Fanthropology - The Study of Fandom

The most prominent ref of the week was in a piece on Henry Jenkins in the L. A. Times. Zachary Pincus-Roth wrote that Jenkins -- officially the [USC] provost's professor of communication, journalism and cinematic arts -- researches how audiences engage with media through the Internet, fan fiction and video games.

The Canwest News Service distributed a piece by Mark Medley on Cory Doctorow, whose own early attempts at sci-fi were pastiches of Conan the Barbarian stories and Star Wars fan fiction. Lest we be to happy about Doctorow's getting us, ( inappropriate metaphor alert! )

In a review of Norah Jones's new album The Fall in the Dallas Observer, Robert Wilonsky wrote Those proclaiming this album the Booker T. grad's "departure" have clearly listened to their Norah Jones solely whilst sipping frappucinos between penning fan fiction in a Starbucks.

( NaNoWriMo-related )

On E!Online, Jennifer Godwin attributed NBC's decision to extend Trauma for at least a few more episodes to nontraditional signs of popularity growth, including the existence of Trauma fanfic.

And, in the Daily Northwestern, Laura Rosenfeld admitted I’ve never read the entire Harry Potter series. Whenever I tell people this, I usually get a look of sheer terror and shock. The hardcore fans who can list their favorite books in order and create fan fiction can’t even bear to be in my presence.

( a gazillion Twilight-related refs )

Note: Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/7987.html.

I <3 Lev Grossman. In an interview by Zack Smith for Newsarama, he said, of his new book The Magicians, I’m only putting in formally-published form the oldest, most basic tropes of fan fiction.

In Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield called the album Them Crooked Vultures fan fiction with a classic-rock heart.

On New York Magazine's Vulture blog, Nick Catucci referred to a recent episode of 30 Rock as pure fan fiction, minus the part where he tells her to take off everything but her glasses.

On Examiner, Anthony Strain wrote that a plot element of the 11/09 episode of Gossip Girl has totally been done before, if you count certain kinds of fan fiction.

The (Lewis County, Washington) Chronicle's Carrina Stanton reviewed a Centralia College production of Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, a [Peanuts] fan fiction by Bert V. Royal.

Neely Tucker's piece on recent pro fanfic continues to bounce around the world.

( In Twilight news… )

Finally, in the Weekly World News, Reginald Cunningham III reported that Joseph Cao, the only Republican to vote for the health care bill, in a particularly embarrassing incident […] accidentally distributed to Congress a copy of his Twilight fan fiction.

(Cross-posted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/7761.html.)

In the Toronto Star, Peter Howell profiled Robert Pattinson, who said, of reading the Twilight novels as pro-abstinence, "I think it's hilarious that everyone, especially parents, are saying it's about abstinence and they're really pleased their kids are reading it. And yet so many people who are reading the books are thinking, `I want them to have sex! I want them to make me want to have sex!' And if you read any fan fiction, all of it is about Edward and Bella having sex in the same scenarios instead of stopping. It's quite amusing."

In the south-of-here Patriot Ledger, Dana Barbuto wrote, of the new movie Gentlemen Broncos, when it’s not paying homage to low-budget sci-fi films and geeky fan fiction, “Gentlemen Broncos” shows the type of unabashed heart that made the Hesses’ earlier film a cult hit.

( In the student press… )

Finally, Mark Morford, for the San Francisco Chronicle's website, dissed both my religion and my favorite hobby in one swell foop. No cookie for him.

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/7551.html.)

Margaret Smith interviewed Neville Longbottom actor Matthew Lewis for The Malden Observer (hee!) and other suburban Boston papers in advance of a HP exhibit at the Museum of Science. Asked whether he was familiar with HP fanfic, Lewis responded I have been given some fan fiction by various fans. It is interesting. Some of it is downright strange. But if people like the character so much and write their own back stories, I think it is wonderful. If the fans feel they know the character enough to write a complete different story, then that is wonderful.

On In Utah This Week, Kelly Ashkettle intereviewed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies publisher David Borgenicht. In response to a question about how the idea for the novel came about, Borgenicht responded Our associate publisher, Jason Rekulak, came up with the idea. He'd long been interested in the kind of videos that people were doing with segments of movies and the fan fiction that people would write, in which they'd take famous characters and put them in other stories, and he became really interested in trying to find a way for us to do something like that with a classic novel. Follow the link - it's an interesting read.

