Fanfiction: Literature or Laziness?
Passionate fans will do extreme things for the art they love. This art can mean a TV show, a movie, books etc. An example of an extreme undertaking due to fandom is Alex Jessop, an 18 year old Supernatural fan who has organized a Supernatural-themed road trip around America…and she's from Australia. Alex, along with other fans whom she met over the Internet, plans to travel around the country visiting all the places the characters in Supernatural journey to (Campbell 2007:30). The biggest example of fan love is the invention and growing popularity of fanfiction. This essay will explore the use of fanfiction and the affect the Internet has had on fanfiction.
According to Wikipedia (2007) fanfiction is defined as “a broadly-defined term for fiction about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creators.” It is frequently referred to as fanfic. While fanfiction has been around for years, even possibly as early as the 17th Century it has really taken off with the invention and common use of the Internet (Wikipedia.org). This common use has made it possible to find hundreds of sites on the web devoted to fanfiction. Some, such as
http://www.fanfiction.net/ cater to all kinds of fanfiction with categories including anime, TV shows, comic books, cartoons, songs and bands, movies and books. There are other sites which are narrower and simply have certain TV show fanfiction, such as ones for Wonder Woman, Dark Angel and ones for books such as Harry Potter and even Jane Austen novels. The Internet has made fanfiction more easily accessible to more people but this has been a double-edged sword as it also means that everyone can post fanfiction…no matter how bad it may be.
It is because of this that many people believe fanfiction has suffered due to the Internet. Having a technology that makes it possible for everyone to contribute is not always a good thing. Like with sites such as YouTube this means the quality of content is significantly lowered. Now, there are thousands of fanfiction stories out there and not all of them are worth reading.
In an attempt to counteract this bad quality some websites have filtering processes but how well these work is a matter of personal opinion. And despite this, practically anyone can make a website on the Internet so if someone else rejects them they can just make their own site; their own canvass to display this “art”. In this case of bad quality there are even websites which specialize in the worst of fanfiction. See
http://www.godawful.net/ for examples.
Besides the issue of quality, there is also the problem of authorship to consider. “Fan fiction usually does involve surrendering some incidents of authorship.” (Tushnet 2007) Fanfiction writers are, of course not the creators of many of the characters and settings they use in their work and as such cannot claim to be due to the likely possibility of legal consequences. Some authors, such as J.K Rowling are fine with the creation of fanfiction based on their work. Rowling is even quoted as being “flattered” by it (Waters 2007). Despite this there is still always the problem of copyright. Some sites make fanfiction writers use disclaimers in their work. See
http://www.fanfiction.net/ for examples.
So if fanfiction requires extra work, copyright wise and most of it is poor quality anyway, why do people bother to write it? In many cases it is fans wanting more. More stories, more creations, more chances to interact with, or at the very least read about the characters they have come to love. Fandom is a very powerful thing.
Fandom aside, surely it would be more profitable and worthwhile for people to create their own new and original art which actually has a chance of being published. This is probably true but there are some cases where fanfiction novels have been published. Called “novelizations” this genre includes new and original stories using already existing characters, just like fanfiction. TV shows such as Charmed, Bones, Dark Angel, Roswell and Buffy The Vampire Slayer all have their own set of novelizations by recognized authors. Many authors even specialize in novelizations but most also write original work. This is the same with many Internet fanfiction writers. Of course publication from a website such as
http://www.fanfiction.net/ is not very likely and most writers are simply there to have their work read and reviewed. “Feedback is the lifeblood of fan fiction” (Freeman 2007).
In the case of reviewing the Internet is a huge help to writers. The ability to remain anonymous and receive reviews from perfect strangers can mean totally honest feedback. In the case of
http://www.godawful.net/ maybe brutally honest feedback. There are measures up on most fanfiction websites to prevent “flaming”. Flaming is a word used in fanfiction speak which means “A negative, hurtful comment meant only to anger or upset a person.” (Freeman 2007). In most cases flaming is banned from sites and most fanfiction writers are careful to avoid it. No one likes to be flamed.
In conclusion it appears that the Internet has definitely helped fanfiction grow as a writing medium as well as a way to receive reviews anonymously and hopefully improve writing based on these. In this case a new communication technology has highly improved an already wonderful invention.
ReferencesWebsites“Fan Fiction”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction (accessed 5 May 2007)
“Godawful Fan Fiction”
http://www.godawful.net/ (accessed 5 May 2007)
“Fanfiction.Net”
http://www.fanfiction.net/ (accessed 5 May 2007)
Freeman, Megan.(2003) “A Fanspeak Dictionary”
http://expressions.populli.net/dictionary.html (accessed 6 May 2007)
Tushnet, Rebecca (2006) “43 (B)log”
http://tushnet.blogspot.com/ (accessed 6 May 2007)
Online Articles
Waters, Darren (May 2004). “Rowling Backs Potter Fan Fiction”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3753001.stm (accessed 5 May 2007)
Magazine ArticlesCampbell, Jill (2007) “I’ve Been Possessed By Supernatural”
TV Week January 6-12: 30
For examples of Fanfiction check out the following websites
www.fanfiction.nethttp://expressions.populli.nethttp://marvelite.prohosting.com/surfer/fanfic/www.valjeanfanfiction.comAnd of course, there is
www.godawful.net
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