This ship (though its early adherents wouldn’t, of course, have called it that) was verbalised as ‘Kirk slash Spock’, giving rise to the coinage of ‘slash’ for gay fan fiction. Within a show apparently bereft of engaging female characters, fans soon began exploring romance by pairing together its male protagonists Kirk and Spock in fanzines – that is, fan-produced magazines, a crucial mode of dissemination in the pre-internet era. In her article on the history of fan fiction, Rachel Rosenberg calls 1960s television show Star Trek ‘the OG fan fiction fandom’. By signing up you agree to our terms of use
Thank you for signing up! Keep an eye on your inbox. And from thence, of course, we have ‘ship’ – the noun and the verb. They called themselves ‘relationshippers’, a slightly clunky word which evolved into ‘shipper’. The word ‘ship’ with this meaning dates back to around 1995, when some viewers of The X-Files decided they wanted protagonists Fox and Dana to be in a relationship. already existent within the universe of the work) or, more frequently, non-canonical, meaning a couple which fans believe should be together but isn’t. ‘Ships’ – short for ‘relationships’ – refers to the character pairings in a fandom which fans might promote. Perhaps the biggest catalyst for producing fan fiction, however, is the opportunity it provides for indulging in various ships. Authors frequently publish thinly veiled derivatives of existing works meanwhile, already published authors freely admit to writing fan fiction of others’ books. In this day and age, the concept of fan fiction certainly needs no introduction. Content Warning: This post discusses fan fiction based on characters from noted transphobic author J.K.