Citizens Against Bad Slash Interview with Gemma Files

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Citizens Against Bad Slash Interview with Gemma Files
Interviewer:
Interviewee:	Gemma Files
Date(s):	July 16, 2001
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	Oz, slash
External Links:	interview is here, Archived version
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Citizens Against Bad Slash Interview with Gemma Files was posted in 2001.

It is part of a series of interviews posted to Citizens Against Bad Slash in which fans were each asked the same ten questions.

Some Excerpts

Though OZ is a show jam-packed full of hot, morally complicated, potentially slashable characters--this *is* a story set in a maximum-security men's prison, after all, not to mention one where casual full-frontal nudity is almost the norm--these days, most slashers get attracted to the fandom on the strength of one pairing and one pairing only: Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen)/Christopher Keller (Chris Meloni). Which I understand, all right? I've written B/K myself; they're interesting guys, a little more physically charismatic than many of the other characters, and--more importantly--they remain one of the first and only gay couples on TV, pay or otherwise, to be allowed to kiss, fondle and hug each other onscreen.

The foremost mistake I see new writers making, again and again and again, is that of not watching *all* of the show before they start to write--you know, even those annoying bits which keep popping up between the scenes involving your favorite characters. Bottom-line: OZ is an ensemble show, not just the "Chris-n-Tobeee-4-eva" hour, and every character has their integral part to play, even if you don't happen to find them sexy enough to be worth spending much time with. You need to know all the prime movers and shakers' character backgrounds, the atmosphere, the rules and regs, the politics, the various cliques and their rivalries in order to write truly convincing OZ fic--all those myriad pressures which make human contact and release between prisoners such a necessity, in the first damn place. That's why the show's called OZ, as opposed to BEECHER/KELLER. I've heard people who identify themselves as Oz "fans" say they won't read any OZ fiction which doesn't involve, or revolve around, Beecher and Keller. I've heard them call every other character disposable. I once heard a woman say she had "no use for Vern, except for maybe as a toilet seat"--and granted, I'm sure most people would say I'm prejudiced (ha!) in Herr Schillinger's favor, considering so much of my fic in written from his POV. But by arbitrarily deciding to just not deal with Vern, you're disposing of the man whose actions and presence brought Beecher and Keller together in the first place; no Vern, no Beecher/Vern feud--no Beecher/Vern feud, no reason for Keller to even approach Beecher (especially since he wasn't initially assigned to Em City in the first place, and only got in there because Vern used his C.O. connections to *get* him in there)--no Vern, no Operation Toby--no Operation Toby, no Keller actually falling for Beecher even while setting him up to get his arms and legs broken (if you believe he really fell for him then, and that's a big if).

Which brings us to the next mistake: Cutting characters slack just because you like them, or identify with them, or think they're oh-so-pretty when they play tongue hockey together. Like everybody else in OZ, Beecher and Keller didn't get there by accident (so's to speak)--yes, Beecher ran over a kid when intoxicated, but I think you understand what I mean. They're screwed-up individuals in many intricate, fascinating ways, both of their psyches just rife with self-defeating characteristics which render their "love" particularly fragile, particularly precious, especially within context (and in many ways, particularly suspect). Beecher, a cross-addicted former rape victim, may be the prison equivalent of "gay 'till graduation"; Keller, functionally bisexual hustler supreme, has serious self-esteem issues. They're separated by class (rich vs. not), by education (Hahvahd vs. the streets), by background (first-time offender/corporate lawyer vs. recidivist career criminal). And to bypass all this, the way so many new writers apparently want to...King of Guilt Beecher totally forgets all about his dead wife, his kids, his personal traumas and bonds forever to Keller because they're soulmates who would have come together somehow, under any circumstnaces; con artist/sex junkie Keller throws all his patterning out the window and they live monogamously, happily ever after together, even though Beecher's getting out in twelve years at the most and Keller's doing an 88-year sentence...

I don't know what world these people are writing about, let alone what characters. As far as I can see, they're content to write PWPs based on screen-grabs. Call me a cranky old bitch if you want, but here's the real deal: If you don't love the show--the *whole* show--then don't write about any given part of it, because you won't be fooling anybody but yourself.