Bad, Blonde and Bloody: Slashing Spike and Eric

Bad, Blonde and Bloody: Slashing Spike

and Eric

I have something of a confession to

make before I start this paper. I

began my research using Henry Jenkins

work on fan fiction as a form of

textual poaching as my starting point.

Jenkins suggests that fanfiction is

born from a combination of both

fascination and frustration, that is

if fans were not fascinated with a

series they would not continue the

storyworld, but if they were not

frustrated with aspects of it they

would find nothing to write about.

This frustration seems apparent in

slash, in which canonically

heterosexual male characters are

placed in romantic and sexual

relationships, though most scholarship

focuses on pairings from within the

same text: Harry/Draco; Sherlock/John;

Mulder/Krycek. What I wanted to do was

look at slash fic which featured a

relationship between characters from

different texts – what’s known as a

crossover. My starting point was that

fans’ frustrations with a text are not

limited to one text alone, but can

also be developed through fans’

intertextual knowledge of multiple

texts, and can be resolved – or at

least critiqued – through writing

slash.

I found, as I was researching,

however, that it was less the

frustrations with the texts that were

apparent, but a fascination with them.

I’ll go on to talk about this shortly,

but I began to wonder how crossover

slash might actually complicate

current academic discourse around

slash, and how we might begin to

theorise it both in relation to

existing slash fic, and

representations and rewritings of

gender. So the paper I’m presenting

here today is somewhat different to

the one you might have been expecting

and I can only apologise if it falls

short! It’s still very much a work in

progress, but I hope that it will

generate some more discussion.

Slide 1: With that caveat out of

the way then, what do academics

currently say about slash? Academic

scholarship has really begun to pay

more attention to slash over the last

twenty-or-so years, but have largely

theorised it using a sociological or

anthropological approach. Camille

Bacon-Smith’s (1992) and Henry

Jenkins’ (also 1992) studies of the

Stak Trek female fandom both propose

slash as a method for women to

challenge traditional masculinity and

replace it with a more preferable

version. Studies have also focused on

the ‘resistive’ aspect of slash, with

Jenkins arguing that writers are

‘poachers of textual meanings,’ and

that ‘fandom is a way of appropriating

media texts and rereading them in a

fashion that serves different

interests’ (1992, 174). Patricia Lamb

and Diana Veith argue that slash

posits a loving relationship between

two equals, as opposed to the

inequality of the relationship between

a man and a woman, by removing ‘gender

as a governing and determining force

in the love relationship’ (1986, 254)

while Constance Penley argues that

‘the slash phenomenon [was] one of the

most radical and intriguing female

appropriations of a popular culture

product that [she] had ever seen,’

noting that it illustrates how ‘women,

and people, resist, negotiate, and

adapt to their own desires this

overwhelming media environment that we

all inhabit’ (484).

Slash, then, raises many questions

among academics but it is not my

intention in this paper, to re-examine

previous debates. While questions

surrounding the legitimacy of slash as

a means of decoding its source (as

Sara Gwenllian Jones suggests) or the

discussion of whether slash is a form

of romance fiction or pornography

(Lamb and Veith 1986) are valid ones,

I am more interested in exploring the

ways in which the crossover fic can

complicate these various discourses. I

focus in this paper on Eric Northman,

from HBO’s True Blood, and Spike from

Warner Bros.’ Buffy the Vampire

Slayer, and argue that the way each

character is depicted, and the kinds

of stories that are written, are

developed through fans’ intertextual

knowledge, but also provide us with

new kinds of slash fic that need to be

examined.

Slide 2: So the typical plot for a

slash story, as defined by Henry

Jenkins, involves “a series of

movements from an initial partnership,

through a crisis in communication that

threatens to disrupt that union,

toward its reconfirmation through

sexual intimacy”. This ‘initial

partnership’ usually refers to an on-

screen friendship between the

characters (although Catherine

Tosenberger’s more recent work on

enemy!slash provides further

interesting insights). Scholarship has

argued that slash writers centre their

stories around homosocial bonds

already established in the canonical

text with Jenkins arguing that the

construction of slash “depends on

reading certain looks and gestures

exchanged amongst the characters as

showing some hidden emotional truths”.

