Fanthropology - The Study of Fandom

With the release of the latest Harry Potter movie comes HP-related fanfic mentions. On San Diego News Network, Easton Connell wrote quite a bit about fanfic in an article about HP fandom. On MTV.com, Adam Rosenberg wrote Fan fervor over the "Harry Potter" series has spawned all sorts of wacky... stuff. Bootleg swag, themed bands, humor videos, fan fiction... you know, stuff. And, in the Jakarta Globe, Novia Stephani wrote about HP fandom in Indonesia. Dian Achdiani, 39, a mother of three from Bandung who first read the books in 2001 to make sure they were suitable for her children, said at times her husband is not so happy about her Indo Harry Potter activities. A passionate writer of fanfiction — stories that borrow the setting, characters and plots of the books or films — Dian said that at best her husband laughs at her stories, but at worst they have quarreled over her neglecting household chores to write about Severus Snape, her favorite character.

In other news...

In the Sierra Sun, Teri Andrews Rinne wrote, in an article on a local library's book rental program, of Seth Grahame-Smith's (and Jane Austen's) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, According to Booklist, this may be the most wacky by-product of the busy Jane Austen fan-fiction industry.

In the Miramichi Leader (Canada), Darcey McLaughlin wrote, in an article on breaking into the comic industry, It's believed that in the world of comics [...] [e]ither you work in the comic book industry or you read comics and wish you worked in the industry. If you don't believe me do a Google search for "Spider-Man fan fiction" and check out the endless list of amateur stories written and published online about everyone's favourite webslinger. Although a warning, most are pretty bad.

In WIRED, Douglas Wolk advised "Don't Google-Stalk Before a First Date": [D]on't ruin the magic by digging too deeply: Sparks are more likely to fly if you haven't compiled a phone-book-size dossier, says Todd Essig, a New York-based psychologist who specializes in technology-mediated relationships. "In the absence of real-world information, you're going to invest tremendous emotional energy in what you find online." Mutual self-disclosure, on the other hand, tends to build strong interpersonal bonds, leading to trust, admiration, and ultimately intimacy. Besides, reading your date's Muppet Show fanfic might end a beautiful friendship before it even begins.

Finally, on Examiner.com, Kristen Van Vonderen advised readers "Do not date co-workers. Period.": Basically, one of you will suck at your job, and run the huge risk of getting canned. In this economy, it's just not worth it. I'd rather spend my nights at home penning fan fiction and drinking peppermint tea than be able to say I have a manfriend. And Karen Sweeny-Justice wrote that there will be a panel on Twilight fanfic at Comic-Con next Saturday.

(Cross-posted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/3354.html.)

There were quite a few refs this past week related to the inclusion of "fan fiction" in the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, with the Associated Press, PR Newswire, Canwest News Service, and Reuters all including the term in articles.

There were two refs related to Harry Potter; I expect more in the coming weeks. In a piece on wizard rock for TIME, the often-fanfic-friendly Lev Grossman wrote Potter fan fiction continues to flow onto the Net, extending the Potterverse out toward the horizon in all directions, with the blessing of J.K. Rowling. And, in The National (UAE), Ed Lake ranted a bit about the HP phenomenum: Few literary characters have found themselves the object of such intense romantic speculation – and so much eye-watering fan fiction – as Harry Potter. I'm cutting the dude some slack because apparently he looks like Harry.

Jonathan McIntosh wrote about his mashup Buffy vs. Edward on Women in Media & News: I was inspired by women who have been creating fan fiction as self-conscious creative communities since before I was born. He's so earnest, I want to hit him over the head with a fourier transform. Or give him a cookie.

On American Chronicle, Tracee Gleichner interviewed fantasy author Carolyn Wada, who said, in response to a question about when she started writing, I've always had an imaginary story in my head, every day of my remembered life. A lot of it was "fan fiction," extrapolated stories about He-Man or Transformers characters, for example.

Finally, on Examiner.com:( Six more references! )

Note: Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/3076.html.

If journalism is dying, why is it that it's not the fittest who are surviving? Witness Nadya Vlassoff on The Deadbolt, who messes up simple math, thinks life ends at 20, and writes Unlike other shows or films, fans of BTVS have continued to support the show through online forums and fan fiction without any new live-action project.

