For Alan’s module Media Futures and Cyber Cultures our group looked into fan culture but I didn’t get to research too deeply into fan fiction which struck me as fascinating so I thought I’d use some of the information I learnt into this blog entry.
There are few groups of people who are more active as an audience than fan communities however these groups are all portrayed cynically as ‘sad’ and ‘strange’ people throughout the media. For this creative audience module it seems that there is no audience that is as creative as these fan communities.
Fan fiction is nothing new, it has been created for years, rising to prominence using characters from the 1970s science fiction television programmes such as Star Trek and writers would create different adventures, romantic situations and change the principle characters that they focused on; these stories would then be published in fanzines and circulated amongst fans. However, with the internet there has been an explosion in this practice with nearly every television programme, film and book being written about somewhere online.
Through the internet it seems that the practice is no longer reserved for ‘obsessive’ fans but now anyone with access to a computer can write and publish their work online. Traditionally most fan fiction focuses on work of fantasy or science fiction such as Star Trek or the explosion of Harry Potter fan fiction however now all genres are being represented. Fan fiction is often written by young women and often changes the original storylines of the set text in one or more of the following ways; they expand the timeline (taking the characters either back in time or into the future), they re-focalise (focus on a traditional secondary character), they try and view things from the villain’s point of view so they morally-realign themselves and change the location and situation of the characters or even add themselves into the storyline. There is a growing field of genre shifting and cross-overs which involves characters from one programme meeting characters from another. But from day one in fan fiction the vast majority of fiction has revolved around emotional intensification so they expand on the relationships between the characters and also the eroticization of characters. Some see this kind of writing as ‘a new nonconformist form of female sexual expression’ (bbc.co.uk/magazine) and perhaps if nothing else this practice allows women to form a stronger idea of their own sexual identity.
FanFiction.Net is the most comphrensive collection of fan fiction online with Harry Potter alone having 337546 entries with stories being added all the time the it is hard to estimate a true number of stories available. So what does fan fiction offer its writers? For many it is a way in which to practice and hone their writing techniques and gain feedback from their peers, both on their writing style and the content of their stories. But fan fiction works on far deeper level than this as well, fan fiction allows the audience to challenge what they are being presented with. A lot of fan fiction occurs when readers or viewers are disappointed by what is produced for them and so they make up their own version of events. One writer said “Sometimes it is a case of taking something that you love and making it better and fixing it.” (bbc.co.uk/technology).
The majority of audiences are passive and as a passive audience we are continuously being manipulated when reading a text in order to associate with certain characters and how to understand the situations we are being presented with. Writers of fan fiction often reject this manipulation and refuse the dominant ideology that is implicitly held within the text. For example, within Harry Potter the dominant ideology presented is that of heterosexuality, friendship being all important and a strong sense of morals but in the fan fiction the writers often choose change these features, freeing Harry and instead the character often faces homosexual feelings (with a variety of characters) and severe lapses in his moral judgments.
Often in fan fiction there is a re-focalisation with the secondary characters taking prominence and this normally originates from when the writer finds it easier or more interesting to put themselves in that position, this allows for different ethnic groups or genders to be portrayed as positively as the dominant characters are portrayed. This can help people develop a stronger sense of identity, ensuring that themselves are represented somewhere even if not through the traditional media, such as La Guera who started writing Harry Potter stories focusing on a character with her disabilities, using the technology to help audiences understand her condition whilst still writing about her favourite characters. (bbc.co.uk/ouch).
Alongside the actual writing itself there are many communities of fans who discuss their passions online too which culminates in fan fiction and this allows groups of fans to interact together. This sense of community is surely part of what makes the internet such a social tool. Through fan forums and discussion sites people can now post their theories about their favourite text, such as the underlying messages. These can work similar to a public sphere with all people using a username and so they can say what they want without fear of being judged by external signifiers such as age and gender. However, these areas are not totally perfect as often the fan are rated in some way by how many posts they have made and this can give the forums an inequality. However, these forums do not necessarily simply discuss the seemingly irrelevant topics about the stories but they can prompt discussions that are relevant to the greater public, such as discussions about politics and images of identity in the media.
Perhaps, soon it will be more likely for fans to have more and more input into their favourite texts at the level of initial creation with authors such as J.K. Rowling already noting the importance of fan fiction as a means of expression. Perhaps creators will look at these forums in order to gain a truer sense of what their fans would really like to see and finally these previously under-represented demographics may start to be provided for like the dominant demographics already are. And maybe then fans will be seen as the true creators and responders that they are rather than merely ‘geeks’.
Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A632062
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3188813.stm