( In the college press… )

( Actually, this could be a meme - prove you're more geeky than Morgan Feddes! )

Paige Wise, Chicago Sun-Times TV critic, in a review of V, wrote When sci-fi fans like a show, they really commit. They memorize minutiae, look for hidden themes, link to each other's websites, write fan fiction, and when necessary, dress like the characters.

In The Buffalo News, Joseph Popiolkowski, in a review of The Damned United, worte depending on who you talk to, this book-based biopic of English football manager (that’s a soccer coach, to we Americans) Brian Clough is either smartly imagined fan fiction or an affront to the late Clough’s good name sprinkled with too much Movie Magic.

( Less clueful than most )

( Bye bye GeoCities )

Finally, The Washington Post's Monica Hesse responded, presumably sensibly, to Got any good Twilight Fanfic sites you can reccomend?

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/7367.html.)

In a Washington Post article on for-profit non-original-author sequels that was picked up by the more linkable Detroit News, Neely Tucker quoted author Eoin Colfer as saying "This is not part of the Douglas Adams oeuvre. It's very authorized fan fiction." ( Wait! There's more! )

( A con, an EW update )

A PRNewswire release that was picked up by a large handful of media outlets announced that Jackson Rathbone's band, 100 Monkeys, will be headlining the [Nashville, TN NewCon] festival, which aims to inspire people to get more involved in the arts. The weekend includes Twilight- and New Moon-inspired art competitions as well as poetry and fan fiction contests.

In School Library Journal, Debra Lau Whelan wrote about the Chicago Public Library’s new Harold Washington Library Center, where high schoolers can take part in a variety of free digital media workshops where they can explore the creation of digital photography, fan fiction, graphic design, digital video and music production, and game design.

From the snippy author department: Kirk Read wrote a letter to the editors of The Dartmouth complaining about the content of a recent article. He called me overweight, middle-aged, hairy and with facial hair. At the time of the show, I was 34 years old, 155 pounds and didn’t have any facial hair. […] Neither of us deserved to be characters in Lambert’s imaginative fan fiction. Mr. Read, I've got news for you - to a teenager, you're middle-aged, and I'm ancient.

( And more from the college press! )

On Examiner: Sabrina Brody wrote, of some recently reported pairings-up amongst the usual tabloid fodder, Buying into these stories is sort of the same as convincing yourself that sapphic fan fiction about Cold Rush's Lily Rush and Bette from the L Word was an episode your DVR recording didn't catch.

Finally, in the Telegraph (UK), Tom Chivers listed ten of the most important rules of the internet, including Rule 34 (if it exists, there is porn of it). The spread of fanfic, slash fiction and hentai around the internet, as well as the rise of furries, are making this law more and more accurate every day.

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/7054.html.)

Baltimore has a Comic-Con? Tricia Bishop, covering the con for the Baltimore Sun, reported that Jane Jetson was standing in line next to Poison Ivy talking about shoes, while a dozen people back, Willy Wonka was deciding whether she and Dr. Horrible, looming to her right, were officially dating. "Tentatively," she finally decided after several seconds' thought, though her true love may be the candy man. She said she wrote a 70,000-word fan fiction in his honor. "He's really complicated," said Hillary Henson/Wonka. "He's got an awesome back story."

losyark pointed me to a list of the "25 Greatest Cult Shows Ever" on Entertainment Weekly. Supernatural was ranked 11th; Marc Bernardin wrote Why It's Cult: Because some members of the show's small but passionate fanbase have taken to writing fan fiction. Commenters pointed out that to choose a show because it's fic'd, and omit, of all possible shows, Star Trek, is just plain silly.

( Lots of Twilight-related refs this week! )

Also on Examiner, the Buffalo Movie Examiner wrote, of Jennifer's Body, The best thing about the movie is the dynamic between the girls. They're "best friends" with a very gay vibe/undertone that will likely become a fanfiction category.

In the Guardian (UK), Jessica Lack profiled artist Dawn Mellor, inexplicably writing ( seriously, this made no sense )

In a review of Glee in the Marysville-Yuba City, CA Appeal-Democrat, John Kendrix wrote But when the show isn't singing its heart out or throwing out a one-liner about writing "Desperate Housewives" fan fiction, it stumbles. Bad.