But at least her grammar is decent, in contrast to the following gem by John Winn on The Celebrety Café on Hustler-produced porn parodies: Sold under the "This Ain't..." brand--as in, "This Ain't the Brady Bunch" or "This Ain't the Flintstones"--the titles are widely seen as an attempt to cash in on nostalgia for a simpler, if less smutty period, as well as fan-based fiction already circling in the Internet, especially slash fan fiction, for which "Trekkies" has become well known.

This, however, I liked. Writing on Desicritics.org, Meenakshi described the fandom surrounding Indian soap operas: An entire world of make belief made "real". In an already world of illusion, as the idea of Maya would have it another Maya nagari is established and supported from every side. Another layer to this world of fiction is the fiction created by viewers. It is like the old idea of the mirror within the mirror, reflecting each other off into infinity.

Also liked: Wonkette called John Pipkin's Woods Burner, a novel about the aftereffects of a forest fire accidentally set by Henry Thoreau, transcendentalist fan fiction.

Okay, this confused me. The Ranger seems to be the college paper of San Antonio College and associated community colleges, but it seems to be staffed by seventeen-year-old HS students. One of these is Karen Becerra, who, according to a biography written by fellow staffer Maribel Molina, writes short stories for a site called fanfiction.net. Where she gets more reviews than I do.

What's a week without an Examiner ref? Ascot Smith, in a review of Barack the Barbarian: Quest for the Treasure of Stimuli #1, written by Larry Hama, wrote But unlike the get-rich-schemes of recent "Obamics" this is an entirely devoted current affairs spoof that at times reads like a fan-fiction love letter to President Obama.

Finally, hauntmeister pointed me to David A. Brewer's 2005 The Afterlife of Character, 1726-1825, which reconstructs how eighteenth-century British readers invented further adventures for beloved characters, including Gulliver, Falstaff, Pamela, and Tristram Shandy. Far from being close-ended and self-contained, the novels and plays in which these characters first appeared were treated by many as merely a starting point, a collective reference perpetually inviting augmentation through an astonishing wealth of unauthorized sequels. Characters became an inexhaustible form of common property, despite their patent authorship. Readers endowed them with value, knowing all the while that others were doing the same and so were collectively forging a new mode of virtual community. By tracing these practices, David A. Brewer shows how the literary canon emerged as much "from below" as out of any of the institutions that have been credited with their invention. Indeed, he reveals the astonishing degree to which authors had to cajole readers into granting them authority over their own creations, authority that seems self-evident to a modern audience. If I could, I'd give Brewer a cookie.

Note: Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/2898.html.

On Salon, in an article on the role of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the development of urban fantasy, Laura Miller wrote Though it's been off the air for six years now, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" lives on, in the theses of hundreds of culture studies grad students, in a series of comic books by creator Joss Whedon, in persistent rumors that some or all of the TV show's cast members may unite for a film (with or without Whedon), in seemingly countless spinoff novels, and of course, in fan fiction. But Buffy persists in other, less obvious ways, as well.

( 'Coming Through the Rye' continues to generate refs )

In an article on The Christian Science Monitor's book blog on Trek lit that could have been much better, Matthew Battles wrote Star Trek has spawned a burgeoning bibliography of spin-off novels, short stories, and novelizations; fan fiction in book, film, and comic form; critical works and technical manuals. And like any sacred literature, the Trek canon ranges from the authorized to the pseudepigraphical to the apocryphal.

( And what's a week without some Examiner refs? )

Finally, on thaindian.com, GD reviewed the Twilight fic 'Bella’s End of the Bargain' by TrustYouToKillMe, for reasons which are not made clear.

(Note: Cross-posted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/2657.html.)

On Essential Writers, Kathleen Inglis described the play One Man Lord of the Rings, written by and starring Charles Ross, as a form of frenetic fan fiction fuelled by sheer bravado.

There were a couple of mentions on Examiner.com. Megan Wedge shared some of her favorite sexy "Twilight" fanfiction, and Erin Nolan, in a piece on how to connect with Grey's Anatomy fans on Facebook, wrote that one group is a notable […] for welcoming fan fiction in its discussion board.

On Daily Kos, keirdubois wrote the following, which I am too tired to try to make sense of, let alone contextualize: Fanfic writers have nothing on me. I wrote fanfic about my life, bitches. Was that good enough for UCI's Fiction MFA, long long ago? Of course not, but even though they were right to reject it, they can still go pound sand—because the best part of this is the book behind the book: all the other half-assed verbal barf I've written to warm up and cool down from doing fiction. In other words, blogging.

