Old School X Interview: JET
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Old School X Interview: JET |
| Interviewer: | Lilydale |
| Interviewee: | JET (Jesemie's Evil Twin) |
| Date(s): | July 28, 2020 |
| 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: JET was conducted by Lilydale as part of the series Old School X Interview Series.
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)?
Honestly, yes. I mean, it’s nice, but a little bit surreal. What I feel highly conscious of is that the show premiered 27 years ago; some days that feels like 27 centuries ago. But maybe only because this year has lasted 27 centuries? idk
What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?
I got so lucky finding the group of kind, smart, crazy talented writers I found, and it was sheer dumb luck because I was so incredibly dippy and both underwhelmed by the interwebs of the time (frames! Netscape! whatever was up with Geocities and all those freakin’ starscape backgrounds!) and overwhelmed by things like newsgroups (I still have literally no idea how those worked, but there seemed to be 900 kazillion XF fans there). It was great to find a bunch of people who liked the show at the same level I did (cough, A Normal Amount, cough), though in some ways that seems like the bonus to simply having found such a wonderful group of people with whom I am still in contact. The real government conspiracies with hostile extraterrestrials were the friends I made along the way…or something like that.
[...]
What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?
Quite specifically, that poor dude who coughs up a baby fluke in the shower during “The Host”. That such a thing – in retrospect, a nifty and deeply gross practical effect – had made it onto network TV blew my mind. I did also love Scully and Mulder very quickly. They seemed like such engaging grown ups in all the right ways: intelligent, hard working, clever, loyal to each other, and, if you recall early season two, wearing some of the saddest bureaucrat suits and sporting the least flattering haircuts I’d ever seen on screen. <3
[...]
Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?
Ha haha ahaha, no. (Well, my mom knows I was in a ~writing group~. Thankfully, she has never asked for further details.) Like. It amazes and charms me that, say, someone who is in high school right now may feel exactly 0 hesitation in sharing their fannishness with everyone, everywhere. Fandom is much more understood and accepted as a hobby/way of life/style goals, I think, than it was 25 years ago. But the whole reason I went online in 1997 to look for XF fans was because all the sweet people in my offline life who watched the show were, hmm– What’s a nice way of saying that talking to them about the show was like chewing tinfoil? Compartmentalization has served me well for decades now. :D