2. Introduction/DefinitionIntroduction/Definition
Alternately referred to as fan-
fiction, fanfiction, fanfic, FF
or simply fic
“Fanfiction is what literature might look
like if it were reinvented from scratch
after nuclear apocalypse by a band of
brilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a
sealed bunker. They don't do it for the
money. That's not what it's about. The
writers write it and put it up online just
for the satisfaction. They're fans, but
they're not silent, couchbound consumers
of media. The culture talks to them and
they talk back to the culture in it's own
language.”
Grossman, L (2011) The Boy who
Lived Forever
3. Fan Fiction comes in many forms...Fan Fiction comes in many forms...
Anime/Manga
Books
Cartoons
Comics
Games
Plays/Musicals
TV Shows
FILMFILM
4. Fan Fiction and CopyrightFan Fiction and Copyright
Fan FictionFan Fiction andand DistributionDistribution
FanFiction.net, is the largest archive of
fan fiction on the Internet (though only
one of many websites), hosts over 2
million pieces of fan fiction, ranging in
length from short stories to full length
novels.
http://www.fanfiction.net/movie/#
The top film retold by fans is Star Wars
that currently stands at 30,256 stories
alone.
Fan fiction was introduced before the
internet was invented however,
writers have since then virally
published their works due to easier
distribution and a wider response
from a larger range of readers.
Fan Fiction authors do not make any
money from writing fanfic.
However there is never a guarantee
that the original creators do not lose
profits. The people who created the
works that fan fiction borrows from
are sharply divided.
5. “Fan fiction does not involve pure copying. It might infringe on a creator's copyright in
characters – the unique personalities created to express a concept. Historically,
copyright law protected only against exact copying, excluding even protection
against translation and abridgement. Copyright law later expanded its reach beyond
duplication to looser forms of borrowing, including use of well-established
characters. The extent of protection for characters independent of the works in
which they appear is unclear, and the case law is confusing. Most authorities
nonetheless agree that a character can be protected by copyright. The difficult
questions of “substantial similarity” in the law of character copyright – is
Wonderman too much like Superman and thus infringement of him? - do not
present much of a problem for fan fiction as fan authors do not claim to have
created an independent character.”
Tushnet, R (1997) Legal Fictions: Copyright, Fan Fiction and a New Common Law
6. Passive Audience to ParticipantPassive Audience to Participant
Fiction was traditionally read from a passive audience
– the author would write the material and the
reader/viewer would be forced to consume the
story that the creator had given to them. However
since fan fiction has come about, it has allowed
fans to take different characters from many
stories and form their own tales.
7. Lord of the RingsLord of the Rings
Lord of the Rings and Fan FictionLord of the Rings and Fan Fiction
One of the largest categories of the
stories at FanFiction.net is based on The
Lord of the Rings (LOTR), partly because
of the recent movies, which have made
the LOTR trilogy more popular than ever.
With the release of the movies, it's
become easier to use aspects of the story
for fans to create their own tales,
choosing the trilogy as their primary
source as well as the chosen few who also
use aspects from Tolkien's novels.
8. ““Mary Sues”Mary Sues”
Some of the popularity of writing about Tolkien's work has to do
with the attractive actors in the films: there are more stories about
Legolas than any other LOTR characters at FanFiction.net, due in no
small part to Orlando Bloom's good looks. Many of these stories are
“Mary Sues” written by “fangirls”; that is, the authors are girls and
women who desire Bloom.
The stories usually consist of your typical meet and fall in love tales
with the authors as the female protagonist or a character who
closely resembles to them receiving Legolas' affection.
9. ““Hurt/Comfort”Hurt/Comfort”
This genre explores the invention of
situations where the characters
experience vulnerability. A near brush
with death or a serious revelation will
allow two (normally male) characters
to become closer to one another.
Jenkins argues that the drives behind
such stories “cut to the heart of our
culture's patriarchal conception of the
hero as the man of emotional
constraint and personal autonomy, a
man in control of all situations'
10. ““Hurt/Comfort”Hurt/Comfort”
This genre explores the invention of
situations where the characters
experience vulnerability. A near brush
with death or a serious revelation will
allow two (normally male) characters
to become closer to one another.