Both fanfic and LJ get mentions in a piece on John Smedley by John Funk on Escapist Magazine.

Finally, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports that Anime Club [will meet] from noon to 2 p.m. Oct. 24. Join us to watch an Anime program and have snacks as well as a chance to share your anime artwork, fanfiction or just chat with other fans. Teens, ages 11-18, and guests welcome to attend.

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/6847.html.)

On the Christian Science Monitor's Chapter and Verse blog, Rebekah Denn, in a piece on the new Pooh sequel Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus, wrote the evidence shows that human nature craves sequels as badly as candy, even with books that – like the original Pooh – have the loveliest, most final endings. Just look at how readers write endless stories set in the worlds of the books they love, in the form of unauthorized “fan fiction.” On one main site, fan-fiction.net, the Twilight books alone feature more than 100,000 registered fan-written stories. Harry Potter has more than 400,000; even Gossip Girl topped 5,000. Sigh, nice take on things, but how hard is it to check a url?

On Motley Fool, Rick Aristotle Munarriz mused, regarding Yahoo's encouraging of GeoCities users to upgrade to paid accounts, But the stuff on GeoCities consists mostly of hobbyist pages. They're not about to start paying $60 a year to host their Pokemon card collections or Harry Potter fan fiction.

Jennifer Tanko, of Towson University's The Towerlight, wrote a review of Cassandra Clare's City of Bones titled Some authors should stick with fanfic.

Also in the college press, in an op ed in the Johns Hopkins News-Letter that features a very odd reading of history, Emma Brodie wrote Yes, you can put your fanfiction out there for everyone to read, and yes, maybe one or two people would read it, but there's nothing lasting about it. Just like the early films, it will be disposed of, forgotten.

Finally, Archie Comics is expanding its footprint in India, but there's a hitch. According to Vikram Doctor in The Economic Times, There is one small problem though — an issue over use of the Archies name in India. That has long been registered in India by the Archies greetings card company. Mr Arora admitted this is a problem, but said the company will be filing a case against the Indian company. Archie Comics is a strong defender of its interests, with many successful cases of having scared off potential users of its characters. Even the fans who have tried to create free online fan-fiction sites, which most other creative copyright owners tolerate, have been told to desist.

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/6534.html.)

Laura Fries reviewed Stargate Universe for Variety, opining it takes a galaxy to raise a sci-fi show, and to fill the macho roles are Louis Ferreira as Col. Everett Young and Lou Diamond Phillips as Col. Telford. Ming-Na, as the putative highest-ranking member aboard the ship, is wasted in the first three hours; [David] Blue is the only source of humor, and Brian J. Smith as Lt. Matthew Scott seems designed almost solely as fan fiction fodder.

On Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch blog, Margaret Lyons noted John Slattery, Daniel Dae Kim, and Matt Damon are all gonna be in the same movie, which means the fan fiction universe is about to explode.

( In the college press… )

Oh, and Diane Mapes wrote about the Mad Men Twitter thing for msnbc.com.

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/6390.html.)

I picked up two references to fanfic on NPR this week. On Thursday's Talk of the Nation, Neal Conan interviewed director Peter Sellars about a production of Othello he's currently staging. Sellars said that Toni Morrison is now actually working on her own play to respond to Shakespeare. And it's going to be called "Desdemona." And she is putting in things that Shakespeare himself could not have written about the black community. And this morning I heard Scott Simon interview Ralph Nader about his RPF (wouldn't it be lovely if it were RPS?) Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!

The most annoying ref this past week was by Andy Kirby on Essential Writers. Describing the various sorts of horror fic available, he wrote We might have even stumbled across terrible fan-fiction stories in which we end up rooting for the bad guy just so we don’t have to suffer any more of what can only loosely be described as the story. Apparently his browser doesn't have a 'back' button.

( Steve Vander Ark's doing libraries now )

( Refs on TV review sites you've never heard of )

John Grooms, in a review of the new Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters, wrote of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Mixing two totally different fiction "industries" -- Jane Austen (or Jane Austen fan fiction) and zombies -- seemed a breeze for Winters. In the comments, he acknowledges that PPZ was actually put together by Seth Grahame-Smith. (More chatter about SSS can be found with a little googling; my favorite is Jill Lawless's in the Star (South Africa).)

On Examiner, Alan Chin wrote, of an anthology in support of same-sex marriage being put together by MLR Press, Because of the potential copyright issues, they cannot accept fanfiction.

