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bewarethewolfarmy · 7 years

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(While I totes don’t do anything else, enjoy the paper I wrote for my history class about fanfiction XD

A Poet In Whom Live All The Poets of the Past

In Virginia Woolf's “Letter to a Young Poet” she advises a young poet on being a poet; she says how all poets before and after exist within in, and that they help to move his pen, to write. In this he is ancient, and in this all creativity is a spring from which poets, all writers, drive from. So then what would her opinion of fan fiction be, the writing of stories, and poems, based on others' works? Why then does the common consensus seem to be that the drawing off of others works seem to come off as a bad thing? Fan fiction is not a bad thing innately, yet it is believed to be. Whether it is arguments about its legality, it's usefulness, or it's actual content, fan fiction has the misfortune of being given a reputation for being “bad.” Yet it has always existed; whether Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or a theater company's production of Shakespeare, the world builds it's tales on the backs of old. The continuation of it by writers today should not be an issue worth arguing but it is and so it shall be. Fan fiction does little harm and indeed instead it helps writers. It fosters ability and language skills and despite fears of copyright infringement and the content of their stories, it does not harm those whom they are based on nor readers and writers of the stories thus it should be applauded and treated with the respect it deserves as a writing style

First though there is an important question to answer: what is the subject known as fanfiction? From the perspective of a writer of fanfiction the definition would be “a piece of written prose or poetry which borrows from and is influenced by a previous work or individual”; fanfiction is something that is born from not both media such as movies and tv shows but also from real life people, thus the existence of the controversial but still fanfiction genre known as RPF or Real Person Fiction. In a more professional side, on page 20 of the online edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction “fan fiction” is defined as “amateur science fiction and fantasy fiction; fiction that uses characters or a fictional universe originally created by a professional author or for a television show, movie, etc. Also a work of such fiction” emphasizing an existence in primarily science fiction and fantasy; “fan fiction” in this form has been in use since at least 1939 where it appeared in Le Zombie, though it's shorthand name “fanfic” according to Oxford did not appear in published form until 1976 almost forty years later, undermining the popular belief that fanfiction itself is a new form. Before the age of internet, fans would publish their works in anthologies and fan-made publications known commonly as fanzines; dating back to the 1930s with the creation of The Comet in May of 1930, the existence of fanzines, primarily for fans to share among each other, allowed for the propagation of mostly non fiction letters and discussions. But the existence of fanzines such as Spockanalia, the first documented Star Trek fanzine, allowed for the spreading of fan written stories, making for some of the earliest examples of what we call fanfiction today. As the World Wide Web took hold, the sharing of fanfiction became easier, with the advent of specialized sites used for housing fanfics of specific media, ranging from Lumos for the Harry Potter community to Anne's Story Page for Titanic. Nowadays the primary sources of fanfiction in the general community are down to a handful of major sites: Archive of Our Archive, abbreviated as AO3, and Fanfiction.net, FF.net, are of the current main sites but many writers of fanfiction also use sites such as Mediaminer.org and the social platforming sites Tumblr and Facebook to post their works as well. On those dedicated sites such as AO3 and FF.net, the stories are always separated out the same as any published work, by genres such as romance or humor, as well as by their specific fandom, such as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.

As a form born in the shadows then, to people who were simply writing what interested them using stories they knew, what is benefit in making it respected and more mainstream? Well, one is the creative aspect. The creation of new stories is not a spontaneous thing; before a human may learn how to form their own sentences, they have to mimic the words spoken around them by others. It is only by taking those pieces that they can begin to form something else; similarly a writer using old media to create something else is a stepping stone to creating their own works. Authors such as Meg Cabot, RJ Anderson, Cassandra Clare, and E. L. James have all admitted to having written fanfiction in the past; Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods and The Graveyard Book, notes on his official Tumblr that “...it’s a good place to write while you’ve still got training wheels on - someone else’s character or worlds...” and in an article on The Bustle, Emma Lord says of fanfiction that “Fan fiction, for many people, is just a gateway drug to all other fiction writing.” This also counts as an educational use, helping students of creative writing and English in general to feel more comfortable in writing outside of a strictly academic environment, as explored in both “Going Public” an article by Jayne Lammers and Valerie Marsh, and “Literacy Engagement Through Online and Offline Communities Outside School: English Language Learners’ Development as Readers and Writers” by Guofang Li. Marsh and Lammers' subject “Laurie” says how “ 'the problem with [school] writing… is it wasn't storytelling at all. It was just regurgitation of facts or it was analysis of stories that were already there' “ and Li writes of a subject “Yina” that “ when I ﬁrst interviewed Yina at the beginning of ﬁfth grade, she expressed frustration and lack of conﬁdence in English” (p. 314, Li) but how after two years, in which Yina has involved herself in fanfiction and fandom in general that “Yina’s volumes of sophisticated writing of different genres suggest that she had become an accomplished writer in English” (p. 314, Li). Lammers and Marsh's paper also goes into the societal use of fanfiction, noting how “Reviews both compliment Laura's writing and also provide confirmation that Laura reached a fellow audience member—an experience Laura describes as 'meaningful.'...she derives a level of satisfaction from knowing her work was read by a social other—someone who shares her passion for Wicked”. In Angela Thomas' paper “Fan fiction online: Engagement, critical response and affective play through writing”, she states “The range of practices...is quite astonishing: collaborative writing of fan ﬁction, the teaching of...the intricate details and specialised knowledge of the ﬁeld....and dealing with management issues related to a 200 member community. For a group of predominantly 13–17 year olds, the level of writing, discussion and negotiation involved in these practices is remarkably sophisticated.” (p. 229, Thomas).

