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Skazinetilsky August 1999 Karmen Ghia: What are you working on these days? Skazinetilsky: Funny you should ask. I am currently passionately engrossed in writing a sequel to my 1995 story "The Taming" with a talented young writer named Karmen Ghia. KG: I blush. S: This story was my first slash venture and has always been close to my heart. KG encouraged me to find away around the way I thoughtlessly killed off one of my main characters at the end of the original. She has also been giving me valuable aid towards helping me overcome my reluctance to put more than one sex scene in a story. (I'd say we're doing pretty well on that score, aren't we?) KG: Enough to be fwighteningly dangewous. I had no idea "The Taming" was older than god's wet nurse in downtown slash time. Huh. Okay, I'm sorry for the mundane questions but how long have you been in the Star Trek fan community? S: I started watching Star Trek in its first round of re-runs in 1970 and immediately fell in love with the show in general and Spock in particular. I wrote my first piece of fanfiction a few years later. However, I didn't start submitting stories and illustrations to 'zines until 1985. KG: Have you stayed mainly in TOS or do you do other genres? S: I have written only TOS, but have illustrated for almost everything that's out there. KG: What was your earliest story? S: Earliest fan story or just story in general? I wrote my first story when I was in the third grade. (It was a story about third graders.) I wrote my first fan story when I was in the sixth grade. I had decided that I liked Chekov at this point and wrote a Mary Sue type story. If you've ever read the pro novel, "Mutiny on the Enterprise", it was a lot like that -- quiet mysterious girl with unexplained powers aids the Enterprise crew -- only written by a sixth grader. Of course, there were no pro novels at the time. I had no idea I was writing Mary Sue until I read one of David Gerrold's book. After reading his snide and catty description of this familiar fan genre, I became so embarrassed with myself that I took my hand-written manuscript out and burned it. That was the only time I have ever intentionally destroyed something I wrote. KG: Well, that's good. How did you decide to start writing what was in your head? What was your motivation? S: I started writing so long ago that I don't really remember anymore. My family has always been full of storytellers. I took up writing as thoughtlessly as I took up riding a bike. It just seemed like fun. KG: How did your first story come about? Can you recall the decision to write it or did you just wake up one day, face down on the keyboard, and there was the first 3,000 words? (This happened to me, that's why I'm asking.) S: My first slash story came to me in one chunk. I was in graduate school, insanely busy with teaching and writing my dissertation, and had been working on some collaborations with Jane Seaton. All of these projects required a lot of effort, a lot of brain work. One night, out of the blue, the basic idea for "The Taming" came to me. I sat down and wrote the entire thing the next day. It was the first time a story ever formed completely in my mind in one solid piece instead of as a series of individual scenes. At the time I thought, "Other people get visions of the Virgin Mary. Why do I get visions of Klingons going down on Chekov?"KG: I will never be able to get that out of my mind but it's perfectly swell; wild, in fact. What writers do you feel have influenced your slash writing?S: Jane and Berkeley. Through cruel Pavlovian methods of punishment and reward, they have trained me to write exactly the sort of slash they like. Seriously? James Clavell is a writer I like and feel my style is close to. I also get a lot of inspiration from reading descriptions of other people's work. That sounds funny, but a lot of the time the idea of a story or a reader's impression of a story is much more sensual and satisfying than the actual work itself. KG: Do you have some special technique for writing slash? (For example: I listen to really loud techno music. What do you do?)S: I go outside and walk. (I used to get a lot of story ideas while riding my bike, but I'm currently bikeless). It's probably weird for the neighbors to watch, but I tend to talk to myself a little while I walk. Ideas and bits of dialogue occur to me when my mind is relaxed and my body is busy with something that doesn't require a lot of conscious direction. I use the same technique for fiction, non-fiction, and solving the world's problems. KG: I hope, for the sake of the world, you get a bike again and soon. What do you feel is the future of K/S? S: As a loyal member of the Coco Channel, I hope