Old School X Interview: Cecily Sasserbaum
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Old School X Interview: Cecily Sasserbaum |
| Interviewer: | Lilydale |
| Interviewee: | Cecily Sasserbaum |
| Date(s): | May 11, 2021 |
| Medium: | online, Tumblr |
| Fandom(s): | The X-Files |
| External Links: | at lilydalexf; archive link |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Old School X Interview: Cecily Sasserbaum was conducted by Lilydale as part of the series Old School X Interview Series.
Some Topics Discussed
- changing views of trigger warnings and issues of consent in fanfic today
- young writers today writing a more "feminist Mulder"
- the joys and pains of low tech computer access
- X-Files fandom as a model for mentoring online fans
- Scully as a role model for strong, nerdy, female characters
From the Interview
Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?
It doesn’t at all surprise me that people read old X-Files fanfics in general. It SHOCKS me that people read mine. I thought of myself as a loner author and didn’t feel especially aware of a readership even when I was posting stories. I was able to maintain the impression in the late 1990s/early 2000s that I posted a little fic for my own fun, got a little nice feedback, and that was that. Until recently I sincerely didn’t know anyone still read me. When I came back to the fandom this year and was looking to you for fic recs, I saw you recommended me in the past few weeks … and I was floored.
What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?
My involvement with the X-Files fandom was entirely online, and I didn’t know a lot of other fans. I primarily lurked. I felt like I knew who prominent folks in the fandom were, but they didn’t know who I was at all. Sometimes I wondered how everyone else seemed to know each other so well. Okay, I do see that this makes me sound a little pathetic. I promise I am a well-adjusted person, if a little introverted. Generally I was happy with the arrangement. I did often take some weird giddy pleasure following the big controversies and debates.
Social media didn’t really exist during the show’s original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?
I read atxc (and atxf) religiously for basically all of 1999 and most of 1998 and 2000. I read it entirely through my college’s text-based Usenet reader Pine, which was very bare-bones visually, no photos or italics or links or anything. Just a black screen with green text. It was kind of terrible and kind of wonderful. I also did go to various other web archives like Gossamer and people’s personal pages to read fic. When an episode aired, I remember I rushed to atxf to get the fandom’s definitive take on it, which is a pretty unimaginable idea in online fandoms today. (And honestly probably wasn’t entirely accurate back then.)
What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?
I am fascinated by fanfic as a phenomenon in general, and I rather enjoy looking at the AO3 data on the most popular recent ships across fandoms. Like, what is that all about? What causes people to be imaginatively taken by fictional relationships, and why some fictional relationships more than others? I could talk about it all day.
Given that, I think it was super interesting to have been involved in X-Files fanfic in the 1990s, since it was really kind of an early template for the tidal wave of online fanfic that came in the 2000s with Harry Potter and so many other emerging fandoms. I know, I know, X-Files wasn’t the first, and it sure wasn’t alone. But it created some of the online practices and patterns, and I think that was amazing to witness firsthand. I am grateful to have been there for that.
That said, having come back to the fandom recently after a long time away, I also really love how it has evolved. And I really love and appreciate the influence younger fans and folks from other fandoms have had on it, too. To take a few examples, I know that in the 1990s we were sometimes not as careful about consent issues in fanfic as we should have been — although there were always those, even then, who argued we should be — and now the fandom seems so much more sensitive to trigger warnings and being precise about consent and when it is being violated. I also personally like that younger fans seem to be much more likely to be on board with writing a more feminist Mulder.
What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?
Well, let’s be real, it was the hope of MSR. I like a slow burn, and whooo yes did this show deliver on that front. I also like nerdy dialogue, banter, philosophy, sci-fi/fantasy, and angst, so it was going to be a good match. I also think that I really felt Scully was a more relatable and three-dimensional female character than what was out there in the relatively-bleak network TV landscape at that time, and as a nerdy girl myself, I think I was pretty hungry for that representation. My intense fandom really took off at the end of season five, around the time of the movie, so I admit I always have a big soft spot for all those goofy shippy season six episodes. (Season six is kind of my emotional support season in general, even though I am aware intellectually of its flaws.)