What then are the arguments against fanfiction? The major one is that of copyright; many authors, including Anne Rice, Orson Scott Card and Diana Gabaldon, have famously spoken out against fanfiction, feeling it is “illegal” and “infringes upon their copyright.” The problem with that is difficulty of arguing for copyright; to copyright something an expectation must be met that “the material is original, fixed in a tangible medium of expression, and owes its origin to an author.” (p. 201, Chatelain), which is difficult to prove with writing being inspired by other works often. In the case of The Wind Done Gone, a published work by Alice Randall based on and parodying Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell , though lower courts allowed for the blocking of the publishing of the book, the federal appeals court ultimately overturned the ruling and the estate of Mitchell ended up dropping the case and settling outside of court. In addition the existence of the Fair Use Doctrine, Section 107 of the Copyright Law, allows for the use of copyrighted work under certain circumstances, notably nonprofit. But fanfiction writers are not often looking for money when they write; as mentioned in previous paragraphs fanfiction is more a stepping stone, hobby or educational tool than anything else. As Emma Lord mentioned in another article “6 Things Everyone Who Enjoys Fan Fiction Has Heard Before, And Is Totally Over”, “people who write fan fiction don't do it for the money. We do it for the community, and for the chance to connect with writers and readers...”.

Another argument is the content of fanfiction. It is often denounced as lazy writing, often by authors such as George R R Martin who dislikes the useage of the word to what is done now with fanfiction. The discussion of fanfiction in public is something that the writers then dread; “And even though I was only 11, I still had the common sense to keep my mouth shut about it” says Emma Lord in “6 Things”. “ The idea of children using existing characters in their ﬁction writing was deﬁnitely considered bad practice” (p. 229, Thomas) is one point on it, “Anonymity affords Laura the opportunity to take risks with her writing in the fanfiction context without fear of failure or personal judgment” (Lammers and Marsh) is another. In addition is the stigma of it all being about smut, stories in which the main focus is on sex; the issue with this is the statistics. As of May 12th 2017 there are 143,086 fanfictions under the Harry Potter tag on AO3; of them 41,636 are rated “Teen and Up”, 39,765 are “General” in other words safe for children to read, 27,683 are “Explicit”, 25,272 are “Mature” and 8,762 are “Not Rated”; the majority of fics, 55.5%, are notably not Mature or Explicit which would include sex or other graphic materials. Over 84% of the fanfictions for Power Rangers is Teen or General and it is almost 59% for Angel: the Series fanfictions. While this can fluctuate between sites and between fandoms, Twilight for instance only has 40%, it is arguable that fanfiction is much more than public opinion might state.

So again, would Virgina Woolf mind fanfiction? One might say no, that by drawing upon the works of our writing ancestors, we are simply fulfilling the state of being the poet within whom lives all others. In addition there is an argument that can be made that perhaps putting effort into protecting fanfiction is unnecessary; with the protection of the Fair Use Doctrine, and many authors either condoning or simply turning their eyes from fanfiction of their work, fanfiction can appear be not be in danger. But it is not so simple as to say that fanfiction should be protected. It needs also to be embraced, in recognition as the tool for writing and for writers themselves that it is; whether because it helps a person learning a new language, or assists in socializing, or even just allows a would-be writer to grow without judgement, fan fiction writing should be given at least the respect of other writing conventions.