Finally, if your spouse writes fanfic and it causes household bickering, NBC wants to hear from you! ETA: I strongly advise against anyone doing this!

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/5906.html.)

In the California Literary Review, Ryan Van Cleave, in a review of Ethan Gilsdorf's Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, lists Twelve things you probably didn't know about the fantasy freak world: [..] 8. There’s a whole subgenre of fan fiction called “slash fiction,” which imagines sexual relationships between same-sex characters such as Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, Sam and Frodo, or even Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley. No, really?

In other wonderful news, Glee's resident pederast writes Desperate Housewives fanfic, a factlet picked up by Tim Stack in Entertainment Weekly.

In Ethiopian Review, Raquel Leoncio wrote that The UFO area of the internet, wedged firmly between (and overlapping with) the paranoid conspiracy section and the Star Trek fan-fiction boards, has been clamoring over news that the Chinese Purple Mountain Observatory lived up to its name by observing an actual Unidentified Flying Object.

In the Globe and Mail (Vancouver), Marsha Lederman wrote, of the play Dog Sees God, If Charlie Brown was a significant part of your upbringing, here's your chance to catch up with the Peanuts gang as teenagers. Beware: They're not just tossing baseballs around or selling cheap advice any more. In Bert V. Royal's fan-fiction play, they're taking drugs, having sex and asking some tough questions about life.

( In the college press… )

Finally, the Salem News reports that a teen writers group will meet at the Peabody Institute Library on Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. Teen writers of prose, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, rants, raves, fan fiction, short stories, long stories, blogs and anything else are invited to join. A similar group will meet Sept. 24 and Oct. 29 at the East Brunswick Public Library, according to the East Brunswick Sentinel: Participants, who will have the opportunity to practice and show off their writing skills, also will have a chance to put up their work on the group's blog. The sessions are open to writers with an interest in poetry, fan fiction, short stories, novels, etc.

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/5651.html.)

Supernatural went there this past week, featuring a character who writes Wincest. This got a notice from Ken Tucker on Entertainment Weekly, who wrote She’s a ticklingly good creation by Kripke, hunched over her keyboard tapping out fan-fiction in which Sam and Dean are “husky-voiced” lovers.

My favorite ref was in the Ottawa Citizen. Jennifer Green profiled amidala_thrace, who was born with a rare genetic disorder. The 23-year-old hosts online groups and writes fan fiction based on characters from Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica.

This week's no-cookie-for-you award goes to Christopher Bahn, who wrote, on A.V. Chicago (and other A.V.s), For most bands, television is anathema to creativity—a pressing reason to skip practice, or the sort of sucking vortex of slack that’s kept Kevin Shields from making another My Bloody Valentine record, for example. But just as some TV viewers cross the line from box-set-owning buffs to fan-fiction writing freaks, there are a few groups that base entire albums on what they’ve TiVoed.

( Slashdot on Lev Grossman's novel; Final Fantasy 8; Charlie Sheen RPFs the POTUS )

In Rhode Island College's The Anchor, Amanda Hooper wrote a how-to guide to fanfic writing, A creative outlet.

Finally, for the past weeks, it seems, the Swedish literary class has been arguing over what Swedish fiction should be. The hopefully-pseudonymous Charlotte Webb, joining the fray in the pages of The Local, wrote In my view, the most legitimate objections to the rather narrow minded proscriptions of the original manifesto are twofold. Firstly, it does seem both naïve and irrelevant in an age of acronyms, multi-clause sentences, instant messaging, digital poetry, hyperlink fiction, slam poetry, fan fiction, media saturation and translation (I assure you, the list just goes on), to attempt with such a dramatic degree of assumed authority to define the limitations of Swedish storytelling.

(Cross-posted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/5601.html.)

In this morning's Boston Globe, in a piece on cross-generational culture share, Don Aucoin wrote that his daughter has made an ongoing case for the literary merits of the genre known as fan fiction, wherein readers of, say, the Harry Potter books build on those tales with stories of their own that are disseminated online.

Several alert LJers sent me a link to a scene the cast of the Australian program All Saints produced, drawn from the winning entry in a fanfic contest. Unfortunately, I can't see this where I'm sitting (Boston, MA); anyone know of a more universal URL?