He suggests “[f]ans can point to the

screen and say that you can see it in

their eyes, these men really care

about each other.” Elizabeth Woledge

in her analysis of Star Trek slash

suggests the series is understood to

be homosocial yet Kirk/Spock fic

writers draw on the more ambiguous

elements found within the same

homosocial sources: she argues that a

homoerotic connotation in Star Trek is

suggested by the looks and gestures

that pass between the two. And of

course, the Kirk/Spock pairing as the

genesis of the modern slash genre has

been widely documented. Woledge argues

that fans give those looks and

gestures “precedence over the

homosocial plots that surround them as

well as the fans’ recognition that

those looks often offer different

interpretive cues from those that pass

between other characters”.

Slide 3: I want to show a brief

clip from an Angel/Spike slash vid to

really show what I mean.

This vid is produced in the

interplay between the material

provided by Angel and Buffy, the

expectations of the community and its

internal and external genre

traditions, but the vid clearly moved

the story of Angel and Spike’s

relationship beyond that told in

source text. The images are

decontextualized and then

recontextualized to create a slash

narrative. Jenkins’ and Woledge’s

work, however only looks at

relationships between characters in

the same series. So how can we

theorise slash featuring characters

from different story worlds, who have

never met in their respective canons?

Using Eric and Spike as an example I

would suggest that fans draw upon

their intertextual knowledge of both

the series and wider vampire myths and

texts to create work which acts as a

commentary on those series. Of course,

it would be foolish to ignore the

point many Eric/Spike slash writers

make – that they write these

characters because they are hot – but

I would nevertheless suggest that the

transformative nature of slash works

across as well as within texts.

I want to illustrate this with

another vid. Although short, and not

strictly a slash vid, I would suggest

that this is actually a very good

example of what Jenkins calls the

"constructed reality" video, albeit

one that is constructed between texts

rather than within them. An entirely

new story is created by linking

together shots from each original

series – there are no existing texts

featuring both Spike and Eric which

can be reinterpreted to provide an

alternative emotional perspective.

Slide 4: Moving on from slash vids

then, what about slash fic? The first

story I wish to examine is 2Blonds 4Get

2Blondes in which Eric and Spike meet in

bar, where they have gone to drown

their sorrows. Although the fic isn’t

located within a specific timeframe,

both Buffy and Sookie are referred to

by name, and Eric and Spike are

clearly recovering from their failed

relationships. Although the fic is

situated in the ‘Plot? What plot?’

trope – the main point of which is to

get the characters into bed with each

other as quickly as possible – what

interests me about the story is the

way in which Eric and Spike are still

positioned as emotionally vulnerable:

"Sookie". For a moment they were

both lost in their own thoughts,

then Spike shook off his

melancholy. No point to it - died

a champion, learnt his lesson -

wasn't gonna get burnt by that

flame again. "Eric".

"What?"

"My name is Eric. I thought you

should know who's name you'll be

calling". Open-mouthed, Spike

looked up into those light eyes,

captivated by the twinkle.

"And wot makes ya think I'll be

calling out anyone's name?"

"We are both seeking a moment of

peace. Violence is not required,

else why attend a bar with an anti

violence spell? Perhaps we could

find that moment of peace

together?" One eyebrow rose, but

Eric didn't seem in the slightest

bit concerned that Spike might say

no. For a moment, Spike wanted to

walk off - repay Eric's arrogance

with rejection. But then he

stopped and thought about it.

Couldn't get that moment of peace

with Peaches - too much history.

In this respect the fic could fit into

the hurt/comfort trope, in which one

character sustains an injury or hurt

and is cared for by the other. Spike,

as the subject of the fic, is clearly

coded as the more vulnerable

character.

Slide 5: In a similar way to which

– as I’ll argue – crossover slash

featuring these two characters

complicates traditional academic

analyses of the genre, however, as the

story progresses it too complicates

the hurt/comfort trope. Spike’s

vulnerability is forgotten as he and

Eric engage in foreplay, and the

injuries that Eric bestows on Spike

are done so to heighten the passion,

rather than as a means of initiating

it. As vampires, possessing superhuman

strength and the ability to heal

quickly, thus allow for tenderness and

violence to unite: “Gathering

momentum, harder, firmer, faster.

Gasps for unneeded air, jerking hips.

A face pushed into the curve of his

neck, the feel of fangs sliding into

his skin causing a deeper moan, almost

a purr as the lips moved downwards -

past his collarbone, the sensitivity

of a pectoral muscle, the hardness of

a nipple.” Unlike hurt/comfort then,

in which the violence caused is

outside of the control of the

protagonists, the violence apparent in

Eric/Spike slash is directly related

to the conventions of the vampire

genre.

