If Fans Wrote the X-Files ...
| News Media Commentary | |
|---|---|
| Title: | If Fans Wrote the X-Files ... |
| Commentator: | Michelle Erica Green |
| Date(s): | 1998 |
| Venue: | Mania Magazine |
| Fandom: | The X-Files |
| External Links: | If Fans Wrote the X-Files ... (Wayback) If Fans Wrote the X-Files ... |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
If Fans Wrote the X-Files ... is an article by Michelle Erica Green about X-Files fanfiction.
The article mentions the cameos of famous fans (actors and other celebrities) and says that monst fans don't get these opportunities but some fans don't wait around to find out what happens next.
In a bygone era, fans might have suffered alone in anticipation, or at most managed to find a letterzine with commentary on the season finale of "The X-Files" and predictions for the movie. Since the advent of the Internet, however, nobody has to sit around waiting for more than a month to explore the ramifications of a cliffhanger like "The End." Fan fiction writers have already offered solutions to the mysteries of Mulder's origins, Scully's implant, the apparent presence of competing alien invaders, Cigarette Smoking Man's plan for world domination...and, of course, how Mulder and Scully really feel about each other. Outside of network regulations and genre expectations, amateur "X-Files" writers have been telling different, yet parallel, stories all along.
The article references a New York Times article from 1997 where fanfiction is described as "a new testament to TV's role as a common language in a society becoming both more global and more fragmented."
Henry Jenkins gets to emphasize "the participatory nature of the storytelling and the rebellious, anti-corporate stance of the writers..." which fits The X-Files themes nicely.
More "X-Files" stories exist online than will ever be filmed, written in Harper Prism official novels, or sketched in comic books; there are more than ten thousand stories spread over three major archives on the web. (The largest, The Gossamer Project, has three mirror sites: for most U.S. readers, http://gossamer.interspeed.net will probably be easiest to access.) Many of these stories contradict the events of the series and one another, but that's part of the point: sometimes no definitive answer to a question, or a plethora of them, is more fun than conclusive closure.
A few BNF X-Files fans like Sheryl Martin ("one of the most recognizable names in X-fic, who has won fan awards and been cited in numerous articles"; "author of the famed "Dragon" stories - her character Jackie St. George has actually been used by other fan writers, one of the highest compliments to a fanfic author"), Rhoni Lake (who manages the massive X-Files Romantics Archive at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/4261/), Lydia Bower (an award-winning fan writer who even has her own fan club among X-Philes) and Shannon O'Connor (who has written a long and much-praised story offering insights into the mytharc) are interviewed and get to talk about their expectations for the movie.
The article then gives an overview of the X-Files fanfic world, starting by explaining terms like UST and saying that the majority of stories concern the partnership between Mulder and Scully.
The stories range from explorations of the intense friendship between the two agents to sizzling erotica about the duo. Some 'shippers specifically do "not" want to see the couple become intimate, fearing that would diminish the relationship in other ways...but many disagree.
The interviewed fans all give their own opinion on that and the arcticle continues to introduce other pairings and genres of fanfic.
Though there are so-called "casefile fics" which are much like MOTW episodes in their focus on a mystery to solve, overwhelmingly "X-Files" fan writers seem to focus on relationships...and not just Mulder and Scully. There's a large Scully/Skinner contingent, and quite a healthy Mulder/Krycek following, particularly since Krycek kissed Mulder earlier this season. Writers of the latter types of stories, known as "slash" because of the / mark which separates the names of the involved characters (K/S, an early code for Kirk/Spock from an era when such stories were far more closeted, seems to be the origin), don't really expect to see storylines on a network series which parallel their fiction; many of them were surprised by the kiss in the first place, since overt acknowledgement of homoerotic attraction is still pretty rare on television.
Conclusions:
"In my view, fan fiction is the ultimate way of merging with the show in a deeper way that just can't be done otherwise - you get to read various takes on the characters, situations and case files that stretch the imagination and yet are all familiar to you since you know the people involved," says Martin. "Some write within the framework of the series, like myself. Some take off into alternative universes and enjoy themselves there. Some move Mulder and Scully into gay lifestyles and create wonderful stories. Everyone writes for their own reason - me, just 'cause I love mind candy."
"I don't like to narrow my options when it comes to fanfic. I think we can have the best of both worlds: creating canon that's separate from what we see each week - i.e., slash, Mulder/Scully romance, alternate universe - as well as fics that stay within the canon created in the series," adds Bower. "I think it's dangerous to hold the position that it has to be one or the other. If one begins to think that way, it has a tendency to stifle creativity - which is the wellspring of any kind of fiction."