As Others See Us: Fanfic in the Media

In 'Breaking Elgar’s Enigma' for The New Republic, Daniel Estrin wrote Padgett’s theory of secret codes and subterfuge might easily be categorized as Da Vinci Code fan fiction if it were not for one historical fact: Elgar was a master of cryptography.

MTV's Ira Madison III wondered What kind of Game of Thrones fan fiction has [Kellyanne Conway] been reading that she’s just throwing "massacre" around like it's free Sephora samples at the mall?

In 'How the CW Mastered the Superhero Rom-Com' for Vulture, Abraham Riesman wrote The only other place you’ll find rom-comminess among superheroes is in the vibrant world of fanfic and other fan-created media, where shootouts regularly take a back seat to smooches.

From H. Perry Horton on Film School Rejects: 'Tears in the Rain' is 'Blade Runner' Fan Fiction Done Right.

( EL James, Training Day, The Young Pope, Wattpad, Harry Potter, Bones )

Finally, from Rebecca Keegan in Vanity Fair: Hello from Los Angeles, where we’re feeling a wave of "TOLDJA!" nostalgia, keeping an eye on the Viola Davis category backlash, and writing fan fiction about Daniel Day-Lewis walking through a cemetery.

In 'How Online Fandom Is Shaping TV in 2017' for Vanity Fair, Joanna Robinson wrote "Shipping" is hardly a new TV phenomenon, and has, for a long time, enjoyed a close association with another kind of fandom—slash fiction—that focuses on the (often imagined, perceived, or extrapolated) sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex.

The Daily Star’s Marisha Aziz expanded upon Steps to Achieve Fanfiction Fame.

For JSTOR Daily, Erin Blakemore explored Fanfic as Academic Discipline.

From 'CBS, Paramount Settle Lawsuit Over 'Star Trek' Fan Film' by Eriq Gardner for The Hollywood Reporter: "There's never really been a trial over fan fiction before," says David Kluft, a partner at Foley Hoag who has written about Star Trek litigation. According to Christopher Mele in The New York Times, The [joint] statement said the studios "continue to be big believers in fan fiction and fan creativity" and encouraged amateur filmmakers to demonstrate their passion for "Star Trek" as long as their works were nonprofessional and met the companies' guidelines for fan films. Similarly, Santa Clarita Valley Signal’s Patrick Mullen wrote In its fan guidelines, CBS and Paramount said they are "big believers in reasonable fan fiction and fan creativity" within certain limits.

( Victoria, Anna Todd, John le Carré, Goldengate, Slender Man, M. Night Shyamalan, Star Wars, more on The Donald )

Singapore Book Publishers Association president Peter Schoppert told Straits Times’s Olivia Ho "Young writers and readers have the whole world in front of them and are just as likely to put their energy into Tumblr poetry or fan-fiction as learning about local literature. We have to recognise that and move from there."

I’ve no clue what this means, but here’s something from Syida Lizta Amirul Ihsan in New Straits Times: LOCAL label dUCk is curated as such that it’s narrated by a persona called D. In stories and sketches that appear on Instagram, D lives in a high-rise apartment, has two close friends, Carey and Hannah, and is in a long-distance relationship. Fans assume that D is nothing more than the voice of the brand’s founder Vivy Yusof but D maintains that she exists. There’s a cute banter between both, with fans commenting, assuming and extrapolating all possibilities like they would in fan fiction.

A Zach Schonfeld piece in Newsweek about 3 Doors Down fandom’s response to the group playing the inauguration referenced the existence of Anderson Cooper fanfic.

A piece in the Bainbridge Review revealed that the winner of "the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra’s 2017 Young Artist Concerto Competition" loves to write fan fiction and watch the Food Network.

Finally, from 'Dangerous Game: can a Calum Best vehicle with Darren Day as a Russian mob boss really exist?' (Stuart Heritage, The Guardian): "You know what they say," Best grunts 22 seconds into the trailer. "A friend helps you move, but a true friend helps you move a dead body." No they don’t, Calum. Nobody says that. I just Googled "A friend helps you move, but a true friend helps you move a dead body". It had only two results, and both of those came from a Teen Wolf fan fiction forum.

