From: p.warten@gmail.com   
      
   On Thursday, April 16, 2015 at 6:05:07 PM UTC-4, Kate Knibbs wrote:   
   > Hey! I was an ardent M/S shipper and consumer of fanfiction in my younger   
   days, and I'm a staff writer for Gizmodo now prepping an article on X-Files   
   online fandom's influence on internet culture-- how it brought stuff like   
   shipping into the lexicon,    
   etc. Looking for perspective from past/present/future fans!    
   >    
   > Any diehard supporters of Diane Fowley, though, know that I see you and I   
   judge you.   
      
   As an ardent Mulder/Scully 'Shipper I was not a huge fan of Fowley.  I liked   
   the actress, but the character was clearly put there to upset the fanbase (and   
   draw out the UST a little more).   
      
   As for 'shipping itself, an honest accounting of fan culture throughout the   
   ages shows it's an idea that's been around for ages: one can make a serious   
   argument that 'shipping as an aspect of Courtly Love goes back to Arthurian   
   legends.  There's clear    
   signs of 'shipping in literature from the era of Little Women and Ivanhoe.    
   it's just that the X-Files had a unique character structure and dynamic to   
   work from (using the Believer/Skeptic archetypes as a means of character   
   friction), and came at a time    
   where fan culture could access a shared medium - Internet and Usenet - to   
   express such fandom in a more immediate, more visual way (where previous fan   
   culture relied on convention gatherings, role-play events, printed fanzines,   
   etc).   
      
   Did you have any questions in particular?  Need any links to anything?  Wanna   
   read "Scully Is a Highlander"? :)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)