On the Watch with Kristin Blog on E! Online, Team WWK asked readers to choose their favorite TV friendship, adding We're strictly talking canon here, so any slashy business happens on your own fanfic-writing time...)

Finally, desertport pointed me toward a piece by Theresa “Darklady” Reed on m/m romances in Just Out: However it’s spun, fan-fiction demographics, especially those associated with gay-loving fiction, have long consisted predominantly of females of the straight or bi persuasion. Alas for writers within the genre, a messy little thing called trademark protection has kept those with genuine talent from releasing their erotic male pop culture icon work to the public at large.

(Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/2477.html.)

In a review of True Blood in the Boston Globe, Mark A. Perigard wrote Vampire-human love is all the rage these days, and creator/writer Alan Ball throws down the fangs with a sequence Sunday that “Twilight” devotees can only imagine in their most secret fan fiction: a sex scene that is both sensual and bloody between stars Paquin and Moyer.

Nick Gillespie opined on Comin' Through The Rye in the online version of Reason, reflecting that, when The Wind Done Gone came out, After running through a list of takeoffs ranging from Nobel Prize winner J.M Coetzee's revision of Robinson Crusoe (called Foe) to Star Trek fan fiction, I argued: None of these literary knock-offs, it is safe to say, has in any way weakened the audience or market for the works that inspired them.

On Examiner, Jolie du Pre, in a short piece on the release of Yuri Monogatari 6, quoted the site Yuricon: Yuri can be used to describe any anime or manga series (or other thing, i.e., fan fiction, film, etc.) that shows intense emotional connection, romantic love or physical desire between women.

And, the Rogers Hometown News (Arkansas) reported that The Anime Club meets [at the Rogers Public Library] on the second Saturday of each month, from noon until 2 p.m. Snacks and an episode of an anime program are provided, as well a chance to share anime artwork, fanfiction or conversation. This event is for grades eighth through 12th and their guests. Sign up at the library or online.

(Crossposted to: http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/2119.html.)

There's a lengthy article in this evening's London Evening Standard, rrelatively non-judgemental and non-patronising.

A couple of years ago I was phoned by someone at NME asking: “What do you think of slash'?” Treading water, as any Professor Trendhound does in such situations, I said that I could live with it, if done by Cronenberg, but thought Saw and Hostel were nasty. “No, no,” it was explained. “Slash — as in fanfic.” I didn't know Fanfic from Harpic.

Although there was no specific reference to fanfic (or its common synonyms), there was much reporting this past week on attempts by J. D. Salinger and his representatives to suppress the sale of "J. D. California's" Coming Through the Rye. ( and I'll snip here a little )

In other news…

( refs in press releases )

( refs in articles on m/m romance )

On The Age, Jake Wilson profiled several Star Wars fans, including writer Mary Borsellino. Borsellino, who works in the philanthropic sector, has published Star Wars fan fiction online, but she is not a fan only of this series. She has campaigned against sexism in comics, undertaken academic research on the TV series Supernatural, and is about to publish the first in a series of young adult novels titled The Wolf House, which she describes as "Twilight for punks".

In Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sharon Eberson, in a story on the Penguins' Sidney Crosby, wrote His on-ice exploits aside, the Penguins' captain has inspired fans to make his No. 87 jersey a top seller as well as to create online forums dedicated to whether he has a girlfriend and reams of fan fiction. This guy gets ficced and Tiger Woods doesn't? ☹

( And another cut, because this is just too long )

Finally, in Irish Independent, Andrea Smith, in a review of Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Lexicon, wrote One reason for the interest in her work is Sarah's huge presence in the cyber world. She started a blog at 18, and now has 5,000 registered followers of her book reviews, movie parodies, original stories and fan fiction, plus mega thousands who follow, but haven't registered.

(Note: Cross-posted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/1827.html.)

In UCSB's Daily Nexus, Hunter M. Daniels reviewed Terminator Salvation, saying It’s barely passable as Internet fan-fiction. Stay home and study for finals, you’ll have more fun that way.

Though I couldn't access the article, there's a piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education by Nine Ayoub titled Fan Fiction? Will and Bess; Screen Queens, on fictional meetings between William Shakespeare and the first Queen Elizabeth.

On Wired's Underwire blog, in an article on movie tie-in products, John Scott Lewinski wrote Now you can kick off your Star Trek shows, climb into Star Wars bed and read the fan fiction you stored on your Transformers flash drive — all thanks to the summer’s more creative movie-marketing merchandise.