the future of k/s will include much more diversity. As a pessimist, I feel the genre has just about run its course. There don't seem to be very many new, exciting k/s ideas floating around out there. KG: Why isn't there more Chekov slash? S: Because everyone hates Chekov. KG: Oh, come now. S: Well, that's not exactly true, but the character is somewhat unpopular. Chekov was a second season addition to Star Trek designed to appeal to the perennially uncool "Tigerbeat" crowd. I think the character still carries some of this onus for old timers. It's similar to the way some Voyager fans resent 7 of 9 because of the overt way the show's production team thrust her on the viewing public as a piece of cheesecake for growing boys of all ages. Chekov also carries some Wesley Crusherish qualities of naive enthusiasm. And as most will agree, naive enthusiasm is not a characteristic that individuals tend to seek in a lover. Also, many of us who like Che originally started liking him when we were the sort of 10 to 14 year old teenyboppers the network was aiming him at. We tended to obediently have "Tigerbeat"-ish heterosexual fantasies about the character and a mysterious Marysue version of ourselves rather than consider him as a prime candidate for a little hot 2 boy action. KG: Well, we were *only* 10 to 14 years old. I think we can be forgiven for our lack of imagination. PB Wrapper has a theory that it's 'imprinting,' that a girl never quite gets over the first man type of male that sends a shiver down the girl type of spine. Hence the Chekov fixation. I tend to agree, unfortunately, in my case it was a dead heat between Peter O'Toole and Peter Sellers in "What's New Pussycat?." Hence, I've never remarried (once bitten, twice etc.). Oh well. What makes Chekov an attractive slash subject for you? S: Oh, he's definitely made for hot 2 boy action. Although Chekov's portrayed on the show as being adamantly heterosexual, he has passionate attachments to strong men in his life -- like Kirk and Spock. He also has a very easy and comfortable relationship with Sulu. It's not hard to imagine any of these relationships taking on sexual overtones -- given the right circumstance. And since he's young and impulsive, it's much easier to figure out plausible situations to put him in than for Kirk or Spock -- no burden of command, no waiting around for pon farr, etc. He is a sensual and hot-blooded character. This makes him fun to write -- particularly in slashy situations. Chekov also has the advantage of having the demonstrated potential to be either a comic or tragic figure. Because the writing on the show was inconsistent and sloppy for the minor characters, we saw Chekov being everything from cocky and easygoing, to being a complete anal retentive puritan. This gives the fan writer a wide range. Walter Koenig has recently been going on in interviews about how much more "well-rounded" the character of Bester is. That's lovely for him, I'm sure, but as a fan fiction writer, I don't necessarily want to work with a character that's already been completely figured out for me. KG: I can dig it. Me, I'm just a webizen so I know nothing of the printzine community, except for a brush or two with certain members. What is with those people? Are they really as uptight, narrow minded, hyper critical/sensitive and condescending as they seem or am I really just too fucked up to see their good points? S: Well, some of us oldtimers are absolute angels, of course, but there is a vocal minority whose behavior is leaves something to be desired. In the olden days -- about five years ago -- getting into print was more of an ordeal. Individuals who wished to put out a 'zine had to have the money, time, and chuztpah it takes to walk into the local Kinko's and say, "I'd like five hundred copies of this fully illustrated novel about Kirk doing unspeakable things to a sexually ambiguous alien." Not all of us were up to the challenge -- I know I wasn't. Thus a power elite was formed. Writers, readers and illustrators had to court the favor of the few who edited and published. Some of those who were so courted began to have an inflated opinion of themselves. Now, of course, anyone with a modem can put a story on the web without giving a good expletive deleted about what the Randy Landers type thinks. I think a good amount of the current nastiness from certain quarters is the old power elite trying to find a way to re-establish the authority they once held. Also, to be brutally frank, there are a lot of fans out there who are intensely into fandom as a substitute for a real-world social life. These frustrated people with poor interpersonal communication skills would be hard to deal with on or off line. KG: What's your thinking on chicks with