Bibliography:

Chatelain, Michelle. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Copyright Law: Fan Fiction, Derivative Works, and the Fair Use Doctrine." Tulane Journal of Technology & Intellectual Property, vol. 15, Fall2012, pp. 199-217. EBSCOhost, offcampus.lib.washington.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=84608741&site=ehost-live.

This paper explores the legal standing of fanfiction. The author starts off with an explanation of fanfiction but then goes on to explain how fanfiction is protected under the Fair Use Doctrine. The part that interested me the most was near the beginning where she discusses copyright and talks about phonebooks which allowed for a reasonable introduction into how fanfiction fits into copyright laws. It also makes mention of the fact that fanfiction and parody are what is called “transformative works” as well as the existence of the Organization for Transformative Works which runs Archive of Our Own and acts to protect fanfiction writers from legal battles.

Christian, Kaelyn. "Fan Fiction and the Fair Use Doctrine." Serials Librarian, vol. 65, no. 3-4, Nov. 2013, pp. 277-285. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/0361526X.2013.838726.

Similar to the previous one, this article also explores the connection between the Fair Use doctrine and fanfiction. This one though is the one that goes into the The Wind Done Gone case and what happened, giving us one of the few examples of actual published fanfiction going up against it's source material and why fanfiction is still legal. The fact that the Wind Done Gone was allowed to be published despite it's nature as a fanfiction of Gone with the Wind is important to writing.

Gaiman, Neil. "Neil Gaiman's opinion on fanfiction." Neil Gaiman. Tumblr, 24 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 May 2017.

This is the Tumblr blog for Neil Gaiman, author of the Graveyard Book and the Sandman series. As a well-known and well-liked author, his work have been subjected to interpretation and fanfiction as well as fanart. Thus his opinion on fanfiction is important; the fact he acknowledges it as something that should be best used to grow and not simply an end result of writing works to show why fanfiction is not harmful and is indeed beneficial. I like the humorous way he talks about it as well and the fact that while writing is his livelihood and he has every right to react like some others, being more defensive over his work, he treats his fans with the respect and trust enough to let them write and respect his livelihood at the same time.

Lammers J.C. & Marsh V.L. (2015). Going Public: An Adolescent's Networked Writing on Fanfiction.net. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 59(3), 277–285. doi: 10.1002/jaal.416

I originally choose this article with my outline for the paper so it was the first article I found connected to fanfiction. It goes into the social and educational uses of fanfiction, specifically on how it helped the paper's subject “Laura” with writing. I like that it goes into how important anonymity can be to a fanfiction writer and how vital it is to have the community aspect of fanfiction writing for growth of self confidence. It pairs well with the Guofang Li paper to create an image of fanfiction that goes beyond its hobby status and to a practice that is worth encouraging in young writers so they can better stretch their creative wings.

Li, Guofang. "Literacy Engagement through Online and Offline Communities outside School: English Language Learners' Development as Readers and Writers." Theory into Practice, vol. 51, no. 4, Oct. 2012, pp. 312-318. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00405841.2012.726061.

I choose this article because of its engagement with English as a Second Language students. My thoughts were that ESL students might find fanfiction useful for the development of language skills and the social connection; the article verified my beliefs I think. Like the Marsh paper, this one also focused on subjects, specifically “Yina”, and their development over time which helped to show how writing over time had assisted her instead of simply conjecture. Paired with the Marsh and Lammers writing, it explores how teachers can better help students to be able to feel comfortable writing as well as better develop their skills both in writing and social aspects.

Lord, Emma. "6 Things Everyone Who Enjoys Fan Fiction Has Heard Before, And Is Totally Over." Bustle. Bustle, 17 Nov. 2014. Web. 13 May 2017.

This is an article off of Bustle that I found while looking up information on how fanfiction is generally viewed. Written by a fanfic writer herself, it explores some of the common misconceptions and ideas of fanfiction that the public has. It is not entirely scientific but for a subject that is largely based on societal opinions and uses, and since it is written by someone who is indeed a part of the thing I'm discussing, it helps to clarify opinions on the matter. Most notably the idea that we as writers are not in it for money and we are not simply writing smut, nor are devoid of original ideas just because we choose to write based on others works.

Lord, Emma. "13 Things Fan Fiction Writers Are Very Tired Of Explaining." Bustle. Bustle, 08 Apr. 2016. Web. 13 May 2017.