In New York Magazine, Ada Calhoun observed that Just because you can now also satisfy obscure interests online (cake pops, cougar porn, anime fan fiction) doesn’t mean the mainstream has ceased to exist.

On Southern Voice, Matt Schafer reported on a Dragon*Con panel on the lack of openly gay characters in the Star Trek universe. Carlos Pedraza is a screenwriter and editor who has written gay-themed fan fiction and episodes for fan series. Pedraza said he understood why there weren’t any gay characters in the latest movie. “I think it would have been awkward. How do you say this is a gay character if there’s not a storyline. All they were doing was running around getting the ship beat up… how would you do it without interrupting what was a very fast-pace action story.”

( On Examiner… )

In a short review of Steven Vander Ark's The Lexicon: An Unauthorized Guide to Harry Potter Fiction and Related Materials in School Library Journal, Kelliann Bogan wrote this volume will serve as a quick reference guide for enthusiasts of the series and as a good companion for teens writing fan fiction.

Finally, news.google now tells me that the New York Post's Terms of Use states it does not knowingly accept unsolicited submissions including, without limitation, submissions of scripts, story lines, articles, fan fiction, characters, drawings, information, suggestions, ideas or concepts.

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/5297.html)

This week's favorite: On Gapers Block, Veronica Bond referenced an Edan Lepucki interview of author Dan Chaon on The Millions in which Chaon said As a writer, I feel like I’m always in conversation with the books that I’ve read. Occasionally, an interviewer will ask: “Who are you writing for? Who is your audience?” And in many ways the answer is that I’m writing for those authors I’ve loved, and the books I’ve loved. If you’re an avid reader, and a book gets under your skin, it can affect you as intensely as a real human relationship, it lingers with you for your whole life, and there is always this desire to re-experience that amazing sense of connection you get from “your books.” I understand completely why people want to write fan fiction. To me, I guess, all fiction is fan fiction at a certain level, just as it always has an element of identity theft.

In The Herald (Madison County, Mississippi), JC Patterson reviewed Chelsea Cain's Evil At Heart, in which The [murderer's] fan clubs are even more dangerous. With essays, poems, blogs and fan fiction, some might be into self mutilation ... and even murder.

In BlackBook, Bryce Longton reported on a cruise for Twilight and True Blood fans. The fangbanging cruise sets sail January 2, 2010, and is basically a floating fan-fiction wet dream.

( On Examiner... )

School's back in session! In The University Daily Kansan, Alex Nichols advised fellow students to set reasonable goals for themselves: Try and find something in the middle, like “write 1,000 pages of ‘Twilight’ fan-fiction.”

Finally, the Observer & Eccentric (Michigan) recommended Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith - “a wacky by-product of the busy Jane Austen fan-fiction industry” (Booklist).

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/5077.html.)

The fanfic-related article of the week was in The New York Times. In The Sincerest Form of Lawsuit Bait, Charles McGrath wrote Certain books are more than mere texts — words on a page or, these days, an electronic reading device. They’re part of our mental furniture. And yet it’s their familiarity, their well-wornness, that makes them such tempting targets. (Credit for this ref goes to st_crispins; I'd never have caught the piece because it doesn't mention fanfic explicitly.)

On examiner.com this past week: Amanda Scheffler wrote, of soon-to-be-released notebooks bearing the same covers as the Twilight novels, Like to write Twilight fan fiction? These would be perfect for such a thing! And Stephanie Giancola interviewed romance author Grace Draven, who said she'd written fan fiction for fun and practice for about three years and still do[es] so for fun.

In Paste Magazine, Michael Saba confused our favorite Vulcan with a noted pediatrician, then wrote If you're tripping over yourself to link everyone to your erotic Star Trek fan-fiction, please don't.

Finally, I. Gordon called much of J. Randy Taraborrelli's Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958-2009 basically FAN FICTION on Jackson NJ Oneline.

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/4676.html)

This is too dense for me to tackle well this morning, but last week's The New Yorker featured an article by Joan Acocella on various ways Judas has been interpreted and portrayed, including some which seem downright fanficcy, even without my 'everything is fanfic' glasses on.

On Popular Science's website, John Mahoney, in an article on the 'mythical Apple Tablet,' wrote Yes, creating mockups of Apple gadgets (or any other gadgets for that matter) is an exercise akin to creepy fan fiction--the lust here is palpable.

