Old School X Interview: bugs
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Old School X Interview: bugs |
| Interviewer: | Lilydale |
| Interviewee: | bugs |
| Date(s): | March 9, 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: bugs was conducted by Lilydale as part of the series Old School X Interview Series.
Some Topics Discussed
- the expected patterns of ebbs, flows, wank in fandoms
- social media platforms don't "mold a fandom; we use the platform and when it’s no longer useful to us, we abandon it en mass"
- going to Blockbuster to rent VCR tapes
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)?
Not really. While I was still in high school, I started watching the then 20 year old OG Star Trek and became a Trekkie of a sort. Starlog magazine, James Blish novels and the other novelizations, and while I was working as a library page, I found fanfiction one day among the periodicals. Who knows how fanfiction ended up as part of a library’s materials, but there it was, this tattered mimeographed collection. The fic that had the most impact on me was one where Nurse Chapel wrestled a giant alien snake to save Spock’s life.
So when I got into XF, one of the first things I did was look for fanfic, knowing somewhere out there, Scully was wrestling a big snake for Mulder.
That experience showed me the power of fandom, that even without the internet, how the second generation of Trekkies joined the original group to advocate for the franchise to be revived. I remember sitting in the theater for that first awful Star Trek movie, choked up with what we’d done.
Tragic backstory way to say, no I’m not surprised that a well-produced show like XF would beget future generations of fans, and that they’d be chewing their way through the fanfic archives still being maintained.
[...]
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.)?
YIKES. I came in at the Fight the Future summer hiatus, so the waning days of ATXC, then we moved to mailing lists, right? Yahoo Groups was in there somewhere. Finally message boards. Live Journal rose up at the end of the run which began to fragment the fandom even before the show ended, along with the migration off our individual websites to Archive of Our Own, fanfiction.net and such. We went from group discussion platforms to 'come look at my blog for my thoughts’. It was different and I didn’t particularly like it, but in the end, when I came back to fandom for a new show….I had to get a Live Journal. That’s the most interesting part of fandom, that a platform doesn’t mold a fandom; we use the platform and when it’s no longer useful to us, we abandon it en mass.
[...]
What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?
I’ve always been a shipper and have no shame in that, as I think forming and maintaining a relationship is the most conflict-ridden enterprise humans can attempt, and thus is the most challenging thing to write about. Like many fanfic writers, I’d 'told stories in my head’ ever since I can remember about the characters from books, shows and movies. It was just a matter of then writing it down for the first time.
After I was sucked into the show and it was still the summer hiatus, I got on my first computer, dialed up that screeching modem, and went on Netscape to search for that fanfic I knew had to be out there from my Trek experience a decade ago. Like many people, after inhaling much of the delicious fics out there, I decided I can do that. I’m someone who’s very methodical on my approach to something new, so I studied what worked/what didn’t, the expected formatting, got a sense of the culture I was entering, acquired a critical beta reader, so when I actually submitted the first chapter to AXTC, I was calm and confident.
[...]
Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?
Yes, I have. Battlestar Galactica had a lot of Philes, but it was still a big step away from the very organized fandom in X-Files. Plus, with so many characters, there could be lots of little groups focused on their favorites. Same in the Downton Abbey fandom. Just a different dynamic.
On the other end of the spectrum, one of my most popular fics is in the Silence of the Lambs fandom which I’ve never been involved with any other fans or their fandom, if it exists. It just sits out there on fanfiction.net and chugs along with the reads. My current fandom is The Doctor Blake Mysteries which is tiny but mighty–the saying is, we’re six people and a shoelace. It’s shown me that it’s not the size, not the 'fame’ possible, but the passion that makes a fandom.
Sadly, at least at this time, I don’t think there will ever be an experience like The X-Files heyday. It was such a golden moment of the rise of internet and home computer use by the general public, a large generation of educated women having the time to participate in fandom, and there wasn’t the amount of 'noise’ that is distracting us all now. I