AO3 has won a Hugo, in light of which I felt it was time to revive my Authors in Fandom interview series, and I am very very thrilled to welcome Locus Award winner and multiple Hugo finalist Yoon Ha Lee! His book Ninefox Gambit daunted me a scootch before I read it, but I fell so intensely in love with it that I have never yet recovered. It’s about a dutiful space soldier who’s conscripted into sharing her mind with a long-dead military genius whose brain was put on ice after he inexplicably murdered his entire space battalion. Ninefox Gambit and its sequels are the best SF I’ve read since Gemsigns, so I’m delighted to welcome Yoon Ha Lee to the blog to talk about his life in fandom!
How did you get into fanfic? Do you remember the first fandoms you read/wrote in?
Technically, the first fanfic that I wrote was a Star Trek parody co-written with a friend when I was in middle school. We’d never really heard of the term fanfic and we weren’t connected to any community of fans. Another friend attended a Star Trek convention that year, but my mom was busy and couldn’t take me.
Anyway, the parody was a (bad) play featuring a Mary Sue character who grew exasperated with the men of the Original Trek crew. There was a terrible running gag in which she would exclaim, “You…you…you men!” over and over, and Very Literal Poorly Written Spock interpreted this as a spaceship name “UUU Men.” As I said, it wasn’t any good, but it was fun to write.
It wouldn’t be until years later that I rediscovered fanfic in college, this time in the context of anime. I came across some Rurouni Kenshin fic on some Geocities shrine, and also a Lovecraft/Neon Genesis Evangelion crossover called “Children of an Elder God,” which I should finish reading since it apparently is still up on the web!
You’ve had the fairly unusual experience of writing fanfic for a thing and then /actually writing the thing,/ with Legend of the Five Rings. What was that transition like? Did your background in writing fic for it help or hinder?
It was a lot of fun but a lot of work! The “ascended fanfic writer” thing was not too unusual in L5R; longtime story writer Rich Wulf was originally an L5R ficwriter with his well-loved “Rokugan 2000” stories, which cast the samurai fantasy setting of L5R in a modern-day cyberpunkish variant, and my friend Nancy Sauer, who also joined the Story Team, started out in fanfic.
The main difference in the transition was, of course, the external constraints. Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG), which then owned the L5R property, preferred 2,000-word stories, so I had to confine myself to that length. But my long familiarity with the setting was generally helpful. In fact, before I tried out for the Story Team position, I reread over 1,000 (that is not a typo) L5R official stories from a period of some fifteen years to prepare. Most of those stories were quite short, but some were longer. It was a lot of research!
More broadly, how has fanfic (reading or writing it, or just being in fandom!) influenced your professional work? One thing I’ve noticed about fandom is its focus on bodies and embodiment — did that influence the way you thought and wrote about Jedao, who moves among bodies?
I’m afraid that particular concern predates my exposure to others’ fanfic and comes from the sf/f author Jack L. Chalker. I would not recommend Chalker generally to reader today, but his fiction showed a general preoccupation with bodies and gender and shape-changing/body-swapping. His Spirits of Flux & Anchor series, which I read to pieces as a kid, is in some ways a direct ancestor of my Machineries of Empire series.
On the other hand, the use of crackalicious tropes like amnesia and curtainfic interludes definitely comes from fanfic. I’ve written some short flash pieces in a “seven things” format inspired by fanfic’s “five things,” swapping out the number for worldbuilding numerological reasons. So it’s true that I owe a very large debt to fanfic for broadening my idea of what a narrative can look like.
Are there particular fics or authors that influenced you or that you often go back to?
Yahtzee’s “Phoenix Burning” (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) for its worldbuilding and clever plotting; Rheanna’s “Vivere” (Angel) for its quiet beauty and psychological depth; Helen Keeble’s “1000 Nights of Darkness” (Legend of the Five Rings/Angel) for its flawless fusion of two disparate settings, humor, and grace notes of hope. Of course, I could list many more, but that’s a start.
What do you love best about fanfic as a medium? And are there things about the fic world that you wish would change/improve?
I love the sheer creativity and joy of the medium, and the fact that it has so many different faces depending on who you are and what you’re looking for. I guess I would change the anti/shipwar culture if I could. These are (generally) fictional characters and I’m a ship-and-let-ship (or not-ship, if you’re writing gen/worldbuilding/etc.) kind of person.
Tell me some of your favorite tropes! And/or: Are there any tropes you really hate except for That One Fic that wore it best?
Oh, gosh, where would I even start? Things I love: Amnesia, bodyswap, curtainfic and fluff, AUs (canon-divergence, coffee shop, high school, IN SPAAAAACE, vampires, anything), crossovers…that being said, I also love weird meta and deconstruction. Honestly, I’m easy.
I wouldn’t say I hate the trope, but I’m usually a hard sell on hurt/comfort because I don’t really get the dynamic. That being said, I have certainly read a lot of excellent hurt/comfort because this is a trope where one is spoilt for choice!
If you’re a shippy fic person, what are some canon things that make you ship people? Or if not, what elements in a canon make you eager to read or write fic of the thing?
Ha, I often go for dark, messed-up pairings between people who are absolutely terrible for each other, and who may also be terrible people. I was an Angel(us)/Buffy shipper precisely because that was in no way a healthy relationship! But I sometimes also enjoy happy ships–pretty much any two of the main characters in The Good Place, for instance.
Could you share some fic recs for fandom newbies?
I’ll have a go at a few that require minimal canon familiarity, in no particular order:
- Sholio’s “Cute But Prickly” (Iron Fist), in Ward gets turned into a potted cactus and Danny and Colleen have to figure out how to turn him back. It’s hilarious.
- For something darker, kangeiko’s “The Harvest of Orhoch” (The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin) stands alone, and is a tragic history/fable.
- For something funny/sexy/heartwarming, friskaz’s “Grande Soy Triple Dirty Chai” (Suits) is a barista AU where you don’t need to know the canon at all. It’s pure enjoyment.
- For any Hamilton fans, Fahye’s brilliant fic in verse “Rise Up” shouldn’t be missed. [blogger’s note: I ardently co-sign this, I adore this fic.]
- And for female friendship and culture clashes, Rheanna’s “Lunch and Other Obscenities” (Star Trek [2009]) is really great.
Thanks so much to the wondrous Yoon Ha Lee for doing this interview with me, and please do check out his Machineries of Empire series. You won’t regret it! He can be found on Twitter and his website!