Tracing usage

[yourlibrarian]

I've mentioned in my personal blog that I think 2009 is the year when fan fiction has become, if not a mainstream pastime, at least a term understood by many in the media and requiring less explanation in the press. What interests me though, is how this term is being re-interpreted by a wider audience to become, less about actual fan fiction, than about what the speaker sees as related issues. In some cases we may agree with them, in others, the usage seems a little nebulous.

For example, this blurb in the L.A. Times discusses trailer vids as part of the "fan fiction universe." While I personally feel trailer vids aren't nearly as similar to fanfic as, say, AU vids, or commentary vids that do interesting things with POV, I would agree with the title which slots creative fan work in visual form along with its written form. In a similar vein, Jon Stewart's use of the term to describe FOX news' creative reinterpretation of facts, grasps the spirit of fanfic (even though I doubt much political fanfic has actually tread that particular ground).

On the other hand, this post about the accurate imagineering of a car seems to be using the title to describe creative speculation. While this certainly describes some forms of fanfic, it's a bit of a stretch to apply it to car design specifically. More importantly, while fanfic is certainly speculative, this seems to put a certain emphasis on anticipating canon which seems to be very typically male to me – as if the purpose of fic is to guess (correctly) where canon will go and "winning" if one guesses right.

Whereas it seems to me that most fanfic I read seems to take a very different POV about canon, in exploring areas it's not expected to go, or reworking areas where it's been. Whether with characters or storylines, the fanfic focuses on reopening doors that have been closed off, or blazes new trails, sometimes ones where the creators were unable or unwilling to go.

All of which is to say, in what ways do we see the wider media grasping the elements of fan fiction in its more traditional sense, and where is it being broadened or applied in rather different ways?

Comments

[hl]

Uhm, I would really hesitate to call any fan activity like anticipating canon 'male'. In HP fandom, most of the authors who were writing year six, seventh, etc, fanfic, before the book came out were women--because most authors were women. I don't see anything male in trying to anticipate canon--most of my earlier participation in fandom was comprised of canon discussion and speculation, and I'm a girl. (Woman, I guess.)

I really don't think one can generalize and say that fanfic always threads new ground. I would say that in many fandoms, that's actually rarely the case. One fanfic opens a possible storyline and then a million and two explore that possibility until it's mined out, and the same happens when canon opens a new path. But I would also hesitate to say that fanfic (or fandom) in general dedicates to rewrite the same things over and over--I find that that changes depending the particular fandom, and probably changes with time, too.

But I see that I'm not helpful at all, because by not wanting to generalize, one can hardly analyse stuff. Oh, well.

[yourlibrarian]

But I see that I'm not helpful at all, because by not wanting to generalize, one can hardly analyse stuff. Oh, well.

Heh. Well, I'm pretty sure there are plenty of men who write stories that aren't anticipating canon, just as there are women who are. But in that particular example which, to me, had very little to do with fanfic at all, it was definitely men discussing a male activity. On the other hand, the video trailers being spoke of in the other link would, presumably, also be attempting to anticipate canon in some way since they're meant as previews of the new film, and those are presumably made by women. However one article put that work alongside other fan creative work in a collection and the other used it for a very specific action devoid of any connection to anything else I could see. Which I also found very interesting.

In any case, I'm curious about other extrapolations of the term in different situations which aren't specifically fanfic related. Or which are but put different interpretations on the term.

[seekingferret]

The same kind of car-inspired artist who might try to guess at the unreleased new 'canon' model will also be drawing new concepts of their own, second guessing Jaguar in exactly the ways you suggest make up the core of fanfic. If he was able to come close, it was surely because of significant experience trying to reverse engineer the Jaguar signature look in his own concepts, much the way fanfic writers who try to write their own stories in someone else's universe first have to figure out how canon works in that universe.

In engineering school, several of my more automotively inspired classmates had a sketchpad constantly at hand for drawing car concepts. It was not altogether very different from the high school classmates who had a sketchpad for drawing anime characters.

Suggesting that men have different ways of interacting with their fandoms than women is not novel ground, but pointing out specific ways without understanding the fandom can be perilous.

[yourlibrarian]

If he was able to come close, it was surely because of significant experience trying to reverse engineer the Jaguar signature look in his own concepts, much the way fanfic writers who try to write their own stories in someone else's universe first have to figure out how canon works in that universe.

Hmm! That's an interesting way of looking at fanfic, as reverse engineering.

pointing out specific ways without understanding the fandom can be perilous

Perilous to what?

[seekingferret]

I'm not saying that fanfic is reverse engineering. I'm saying that reverse engineering canon is the vital first step that comes before fanfic. (In the engineering world, reverse engineering is never an end in itself)

And I meant perilous to actually coming to an understanding of how people work.

[hl]

I meant perilous to actually coming to an understanding of how people work.

I agree.

[yourlibrarian]

How do you think the ends are similar then?

I meant perilous to actually coming to an understanding of how people work.

Well, technically speaking this post is not about that, it's about how people understand the term and are starting to use it in different ways. However, I think it's unnecessary in a conversation to have a full understanding of a topic to raise it for discussion. That's one reason for other people to contribute their perspectives.

[seekingferret]

Well, as hl points out, the end goals of fanfic are not unified. Sometimes, it's about speculating about canon. Sometimes it's about contradicting a point of canon. Sometimes it's about telling stories canon can't or won't. Sometimes it's about retelling stories canon already has. I don't want to privilege any of these goals, so I find that trying to compare automotive concept drawings to fanfic in terms of ends is too abstract a question to be answerable.

[yourlibrarian]

Do you think that the authors of that article were thinking of ends when they used the term? I thought it interesting that they presumed their audience would not only understand the reference but its application, yet I wondered what attributes of the term they felt were applicable.