Internet Stars: Fanfiction Edition
Last Sunday night, instead of dutifully studying for my math exam, I decided to cave and finally watch Fifty Shades of Grey. Shout out to the kind soul who illegally uploaded a copy of it with Japanese subtitles for my viewing pleasure, you da real MVP. I never actually read the books, but I love a solid “billionaire-falls-in-love-with-sassy-poor-girl” story line so I had been curious for a while. The movie was…something else. I couldn’t decide whether Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan were terrible actors, or amazing ones who portrayed terribly written characters really well. The horrendous dialogue and so-called “chemistry” caused me physical pain, and I moaned, groaned, and cringed my way to the very end. I will not deny, however, that the some of the scenes were…hot…in fact, even tastefully done.
I promise this post is not just to bore you with an already overly hyped franchise. But watching Fifty Shades got me thinking about all the incredible stories that have been created on the Internet. I mean, the author of Fifty Shades was simply writing Twilight fanfiction online, before it exploded into a multi-million dollar sensation.
Fanficition.net holds some very passionate fans, extremely disturbing fantasies, and raw, undiscovered talent. Although, I do not read too much fanfiction, there have been times when I am suffering from Harry Potter withdrawal and turned to my fellow fangirls for their writing. There is a lot of comfort in the knowing that someone felt similar emotions and thoughts as you on something, and took the time to write them down. With fanfiction, the story does not have to end if you don’t want it to; it can take on a life of its own.
This is kind of hard to deny.
Story worlds also collide, and people have been known to write fanfic for impossible scenarios and the most random of things. Once, I came across a fanfic where Lord of the Ring’s Frodo was impregnated by Aragorn. I wish my eyes could unseen what I had just read…
There is fanfiction for literally everything.
The boundaries become a little murky in the realm of fanfiction. Plagiarism is a very real concern since fanfic writers take other people’s characters and stories, but are also simultaneously writing their own work. For those who went through a clichéd young adult novel phase during your middle school years, you may be familiar with Cassandra Clare and her charges of plagiarism with the Mortal Instruments series. She used certain passages in her novels that were from the Harry Potter fanfiction she had been writing. While the words were Clare’s own work, in that instance of time, her character’s motivations and emotions belong to J.K. Rowling.
In a similar vein, many established writers take great offense to fanfiction. Some find it to be creatively lazy, while others find it to an exploitation of their work. The question arises whether E.L. James owes Stephanie Meyer money because she essentially made millions off giving Edward Cullen some bondage and a whip?
Personally, I am an advocate for certain forms of fanfiction. If the material is not too lecherous and there is no blatant creative theft, the world of fanfiction is pretty innocuous. Society has been given some excellent entertainment by the world of fanfiction and that’s why I say, let the fangirls continue to fangirl.
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9 Responses to “Internet Stars: Fanfiction Edition”
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I laughed the whole way through this post. Fanfiction is a very weird world from what I have heard. I’ve personally never gotten around to reading it, but the things that I’ve been told have been quite interesting. I never knew that the Mortal Instruments series had parts of Harry Potter fan fiction in it. That’s really interesting to think about.
I’ve never been a big connoisseur of fan fiction, but I did go through a sort of phase in 5th-6th grade where I wrote a lot of stories that were similar to ones I had read. (Let’s not talk about it though.) I can totally understand authors getting a little fed up with it–some little 13 year old can’t just start stealing Harry Potter, especially since JK Rowling put so much thought and effort into it (and wrote an extremely well written series, too!). But from my experience with the relentlessness of tween/teen girls (or guys too), you can’t do much to stop them once they get their minds set on something.
I must say, I laughed when I read that there was a fanfic about Aragorn (over 80yrs old) impregnating Frodo (who, despite Alex Chan’s claim that he is a fully grown hobbit who can make is own choices, is not). As of this moment I do not know how I feel about fanfics…
Pragya,
Oh man the wonderful world of fanfiction. 99% creepy and weird and potentially psychologically harmful, 1% amazing. Although my experiences with fanfiction have been relatively minimal, I agree with your stance that not all fanfiction is bad. Great post!
Alayna
P.S. That Aragorn/Frodo story sounds fascinating (in the worst possible way…)
This post is hilarious, yet well written and sooooooo true! I watched 50 shades of gray on the day that it came out in the movie theaters and I have to say it was “just alright”. Like you mentioned in this blog, fan fiction is extremely common for most of the popular movies that come out nowadays. Although, I thoroughly enjoy fan fiction, I believe that I am ready for a change.
I don’t think that I have actually ever read any fan fiction, but it sounds really interesting. Honestly, had I heard of it after finishing some of my favorite series such as Harry Potter, I probably would have read it. I was pretty sheltered, however, especially being the oldest child, so I never really got around to it. I think that there is a major benefit to writing fan fiction, as given by your example of the author of Fifty Shades of Grey. I think that it promotes writing and creativity, which could ultimately lead more people to develop a passion for writing, and even become published.
Pragya, I didn’t know where you were going when you said you were watching 50 Shades of Gray, but I caught on pretty soon…and luckily it was pretty innocuous! Well, I personally hate fan fiction. They sort of detract from the original work. I would rather have no spinoff in a canon universe than a non-canon spinoff. Also fanficiton sites are scary places…yeah. Good analysis about the ethics of fan fiction and relating it to current titles!
This post made me reminisce about my sister’s OneDirection days and how she’d spend days and weeks writing fan fiction about how the band members would lust over her and eventually she would wind up dating one. So funny! Back when I was really into a certain fandom (i.e. Harry Potter or Twilight– don’t judge) I would look up fan fiction and a lot of it was pretty good! I just judge people who post about their romantic fantasies with fictional characters. I am pro-fan fiction too. Loved this post, even though it did make me cringe at my formerly over-obsessed middle school self drooling over characters from my favorite books.