In 'Why the Technology in Rogue One Is So Old-Fashioned' for The Atlantic, Bryan Alexander wrote We expect certain storytelling forms to pay special attention to setting. Historical fiction spends a great deal of energy in recreating the past. Fan fiction does something similar for its source material.

Partner singer Lucy Niles told Exclaim’s Matt Bobkin "We read Tegan and Sara fan-fiction a lot in the car and it's disgusting."

( Sherlock, Bonn Turkington, Axanar, Sleepy Hollow, Overwatch )

Finally, in 'Arts Investigates: The Death Of The Novel' for Impact Nottingham, Matteo Everett wrote it’s worth remembering that the longest published piece ever is a Super Mario-based piece of fan fiction called The Subspace Emissary’s Worlds Conquest, clocking in at a staggering 3.5 million words – much longer than Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, which holds the Guinness World Record for the longest 'novel.'

In 'Outrageous Celebrity Sex Stories Too Hot To Be Real (Literally)' for Your Tango, Rebecca Jane Stokes observed there are celebrity fan fiction erotic stories about everyone, from Justin Bieber, Orlando Bloom and Miley Cyrus (whom you don't have to work too hard to imagine naked) to buttoned-up people like Condoleeza Rice and Louis CK.

From Cyan Abad-Jugo in Philippine Inquirer: fan fiction for you.

From Washington Post columnist Jena McGregor: [Helene Cooper’s Madame President] is not a Democrat's fan fiction of a Hillary Clinton presidency. Rather, it is New York Times journalist Helene Cooper's biography of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first democratically elected female president in African history.

In 'When Harry met Fifty Shades: what makes a book popular?' for NewStatesman, Frances Wilson wrote We love being reminded of how Harry Potter was rejected a squillion times before being picked up off the slush pile at Bloomsbury, how Fifty Shades began life as online fan fiction, how nobody wanted Lord of the Flies, how Jack Kerouac’s agent didn’t “dig” On the Road, how T S Eliot thought Animal Farm “not convincing”, and how some ­benighted editor, having read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, told John le Carré that he had no future as a writer.

( A Chinese Odyssey Part Three, epidemics, beer, Vlonald, The Last Temptation of Christ, Buffy )

In a Sydney Morning Herald review of Walliams and Friend, Ben Pobjie wrote On the odd occasion – a neat boy-band piece, a shamelessly silly slice of Great British Bake Off erotic fan fiction – the show fires up, but the trend is more towards thin concepts barely propped up by the star power of Walliams and his big-name partner.

For Geek, Tony Polcano opined that Star Wars: Tales From a Galaxy Far, Far Away is Professional-Grade Fan Fiction.

For Study Breaks, Michelle Criqui answered You’ve probably imagined two fictional characters getting together, but why?

In a Rogue One review for Vulture, Abraham Riesman wrote There’s a useful literary concept that comes from the world of fanfiction: fix-it, a term for stories that “fix” the canonical version of a given tale to make it more satisfying.

Finally, The Daily Pennsylvanian’s Hyun Jin Cha quoted a freshman regarding her finals study strategy: "I went home, and I like, made like a pound of pasta. So I stocked up on pasta for the rest of the week. And I read a lot of FanFiction. And…I did some laundry. And I watched Yuri on Ice."

From NPR’s Andrew Lapin: A Young Writer Finds A Fan Fiction Community — And Himself — In 'Slash'. For Spectrum News, Victor Diaz wrote The coming of age drama is about young author whose erotic fan fiction creates unexpected comic-con experiences. For The New York Times, Ben Kenigsberg described the main character as a 15-year-old who writes erotic fan fiction. Village Voice’s April Wolfe wrote Writer-director Clay Liford, in his endearing comedy Slash, explores these identity crises through the burgeoning world of fan-fic Comic-Con nerds as they face the real-life and online hardships of being a teen today. And, for Film Journal, John DeFore wrote Real-world fanfic enthusiasts may appreciate the attention, but most could probably hatch a more involving tale in the time it takes to scratch "Kirk + Spock 4 Evr" into a wooden bench.

