COCO CHANNEL Interview with Raku
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | COCO CHANNEL Interview with Raku |
| Interviewer: | Karmen Ghia |
| Interviewee: | Raku |
| Date(s): | August 1999 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | slash, Star Trek |
| External Links: | archived here, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
COCO CHANNEL Interview with Raku is archived at The Society for Slash Diversity and The Committee of Chekov Obsessives Comparing Historical and New Narratives in Ensign Literature.
See List of Star Trek Fan Interviews.
Excerpts
Karmen Ghia: How did your first story come about? Can you recall the decision to write it or did you just wake up one day, face down on the keyboard, and there was the first 3,000 words? (This happened to me, that's why I'm asking.)
Raku: In general both have happened. There are sections of stories where I'd read it the next day and think Did I write *that*? Stuff I'd have no memory of. Eerie. For "Never and Always," the first scene had been kicking around my head for a while, since I'd seen STV and felt there were tons of loose ends left in the movie. I've always felt there was much more (*much* more) going on in that Yosemite scene than is shown, which is why I keep coming back to it in stories.
Karmen Ghia: What do you feel is the future of K/S?
Raku: I believe they eventually enroll in an assisted-care facility and learn macrame. I have lately begun to wonder if the genre is reaching its end because it has been so well explored, but we do seem to keep getting new writers (like me, for one). So maybe I'm too pessimistic. It seems to me that people are branching into Voyager partly because the "ensemble" nature of the show allows for many many more plots. Plots that involve kids, and more aliens than just Vulcans, and women, and different ages, etc.
KG: Me, I'm just a webizen so I know nothing of the printzine community, except for a brush or two with certain members. What is with those people? Are they really as uptight, narrow minded, hyper critical/sensitive and condescending as they seem or am I really just too fucked up to see their good points?
R: Is this a trick question? I've only seen a small handful of zines, and I don't really know any zine people well, so I can't really say. I've heard from those who do that the zine folks are skeptical of the web, but I don't know whether they're more skeptical of the web than other paper-based people, in the publishing industry for example. There are reasons to be skeptical of the web as a publishing medium, but most of them aren't connected IMHO to fanfic. One thing about the web that I think scares a lot of folks is the loss of control you get with web publishing. You hit "mail" and it's gone. People can do what they want with your stuff, including putting their name on it. Harder to do with paper. Personally I like that loss of control, that chance to let the balloon go, but not all feel that way.
Karmen Ghia: What's your thinking on chicks with dicks and Tupper Trek? I don't find it interesting, but my tastes are more, um, graphic. (I actually have trouble figuring what's going on [sexually] in much of K/S, it's way too subtle or something for me.)
Raku: I've come in late on Tupper Trek so I'm not a reliable guide. I do sometimes struggle with the stories that seem to feature awfully feminized men. Likewise the Janeway/Seven stories that sound like a couple of frat boys in drag (would that be "dicks on chicks"?). There are problems at both ends of the continuum. Mostly I just skip over those stories; judging from the ASC awards and so forth there are a lot of stories I'm not wild about that have great public appeal, and that's fine. No one makin' me read 'em, nor are those readers compelled to read my stuff, which I assume they in turn don't find appealing. That's one of the nifty things about the web, as has been observed. You click "next" and the problem goes away. But would I want to pay $10 or $20 and find I had such a story? Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.
Karmen Ghia: Indeed. Have you had experience in the printzine community and the webslash community? If so, in what ways do their inherent strengths cause them to be inherently antagonistic? Or do I think that because I'm an asshole? (Okay, it's an awkward question, rephrase at will.)
Raku: See above . I think the antagonism is partly because the paper folks think the web will drive them out of existence. I think this is a reasonable concern: in a different age people like me would probably have sent stuff to zines. Conversely, there are those (also me) who likely wouldn't be involved if paper were the only choice. I found slash in the first place via a web search; I'd heard about it for years but never could find any in print. I was sorry the Randylanders thread on ASC took the turns it did, because it brought out a lot of those issues with less discussion than might have taken place. We haven't yet seen a real fanfic site making best use of the web (i.e., electronic commerce). I am pretty sure that Paramount and its Large Lawyers would arrive to squelch such a trial, and that would be a shame. jonk and wildcat and others made numerous interesting suggestions about how a fanfic site might work, and I'm sorry they haven't yet been tried. I think in the long run the fanfic world is likely to emulate the book/magazine publishing world: most stuff in electronic form, paper still existing but for special purposes. The web doesn't do justice to fanfic art, I'm told, for example.
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