Jenkins argues that the drives behind
such stories “cut to the heart of our
culture's patriarchal conception of the
hero as the man of emotional
constraint and personal autonomy, a
man in control of all situations'
Editor's Notes
Fan fiction (alternately referred to as fan-fiction , fanfiction , fanfic , FF or simply fic ) is a broadly-defined fan labor term for stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work rather than the original creator. Lev Grossman: Fan Fiction “ Fanfiction is what literature might look like if it were reinvented from scratch after nuclear apocalypse by a band of brilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. They don't do it for the money. That's not what it's about. The writers write it and put it up online just for the satisfaction. They're fans, but they're not silent, couchbound consumers of media. The culture talks to them and they talk back to the culture in it's own language.”
Fan fiction predates the Internet but the Web has made it exponentially easier to talk and be heard, and it hold millions of words fan fiction. In most cases, the quantity of fan fiction generated by a given work is volumetrically larger then the work itself; in some cases, the quality is high that that of the original itself. FanFiction.net, is the largest archive of fan fiction on the Internet (though only one of many websites), hosts over 2 million pieces of fan fiction, ranging in length from short stories to full length novels. Nobody makes money from fan fiction, but whether anybody loses money on fan fiction is a separate question. The people who create the works that the fan fiction borrows from are sharply divided. Stephanie Meyer have given Twilight (and author's of other popular works) fan fiction their blessing; if anything they believe that fan fiction has acted as a viral marketing agent for their work. Other writers consider it a violation of their copyrights, and more, of their emotional claim to their own creations. They feel as if their characters have been proverbially 'kidnapped by strangers'.
Fan fiction, taking familiar characters into new and often startling situations, starkly demonstrates that the authors can not control the interpretation of their works. Fans' sense of partial ownership, shared between themselves and the original creators, comports with intellectual property law. Copyright itself means that buying a book allows a person to read it, burn it, give it away but not copy it for a profit. Ownership of information is always partial.
Fiction was traditionally read from a passive audience – the author would write the material and the reader/viewer would be forced to consume the story that the creator had given to them. However since fan fiction has come about, it has allowed fans to take different characters from many stories and form their own tales. This has significantly changed the way that we perceive storytelling because it shows that many can take features from narratives already created and use them to create their own adventures (for some, they even write from a first person point of view so they enter the world themselves).
One of the largest categories of the stories at FanFiction.net is based on The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) , partly because of the recent movies, which have made the LOTR trilogy more popular than ever. Although LOTR has been around much longer than many of the works common in fandom, there has not been much research into its particular nature, perhaps because until recent years the fandom was much quieter than others with only the books to rely on. With the release of the movies, however, more and more people are reading and watching LOTR and becoming interested in the complex relationships among the characters.
Some of the popularity of writing about Tolkien's work has to do with the attractive actors in the films: there are more stories about Legolas than any other LOTR characters at FanFiction.net, due in no small part to Orlando Bloom's good looks. Many of these stories are “Mary Sues” written by “fangirls”; that is, the authors are girls and women who desire Bloom, so they write stories about Legolas in which he falls in love with the original female characters who bear a striking resemblance to the story's author, sometimes even with the same name. These stories are some of the most despised in fandom, as the whole plot of the story is for Legolas to fall madly in love with the perfect woman, marry her, father her children and live happily ever after. Not all original characters are stigmatized but original love interests, especially Legolas's , are always looked on with suspicion lest Mary.
Another popular subgenre in fan fiction is “hurt/comfort”, this genre explores the invention of situations where the characters experience vulnerability. A near brush with death or a serious revelation will allow two (normally male) characters to become closer to one another. Jenkins argues that the drives behind such stories “cut to the heart of our culture's patriarchal conception of the hero as the man of emotional constraint and personal autonomy, a man in control of all situations'. Hurt/comfort stories also reveal the natural and human weaknesses in larger-than-life heros, which makes their recovery from near tragedy inspiring and all the more amazing. One favourite subject of hurt/comfort stories (commonly abbreviated as h/c) in the LOTR realm is Legolas, prompting fan fiction writers to invent the phrase “elf torture” as another name for stories in which he is in physical or mental distress. The character who seems to comfort Legolas the most is Aragon, followed closely by Gimli.