In a piece about the importance of social media to teens for The Washington Post, Julia Carpenter shared On the fan-fiction social media platform [WattPad], Tahlie collects user-submitted stories about body acceptance and shares them with more than 9,000 followers.

In a review of Life, Animated for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw wrote that Disney movies became [the film’s subject’s] new alphabet, his building blocks for making sense of the world, and he wrote his own comic-book fan fiction about Disney sidekicks.

( Harry Potter, Walking Dead, Warcraft, US politics, pizza gate, Burn Country, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Vampire Diaries, Star Trek )

Tumblr’s content insights manager Amanda Brennan told Alternative Press’s Maggie Dickman "Tumblr is like where you go to share your passions... When you find a space like Tumblr where you can live your life online with the people who feel that same passion, you can share your fan art, you can share your silly fan fiction, just in the same breath that you share these true emotional stories about what happened when you met the band, or the moment you got the album, your reaction."

For The Guardian, Simon Usborne wrote that, for 13-year-old lip-synching (?) twins Harvey and Max Mills, Fame has started to change family life, even if the money hasn’t – yet. The boys’ PO box address receives about a dozen items a day, including chocolates, fan fiction and artwork.

Also for The Guardian, Alice Bell wrote There’s a strong social element to a lot of climate scepticism – conversations in comment threads, debates in forums, offline meetups. There’s even climate sceptic fanfic if you know where to look.

Finally, in a Washington Post piece examining Supreme Court options for Obama, Aaron Blake wrote In the end, this is probably liberal fan fiction rather than a serious proposal. But it's notable that we've come to this point.

In 'TV for hipsters: how two new shows are trying to appeal to the cool kids' for The Guardian, Megan Koester wrote Emboldened by the success of Girls and Broad City, television has recently seen a rash of programs focused on the lives of such characters: Netflix’s Love, FXX’s You’re the Worst and HBO’s Insecure at the high end, and MTV’s impressively mediocre Mary + Jane (which plays as little more than Broad City fan fiction) at the low.

In 'Who are the Antonine Maillets of the future?' for The Journal Pioneer, Natalie Pendergast wrote I wonder what form common story-telling will take in the future—if not novels and poetry, will it be chronicles of Youtube stars, web series, online fanfiction?

In a piece about writing letters to editor, Battle Creek Enquirer's Annie J. Kelley wrote, of a letter she wrote years ago, that it is obvious that her younger self had been watching a lot of "West Wing" at the time, too, which is why the letter comes off as a fan-fiction attempt of an Aaron Sorkin speech.

In 'Fantastic Beasts Finds Success' for The Cornell Daily Sun, David Gouldthorpe wrote The biggest problem with Cursed Child was that it felt more like a fanfiction than a natural extension of the series. It focused on time travel, while the original books were all mysteries.

( Michael Chabon, HRC, podcasting, Axanar, Victoria, Jim Chapman, Grey’s Anatomy, Benedict Cumberbatch, My Immortal )

Regarding industry-produced podcasts, New York Times's Rob Walker wrote Outside of download numbers, [head of media innovation for G.E.] Ms. [Alexa] Christon said, G.E. judged the success of "The Message" partly by way of "the organic groups that have sprung up" in places like Reddit, swapping plot theories and even generating fan fiction.

In 'Porpentine Charity Heartscape's New Novella is Science-Fiction About Living with Trauma, and Slime Sex' for East Bay Express, Donna Kazimarki wrote Heartscape's art often intertwines explorations and exorcisms of her experiences as a poor, abuse survivor and chronically ill trans-woman with critiques of popular culture and academic discourses. Her inspirations are found in the visceral and pulpy worlds of fan fiction, erotic literature, and dialogue between video-game characters — things seen as lowbrow by society that are revelatory to Heartscape.

Click through if 'Chinese Reality TV Show Under Fire For Inappropriate Pairing,' or the fanfic thereof, doesn’t put you off .

Finally, a note in Springfield News-Sun pointed me to this gem by Anna Wilson in Aeon, 'Full-body reading': One of the terrible secrets about attending graduate school in literature is that it can ruin your ability to read for pleasure; pick up a book, and a nasty voice whispers that you should be reading something serious – or reading something seriously. So in the classroom, I learned to put away my body. Outside of the academy, however, specifically through fanfiction, I was learning to read with it.