A Maureen Dowd column in The New York Times (and other places) has been referred to as fanfic by Gawker. Kinda sorta; I guess I just don't speak celebrity or snark well enough to get the subtleties.

- - - - -

Fanfic is frequently mentioned in some media sources I don't usually include here, including the gaming, comic, and movie industry press. It also gets frequent mentions on Examiner.com ("the insider source for everything local"), a site which, which up to now hasn't seemed broadly-focused enough (i.e., too bloggy) for constant inclusion (though I've linked to it a few times, including earlier this month)). Examiner seems to be growing in popularity and scope, though, so this week I'm including more recent refs.

One that caught my eye this past week was Amanda Bell's Is literary fan fiction copyright infringement for series like Harry Potter? which is a nice overview of the question. Bell also had a piece on Twilite, a Twilight parody by Stephen Jenner, in which she wrote As copyright law tends to protect (albeit loosely, but still) parodies of copyrighted original works such as Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, Jenner's "book" probably falls within allowability, unlike (perhaps) the publication of fan-fiction that utilizes the same character names and events.

( cutting a bunch more )

And this isn't even all of them! What I love about the Examiner refs is that they show that fanfic is something that real people really do, for all sorts of reasons, and that it's a part of the little-c-culture if you're not too high-falutin' for it.

(Cross-posted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/1764.html.)

In which a (male!) author confesses his love for the "Twilight" series. On NPR's All Things Considered for 27 May 09.

I thought it was interesting, and I thought it might also interest (some) members of this comm.

Annie Barrett reported on Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch blog that My ultimate career goal of seeing my Pillsbury Doughboy fan fiction play out on the big screen just became a lot more realistic: There will be a freaking movie based on inexplicably eye-patched processed food mascot Bazooka Joe.

In The Times (London), Andrew Lycett wrote, in a story about Sherlock Holmes fandom, Sub-genres of fan fiction proliferate, such as drabbles (renderings of exactly 100 words) and slash (a branch of pornography posited on same-sex relationships - not too difficult with Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson).

The Boston Globe (and Manila Bulletin) published a piece by Ty Burr on 'Why we love prequels': Biblical scholars consider the Book of Ruth an after-the-fact prequel of sorts to the life of King David, and, indeed, the Bible is the source for a wide-ranging body of recent novelistic explications, from Anita Diamant's "The Red Tent" to Eva Etzioni-Haleby's "The Song of Hannah" and its prequel, "The Garden of Ruth." This is faith as fan fiction, acting on a deep desire to know more and, if no one else steps up to the plate, to create more for oneself.

In Northwestern's North by Northwestern, in a review of a recent episode of Greek, Patrick St. Michel wrote The whole episode had a fan fiction vibe going through it.

Finally, in The Globe and Mail (Canada), Lynn Crosbie wrote, in a piece on Twilight's Robert Pattinson which I'm quoting at length out of semi-outrage, It isn't only teen girls who love the aloof, elegant vampire/actor: When director Catherine Hardwicke was casting Twilight, she stated that "everybody had such an idealized vision of Edward" and were "rabid" about who would be chosen. "Like old ladies," Hardwicke recalls, "saying 'You better get it right.'" When I read this I flashed on the middle-aged, exhausted-looking woman who works at a tawdry drugstore in my neighbourhood and the day I saw her reading a soft, pulpy copy of Twilight, with a tasselled "Edward" bookmark jammed in its pages; of the drab, shy women at Blockbuster buying "Edward" T-shirts and music boxes; of the reams of fan fiction online, obviously composed by mature women, that tell breathy, naughty stories about Edward and Bella's first time, or are composed as "Edward's Poetry": The Taliban in Afghanistan,/ More wars./ The launch of the internet,/ Very clever./ The Millennium/ Then Her/ How she lit my sky/ It all pales into insignificance/ Compared to Her. I have long assumed that teen female mania about Tiger Beat-ish boys is the result of complicated relationships with masturbation: If sex-ed classes brought out and patiently explained shower-heads, vibrators and Frisky Fingers, teen idols would not exist.

Note: Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/1510.html.

On Comic Book Resources, Greg Hatcher posted an excellent overview of the numerous incarnations of Star Trek over the years, and included the ref Then Bantam tried publishing a few original novels (several were literally reprints of fan fiction from Star Trek ‘zines) and those did pretty well.

