"They say this is the Gift of Men, to be less substantial than dust, wasted upon the gale and then heard no more. To strive, to build, to grow, and to die: The Glowing Ones, the Whores of the Valar, have dressed the ugly truth in their pretty words which they hand down from their groaning palaces on the grave-mounds of Time. But this is the truth: the sons of Men live for ever striving with Death upon a field of honour in which no honour is possible, and They watch us like mighty lords entertained by the blood-sport between slaves. They would never stoop so low as to feast and take pleasure amid our flesh and bones, instead they grow bright upon the wreckage of our souls. Love this world or despise it, it matters not - to corruption our bodies aspire, and our souls to oblivion" (Vulgarweed). So begins A. Vulgarweed’s fanfic titled "The Ring and The Crown" which uses characters from Tolkien’s prologue to the Lord of the Rings saga, the Silmarillion. To many, fanfiction is something written by 13-year old girls with no concept of spelling and grammar, and who would not know a good story if it beat them over the head. Yet the above quotation sounds nothing like something such a person would write. So why has fanfiction had this horrible reputation for so long? Perhaps it is because those speaking out against it use the stereotype of fan authors being that 13-year old. But enough is enough. Despite what others would have you believe, fanfiction is indeed a legitimate form of literature.

Fanfiction is prose, poetry, or drama written by fans of a film, television series, book, video game, etc. featuring the author’s favorite characters. The stories are usually posted on the Internet, though occasionally authors will publish their works in a fan magazine or 'fanzine', to be distributed by mail or at a convention. One can find fanfiction in any fandom, ranging from the popular fandoms like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter to the obscure and odd such as My Little Pony or even George Orwell’s 1984. In these stories, anything is possible. While many fanfic authors prefer sticking to canon and merely use their fiction as a way of expanding on the universe, picking up where the original creator left off, many others change things around to their liking. In 2003, when the long-awaited 5th book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released to eager audiences, fans were shocked and dismayed when the beloved character of Sirius Black was unexpectedly killed by falling into what J.K. Rowling called 'the veil'. While many mourned his loss, other fans were outraged by Sirius’s seemingly abrupt and currently unexplained death. Thus fanfic writers decided to set things right. The Harry Potter archives exploded with alternate universe or AU fiction in which Sirius never died. Others expanded on what happened once he fell into the veil, thus allowing fans some semblance of closure. The more popular fanfiction, however, usually centers around a relationship or ‘ship between two characters. While again some prefer to stick to canon and pair Harry with Ginny and Ron with Hermione, the majority of fans tend to venture into the realm of 'fanon'. Harry could have a love affair with Hermione, fall head over heels with Pansy, or even decide that there really is a thin line between love and hate when he suddenly realizes how striking Draco looks in his robes.

Now that we know exactly what fanfiction is, how does it fit in as a genre of literature? For the most part, it meets the most widely used definition of literature, that being a written text. However, many naysayers have spoken out against fanfiction and have called the authors such names as thieves, plagiarists, and just bad writers. The main argument against fanfiction says fanfic authors are uncreative as they are borrowing characters someone else created, and that to be a true writer, the author must come up with a completely original story.

According to Camille Bacon-Smith, in her book Enterprising Women, "They have stolen characters, settings, plots off the home and movie screens, fleshed them out, created new characters for them to love and given the characters permission to love each other" (Smith 4). Why do these writers risk the wrath of the copyright holders? The simple reason is because the holders have no basis to take legal action against them. Though these writers are using copyrighted characters, they make no profit from this fiction (Smith 4). In some cases, the owner of a popular website that houses fiction will have a PayPal button that invites users of their site to donate money in order to keep the site running, but this is a voluntary action. Even with the fan published fan-zines, the cost is only to pay for the paper the zines are printed on. The second noted reason is because fanfiction is great for public relations. There is no greater example of advertisements for movies, TV shows, etc. than fan written fiction about favorite characters. New participants to certain fandoms often learn about TV shows via this fiction. Even I have been dragged into new fandoms this way. But of course, the biggest reason is the "enormity of the 'problem'" (Smith 5). Fanfiction is written by hundreds of thousands of people on the 'Net; for the copyright holders to actually believe they can sue every one of them is far-fetched. On the popular archive site, fanfiction.net, the number of works posted everyday is immense. In the Harry Potter category alone, the current total of fics written and archived on the site is 243,126 (as of this morning). Even if they were able to ban fanfiction from the Internet, writers would still write fan fiction in the privacy of their own homes. Before the Internet, fanfiction writers, specifically in the Star Trek fandom, would publish fiction in the previously mentioned fan-zines. The conception of fanfiction only became known to the outside world around the start of the Internet, when it became a public domain. In light of all this evidence, to say that fanfiction writers are thieves is inaccurate. Even when using copyrighted characters, it is an unwritten rule that writers add a disclaimer to the beginning of their work, declaring that they have no ownership of the character(s).

