and at some point i also have to finish my yuletide fic

[whynot]

So my anthropology final is going to be about fanfiction as a platform for the expression of subaltern rhetoric (specifically, pro-LGBT and pro-women rhetoric), and I'll be using Merlin and Narnia fandoms as case studies. Basically, my essay is about: YOU GUYS. I have a 4-page outline for 20-ish (15-ish?) pages and it's due on Tuesday omg.

It was such a trip making this outline. I was writing about The Last Battle, and my gut instinct was to warn for spoilers. Spoilers! Warning for spoilers in an academic essay: I WON'T DO IT, but it feels wrong not to anyway! I'm probably going to compile stats & figures from LJ comms, fic archives, and kinkme_merlin (OMG I'M GONNA TALK ABOUT KINKME_MERLIN IN AN ACADEMIC PAPER) to support my claim that, what, people are into slash. Maybe I'll even make a table of it and put it in the appendix?!? MAYBE I'LL MAKE PIE CHARTS D: D: (XD)

There are peer-reviewed journals and published books about this stuff, but this paper doesn't feel like a grad-level anthro final. It feels like a "what I did over my summer vacation" essay, or an especially self-indulgent LJ post.

I've some interview questions for you guys, 'cos it's not everyday that the subject of my paper topic is but a flist away! Answer one, some, or all; I'd be happy with whatever.


1) Activism within fandom: is it effective? What are examples? I'm talking about when fandom bands together and does something concrete-ish in terms of fund- and awareness-raising. Like, what was that thing not so long ago where ppl were like, "Donate money to this pro-LGBT cause and I'll produce a fanwork for you!"? Or what about the Strikethrough migration, what the hell was up with that? This question is asked in context of why we choose fantasy fiction as a valid battleground for identity politics.

2) Why DO you write fanfiction? What are the relationships between ficcer, fic, and canon to you? (I'm especially interested in the opinions of those who porn, because I do not tend to porn and feel like I'm missing out on a huge subsection of fandom because of it.)

3) How tangible is the fannish community? Do you chat with these people everyday? Do you email them often, or about non-fannish things? Do you meet them IRL? What is the value of your interactions with fellow fans?

4) Small fandom (e.g. Narnia) vs. large fandom (e.g. Merlin): do you have a preference? Why?

5) "Fanfiction is the act of taking something that doesn’t represent you and transforming it into something that does." Discuss.



Non-interviewy questions--

a) What is that article about Merlin when it was new, in which Colin and Bradley were surprised/chuffed that the show was so embraced by the gay community?
b) Do you guys have links to the Merlin producers/publicists blatantly shipping Bradley/Colin, even if just for the slash fans' benefit? Like, that time when Bradley was playing charity soccer and Julian Jones or wtfe was like yeah, Colin's gonna be there with a sponge and bucket to wipe him down.
c) Not for my essay, but: are Katie McGrath's eyes green or blue? THEY'RE GREEN DAMMIT, but I've seen a lot of blue in fics. (GREEN.)

Comments

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

1) Activism I'm not personally involved with really, though I have seen some, and I know that people tend to talk about issues they're passionate about (I helped pass along information about the situation in Iran back in June). As for identity politics - when you are writing fiction, you are able to write about situations that would never actually happen to you, stripping things down. I think people identify the most with what they recognize, and you recognize yourself the most. I tend to write Susan and Edmund the most in Chronicles of Narnia because I see myself in them a lot. Since I'm writing about people similar to myself, it ends up turning into identity politics - how I view myself, how I view the world - we write what we know, and what I know or want to know is what I am, so that's what I write. Somebody showed me a quote recently by a writer who said that writing can be about what we know or what we don't know that we know, or an exploration of what we don't know. I think that's really true - I mean, if you look at what I write, about 75% of it is spiritual/emotional rehabilitation fic, which is something that I've been working on for myself for the past year.

2) I write fanfiction because I love the canon but feel that it's missing something, or I love the potential of the canon but wish it was written better/with more exploration of something (Narnia!), or because I love the characters so much I just want to keep writing about them later in life, and what happens next. Canon fluidity depends on the fandom - in Narnia, I follow only the bare structures of the books and follow the movies much more closely. In Harry Potter, I follow canon closely up until the end of Book 7, unless it regards characterization, which I sometimes feel is done too broadly. Something I think is true - if you don't at least love the potential in a story, why are you writing about it?

3) My communication with fandom occurs almost entirely on LJ, but I do have the emails of a few friends, and my LJ includes non-fannish things. I would love to meet fandom friends, but at the moment am restricted by age and parents and my own decision not to try that until I'm a little older. I consider the value of my fandom interaction really highly - in RL my family moves in a very conservative, kind of prejudiced circle that I have a lot of trouble getting along with, and being able to talk to people who have completely different viewpoints from what is the norm around me has opened my horizons and broadened my interests.

4) I'm... not much of a fandom person, actually? I mean, I write, and I do icons when I have the tools, and I talk the movies/books/shows with my friends, but I'm not actively involved in any fandom. My involvement tends to center around my friends. I guess I like larger fandoms more? That way when I do get involved there's a lot more options, and if I want to find a specific type of fic the odds are it's going to be around somewhere.

5) "Fanfiction is the act of taking something that doesn’t represent you and transforming it into something that does." Discuss. yes yes yes aghksldhgldksgj. YES. like I said up further! we take things and make them about us, because that's simply what people do. The canon that we take was not made to represent us, but we write bits and pieces and transform parts and turn it into something that is a representation of us - of our identity and our decisions and our beliefs. You write what you know, yeah? Or what you don't know that you know.

[animus-wyrmis.livejournal.com]

I write fanfiction because I love the canon but feel that it's missing something, or I love the potential of the canon but wish it was written better/with more exploration of something (Narnia!), or because I love the characters so much I just want to keep writing about them later in life, and what happens next
Way to say everything I meant way better than I did! This x a million. <3333

I always stick really close to canon (bookverse all the way!) because I don't really feel the point otherwise? I dunno, I feel like part of the fun is taking what I see and trying to add in around it, and it feels like cheating not to play with what I'm given, somehow.

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

Totally. Working within close boundaries can give birth to the most creative solutions :)

[twoskeletons.livejournal.com]

An exploration of what we don't know! I really like that. It rings true. I like also what you said about stripping things down. It reminds me of Japanese bunraku theater or the xkcd comics, where people are able to relate to the stories and characters a lot because the characters are archetypal, universal, and basic. By being faceless, or generically faced, you superimpose your face onto them. By being nothing, they are become legion.

Oh Harry Potter. My impression of Book 5 and onwards are: "LOTS OF STUFF HAPPENS."