Unlike many slash stories, in which

canonically straight male characters

are rewritten as gay, Eric and Spike

are positioned as if not homosexual

then at least having been involved in

gay relationships – Eric, as Darren

Elliot-Smith writes, possesses an

erotic and emotional connection to his

maker as well as demonstrating a

fluid, performative sexuality in

satisfying his own desires, while the

relationship between Spike and Angel,

their constant bickering and hostility

to one another, allows for a queer

reading by fans. The series finale of

Angel, in which Spike says “Cause

Angel and me have never been intimate

– except that one time…” also acts as

a nod towards the homoerotic subtext

of their relationship.

Slide 6: Given the vampire’s often

ambiguous sexual nature – Virginia

Keft-Kennedy for example notes that

the vampire traditionally operates

outside hegemonic discourses of

sexuality – this is perhaps

unsurprising. 2Blondes’ author draws

on these wider concepts around

vampires within the fic, demonstrating

her knowledge of the vampiric metatext

in which Buffy and True Blood are

situated. A wider knowledge of these

texts is also demonstrated when Eric

and Spike reveal their ‘true’ faces to

each other:

Eric smiled crookedly then let his

fangs drop. It made Spike itch to

feel them. It was different - no

ridges - but definitely familiar.

"No family resemblance?" Spike

smiled and shook his head,

allowing his gameface to show.

Eric gasped, fingers reaching to

trace the sensitive brow ridges,

sliding down his nose, caressing

his cheekbones and then tracing

his lips.

This description works to highlight

the differences between the two

vampires, while simultaneously

situating them firmly within the

series True Blood and Buffy and the larger

vampire genre. Joseph McCabe notes

that lineage is important in vampire

fiction, both within vampire texts

themselves, and across the genre and

this is evidenced in the fic. He

further argues that nearly all tales

of the undead, across all types of

media, contend with their maker, that is

Bram Stoker’s Dracula. We’ve heard a

lot about Dracula and Stoker’s effect

on the vampire already this

conference, and it’s clear that this

notion of intertextuality, in which

texts are shaped by other texts, has

repercussions for the ways in which we

can examine crossover slash fic. One

of the ways in which Jonathan Gray

explains that intertextuality works is

by texts including references to other

texts, and so joining a network,

becoming only part of a broader

meaning.

Slide 7: While Buffy and True Blood can

certainly be understood without prior

knowledge of these other texts, they

are nevertheless influenced by them,

and the intertextuality of each show

has a potential impact on how it is

decoded by its audience. Jonathan Gray

notes that

If we view decoding as a process of

‘reading through,’ we realise that

we read through […] in the sense of

reading via other texts. As we try

to make sense of a text, we

activate our (intertextual) genre

literacies […] Other texts are

always there with us as we work our

way through a text. (2006, 33)

So we can look at vampire texts more

broadly as part of a larger metatext

encompassing what we know about

vampires, but in relation to the

crossover fic we have to have an

understanding of both source texts.

This understanding works not only to

situate the new text, that is the

fanfic, but to draw comparisons

between the two and to offer new ways

of engaging with, and critiquing them.

To return to Dracula for the moment,

then, the way in which Stoker has

shaped readings of gender in vampire

fiction has, I would suggest, a direct

impact on the nature of Eric/Spike

slash. Dracula is perhaps the ultimate

vampiric Byronic hero and his various

incarnations show a subtle shift in

how he is presented – from the anti-

hero of Bram Stoker’s novel, to what

Mendoza calls “Byronic character,

filled with brooding angst, bitter

sorrow for his lost love, and anger at

a world that allowed such a thing to

happen to his beloved” in the 1992

film Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Anne Rice’s

Interview With The Vampire also portrays

vampires in a more sympathetic light –

Lestat and Louis conveying “the

bohemian idea of personal rebellion”

as Williamson notes. Like Dracula and

Lestat before them, both Angel and

Bill could certainly be considered

sympathetic and Byronic men. Both are

dark, handsome and mysterious, and

both fall for (and are fallen for in

return by) human girls. They are each

‘boldly defiant but bitterly self-

tormenting outcast, proudly

contemptuous of social norms but

suffering for some unnamed sin’ and

both encapsulate another quality of

the Byronic hero – the anguish of

unrequited love. Conversely, I would

suggest that Eric and Spike are not

Byronic heroes, and they are not

depicted as such in fan fiction. In

2Blondes, though both Eric and Spike

are nursing their sorrows over Buffy

and Sookie, they do not dwell on them.

Rather it is used purely as a means to

get the characters into bed. In a

similar way, the fic Woodstock ’69:

Love, Peace, and Blood, draws on True

Blood and Buffy’s depictions of Spike and

Eric as non-Byronic heroes to shape

readers’ understanding of the

characters.

