Two Articles From The Feminist Librarian About Fanfic

[cuddyclothes]

These are two fascinating articles that are worth discussing here. These are from a blog called The Feminist Librarian. The first article mentions not writing for canons the author really loves. I find this interesting because I often don't write fic for things I love. For "Supernatural" I basically had nothing to say. I wrote crack, mostly for exchanges. One of my current obsessions, "Prodigal Son", I not only don't want to write fic for, I don't want to read fic for. I want it all contained in the the show.


Reading and Writing Fanfic As A Non-Fan

Excerpt: I was introduced to fanfiction as a genre — a genre that resonated with my own “homegrown” approach to fictional narratives (more below) — rather than coming to it through a particular fannish community. My now-wife was the one who introduced me to the language and conventions of fic, specifically slash, because she thought I would be interested in slash fiction as a form or cultural critique and also countercultural / queer erotica. I mean, it was also a wildly successful form of nerd-flirting. But I think my introduction to the activity of fanfiction as an idea rather than as a form of participation in a specific fandom continues to shape my relationship to the practice — and to fandom culture more generally.

P.S. In Fanfic Are Characters The Defining Source?

Excerpt: This is an addendum to last night’s post fueled by the conversation I had with Hanna on our walk to work (which, more often than not, constitutes gossip about fanfic).

One of the defining features of fanfic as a genre, for me, is that it is character-driven. Fic, the way I read and write it, is primarily about individual characters and their relationships (erotic or platonic) with other characters. It’s not about establishing the rules of the universe or about the suspense of the plot. It’s about asking “What would these individuals do if they were presented with X situation?” either in canon, in the canon ‘verse, or in a completely different setting (an alternate universe or AU).

Comments

[tei]

I was really interested by this from the first article:

The more I love a thing the more private I am likely to be about the pleasure I take in it. In the podcast transcript, Elizabeth and Flourish talk about the communal aspect of many iterations of fandom, and whether one can be a fan in isolation. Elizabeth describes these people as, “the books they loved as children, they never wanted to share them.” THIS WAS ME. I mean, I would recommend books I liked to friends and all that, but I was disinclined to talk about them much outside of an extremely small group of people basically constituted by my siblings and a couple of intimate, trusted friends. This is still my pattern today. The more deeply something touches me, the less likely (in general) I am to wish that pleasure could be a collective one.

I identify really heavily with that urge— that my fannish impulse is, for better or for worse, “this is mine and you can’t have it, like it or ideally even think about it” and not “I love this so much I need to share it/talk about it with other people.” But that has driven me in a completely different direction from that author— for me, fanfiction feels like kind of a response to the fact that, well, you can’t hoard your favourite stuff like that, other people are going to like it whether you want them to or not— so what do I do? I impose my vision of the thing on other people by writing fanfic. This is obviously a pretty uncharitable-sounding explanation of the motivation behind my writing, and I don’t really mean it in a bad way, but— fiction is a very sneaky way of pulling people around to your point of view. There’s no direct way of refuting a piece of fiction, you can say you think it’s OOC, but you can’t really say it’s wrong, so writing (if you can do it well enough that people want to read your stuff and voluntarily adopt your point of view for the purposes of extracting enjoyment from the story) can be a kind of power play, a statement of ownership.

I think this is also why, as both a reader and writer, I enjoy fanfiction so much more than meta. I actually actively avoid fan-produced meta about stuff I care about, because my reaction to the vast majority of it is “fuck you, don’t tell me what to think!” Whereas if the same person had produced a piece of fanfiction advancing exactly the same opinions as were contained in the meta, but through the lens of a character study… it would feel OK to adopt their point of view and agree with it.

IDK if this necessarily reflects WELL on me, but hey 🤷🏻‍♀️

[cuddyclothes]

I was pretty isolated as a kid, so my reading and TV pleasures weren't shared much. Plus I read at an adult level while still in 2nd grade.

I'm the opposite now. I'm like "THE THING! I NEED TO SHARE THIS THING! EVERYBODY, SEE THIS THING AND LOVE IT LIKE I DO!" And I love meta and analysis of the source material.

Fiction bringing people around to your POV. Interesting point! It's not uncharitable at all. It's how you interact with the material. There's no wrong or right. My main fandom has very loose (sloppy) continuity even though it's set in the same vague time (1920s/1930s). And the characters are pretty one-dimensional. So writers can basically approach the materiel in any way they want without precisely violating canon. Except for the two main characters having sex, that is.

[china_shop]

for me, fanfiction feels like kind of a response to the fact that, well, you can’t hoard your favourite stuff like that, other people are going to like it whether you want them to or not— so what do I do? I impose my vision of the thing on other people by writing fanfic. This is obviously a pretty uncharitable-sounding explanation of the motivation behind my writing, and I don’t really mean it in a bad way, but— fiction is a very sneaky way of pulling people around to your point of view.

