Anyone else remember a time we didn't come up with ridiculous abbrevations?

[perpetual_motion]

There's an actual discussion going down in one of my comms right now that's discussing the best way to combine the names of two characters to show that they're a pairing. Please, someone, put me out of my misery. What the hell ever happened to just writing it out? Does anyone remember how to do that? It's not that hard. Look:

Jim/Blair
Josh/Sam
Jed/Leo
Bug/Nigel
Faser/RayK

And look! It works with longer names too:

Malcom/Trip
Ferris/Cameron
Monty/Eddie
Huang/Stabler
Dinozzo/McGee

Why the flying fuck must everyone have a nickname? The whole point of calling it slash in the first place was because the slash was used to show the pairing. Remember? We are none of us Dr. Seuss, so I do not understand this burning need to make up words like him.

And I'm tired of needing a goddamned decoder ring to figure out what the hell I'm reading.

Comments

[royalneptune.livejournal.com]

Amen sister!

(There is a shameful lack of Dinozzo/McGee slash in the world...)

[perpet-fic.livejournal.com]

Agreed on both counts. Why is there so little Dinozzo/McGee? They are snarkily meant for each other. :)

[navisx.livejournal.com]

Yeah I agree it's not like theres a limit on how much text you can write that forces you to shave it down (unless you're posting by text message anyway)

Though Mcnozzo would be a hilarious thing to see written down as fic site subsection

[miriam-heddy.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. And yet I have to say that I just adore saying, "Spander" because... well, I dunno why, exactly, but I find it tremendously fun to say. Spander Spander Spander.

Yet generally, I find the squishing of names to be odd, especially as it suggests an elimination of individual identities within a relationship that I find problematic. I don't want two people to become one. I don't think marriage should ideally end that way. I kept my own name when I got married. I kept my own identity. And I think that, as a feminist, the notion of melding into a single person is a romantic ideal that I'd rather question than accept. So that's a whole 'nother reason to get squicked by the name squishing.

[perpet-fic.livejournal.com]

I'll grant you that sometimes they're fun to say. Spander sounds like a car, doesn't it? Buy a Spander!

I also think there's something to be said for the laziness that comes with not wanting to type a few extra letters. I find the people most likely to combine two distinct names into one ridiculous name are also people who don't do a basic proofread or who seem proud that they don't have someone to beta their work. Never mind the lack of characterization that comes from people who get all squeeful over how to put together names. Because, of course, I read my slash for the big gay sex and not to read about characters in a situation. We all do that, right?

[leaper182.livejournal.com]

The nicknames I really don't like are the ones that're some kind of in-joke, like Sheppard/Weir is apparently called "Sparky". Where'd that come from?

Also, for the people who are trying to type out a pairing quickly, why not just use initials? Sure, nobody ever thinks of them, but that doesn't mean we've completely forgotten Blair's last name. JE/BS!

For Rodney/Radek, why not RM/RZ? Five keystrokes total! Or even just M/Z? Wow, three!

I don't know if you were the one who ranted about it years ago on your LJ, or if it was someone else, but "McShep" actually means "the son of Shep", not what the people who use the term think it means.

[perpet-fic.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you were the one who ranted about it years ago on your LJ, or if it was someone else, but "McShep" actually means "the son of Shep", not what the people who use the term think it means.

That wasn't me, but EW.

Initials I would be totally cool with, and that's actually how people did it back in the day [god, I feel like an old lady], but then there was hollering about initials getting confusing, and people switched over to full names. Apparently now it's all about being confusing but "creative" at the same time. Stabbity, I say.

[sosaith.livejournal.com]

Is there Huang/Stabler? How would I go about finding some of that?

[perpet-fic.livejournal.com]

I have some at my webpage, but other than that it's kind of a luck of the draw sort of thing.

My webpage (http://perpetfic.googlepages.com).