On MTV News, Jim Cantiello reported on an interview with American Idol winner Kris Allen, during which he posed questions tweeted in by fans. When the topic of fan fiction came up […] Kris was clueless. "Fan fiction, what's a fan fiction?" Once we explained the Internet phenomenon to him, the singer became quite intuitive. "I have a feeling that most of those do not end up very PG-rated," he laughed.

On Wired's Geek Dad blog, Corrina Lawson wrote that, among the geeky things her kids can do better than her, is Write fan fiction. The oldest daughter has a thriving fanfiction audience in several Young Adult fantasy fandoms. But has the elder Lawson ever tried?

On Examiner.com this past week, Dan Ruble reviewed Michael Chabon's Maps & Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands, writing Examples of this dedication and defense of the [comic book] medium are rampant throughout the book, while Chabon also contemplates Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and fan fiction, Cormac McCarthy's The Road and its resemblance to sci-fi conventions of lost civilizations, and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and how it explores the human condition in the tropes of great fantasy. And, Ana Cristina Simon had a piece on Super Secret Twilight Blog: With an 80+ following that increases by the day and such notable features as "My Twilight Soundtrack Wednesdays" and "FanFic Fridays," it's no wonder that SSTB blogger Cutie has been able to attract such a large following.

Finally, Lindsay Cochrane of the California Chronicle fielded a question from a seventeen-year-old girl about how to tell her mom she writes fanfic, in anticipation of meeting the co-author of a story she's writing. Cochrane's answer: You could just drop it into conversation with your mum that you've started using a website for your favourite TV show and that you've made a friend on it. You don't have to tell her about your stories.

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/4569.html.)

The reference of the week came from Heather Chapman writing for McClatchy Newspapers, incluing the Sacramento Bee. In 'What my son and Charlotte Bronte have in common,' Chapman wrote fanfic isn't restricted to Cheeto-eating basement dwellers. If you liked Wicked, you're reading fan fiction.

In Ethiopian Review, Desta Bishu posted a piece Annalee Newitz wrote for io9 (which is usually outside the scope of these roundups), 'Are science fiction franchises as popular as religion?' In the Age Of The Web, this situation has reached a fever pitch with Harry Potter shippers and fanfic writers taking the ancient tomes into their own hands and making them into whatever they like. Harry Potter having sex with Draco? The Supernatural boys having sex with Captain Jack? Me having sex with Doctor Who? Anything goes. Fandom becomes Babylon.

On Examiner, Berin Kinsman wrote (with more alarm about the company's intentions than I could muster) about a Wizards of the Coast fan-site kit. Suggested content for a fan site includes posting your character sheet, writing fan fiction, and posting original artwork. Shara Azad remarked, in a story on a Trek con in Las Vegas, that Star Trek and Kirk/Spock fanfiction hasn't been this popular since...well, since my mom watched it, and I was pretty shocked to find that tidbit of information out. And Maxine Wu wrote, of American Idol winner Kris Allen, Half of America’s fascination seems to lie with [his] low-key persona; a quarter goes to his fabled (and widely fanfic-ed) relationship with runner-up Adam Lambert – which leaves a quarter of his inexplicable pull to the seemingly sweet relationship he has with his adorable wife, Katy.

Finally, in the Traverse City Record-Eagle, Cody Ewers reported that at this weekend's Northern Michigan Anime Convention There are numerous […] panels and guests on the schedule, including panels on fan fiction, J-rock and martial arts.

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/4117.html)

Not just fanfic opera, but RPF deathfic opera.

For real. It's called Timberbrit. You can read about it on NPR. Apparently it's all about Britney Spears' tragic death.

I took a look at Participate: The Revolution of Fan Culture (which made me wish that, as in most cases where "revolution" is used, people used the more appropriate "evolution.") About 16 minutes in, it discusses fanfic and references LJ. However it gives only a passing nod to the vast amount of participation in places such as FFN and LJ, to focus instead on fan films and the fans who have become part of the entertainment industry (all the interviews are with people who make a living or make money from fans). This odd skew was perhaps most apparent in one interview segment where Lucas is referenced as the fanboy who changed things by being a geek and making a geek film. I thought an even better argument for Lucas being a fan and a revolutionary was what Lucas did for the technical side of filmmaking, not to mention the financial side by demonstrating the incredible empire-building power of merchandising. What troubled me is how "Participate" skewed the definition of fan, and also suggested that the "revolution" in question was in fact the commercialization of fandom.