An article by the same person who did “6 Things”, this one elaborates on the ideas of the first one, going more into what fanfiction writers themselves are like, not simply what our work is like. One notable thing is that she points out that people make fun of fanfiction with the belief that we're not the same as other people or other writers and won't be hurt by the insults. This being a misconception I've experienced myself with my friends I feel it is important to remember considering it's attachment to the idea that if you write fanfiction, you don't talk about it to others unless you know they are trustworthy. Another thing that did not get into the paper proper but that I see is the idea that fanfiction is based on our own feelings when it isn't always true; smut can be written by asexuals and abuse can be written by people who are entirely against abuse. Emma Lord notes that all writers involve some part of their desires in their stories but it is not the main reasoning behind writing.

Martin, George R R. "Someone Is Angry On the Internet." Not A Blog. N.p., 7 May 2010. Web. 13 May 2017.

I needed an argument against fanfiction and I knew that some authors dislike it: looking up who I found this, the writer of A Song of Ice and Fire's official blog. It's an interesting piece where he talks about how bad fanfiction is and why it shouldn't be done, based on how he thinks fanfiction has become something terrible based on what he used to write and how it apparently hurt others. The biggest issue I have with it is that it does make erroneous claims, such as that H. P. Lovecraft died poor because he allowed fanfiction and that the fanfiction GRRM himself admits to writing which didn't use the same characters from media but did use ideas and assumingly settings was better than fanfiction that uses characters from media. Still he does a good job of at least attempting a civil tone about the whole situation I think.

Ohnotheydidnt, and Goofusgallant. "Book Post: How authors feel about fan-fiction." Book Post: How authors feel about fan-fiction - Oh No They Didn't! N.p., 19 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 May 2017.

This is primarily a list and short summary of a group of authors thoughts on fanfiction. It includes JD Salinger who never dealt with fanfiction proper but did get angry over a proposed sequel of his book The Catcher in the Rye, as well as those more in favor like JK Rowling. One thing I found important that they included was the fact about some writers seeing it only about the money; while Anne Rice and GRRM mention how they are protective of their works because of wanting to be the only ones to use them, Orson Scott Card according to the post flatly says that it's about the money for him which is a valid reason. It's also funny Charlie Stross' opinion who supposedly compared himself to a dragon when it comes to fanfiction.

Prucher, Jeff. Brave New Words : The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction. Oxford ; New York: Oxford UP, 2007. Online.

This was included for the definition of fanfiction and because it's an official dictionary. I was actually surprised to find an Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, and one that included “fan fic” and “fan fiction” as actual definitions. It makes sense the definition is based on sci-fi and fantasy stories considering its placement but the definition is better I feel than some other places that emphasize the internet as a portion of how fanfiction exists, as well as actually gives examples of when fanfiction was used as a term in previous publications.

Rice, Anne. "IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM ANNE ON "FAN FICTION"." Anne Rice the Official Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2017.

As with the GRRM post, this was included primarily as a comparison against fanfiction. The important portion of the post, on Anne Rice's official page, is small, not much more than a few lines, but it is infamous within the fanfiction community for cementing the idea that she is against what we do. She's civil about it but there is little in the post on what exactly drives her to be upset over fan writings outside of her work being copyrighted.

Thomas, Angela. "Fan Fiction Online: Engagement, Critical Response and Affective Play through Writing." Australian Journal of Language & Literacy, vol. 29, no. 3, Oct. 2006, pp. 226-239. EBSCOhost, offcampus.lib.washington.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=22317451&site=ehost-live.

This one I liked for going not only into how fanfiction helps writing and how writers learn from reviews and connect through them, but also how fanfiction communities grow. The example of Middle Earth Insanity is just one of many where a group of writers and fans worked together to make a coherent community where they could all talk and enjoy themselves without worry of being judged or having to look through multiple other works to see what they most wanted. It also includes the existence of fanfictions close relative, “roleplaying” where multiple writers work together to create one story, and multiple fascets of how to write. Like other articles on fanfiction it focuses on one subject, Tina this time, and what her thoughts and experiences are but the act of having a literacy study helps in a subject that is about writing.

Woolf, Virginia. Letter to a Young Poet. N.p.: Private, 1932. Fadedpages.com. Web. 12 May 2017. <http://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20120709>.

This is the online version of the letter which I took the title of this paper from. I had heard about it during a lecture in my literature class and that line specifically made me think of fanfiction and how it is the work of those building off of others. I thought it fascinating to think of fanfiction writers as simply having within them the souls of those who wrote before and will write after so I wanted to include it; in addition as I put in my own definition of fanfiction, while the most common form is prose, there is still many fanfictions that are written in the form of poetry and I myself use the hybrid form of prose poetry, or poetic prose, to write. I think thinking of not only authors but poets in terms of how fan made works exist and evolve is important to the narrative.

#complete with annotated bibliography #fanfiction #fanfic #fan fiction #fan fic

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