In a piece about Hong Kong politician Yau Wai-ching for TIME, Nash Jenkins wrote Her parents kept a strict moratorium on television watching, so instead she read — Chinese classics from the imperial dynasties, mostly. She studied these works at Lingnan University, and wrote pieces of fan fiction exploring their themes, particularly what she recognized as their latent homoerotic subtexts.

From Meghan Morris in The Post (Ohio University): Fan fiction provides as an outlet to fans to express original ideas.

The Daily Tarheel published 'a list of things you can do to show kindness this week' which included Write fanfiction about your friend and their political idol. (Jenni Ciesielski, Rachel Jones, Sarah Vassello)

In a piece on new apps for Albany Student Press, Diego Cagara recommended Pocket, which lets you save an intriguing article, story or even a piece of fanfiction that you want to spend time reading but you may not have the time to do it at that moment. I think I’ve had this capability in some form since, um, 1993…

In 'Oxford professor Carolyne Larrington on Game of Thrones and how the hit HBO series might end' for Herald Sun, Bernard Humphreys wrote "There’s a lot of storylines he needs to tie up," she said, but she is sure that whatever happens, Martin’s mythical Westeros will not be destroyed by war, politics, dragons or monsters, and that the author will leave his imaginary land with a future, perhaps to be perpetuated in other forms, such as fan fiction. (If you hit a paywall, try googling the quote.)

The Boston Globe’s Dugan Arnett noted that There have been, over the past few months, election-inspired podcasts and election-inspired performance art, election-inspired Twitter parody accounts and election-inspired fan fiction.

For The Franklin News, Christina Ramey wrote If you look at them closely, sports fandoms and TV show fandoms are not as different as you may think. Both consist of a large group of people who share a common interest or love for something that, to them, is very enjoyable to watch. Sports teams have their fantasy football leagues, talk shows and ESPN to satisfy them. Fandoms have fan-run Instagram accounts, fan art, fan fiction and conventions to satisfy them.

In a review of a recent comedy show for Washington Free Beacon, Blake Seitz wrote The emcee’s opening riff set the tone. She had been “raised pretty religious” in a Christian household, she told us, but fell away from the faith and now couldn’t understand why so many people wanted to use the Bible—”the best-selling fan fiction in history”—to take away her rights as a “queer” and “really big feminist” who also “hates kids.”

Finally, according to Daily Dot’s Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, Some of the best writing about the 2016 election was fanfiction.

A number of celebrity media sources, including Gabrielle Chung on Celebuzz, discussed What Zayn Malik Thinks of One Direction Fanfiction. Singer Zayn Malik found reading One Direction fan fiction to be "unnerving", but says he enjoys fan art (The New Indian Express).

In a review of '"Six Swans," a clever mixture of Drake’s Six God nickname and Sufjan’s "Seven Swans" album' for Eagle News, Luke Janke wrote Along with the album, the Tumblr user also wrote a 20-part fan fiction series featuring the two artists’ budding romance and has also made a fan video of Stevens and Drake getting married at the Canadian border with Beyoncé and Rihanna in attendance.

( Harry Potter, George Lucas, Splash, Sociology, Abbi Jacobson, Pentatonix, Donald Trump, zines )

In a review of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back for The Weekender, Mike Sullivan wrote This unwanted sequel is like bad Jack Ryan fan-fiction written by your father’s drinking buddy after he hit his head on the curb.

The Guardian’s Claire Armitstead interviewed Naomi Alderman: After university she briefly worked as a PA at a children’s publisher, then talked her way into a job editing publications for an international law firm, which sent her to its New York office. There she became involved in fan fiction, after receiving "a call from God" to attend a Buffy the Vampire Slayer conference in Nashville, Tennessee, "which changed my life by making me think of this show I loved in new, critical, ways."

McPherson Sentinel’s Patricia Middleton profiled local author Alyson Holman, who gained experience writing one chapter at a time when she wrote stories for Fanfiction.net, focusing on her favorite characters from "Sherlock," "Thor," "Avengers" and "Stargate: Atlantis."

