Slashcast Insider Interview with Pir8

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Slashcast Insider Interview with Pir8
Interviewer:	emmagrant01
Interviewee:	Pir8
Date(s):	May 3, 2007
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	Harry Potter
External Links:	online here as a transcript, Archived version
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Slashcast Insider Interview with Pir8 is a podcast created by and posted to Slashcast as "Episode 15." Slashcast includes an transcript.

The interviewer is emmagrant01, the interviewee is Pir8.

Two stories Pir8 discusses at great length are Bite Me, Hate Memes and Snape, the Home Fries Nazi. See the complete interview for more.

The Interview Series

See Slashcast Insider Interview Series.

Excerpts

About three years [is when I became a Harry Potter slash writer]. And I started- I went bat shit insane when Lord of the Rings came out, I just love that movie, and I read Cassie Claire's Very Secret Diaries - which are hysterical, everyone should read them, they're very, very funny - which got me into reading Legolas/Gimli slash, if you can believe that, by the amazing __________, which opened my eyes to the world of fanfiction. Then Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out and I discovered ____, the Pirate Way, and then I realized that if people were writing about pirates fucking, then someone must be writing about Potter people fucking.

[My interest in fanfic and slash], they were almost concurrent. I mean, I did read The Very Secret Diaries, which is slash, and I laughed my ass off, it's extremely funny, it's very, very well written. And then I started exploring more of Cassie Claire's work, but I wasn't very interested in it because it wasn't slashy like The Very Secret Diaries. And then I sort of- so I've always been a slash-centric writer, and I didn't start writing het until probably two years into the fandom.

[Her fic Bite Me, Hate Memes ]: I don't know if it was so much a parody as it is a commentary on a not so nice part of fandom. And this fic was generated- I never meant it to be ten chapters. I mean, I was astonished when it actually got to that point. This was in response to a hate meme that be going around, and someone mentioned by name and I actually thought it was pretty funny because, you know, I'm a nobody and I was actually surprised that I was even mentioned, and I sort of made a commentary about it: "Oh, ha ha ha, I've made the big time, you know, I'm actually mentioned in a hate meme." And that prompted a discussion on my LJ, primarily between me and furiosity, saying, "You know, this is so horrible." And she said, "Well, yea, you know, they said this and this and this about me in another- in an earlier hate meme, and you just have to kind of blow it off." We were sort of trading comments back and forth and laughing about it. And I said, "Yea, you know, I'm gonna write a fic about this." Well, someone on my flist and posted it in the hate meme. I mean, they took comments out of my LJ and used them to feed this hate meme, and I went berserk. And I closed off the discussion right away, and I was so angry that- you know, I wanted to write about. You know, I mean, a part of fanfiction that's great about it, is you kind of have this soap box, right? And I wanted to, you know, write about how people get hurt about it and how, you know, there is an element of truth and how you can't- how some of it is funny, but so- you know, most of it is very, very hurtful.

I do think that, you know, the thing that really bothers me about these hate memes is anonymity and, ah- you know, as bratty and obnoxious as my Draco is, you know, he would insult you to your face, and I really wanted to bring up this issue of anonymity, because I find it really childish and vile, and would far rather someone say this to me in an email as opposed to trashing me behind this anonymity. It is- you know, I don't get the whole thing, so... But I did the anonymity was a huge part of that, and how he refused to be anonymous. I didn't want- you know, he just said, "You know, this is- say it to their faces, you cowards." I mean, that's basically what's the message.

You know, this thing that has always bothered me about the JK Rowling characterizations, is how one dimensional they are. I mean, I understand why she did that - they're basically stand-ins for Voldemort, because Voldemort is so off the page in the books, generally speaking, that they are the reminders: Okay, you know, Voldemort is a real threat and you have this house that sort of represents him. But she made him so one dimensional and, you know- and this Draco is all these things. He is really bratty, he's very, very childish, he's very selfish, but he also is extrememly vunerable. I mean, you know, when I was writing this, this whole idea of him sitting there with his champagne, and he has no one to share it with, this promotion... You know, to me, even though I wrote it, it really got to me, you know, how lonely he is in a lot of respects. And even characters like that, they do have their moments of lonliness and vulnerability, and it makes them much more interesting if you show those moments. And, of course, JK Rowling did that in the sixth book, with, you know- in the bathroom scene with him sobbing, but that's like it. In a six book series, you don't see anything more vulnerable of Draco Malofy than it. And I understand this is from Harry's point of view and it's very limited, but still, he is far more interesting now, at the end of the sixth book, than he was up 'til now.

Would-be writers are always telling me that they're afraid to write cliche, you know, that there are no new ideas, and, you know, I get that. But it's, you know, your idea and it's your LJ, and don't let anyone stop you from saying what you want to say. There's no idea police here. You know, you're saying it your way and it's unique. And conversely, don't be afraid to push the boundaries of fanfiction as far as you can go. I mean, we're taking established characters and, you know, make them work for you. You know, you can push things really far if you keep your characters in character.

I actually respond to all of my feedback if I can, and you know what I eat up with a spoon? Is when it takes it beyond the story and into the meta and the process of fanfiction, of plot and character development, and when I can sort of take it outside of, "Oh my god, you know, that was so hot!" And into what the writer was doing. That to me is invaluable.