Now beyond these reasons many would claim that fanfiction authors are still merely using borrowed characters, and that therefore means they are not real writers. However, the tradition of using another’s characters goes back farther than just fanfiction. This dates back as far as the existence of the Arthur legends. People who heard the tales would create their own versions, and even sometimes add their own characters. The character of Lancelot did not even exist until the time of the Normans (Hale). Even in modern fiction the characters from the Arthurian legend tend to make an appearance, most notably in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon. While Arthur's tale has been told and retold for centuries, another famous literary character has been having his own adventures since his creation. In 1887, the world was introduced to a logical and ingenious man who took it upon himself to solve the unsolvable and help those in need of answers. I am of course talking about the immortal character of Sherlock Holmes. Readers were captivated by the great detective and his colleague and friend, Dr. John Watson and by the adventures the two men had. Holmes grew in popularity but by 1894, Doyle had grown tired of his creation and had Holmes killed when he and his nemesis, Professor James Moriarty met on Reichenbach Falls for a final confrontation in the story "The Final Problem". However, Doyle resurrected Holmes after outraged fans wrote and begged him not to end the series. Even after Doyle's death, the popularity of Sherlock Holmes endured into the present. Pastiches starring Holmes and Watson have been written by many authors and fans of Doyle and some have been published in anthologies or even as individual books. One of the more famous examples is Nicholas Meyer's The Seven-Per-Cent Solution in which Holmes finally confronts his cocaine addiction and seeks the advice of Sigmund Freud. So fanfiction authors are not alone in their borrowing of pre-established characters. Derrida in his essay, "Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences", remarks on the phenomena of 'borrowing', "The bricoleur, says Lévi-Strauss, is someone who uses "the means at hand," that is, the instruments he finds at his disposition around him, those which are already there, which had not been especially conceived with an eye to the operation for which they are to be used and to which one uses trial and error to adapt them, not hesitating to change them whenever it appears necessary, or to try several of them at once, even if their form and their origin are heterogeneous – and so forth" (Richter 883). The idea of the bricoleur is "a person who collects information and things and then puts them together in a way that they were not originally designed to do" (Earthshine). In essence, this is exactly what fanfiction authors do. They are taking already created ideas and characters and using them in a new manner. Over in Japan, there is actually a popular market for a certain type of bricolage. Doujinshi are amateur comics drawn and sold by Japanese women that usually feature characters from a commercial manga or anime series. These fan drawn comics are so popular that events known as doujinshi sokubai kai (literally 'market of self-published magazines') are held every year (Kelly 170). For the most part, doujinshi are basically fanfiction in comic form, the most popular genre being yaoi. Yaoi is an acronym for "Yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi" which translates to 'no climax, no resolution, no meaning' (Kelly 171). This genre began when young women started drawing doujinshi using characters taken from the popular boys’ soccer manga, Captain Tsubasa. The reason these were different was because the artists portrayed the two male heroes as lovers, whereas the original comic was not intended to have a theme of homosexual love (Kelly 171). Yaoi grew in popularity immediately and began showing up everywhere. Over here in the western world, yaoi's westernized cousin, known in the fanfiction world as 'slash', has the same popularity. Women will take their favorite male characters and have them ride off into the sunset together. This goes back to fanfiction authors exploring the known canon and expanding on what could have been. Take for example this scene from Doyle’s "The Three Garridebs", "'You're not hurt, Watson? For God's sake, say that you are not hurt!' It was worth a wound -- it was worth many wounds -- to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation. 'It's nothing, Holmes. It's a mere scratch.' He had ripped up my trousers with his pocket-knife. 'You are right,' he cried with an immense sigh of relief. ‘It is quite superficial.' His face set like flint as he glared at our prisoner, who was sitting up with a dazed face. 'By the Lord, it is as well for you. If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive’" (Doyle). For the normal reader, this is merely an example of the true friendship between Holmes and Watson. The slasher, however, sees something a bit different. What they see is what is known as subtext. Holmes is usually a logical, unemotional person. Even with hysterically sobbing women throwing themselves at him and begging for his help, he remains calm and detached. But then suddenly when it is Watson in need of help, Holmes’ usual calm manner is shattered and he immediately rushes to his companion’s side. For a brief moment he fears the worst and his emotions burst out all at once. Oh God, Watson’s been shot! How bad is it? What if Watson dies? What will my life be like with out him? He can’t leave me now. He can’t die, for the love of God, Watson, I love you! So follows the slasher logic; Holmes shows that Watson is the most important thing in his life and thus must be in love with him. Now do slashers actually believe that was how Doyle intended it to be? No, they do not. Instead they take this subtext and use it when writing their fiction. What if right after this story Holmes realized that he could have lost Watson and he would never know his true feelings? Slash fiction revolves on ideas such as this. Buddy cop shows and fandoms with 'warrior bonds between men' such as "Starsky and Hutch" and Lord of the Rings tend to have the same type of subtext. The fans see the closeness between the characters and develop their story around it. This brings us back to the idea of bricolage. These authors are borrowing the characters and taking the subtext in canon in order to look at the characters in a new light. With the bricoleur in mind, I lead us into the second argument against fanfiction.