This is interesting (and if the writer interpreted things correctly, explains a lot): On MTV.com, in a piece on plans for future Star Trek movies, Larry Carroll wrote "I'm already going back and reading some of the books I've missed," [cowriter Roberto Orci] said of "Trek" tales and fan-fiction that have been written in past years, which could be reinterpreted for their new universe. "I'm trying to read every 'Star Trek' book I can get my hands on. We did that a lot for the first movie. ... I'm starting to re-immerse myself again in what's come before."

( Oops, this got long! More Trek-related refs under cut. )

In things non-Star Trek, Alysia Gray Painter wrote Fan-Created Trailers Add to Fan Fiction Universe for the website of NBC's LA affiliate.

On PC World, in a review of Wattpad for the iPhone, Ben Boychuk wrote Wattpad is a place not just for mainstream fiction and nonfiction, but also short stories, poetry, technical manuals and reams of fan fiction. (Obviously, you take the good, you take the bad.) Love you too, Ben!

Finally, on LewRockwell.com, J. L. Bryan had an interesting article on intellectual property, Intellectual Property 'Theft': Not Just for Disney Anymore, which ref'd fanfic.

Note: Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/1169.html.

Of possible interest to this comm: a long piece (~16 minutes) about Star Trek and its enduring fandom on WNYC's "On The Media" radio show. Describes fans' role in preserving the franchise, and eventually (~11:30) brings in fanfic (incl. slash).

No transcripts yet (site claims they'll be up Monday afternoon) but streaming audio is available, as is a download (.mp3).

Bonus: Kate Mulgrew speaks.

Mostly Star Trek this week!

Newsweek's Paul Constant, in a web-only article, delved into slash with better-than-average results.

In the Denver Examiner, Erik Buckman wondered, pre-movie, Was Star Trek destined for mere nostalgia trips and comic conventions? Fan fiction and fake ears? Also on the site, Eric Elkins referenced Scott Brown's Wired piece: According to the article, Conan Doyle actually purchased fan fiction to give him ideas for his own stories—he must have understood that propagation of his content by others could only be a benefit for him.

In papers throughout California, Vicki Walker reported WHATEVER WORKS: Zachary Quinto is getting rave reviews for channeling Spock in the new "Star Trek" movie, but the New York Post reports he had some trouble with a key component of his performance. No, it had nothing to do with pon farr. You write your fan fiction on your own time.

In The Philadelphia Enquirer, Karla K. Albertson interviewed fan and sociology instructor John Tenuto, who proved that not all fans are guys: "Especially for Star Trek and Star Wars, the female fans go to conventions more, they costume more, they write more fan fiction. Men are a little more passive - playing the video games, watching the movies - but women are into the creative side of being a fan." I just… he proved I'm not a man? I wonder what the main clue was? Okay, the clumsy wording is probably Albertson's doing, but still I'm kind of stunned. This wasn't nearly as insulting as Michelle Cazzulino in The Daily Telegraph (Australia), however.

The Herald Gazette (Maine) marked the movie's opening with a profile by Dagney E. Ernest of TrekKer (and that seems like too mild a term) Patty Wright, who, after deciding to pursue a career in social work, also did some newspaper writing. And she continued writing fiction on the side — specifically "Star Trek" fan fiction. Much of it was focused on Pavel Chekov, her favorite of the TOS characters. "I won every sci-fi fanfic award there is out there and had my own fanzine," she said.

From Maxim.com via Foxnews.com: For decades, the science fiction and fantasy genres have done more than just inspire conventions and bad fanfic. They've given us an array of worship-worthy princesses, bad girls, and aliens.

And, in the UAE's The National, Oliver Good profiled Star Trek fandom, writing fans of the show have become almost as famous as Star Trek itself. 

Those who don authentic uniforms, attend conventions and post fan fiction on the web are just the thin end of the wedge. Recent years have seen devotees hold Star Trek-themed weddings and even undergo pointy ear surgery.

Note: Crossposted to http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/790.html.

On E! Online, in an article by Jennifer Godwin about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles coming out tops in a poll on shows which shouldn't be cancelled, executive producer Josh Friedman said, regarding not giving out information about future plot developments, if we have a season three, people will see it, and if we don't have a season three, I like people using their own imagination to see where it goes. And if we don't have it, for me to kind of put my foot down—this is what this is and this is what that is—shuts down everyone else's imagination. I think in a situation like this, it's nice to let people kind of create their own fan fiction going forward."