dicks and Tupper Trek? I don't find it interesting, but my tastes are more, um, graphic. (I actually have trouble figuring what's going on [sexually] in much of K/S, it's way too subtle or something for me.) S: I'm not familiar with either of these. I guess I'm not up on what's current with K/S. Gosh, maybe someone has had a new idea since 1975... KG: You've had experience in the printzine community and the webslash community. In what ways do their inherent strengths cause them to be inherently antagonistic? Or do I think that because I'm an asshole? (Okay, it's an awkward question, rephrase at will.) S: The two venues are different, but not *inherently* antagonistic. I feel that my work, for example, has flowed very nicely from print to web. Lessons I learned as an illustrator have helped me in web design. Not getting published because of the lack of demand for Chekov stories made me work harder and produce more polished results. I think there is an inherent difference, however, in the power structure behind each venue. With printzines, only a few people had the resources to put stories out to be read by a fairly small audience. Since 'zine were expensive, readers tended to be conservative consumers -- purchasing only what they knew had made them happy in the past. On the web, anyone with e-mail access can post material that has the potential to be read by millions. I know that I, personally, read a lot of things online that I would never have paid to see in print. Webslash has fewer gatekeepers between writer and reader. KG: Ain't that a solid fact. I was recently reading an article in diary form about filmmaker Roger Nygard latest project. This 'feels' partly true to me (even I'm sure there's more to K/S than this) but I'm wondering if you have any reaction to this quote from the article: "March 22, 1997, Pasadena: Today we interviewed two writers of underground, homoerotic Kirk/Spock stories at the Pasadena Convention Center. These stories are typically written by and for heterosexual women - women who want to read sexual stories about Kirk and Spock but don't want to imagine them with other women." (LAT Magazine 6/20/99) S: I've read a lot of the scholarly work that's been published about the whys and wherefores of slash (Henry Jenkins, Constance Penley, Lamb and Veith, etc.). Many discussions seem incomplete to me because they insufficiently deal with the raw sexual appeal of slash for women. In Nygard's case, I think he, like many men, may be uncomfortable with the idea that grrlz get off on hot 2 boy action in the same way that many males like "cat fight" style porn. Slash titillates because it's alien, unpredictable, and forbidden. Also, slash is sexy because it's written to be sexy. If the same writers wrote het stories with the same... vigor, I guess I would like them just as well. No, wait, I take that back. I think a lot of the het/porn out there is influenced by the traditions of male-oriented porn. There are a lot of conventions inherent in that tradition that simply do not appeal to me -- Twisting nipples, for example. I mean, really... lick them, rub them, suck them, but for God's sake, don't bite or twist them, boys. That hurts. KG: Yeah, I never understood that either. And the girl in the story is always moaning 'harder... harder' for whatever, whereas any woman I've ever known, including moi, would be calling the cops or something. But, oh well, I'm obviously not the porn target audience. What is the motivation to write slash? One can't sell it; one can't even eat it. S: I write it because I find it arousing and stimulating. I publish it on the web in hopes that others will find it arousing and stimulating. Not being a good capitalist, getting a heartfelt e-mail in response to one of my stories that says simply, "Hubba hubba!" is payment enough for me. KG: Do you have any thoughts on the future of Slash on the Web? S: We will see more, more, more. People like me who would die of embarassment if the postman found out they read or, God forbid, wrote erotic fanfic can puruse porn on the net all day with aplomb. These newly liberated slash readers and writers will continue to become more eclectic in their tastes and more open to more combinations in more genres. KG: You're very cool. Would you like to put your website address and/or recommended URLs here?: S: Little Russian Betime Stories http://www.fortunecity.com/tatooine/heinlein/80/title.htm KG: And one final question - in your opinion, who's bigger? Kirk or Spock? S: Oh, Spock definitely. You've just got to go with the jade tower, y'know. Bigger and ridged. KG: Thank you, Skaz. Back to the Archive Please use the form below to feedback to the author. Your message will also be forwarded directly to the author. Thank you. |