ext_14387 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
hafren.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
crack_van2004-01-01 04:57 pm
hafren.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2004-01-01 04:57 pm
Purple Haze by Executrix (PG)
Fandom: BLAKE'S 7
Pairing: Various, including Avon/OMC
Author on LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/executrix/
Author Website: not known
Why this must be read: This was in the zine ttba, a real cracker which won an award; it's now out of print but many stories from it, including this one, can be found online at ttba's web site
Executrix specialises in setting her source property in other times and places. Rather than localising it, this universalises it; Blake belongs as much in the university protest culture of the 1960s as he does in his own futuristic time. For anyone alive then (guilty, m'lud) this is an evocative, nostalgic fic; for those not around at the time it's a bit of a political education. And a very good read. To quote Una McCormack; "This is a superb piece of politically critical fiction; it could only exist as fanfiction, and is all the better for it. Anyone claiming that fanfiction cannot be as good as profiction should be forced to read this story until they understand the point." Sometimes, mixing real-life events and fan fiction can look dubious but it never does here. The speech of the black activist Hal Mellanby is as relevant whenever he makes, made or will make it:
Purple Haze
Pairing: Various, including Avon/OMC
Author on LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/executrix/
Author Website: not known
Why this must be read: This was in the zine ttba, a real cracker which won an award; it's now out of print but many stories from it, including this one, can be found online at ttba's web site
Executrix specialises in setting her source property in other times and places. Rather than localising it, this universalises it; Blake belongs as much in the university protest culture of the 1960s as he does in his own futuristic time. For anyone alive then (guilty, m'lud) this is an evocative, nostalgic fic; for those not around at the time it's a bit of a political education. And a very good read. To quote Una McCormack; "This is a superb piece of politically critical fiction; it could only exist as fanfiction, and is all the better for it. Anyone claiming that fanfiction cannot be as good as profiction should be forced to read this story until they understand the point." Sometimes, mixing real-life events and fan fiction can look dubious but it never does here. The speech of the black activist Hal Mellanby is as relevant whenever he makes, made or will make it:
'Dig, the Federation is a wartime state. They have to have a war, someplace. Either they need conquests so they can exploit the resources of new planets, and send out colonists to planets that haven't been poisoned by the Atomic Wars, or they need to stir us up into a frenzy of hate so we won't notice that all the resources go to the Alphas. Otherwise, we might think that all the Grades had some common cause to make. This way, we just stay put, and we put up with the shortages they create because it makes us feel patriotic. And we put up with our boys and girls dying in those wars, because otherwise there'd have to be jobs for them, and housing for them, and education for them, here at home."
Purple Haze