Gossamer Interview with an Author: Livengoo

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Interviews by Fans
Title: Gossamer Interview with an Author: Livengoo
Interviewer: Widjojo, Yasinta ("Observer")
Interviewee: Livengoo
Date(s): February 1, 1996
Medium: online
Fandom(s): The X-Files
External Links: Gossamer Interview with an Author: Livengoo, Archived version
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The Gossamer Interview with an Author: Livengoo was conducted in 1996.

It was posted in the non-fiction section of Gossamer's Specialty Archive.

Excerpts

 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!SOME WORDS OF WARNING FROM LIVENGOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "I should warn all you sensitive souls up front that tact is for the people who pay my paychecks, or for folks who never asked me to butt into their lives. When someone asks me questions they get what they ask. No punches pulled. The opinions expressed herein are all mine, and you guys shouldn't be surprised by them by now. I've never kept any of this secret. I can't quite figure out why you're interested, but there it is. Ask away and I'll answer. I just won't answer with Kierkegaard because I don't like Kierkegaard. I much prefer Gell-Mann and Holmes for my philosophers."

When and why did you start writing x-files fan fic?

Long time (as in one year) readers of a.t.x.c. know exactly when and where. I hadn't written fiction since college, 1983, unless you count legal memos and briefs. I was and am a fine doggerelist and I do primo limericks and folk song parodies. I was in third year of law school in 1995 and working my way through as an indentured servant (literally) and live-in caretaker for an Alzheimer's patient. I started writing XF stuff in February 1995 when I needed a way to cope with stress and sleep deprivation while caring for her and studying.

What fascinates/irritates/moved you enough about X-files to write fan fics?

The characters and the awareness of large societal forces that manipulate individuals in a totally callous manner. Oh, and the show's funny as hell! For a child of mad scientists like myself, all the hokum theories and the lame-o pseudo science is a guaranteed laugh. Every time Scully has to ask what recombinant DNA procedures are, or Mulder needs a psych term explained, I hoot. Anybody who reads Scientific American knows a lot of that stuff! That, and I like the wicked-fine sense of humor in the scripts and in Duchovny's performance. Trust another Eng Lit person to be that sharp! Good for him.

I like the tone of the X-Files, the recognition that there are people with power who are manipulating us for their own purposes. I disagree that it's the government, but then in F. Emasculata XF laid the blame where I think it belongs. I do think that the show fingers a real sense of helplessness and a need to find who's pulling our strings.

Who do you identified with the most? Mulder's eagerness to believe, or Scully's sceptism?

Neither. Mulder's eagerness and Scully's skepticism are both relatively simple motifs. I identify with Mulder's sense of humor and his awareness of being yanked around, and with Scully's curiosity and intellectual ability. And with the sense that individuals deserve and are being deprived of a fair chance to assess the information and make up their own minds about major issues in their lives. If you can't read or can't get to information then you are helpless in this country. Even if you can get access, you are often rendered impotent by lack of access to means of communication or action. The net is the best antidote we have to that isolation and abuse.

You have a background in English Literature, do you used it for writing?

Me oh my yes! Eliot and Dylan Thomas in Oklahoma! Structural analysis and characterization techniques bastardized from Shakespeare (the genius of human observers!). Patrick O'Brian's wonderful, wonderful Aubrey/Maturin series is a fine way to see how understatement and intellectual inquiry can be shown in an ongoing setting that might be adventure and always is more. I can look around and see Yeat and Shakespeare and Francis Bacon and Dewey Lambdin and Neil Gaimin [sic] and a host of other favorite authors. Anyone who wants to learn to write should first read. It's like art. Any good comic artist worth the time learns from life and from classics, NOT from other comic book artists. Then you have the grammar of that form of communication. After that, it's all styling.

What do you think is your best story so far?

That's not a fair question. I could easily say Hell and Back, or anything that I'm currently working on since I get hyped about those. My judgement about what is best is irrelevant. The opinions that really matter are those of the reader, and that's going to be contextually determined. If a person has a problem with some of the images and issues I like to write about, then Leap of Faith or Vacation will be best. If they like intensity and gritty writing, then Oklahoma or Corpse will appeal. Like the big physicist in the sky says, it's all relative.

