might have had more to do with the weird sex magic than anything else, though. 0_0. 999 words. Kirk/Spock slash.

Next I read the Star Wars fic The Clone-Master, also by Eileen Roy. It's told from the point of view of a clone who is part of the Empire's resource management systems. I liked this better. It was interesting and sometimes affecting. I found the writing a little arty for my taste, but there was nothing objectively wrong with it. As I write this, I think I've decided this was my favorite fic for the year. 833 words. Gen.

Finally, I read the Starsky & Hutch fic Wish You Were Here by Sue Stuart. This one follows Hutch as he investigates a series of crimes while Starsky is away on vacation. I enjoyed this fic overall, though I thought a few too many convenient leaps of logic paid off during the investigation. I did find the way the fic presented Hutch's relationship with his partner interesting. It was different from most fics I've read in this fandom. 7,491 words. Gen.

(One thing the fic had in common with some other S&H fics I've read is that it was explicitly set in Los Angeles, not the show's Bay City. It seems to be fairly common in this fandom to dispense with the pseudonym. It occurred to me that I haven't seen the same thing in the Sentinel fics I've read. That show's Cascade is a stand-in for Seattle, but Sentinel fic authors don't seem to substitute the real city for the fictional one in their work.)



Fics so far:

1985
*Dead Bluff by Linda S. Maclaren (Mackie) and Gina Martin (The Professionals; 22,900 words; gen)
Hyperion to a Satyr by Sebastian (The Professionals; 14,716 words; slash)
Dark Side of Eden by Sharon F (The Professionals; 705 words; slash)

1984
Black Sheep by HG (The Professionals; 11,397 words; slash)
Crying for the Moon by Fanny Adams (writing as Dargelos) (The Professionals x Starsky and Hutch; 8,227 words; slash)
Call It What You Like by Meg Lewtan (in Proslib) (The Professionals; 6,318 words; slash)

1983
Ars Gratia Artis by Oriole T (The Professionals; 5,080 words; slash)
*Tiger by the Tail by Lillian Shepherd (The Professionals; 21,111 words; gen)

1982
Again Blythe Spirit, or Gay Ghost by Mosby Singleton (The Professionals; 5,744 words; gen)
Solomon's Ring by Eileen Roy (Starsky & Hutch; 11,738 words; gen)

1981
Confessions of a Shutterbug by Jane (The Professionals; 32,105 words; slash)
Circle of Fire by Eileen Roy (Star Trek; 999 words; slash)
The Clone-Master by Eileen Roy (Star Wars; 833 words; gen)
Wish You Were Here by Sue Stuart (Starsky & Hutch; 7,491 words; gen)

* = Particularly recommended
[ ] = read but not counted toward the year's story total