COLUMN: Watching fan fiction is a guilty pleasure of summer
Published: July 15, 2010
Fan fiction has always been one of those things that I’ve associated with disgruntled “Battlestar Galactica” nerds dissatisfied with the Starbucks’ dialogue, or 12-year-old girls fantasizing about the adventures of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask on first base.
For many years, a friend of mine has been trying to convince me to log on to www.fanfiction.net. But because I was very busy and had a life, I refused until May 23. You’re a bastard if you don’t realize this is when the last episode of “LOST” aired and the Internet broke because of fans’ angry reaction to the finale. I, too, felt the finale didn’t live up to my expectations, despite how low they were, so I did something I thought I would never do - I went to www.fanfiction.net. I was surprisingly impressed.
The website is one of the most popular sites for fans of the genre to read and publish their stories. Television fan fiction is awesome because if, like me, you hated an episode or plot thread in a television show, you can just find a new one.
Fan fiction isn’t just a chance for angry people to change the alleged mistakes their favorite writers made in their various works, but the chance to create their own stories with other peoples’ ideas. Sometimes the stories you read end up being terrible and you wish you never laid eyes on them, but most of the time you get what you expected: most of the writers aren’t professionals, but are honing their writing skills.
Slash is the raunchier side of this medium. Slash refers to a sexual relationship between two same-sex characters.For some odd reason, there is an abundance of Kirk and Spock slash out there to piss off Trekkies concerned about continuity. But I’m not into that kind of “fanfic.”
Don’t shove the website in the box of completely useless ideas; it actually has been used as a medium for up-and-coming writers to hone their skill to an audience. For instance, a few established science fiction writers, such as Marjorie M. Liu, the co-writer of Dark Wolverine and a published science fiction writer, have authored some fanfic.
No matter how you try to color it, however, it still feels like a waste of time because it isn’t exactly canon-worthy material. You have to admit you could spend more useful time reading a book or organizing your filthy, filthy life.
But it’s just so much fun.
Comments
Mokibobolink 1 year, 7 months ago
Great article! I'm not only an avid fanfiction reader and writer, I'm also trying to spread the word that fanfic is not just for (as you said) 12 year old girls. Not that there's anything wrong with 12 year old girls, I used to be one of them.
Fanfiction is a great way to hone writing skills, meet new people online (I've lost count of how many friends I've met through fanfic) and basically have fun with characters that you already love. What could be better than that?
Thanks so much for writing an article on this subject. I'm going to post a link to it on my blog right now, in fact. :o) www.mokisfanfictionblog.com>
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-Moki
fayjay 1 year, 6 months ago
Thing 1: It's lovely that you've discovered fanfiction! Welcome aboard; as you've undoubtedly realised, since you've started off by dipping your toes into the murky waters of Fanfiction.net, quality varies wildly. Might I suggest the Organisation for Transformative Work and the Archive of Our Own for a site where the ratio of twelve year olds to adults is a bit less daunting?
Thing 2: "Slash" isn't actually the raunchier side of fanfiction. There's a plethora of fanfiction which includes romantic and/or sexual relationships to a greater or lesser degree, some risible, some excellent - the raunchier side of fanfiction is the sexually explicit stuff, regardless of whether it's about a man and a woman, two guys, two girls, or all of the above plus a giant squid.
Slash, more subtly, refers to stories which posit that characters are gay or bi, regardless of whether or not they are out in canon. Plenty of slash is NOT raunchy. Plenty of 'Het' is pornalicious.
Thing 3: In addition to fanfiction providing many writers with the opportunity to hone their skills in preparation for moving into publishing original fiction (take a bow Naomi Novik, Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan et al) plenty of already published writers have been known to dabble in fanfiction (Joanna Harris, Neil Gaiman, Naomi Novik et al). Beyond that, though - fanfiction is a form of writing which exists in dialogue with another text or texts. As such, it functions as a commentary, much as book reviews, movie reviews, and dissertations on 'War and Peace' do. There are some superlative pieces of fanfiction out there which examine and challenge and deconstruct texts, and are genuinely transformative: for example, I recently read a short piece of 'Mary Poppins' fanfiction, of all things, which tackled the legacy of colonialism quite brilliantly by positing the titular nanny as desi character.
Like any genre, and any artform come to that, one can find fanfiction which is comforting and escapist, or fanfiction which is challenging and incisive.
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