Slide 8: Eric and Spike meet during

Woodstock. Eric is with two girls and

invites Spike to join them. He

glamours the girls into waiting for

them in the tent before this exchange

takes place:

“What did you do?” Spike asked.

Eric tilted his head and looked at

Spike curiously. “Don’t you know?”

Eric continued to watch Spike

before shaking his head and

laughing. “You really are young.

Like a child.”

Spike growled and started to stand,

insulted. “Piss off, mate.”

Eric laughed again. “Sit down,

Spike. I didn’t mean to insult you.

I was just stating a fact. You are

still young. Most vampires, even

the young ones can glamour....with

the right tutoring. It’s a very

useful tool to get what we want.”

“Well, I like to feed the good old

fashioned way. With my victims

fully aware that something big and

bad has got them.”

“Ah, you get off on it,” Eric said

thoughtfully. “So do I. But I also

know how to be smart. There are

people out there who don’t like our

kind. Who hunt us. Particularly

slayers. I try to avoid bringing

attention to myself. It’s how I

survived so long.”

Of course in the world of True Blood

there are no slayers. Drawing

attention to them in the fic works to

position it clearly as a crossover, as

does the earlier reference to Spike

not recognising Eric and Eric’s later

point about being in Munich and not

hearing that Spike had killed a

slayer. But both Eric and Spike are

positioned as the arrogant and

cocksure selves we see often in the

series.

Slide 9: I would suggest, however,

that Eric and do Spike challenge

traditional masculinity as canonical

characters. Lorna Jowett writes that

Spike blurs the boundaries between

good and bad, masculine and feminine,

heterosexual and homosexual, and – at

least initially – is almost a parody

of real masculinity. In many ways

Spike and Eric are thus similar – Eric

is positioned as a several thousand

year old Viking, and in flashbacks

throughout the series we see his

status as such. However, we also see

his more feminine side; he worries

about getting blood in his freshly

highlighted hair, and is happy to sit

in Bill’s bathtub, bathed in

candlelight.

Slide 10: Similarly, as Marcus

pointed out yesterday, Spike is

depicted as feminised through his body

and his emotions – as the gif shows.

Both characters then straddle a line

between masculine and feminine in ways

which I would argue Bill and Angel

don’t. It is also interesting to note

that in 2Blondes, it is Eric who views

Spike as someone to be protected, as

opposed to Buffy in which Spike was

Drusilla’s protector.

Slide 11: To draw this to something

of a conclusion then, fans,

particularly those involved in fan

cultural production, have often been

discussed as interpretive communities

(Jenkins, 1992; Bacon-Smith, 1992). As

Deborah Kaplan suggests “the

environment of fandom is richly

interpretive” (2006, 137) and within

this environment is the potential for

the negotiation of meanings of texts,

as Parrish observes:

“Within an individual fandom,

certain plotlines may be reinvented

so many times and by so many people

—or alternately may be written so

persuasively by a few writers—that

they take on the status of fan-

produced canon” (2007, p.33).

The crossover fic works within the

bounds of this interpretive community,

but also in some ways transcends them

– new works are created which straddle

two or more fandoms, and which also

draw on the wider vampiric metatext.

Anne Kustritz warns that ‘slash

fiction is easy to trivialise and

disregard as the insignificant

practice of a few pathological

individuals, but in doing so, one may

bypass an activity with great

potential’ (2003, 383). Slash writers

are in a unique position to experiment

not only with critiquing constructs of

sexuality, but also concepts of

gender. Writing in a patriarchal

society, where heterosexuality is the

‘default’, slash allows both writers

and readers to examine and subvert

societal norms. In terms of Eric/Spike

slash, however, the stories also

subvert norms that appear to have

arisen in the study of slash. I noted

at the beginning of this paper that

much scholarship on the genre has

positioned slash as transformative,

depicting close, loving relationships

between canonically heterosexual men.

Analysis of slash then, often focuses

on the romantic love between the

characters, with Salmon and Symons

arguing that slash typically has a

“happily-ever-after ending, namely the

establishment of a permanent,

monogamous romantic and sexual union”

(2004:98). The Eric/Spike stories and

vids I have looked today, however,

clearly exist outside of the romantic

slash analysed by these scholars. I

would argue that they complicate

existing discourse around slash, and

offer us an opportunity to further

examine the ways in which slash fic

renegotiates gender and fan

understandings of texts across fandoms

and genres.