I really identify with this. So much of my fic is "this is how I view the characters" disguised as entertainment. *g* I'm different from you, though, in that I engage in and sometimes host some meta discussions as well, because I have warring impulses between wanting community and an active fandom, and wanting my feelings about and interpretation of canon to be unmediated by other people's takes (unless I accept, adopt and integrate specific points into my reading).

But I can usually kind of side-step the feeling of being told what to think and feel if I go, for example, "We're approaching this through different lenses, and that's why other people's readings differ." (My lens is, of course, invisible to me, so it feels more right.)

IDK if this necessarily reflects WELL on me, but hey 🤷🏻‍♀️

I share your ambivalence here, too. (Plus the people who are collaboratively metaing (and shitposting) always look like they're having so much fun...)

[sodium_amytal]

I impose my vision of the thing on other people by writing fanfic. This is obviously a pretty uncharitable-sounding explanation of the motivation behind my writing, and I don’t really mean it in a bad way, but— fiction is a very sneaky way of pulling people around to your point of view. [...] writing (if you can do it well enough that people want to read your stuff and voluntarily adopt your point of view for the purposes of extracting enjoyment from the story) can be a kind of power play, a statement of ownership.

Agreed! I view it this way too. I'm not really great at writing those ship manifestos I see other people making, so my fics tend to serve as manifestos as examples of "here's why I think these characters would work well together."

I enjoy fanfiction so much more than meta. I actually actively avoid fan-produced meta about stuff I care about, because my reaction to the vast majority of it is “fuck you, don’t tell me what to think!” Whereas if the same person had produced a piece of fanfiction advancing exactly the same opinions as were contained in the meta, but through the lens of a character study… it would feel OK to adopt their point of view and agree with it.
LOL same though!

[fabrisse]

First of all, I love your icon.

Secondly, you and Cuddyclothes have hit the nail on the head about pulling people to your point of view with your writing. The best compliment that I've gotten on anything was "this is now head-canon."

[yourlibrarian]

stuff I’m in love with it usually feels like it has too strong a presence of its own for me to transform through my own voice

This seems borne out by what I've seen, which is that well written canons generally don't have much fanfic written about them -- they may get other works such as fanart or meta or videos, but much less fanfic than might be expected for their level of popularity. Besides the difficulty of matching the canon level, these works also tend to have fewer gaps which fan writers can build out or derail the canon by going in another direction.

[cuddyclothes]

Writing in the P.G. Wodehouse style (for Jeeves fics) is extremely difficult to do well. The source material is highly stylized 1st person POV and very, very funny. The man spent months on his work. There's a lot of fic that gets it sort of kind of right or opts for 3rd person POV, which turns it into another sort of fic altogether. There aren't a lot of fics that land in that sweet spot. But the level of writing is high. But the fandom is mostly based on the TV series starring Hugh Laurie (House) and Stephen Fry.

The TV series "Jeeves And Wooster" is extremely funny but the loss of Bertie's narration is significant since you lose the dexterity of the prose. But it's an excellent show and the leads are gorgeous.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, another canon that springs to mind is Pushing Daisies, where the narrator has a very specific voice and tone. I imagine quite a few writers in that canon opt for 3rd person as well. In general, very little fanfiction tends to be first person even when, as in Veronica Mars, 1st person narration guides a lot of the story.

[cuddyclothes]

My House MD fics were either 3rd person or 1st person limited. This is my first time writing in 1st person.

[kittywhite]

Agree on the character focus for writing fic, especially for fandoms where the source material tends not to get very introspective. I’ve been in a lot of male dominated fandoms over the years (UC Gundam, Initial D, Street Fighter etc) and the canon focus is always on plot progression or just to give a reason for characters to be in the same place to interact. This then for me tends to gloss over some serious issues e.g what is it like to be raised as a child soldier or to have your immediate family wiped out in quick succession? So I’m then more motivated to seek out fanfics that address these issues.

[cuddyclothes]

I love fanfics that address those issues! Plus AUs. I am a total slut for AUs.

[author_by_night]

COMPLETELY different arena, but I'm currently in a fandom for a comedy (Schitt's Creek), and there are a lot of fics that focus on the darker things the show alludes to but, being a comedy, never puts too fine a point on because if it did, it would stop being a comedy fast, or at least be a much darker comedy as opposed to the feel-good comedy it's meant to be.

I've also been into fantasy shows where the plot was mostly about plot progression rather than character study, and while I was never really in the fandoms, I definitely felt the need for more meat. Also, at times, more "everyday" interaction between the characters. Overall I prefer shows - regardless of the genre - where we see multiple locations and contexts, rather than it JUST being one place and/or context.