In 'Daisy Ridley responds to Rey being called a 'Mary Sue'' for Entertainment Weekly, Devan Coggan wrote The term has its roots in fan fiction, where it’s usually used to describe a character that’s just thinly-veiled wish fulfillment, or the author inserting a perfect version of themself into a world they love.

Finally, from Kevin Harley on GamesRadar: Is it just me, or should we stop using 'fan fiction' as a catch-all putdown?

In a review of Haters Back Off! for The New York Times, James Poniewozik wrote The season is scattered with inspiredly weird set pieces, like a fan-fic production of “Annie” in which Daddy Warbucks and his orphan adoptee are romantically involved.

For Cecil Whig, Joe Antoshak quoted librarian Katelyn McLimans "I used to write fan fiction a lot […] I was the kid who was really into this kind of stuff when I was in high school, too. So it’s kind of cool to see these kids play around with it."

( Big Bang Theory, Jetters, Cursed Child, Johnny Miller on Tiger Woods, Harry Potter, Obamacare )

Fluvanna Review’s Page H. Gifford shared that As a young girl [local author Leslie] Truex dabbled in fan fiction.

Finally, from Will Harris in The Virginian-Pilot: If you’re a TV, sci-fi, and comic book fan who enjoys seeing fan fiction come to life, then you’ve probably been loving the last few years or so, where we’ve been fortunate enough to see such remarkable achievements as Batman meeting The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise getting a visit from the TARDIS.

From Ram Sarangan in The Indian Express: Fanfiction: A billion-word phenomenon.

According to The Frisky’s Kelly Kanayama, Romance fanfiction about Rihanna and the French president is now a thing that exists.

For Financial Times, Matt Trueman wrote By grouping plays by their extremities, in-yer-face theatre risks reducing them to the shocks they spring. They start to sound like warped Friends fan-fiction: The One Where Someone Shits Onstage, The One With the Cannibalised Baby.

For The Inquisitr, Chanel Adams explored How Taylor Swift’s Love Life Has Turned Into Fanfiction. And, for Vanity Fair, Kenzie Bryant wrote Of course, if you ask Swift and Hiddleston, or Styles and Tomlinson (and somebody did), they would say that it’s not harmless; that it disrupts their lives. But for the majority of people, it’s ultimately a way to get more bang for your buck out of your stars—a fan fiction that involves a really good twist and a never-ending thread—at a minimal cost.

( Wonder Woman, Sherlock, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Doc Martin, Hamilton, A Chinese Odyssey Part Three, Antonin Scalia, Star Wars, Cursed Child,  )

In a piece about what it’s like to have a winning football team – a VERY winning football team – for The Specturm (North Dakota State University), Benjamin Norman wrote It’s as if God decided to write some fan-fiction about some nobodies at NDSU, and then published it for craps and laughs.

For The Film Stage, Mike Mazzanti reported that Fan Fiction is Brought Vividly to Life in Trailer for SXSW Hit ‘Slash’.

In ‘Being a young obsessed fan once is part of who you are now’ for Herald Sun, Alice Clarke wrote I can’t imagine what it would have been like in the days when Star Trek fans were exchanging printed magazines of fan fiction.

Wired’s Clive Thompson wrote if you really want to explode the possibilities of a mode of communication, you have to make it easier for amateurs to get in. There are more of them, and they have the time to try crazy stuff. When scientists and researchers created the web, many of them figured it would be for formal, professional communication. Then GeoCities came along, and everyday people barged online—creating sites for bands and fan fiction and diaries. They paved the path for blogging.

Christine Laskodi listed 11 TV SlashFic 'Ships That Never Sailed for TV Fanatic.

From The Federalist’s David Harsanyi, regarding last week’s POTUS debate: I don’t care if [Lester] Holt writes Ronald Reagan fanfic in his spare time, he consistently let Hillary off the hook.

Finally, in ‘A "Harry Potter" religion? Count us out’ for Indiana Daily Student, the Editorial Board reminded readers that Fan fiction fills the Internet, hundreds of thousands traverse The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios and many waited in line at midnight release party when Rowling contributed to a spinoff play in July, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” then went on to pan some podcast for being boring.