On msnbc.com, Helen A.S. Popkin has a humorous bit of advice for Facebook which includes a fanfic ref that I'm not going to try to contextualize.

( a couple of refs on LA Times's blogs )

Actor Taylor Kitsch discussed scenarios for a solo film for Gambit, the character he plays in the X-Men films, with Brian Warmoth on MTV.com's Splash Page Blog. Until the studio signs off, though, the “Gambit” movie will have to remain fan fiction in Kitsch’s mind.

In a review of Donna Dennis's Licentious Gotham: Erotic Publishing and Its Prosecution in Nineteenth-Century New York on PopMatters, Erik Hinton noted that Now, it would be no large stretch of the imagination for such a work to be relegated to the ranks of books of novelty curiosity taken up largely by aficionados of the topic. The trick, though of Licentious Gotham is how easily it allows itself to be translated into an account of the flourish of Internet pornography. From simple erotic fan fiction to the blockbuster sensory assaults common to the Internet, erotic publishing online has been fought every step of the way but persevered in manner not too different than Dennis’ history of erotic print.

Finally, in Columbia University's Spectator, Lucy Tang wrote about discovering ones self within books. When reading Rousseau’s Émile, I find a kindred spirit in Sophie, who bemoans her unrealistic crush on a character in a book. And does it come as any surprise that Mary—“the only plain one in the family, [who] worked hard for knowledge and accomplishments, was always impatient for display”—is my favorite character in Pride and Prejudice? Junot Díaz’s Oscar Wao loves anime, while I occasionally peek at The 4400 fan fiction.

NOTE: Crossposted to the DW group as_others_see_us: http://as-others-see-us.dreamwidth.org/424.html.

mofic alerted me to a ref on The Daily Show: John Stewart declared April 21, 2009 as the day Fox News officially crosses the line from reporting to fan fiction. Actually, it's more RPS; though to be fair (and balanced!) there are other interpretations.

In Wired, there was Scott Brown on Sherlock Holmes, Obsessed Nerds, and Fan Fiction.

In The Other Paper (Columbus, OH), Richard Ades had a piece on m/m romance novels which touched upon slash. “It sounds dramatic, but I thought I was just a freak because women are not supposed to like this stuff,” [author Alex Beecroft] said. “And then I came across fan fiction, and there were thousands of other women who were writing the same stuff and reading it. It was one of those ‘thank God I’m normal’ moments.”

In New Haven Advocate (and other CT papers), Brianna Snyder also ref'd fanfic in a story about m/m romance: A long time ago, in the '70s, Trekkies started writing what's called "slash fiction," a genre of homegrown, show-spun stories — primarily with gay male protagonists and occasionally gay female protagonists — taking material from movies, shows, books, TV (even songs, pro-athletes, video games...) to create "original" material. Slash emerged when fans began depicting Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock as lovers, a character fantasy that became enormously popular, and remains today the most popular "pairing" in this specific form of fan fiction, according to Dr. Catherine A. Salmon, an associate professor of psychology, and director of evolutionary psychology and human sexuality at the University of Redlands in California. Salmon studied slash in grad school — spurred by her own interest in the genre — and co-wrote a book that explored the subject, Warrior Lovers: Erotic Fiction, Evolution and Female Sexuality, in 2003. And It goes on from there.

( Cutting a few more refs; they're interesting, though. )

This week, with snark!

First, the kinda-good: fanfic is giving scribd.com legitimacy. As reported by Alison Flood in Brisbane Times and elsewhere, Much of what's on the site is legitimate: Barack Obama's presidential campaign used it to publish policy documents, and some US publishers have offered excerpts and free access to build publicity. But there is also a fair amount of content illegally uploaded, which is not news to the lawyer for J. K. Rowling, Neil Blair from the Christopher Little Literary Agency. "There's two lots of things: one is J. K. Rowling books that people have just uploaded, and those are unauthorised and unlawful," he says. "But people also write their own stories - fan fiction. As long as these are appropriate - i.e. not pornographic - and they put their name next to it, we don't take any action." By name, I assume he means, not.