The argument goes: 'writing fanfiction is uncreative and that the writer will not learn anything from it'. Likewise many say that fanfic writers will never be able to write their own original works as they do not need to create their own universe, characters, etc. As fantasy writer Robin Hobb said in her rant against fanfiction, "Fan fiction is a good way to avoid learning how to be a writer. Fan fiction allows the writer to pretend to be creating a story, while using someone else's world, characters, and plot. ...The first step to becoming a writer is to have your own idea. Not to take someone else’s idea, put a dent in it, and claim it as your own" (Hobb). If this is true, then William Shakespeare was not really a writer. Take for example the following summary: Two young lovers are forbidden from seeing each other and must meet in secret. Tragedy strikes when one believes the other is dead and proceeds to kill himself. Finding her lover dead, the remaining youth kills herself as well. For most, the first thing that would come to mind would be "Romeo and Juliet". About 1500 years previous to Shakespeare writing this great tragedy, Ovid was creating a story that fit this summary as well. "Pyramis and Thisbe", from the Metamorphosis, dealt with two young lovers who were forbidden from seeing each other and who ended up dead after Pyramis killed himself over his belief that Thisbe was dead. Not only did Shakespeare borrow the idea from Ovid, he later used the story of Pyramis and Thisbe in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream". On a similar note, Arthur Conan Doyle was not a writer as well. In a scene from The Sign of Four, Holmes turns to a confused Watson and says, "'How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, HOWEVER IMPROBABLE, must be the truth?'" (Doyle). This, of course, was one of Holmes' more famous mottos. Yet there was another detective about 40 years earlier who said something similar, "'Now, brought to this conclusion in so unequivocal a manner as we are, it is not our part, as reasoners, to reject it on account of apparent impossibilities. It is only left for us to prove that these apparent 'impossibilities' are, in reality, not such'" (Poe). This quote was stated by Edgar Allen Poe's Auguste Dupin in "Murders of the Rue Morgue". But the similarities do not stop there. Holmes and Dupin also use the same methods of crime-solving and even have similar personality traits. Of course, it was no secret that Doyle was influenced by Poe when creating Holmes as he openly spoke of his admiration of the author’s work.

But what of the fan authors themselves? One answer to this question lies with the genre of fanfiction called alternate universe. As previously mentioned, this is when an author takes the characters and changes something drastic in the universe they live in. While the characters remain the same, the universe around them has been changed and is thus the creation of the fan author. Then there are the fans who do not write about the main characters, and prefer to focus on the poor underdeveloped minor characters. These authors will take the minor character and develop them into a living, breathing character with emotions and a personality. One of the best examples of such a character is an unnamed elf extra from the first Lord of the Rings movie, Fellowship of the Ring. In the Council of Elrond scene, there is a pretty dark-haired elf sitting to the right of Aragorn who has no dialogue and is basically there as scenery. Fangirls were captivated by this character and the unnamed elf quickly received the name '‘Figwit', an acronym for "Frodo is grea…who is THAT?!" In fanfiction, his name becomes Melpomaen which is a very loose elvish translation of 'fig' and 'wit' (Figwit). Incidentally, due to his popularity amongst the fandom, Peter Jackson decided to give Figwit a couple lines of dialogue in Return of the King.

I am not saying that all fanfiction is great. There is still a lot of bad writing out there. What I am saying, however, is give fanfiction a chance. The tradition of borrowing ideas and characters and creating something new has been around for centuries. If we begin to limit creativity now and say an author has to be completely original, then eventually we will no longer have literature at all.



Bibliography


Allan Poe, Edgar. "The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1." Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. 12 Apr. 2006 .

Bacon-Smith, Camille. Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.

Conan Doyle, Arthur. "The Sign of Four." Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation . 12 Apr. 2006 .

Conan Doyle, Arthur. "The Adventures of the Three Garridebs." Yoak.com. 21 April 2006 . Fanfiction.net. 15 Oct. 1998. 18 Apr. 2006 .

"FAQ." Figwit Lives!. 21 April 2006 .

"Glossary." Earthshine. 21 April 2006 .

Hale, Laura M. . "History of Fanfiction." The Fanfic Symposium. 21 April 2006 .

Hobb, Robin. "The Fan fiction Rant." Robin Hobb's Home. 21 April 2006 .

Kelly, William W., ed. Fanning the Flames: Fans and Consumer Culture in Contemporary Japan. New York: University of New York Press, 2004.

Richter, David H., ed. The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford Books, 1998.

Vulgarweed, A.. "The Ring and the Crown." The Library of Moria. 21 April 2006 .