You had written some stories with other people. How did you come to write these stories?

Initially, I'd been chatting with Rodent. She sent me to Amperage for advice on something I can hardly recall. The upshot was, I sent an opener to three people (and you know who you are!), and Amperage was the one who responded. So we started to write Camping because it was fun. We wrote each other into corners. Then we bounced it off Rodent and she loved it and asked for more. And we did it and posted it and folks liked it and we enjoyed writing it.

Then Amp approached me and Rodent with Oklahoma. Rodent is a busy, busy person, and didn't have time, but I couldn't resist the thing. Gorgeous story! She'd hooked me from the time she mentioned it in Sacrifice. Amp fleshed it out a little for my use in Corpse. Then she hit me with part 1 of Oklahoma and I was sunk.

And Colors? Well. . . everyone out there must know by now that I'm constitutionally repelled by romances. And last summer I felt like there was NOTHING but romances out there. I was in hell! I craved ANYTHING that didn't involve tonsil diving. Or that approached it with less - how to say it -less of a soft focus. I had an allergic reaction. I emailed my allergic reaction to Monkey Boy. And that was the origin of Colors.

In what way was it harder for you or easier to write with another person?

Do I really have to answer that? The easy part is obvious. You don't need to come up with all that stuff by yourself and frequently your partner is more inventive than you, inspiring competition and therefore better writing.

It's harder when you have to try to do justice to superior writing from the partner, and when you have to sit there salivating and waiting for the next, nifty, scrumptious bit of story. When I do this kind of team writing, it's all ping-pong so I have no clue what comes next and then I get surprised.

So. Yes and no.

In what ways are your Mulder and Scully different to the show?

Read the stuff and see. In what ways is Darin Morgan different from any other writer on XF? In what ways does any writer vary? You bring a piece of who you are to a piece. Outside of that, I simply have time and room and leeway to do a lot of stuff that couldn't be done in a 42 minute show that has to creep past network censors before it can get on the air.

In your story "Corpse" you seem to take Mulder and Scully into an extreme, with Mulder being angsty, and Scully colder than usual. Why did you do that?

I didn't think she was colder than usual. I thought Scully was a doctor. I modeled her off the doctors I know. I made her as true to the people I've met who do her job as I could. And she was warm! What about that story telling? She's just not sitting there being squishy because, if I was going to write her, I was going to write her as a professional with a medical degree who's been through several boys' clubs. She's very, very much the Scully of Soft Light and Oubliette, a mature, professional woman who's got a high-pressure career and a lot of confidence and skill.

I wrote Mulder a bit angsty. I'll give you that. I did fall into melodrama bit. But I also wrote a guy messed up enough to justify having such an all-encompassing obsession, and one with a real sense of humor and a lot of intelligence and warmth and skill.

What genre of ffic do you usually write? serious, silly, etc.

Anything but romance. I believe in love but not romance. Romance is a false front for what should be good, honest lust, and therefore is a lie and a misleading role.

A lot of your stuff seems fairly introspective, like 'Faith.' Why do you think it's like that?

Huh. The two long pieces are introspective. A lot of my stuff isn't, but a lot of folks still think Rodent wrote Leap of Faith because they can't reconcile it with Corpse. Faith was a reaction to an introspective ep. And from my perspective, it's not worth doing something if it doesn't demand at least a bit of intellectual involvement. I like my music that way, challenging and intricate, or with hot lyrics that are complex. I like my books that way. And I don't watch TV just to watch. If there's no room for thinking about what you just saw, why bother? That kind of TV is on a par with watching the laundry go around. Worse. Laundry doesn't try to insinuate commercials into your subconscious.

Are you going to continue writing X-Files stories?

As long as I need a way to bribe stories from my favorite authors, I'll keep writing. Like as not I'll do XF among other things, because I always did like the archetype of the flawed hero seeking Truth and completion, and I like seeing a professional woman worth respecting and admiring on the set.

Other Interviews in This Series

References

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