First off, has everyone seen this?
NSFW; but, like Shinan Govani in his National Post blog, it had me at Stargate fan fiction.

In the Dominion Post (New Zealand), Gerard Campbell told us that [Paul] Mannering, who co-founded fan-fiction podcast site BrokenSea Productions in March 2007 with American Bill Hollweg, is burning the midnight oil putting the finishing touches to Zombie Cheerleaders 2: Pom-Poms of Death, the sequel to last year's adults-only horror/comedy podcast Zombie Cheerleaders. (What, have I been asleep for two years??)

( An E! reporter discovers Twilight het, the dear )

( TwiCon )

Papers throughout Canada carried a Jon McCarthy piece on lonelygirl creators Miles Beckett's and Greg Goodfried's new project, Level 26. "Think of it like a book club online. It's going to be a community for people to talk about the book and then also talk about the greater Level 26 universe," Beckett says. "What if the Harry Potter books launched with an official community built around the universe and mythology, where there was the creator J.K. Rowling, and there was extra content, and the books themselves were interactive, and everyone could have profile pages, and they could come up with their own characters and write their fan fiction and create their own story lines?"

In The National (UAE), Ed Lake noted that fandom itself has been revealed as a more feminine business than the stereotype of the lank-haired World of Warcraft addict might lead you to suspect. Visit any online fan fiction forum (that is, a website devoted to consumer-written appendices to existing fictional works) and the overwhelming majority of contributors will be women. (Actually, aren't plenty of WoW players women?)

( a few more )

On Examiner, Tina Sena weighed in on the Twilight casting flap: Twilight has garnered a cult following since making its way to theaters with the first installment of the 3-part saga. With that kind of attention comes the sort of notoriety the young cast is lucky to have earned, given the fact the franchise is built upon the foundations of fan fiction. (Me, I can't see what all the fuss is about.)

Finally, Ann Mount, a librarian at the main branch of the Abilene Public Library, wrote in the ReporterNews that we have a wide selection of Jane Austen fan fiction from which to choose.

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/4093.html.)

News of the inclusion of "fan fiction" in the newest edition of Webster's has made the Dubuque Telegraph Herald. Rebecca Christian wrote From technology comes fan fiction, comprised of stories that devotees of books write using existing characters, often posted online. The definition in Webster's was better.

Convention coverage generated a couple of references. In the New Jersey Star-Ledger, Alan Sepinwall wrote, of Comic-Con, On the pro side for the critics: We have organizational bylaws preventing us from requesting hugs, asking people to read our scripts or fan-fiction, or being costumed as intergalactic slave girls, regardless of age, gender or body type. In my favorite piece of the week, TIME columnist Lev Grossman wrote in his coverage of Azkatraz in his blog, Snarry slash people (ie people who write fan fiction about Snape and Harry getting it on till the break o'dawn) are super-intense. Seriously that is one rich, rich subculture. And, in The Courier-Journal, Jeffrey Lee Puckett wrote in, an article about the Greater Louisville Region of the Jane Austen Society of North America's Jane Austen Festival, There's also a cottage industry of fan fiction, mostly sequels dealing with maybes, what-ifs and loose ends left by Austen.

In other Harry Potter-related news, in the Chicago Tribune, Michelle Ye Hee Lee wrote of being a 21-year-old HP fan, in contrast to the experience of her twelve-year-old sister: She has read all seven of my books three times, but for her, the books are just the jumping-off point. She keeps the first five movies on her laptop. She reads online fanfics -- short for fan fiction, or stories written by fans using the original work's characters. She explores debates about whether scheming reporter Rita Skeeter or evil headmistress Dolores Umbridge would make a scarier mom, or if Harry should have died in the last book. (Really, I don't think it's an age thing.) This piece, including the bit about fanfic, got a mention from Mandi Bierly in Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch Blog.

Also on Entertainment Weekly, Michael Ausiello reported on Torchwood creator Russell T. Davies' (spoliery for recent Torchwood developments) Wincest ref.

And, on Examiner, in a review of the comic book Avengers / Invaders #12, Denny Hill wrote This series just felt like a big heap of intellectual masturbation. Or fan fiction. Not an image I needed!

(Cross-posted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/3594.html)