( In the college press... )

Finally, in The Perpetual Post, Molly Schoemann and Jillian Lovejoy Lowery discussed being googled by potential employers, which, apparently, amazed and horrified them when they first realized it could happen. (OTOH, the last time I was interviewed, I googled everyone who'd be talking to me. That's what the internet's FOR. BID.) Schoemann concludes Sure, there may be compromising pictures of you floating around online from your college days– but at this point, most employers probably have a few of those as well. I think it’s about time people were able to relax a little about the implications of some of their online content. It’s one thing to judge someone by the suit they wore (or didn’t wear) to a job interview, or by their resume. It’s another to judge them by the X-Men fan fiction they wrote back in tenth grade. FWIW, I'd rather be judged by my fanfic than my wardrobe.

A couple of events led to multiple media refs to fanfic during the past week. The first was the publication of Seth Graham-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. On New Yorker's Book Bench, Macy Halford wrote that Michael Gamer, a professor of English literature at the University of Pennsylvania, believes that the high volume of recent Austen-inspired fantansy probably had much to do with the explosion of fan fiction brought about by the Internet, but it might also be a matter of subtext (see article for the rest of Gamer's thoughts). And, in the University of Texas-Austin's The Daily Texan, Elaine Wang's review of the novel was subtitled Author Grahame-Smith gives a nod to fan fiction in his Jane Austen spinoff.

The other was the slash mention in April 2's episode of Supernatural, which was mentioned on, amoung places, The Celebrity Café' (somewhat incomprehensibly), The CW Source, and Starpulse.

The most major Supernatural-related fanfic reference was in Entertainment Weekly. In an article on the show and its fandom, Alynda Wheat wrote There's also a unique and very creepy subset of romantic fan fiction dedicated to siblings Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) called ''Wincest'' — the less said about it the better.

( In other news... (pretty meaty this week) )

And, in the University of Minnesota's Minnesota Daily, Thomas Johnson reported in a review of Anime Detour that The weekend-long convention, more commonly called a “con,” featured guest panels, costume contests (cosplay), an “artist alley" where people can show off their work, lots and lots of anime merchandise, fan fiction contests and all of the other fantastical things to be expected when you put this many creative geeks in a room together. In other con news, MyNorthwest.com's Angeline Cadido reported that, at this weekend's Sakura-Con, Participants will get their chance to shine with different contests in anime music video, cosplay, fan fiction, and of course, karaoke.

Do you read or write fan fiction? Blogger Laura McConnell discusses her experiences of contributing to the TV community:

http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=blog_writing_fan_fiction

On Seattle's The Stranger: in an article titled "Porn: The Final Frontier," Kelly O. wrote The franchise has been fetishized a million-billion ways already (remember in the '70s when those creepy housewives started writing all that bizarro fan fiction—called "K/S," short for "Kirk/Spock"—about the Captain and Spock being great big homos? Or those poorly drawn triple-X comic books like Sex Trek and Sperm Trek from the early '90s?). Fortunately, things went uphill from here.

In The Daily Yomiuri (Japan), in an article about genderswitching in manga, Makoto Fukuda wrote The feminization--or in the case of Kinniku Man Lady, the total redesign--of existing characters is not a new thing in the world of fan fiction.

Mari Kurisato interviewed Dino Andrade, creator of the dating website Soul Geek, for the Denver Internet Examiner. Dino told Kurisato One of the things that makes SoulGeek truly unique is the community aspect. We go way beyond dating. We have fan-fiction, galleries, audio/video/text chatrooms, original webcomics, over a dozen geek forums, blogs - in short, SoulGeek is an entire geek world.

In School Library Journal, in an article about the in-character blogging of Daniel Waters, author of Generation Dead, Christopher Harris observed As digitization projects and the development of e-book readers continue to push our notions of the book, fan fiction, online forums, and blogs such as My So-Called Undeath are challenging the story form itself. The next big thing in reading might be what Waters has already witnessed with his blog: “a more interactive experience as opposed to a static one time reading of the book.”

And yet another positive fanfic reference: Gallycat on mediabistro.com reported that Scribd (which I've never heard of), which has been accused of harboring pirated novels, claims digital books are only a "small reason" why 55 million Scribd readers use the site--many readers use it for fan fiction, recipes, screenplays, or official documents, for instance. 'We're totally legit! We host fanfic!' I love it.

Finally, on The Decider-Austin, Dan Solomon claimed During the campaign season, I wrote Barack Obama fan-fiction (he wakes up on the island from Lost!).

ETA: sherrold points out that I missed a major ref - this past week's Supernatural. They use the world slash, but, really, the whole ep seems to count afaict without actually seeing it (I'm only on S1). I'd left it out because my usual focus is on mainstream(ish) news(ish) media.