Organa-zation Profile: Michelle Slaughter
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Organa-zation Profile: Michelle Slaughter |
| Interviewer: | someone at Organa-zation |
| Interviewee: | Michelle Slaughter |
| Date(s): | 2001? |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | Star Wars |
| External Links: | Michelle Profile, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Organa-zation Profile: Michelle Slaughter is an interview with a Star Wars fan writer.
It was posted at Organa-zation.
Excerpts
1) How did you first get involved in fandom?
Hmmm.... I guess that would depend on the exact definition of what "fandom" is. If you mean how did I get involved in submitting stories for publication, I was basically goaded into it. I had a pen-pal at the time who constantly bugged me to try to submit something for publication because he claimed that I wrote interesting, involving stories. He told me that he really liked the way I wrote and kept pestering me to submit. My best girl-friend, Mary Patton (at the time, she was still Mary Curran-Carter) had several stories published in different Luke Skywalker-themed zines, and she echoed the pen-pal's sentiments strongly. She kept telling me that I was just as good as any other writers who had gotten published, and she kept pushing me to submit. I finally did, to Mary Jo Fox's Leia zine, Snowfire. It was Mary Jo who told me about the Organa-zation. That was the point that I really came into contact with a community of fans and writers who were just as crazy about the SW characters as I was. It sort of mushroom-clouded over from there. :)
4) What about SW keeps you coming back for more?
One word: Han. :) Okay, okay... not just Han. But he was a big reason for it. :) No, I guess, the main thing is just the idea that good can triumph over evil, even after horrible things have happened. More than anything, I really admired Leia's strength of character, her resolve, and the fact that she carried herself with such dignity, even though she wasn't much more than five feet tall and had a couple of pastries stuck to the side of her head. She came along at the right time for me. There weren't any heroes for girls my age in that time. Lynda Carter's "Wonder Woman" tried, but she was so busy trying to be everything Steve Trevor would want in a girlfriend that her superhero side got lost somewhere in there and she became more camp than anything. So there weren't really any resilient female characters for girls my age to relate to.
Then here comes this princess in the stereotypically white gown... with a whole new attitude. She could shoot as well (sometimes better) than the men she traveled with, she looked the bad guy right in the eye with a scornful, indignant gaze (even when he clapped her irons), and she took charge of her own "rescue" when it went so terribly wrong. She was no damsel in distress. The bad guys took everything away from her, but she never gave up. I needed that as a kid from a divorced family. On some level, I suppose I still need it.
I always thrilled to the idea that these people pulled through these huge tragedies in life. My parents were newly divorced, and that was the biggest tragedy in my seven-year-old life at the time. SW helped me through that. Much of why I love it now is for the nostalgia, on top of the fact that it's still timeless, not dated by the era in which it was made.
It's much more than just that, though of course. However, I don't know how to describe it. I have never analyzed why SW touches me the way it does. I have just enjoyed the fact that it does so.
14) Feel free to comment on anything about fandom in general.:
I find it too hard to comment on fandom in general, because I think generalizing is limiting to all of us, and unfair. I mean, SW fans come from such diversly different backgrounds, and each of us with our own ideas concerning the characters, the general story, and what other people do with them that I find it impossible to say anything general about the community, other than that we must all love it if we keep coming back for more.
The only other general thing I think I could say is that we might all (myself included) be a little more tolerant of one another's opinions on the SW stories out there (pro- and fanfic), as well as one another's ideas of what is enjoyable about being a SW fan. In the end, we are all a community, and we do love the story that brought us together in the first place... not so very long ago, in a galaxy not so very far away.