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As in Fankultur og fanfiktion by Anne Petersen. As in, the first actual book in Danish about fanfic.
Which - could have been better.
I can look beyond the strong-to-the-exclusion-of-pretty-much-everything-else focus on Twilight (and The Hunger Games a little bit), because to be fair, it is a pretty big and popular fandom. Considering the Twilight fandom and all the stuff in here about fanfiction and what she calls network bestsellers, I find it somewhat odd that the only reference to Fifty Shades of Grey is in a fanfic writer's Fanfiction.net profile reproduced in the book. Though I suppose that might have to do with the intended audience: school teachers.
Actually, the whole book comes across as - well, I want to say bonert*, except I can't recall what that's in English and I can't be bothered to look it up right now. For instance, the auhor seems to not be comfortable talking about slash - she mentions it, defines it, but then keeps busily evading it. Of course, this might have something to do with the fact, that I am left with the impression that the author seems to think that fanfic is solely for kids, and all her field research comes across as having involved, well, kids.
Actually, the author really does seem to think fanfic is only for kids. In fact, she writes - in the chapter about fan cultural history - that back when fanfic was invented in the age of Star Trek - that fans used to be single women - who would incidentally usually stop being fans when they got married. And then the internet came and miraculously all the fanficcers are now kids. Which is just... Yeah. Nice to know I don't exist, you know?
Actually, in general, I'm left with an impression of someone who a)did field research with a pre-selected group, which in turn left her with a not exactly accurate, though quite predictable impression and b) read all the books and articles she could get her hands on. What I am not left with is an impression of someone who has genuinely dived into fandom to take a look for herself.
This impression is made all the stronger by the mistakes and oddities in the book. She keeps talking about fanlore and I - frankly don't exactly get what she means. At first I thought she meant meta and had her words mixed up, but no - but maybe I'm just stupid. Her attempt at defining fanon - I read it twice and then gave up, it made absolutely no sense. She seems to think fanfic mainly exists on Fanfiction.net - AO3 is never mentioned, Livejournal is described as "there is one forum for fanfic on Livejournal" - one forum. Also, the list of useful words in the back feels - lifted from others? It lists mpreg despite it never being mentioned elsewhere (oddly, considering the reluctant-to-talk-about-slash-and-the-juicier-parts-of-fandom thing the book has going on). Also, it lists a (wrong, to the best of my knowledge) definition of über-fic that I know she has from Kasper Bro Larsen's appearance in Danskernes Akademi, because he had the exact same one.
Also, why does her definition of fan and fandom seem so very focused on binaries? Team Jacob and Team Edward, Twilight and Harry Potter - and so on. Apparently, to be a true fan, you cheer for your team, your fandom - and boo all the others? Huh?
All in all, it could have been worse. It could have been a hell of a lot better, though. Considering it's written for teachers, considering it's quite possibly going to affect how an entire generation of kids might get introduced to fanfic - it should have been better. It should have been a lot better.
Anyway, I'll have to return it to the library soon - someone else is waiting for it. Though I confess to being tempted to fill it with a pile of post-its with notes pointing out all the odd bits and mistakes, because what if whoever the person to read it next isn't someone already familiar with fanfic and actually takes this stuff seriously?!
*I blame having watched a couple of episodes of Matador recently for my choice of words. Incidentally, anybody else see those pretty Matador-inspired Star Wars commercials DR showed before Matador for a few weeks?
Which - could have been better.
I can look beyond the strong-to-the-exclusion-of-pretty-much-everything-else focus on Twilight (and The Hunger Games a little bit), because to be fair, it is a pretty big and popular fandom. Considering the Twilight fandom and all the stuff in here about fanfiction and what she calls network bestsellers, I find it somewhat odd that the only reference to Fifty Shades of Grey is in a fanfic writer's Fanfiction.net profile reproduced in the book. Though I suppose that might have to do with the intended audience: school teachers.
Actually, the whole book comes across as - well, I want to say bonert*, except I can't recall what that's in English and I can't be bothered to look it up right now. For instance, the auhor seems to not be comfortable talking about slash - she mentions it, defines it, but then keeps busily evading it. Of course, this might have something to do with the fact, that I am left with the impression that the author seems to think that fanfic is solely for kids, and all her field research comes across as having involved, well, kids.
Actually, the author really does seem to think fanfic is only for kids. In fact, she writes - in the chapter about fan cultural history - that back when fanfic was invented in the age of Star Trek - that fans used to be single women - who would incidentally usually stop being fans when they got married. And then the internet came and miraculously all the fanficcers are now kids. Which is just... Yeah. Nice to know I don't exist, you know?
Actually, in general, I'm left with an impression of someone who a)did field research with a pre-selected group, which in turn left her with a not exactly accurate, though quite predictable impression and b) read all the books and articles she could get her hands on. What I am not left with is an impression of someone who has genuinely dived into fandom to take a look for herself.
This impression is made all the stronger by the mistakes and oddities in the book. She keeps talking about fanlore and I - frankly don't exactly get what she means. At first I thought she meant meta and had her words mixed up, but no - but maybe I'm just stupid. Her attempt at defining fanon - I read it twice and then gave up, it made absolutely no sense. She seems to think fanfic mainly exists on Fanfiction.net - AO3 is never mentioned, Livejournal is described as "there is one forum for fanfic on Livejournal" - one forum. Also, the list of useful words in the back feels - lifted from others? It lists mpreg despite it never being mentioned elsewhere (oddly, considering the reluctant-to-talk-about-slash-and-the-juicier-parts-of-fandom thing the book has going on). Also, it lists a (wrong, to the best of my knowledge) definition of über-fic that I know she has from Kasper Bro Larsen's appearance in Danskernes Akademi, because he had the exact same one.
Also, why does her definition of fan and fandom seem so very focused on binaries? Team Jacob and Team Edward, Twilight and Harry Potter - and so on. Apparently, to be a true fan, you cheer for your team, your fandom - and boo all the others? Huh?
All in all, it could have been worse. It could have been a hell of a lot better, though. Considering it's written for teachers, considering it's quite possibly going to affect how an entire generation of kids might get introduced to fanfic - it should have been better. It should have been a lot better.
Anyway, I'll have to return it to the library soon - someone else is waiting for it. Though I confess to being tempted to fill it with a pile of post-its with notes pointing out all the odd bits and mistakes, because what if whoever the person to read it next isn't someone already familiar with fanfic and actually takes this stuff seriously?!
*I blame having watched a couple of episodes of Matador recently for my choice of words. Incidentally, anybody else see those pretty Matador-inspired Star Wars commercials DR showed before Matador for a few weeks?
From:
no subject
PS: I loved the Star Wars ads in Matador style! :D And I think the word you're looking for is "prudish".
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As for the author's own background, well, she studies children's culture and literature, which makes her angling of the subject make sense - it's just very, very annoying for her to angle it as if it's only children and teens that visit this playground.
And I think I like "bonert" just fine, actually - prudish sounds so horrible negative, while bonert has the slightly old-fashioned, you don't hear it a lot these days quality to it.
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Given her background, the focus makes sense too. But how about just acknowledging that in the book, then? Point out that this is a focus on children and teen culture, not on any adult fandom.
:-) It's a good word. Hm. Wonder if I can find an equivalent in English. "Too proper" perhaps? One dictionary just suggested "straitlaced".
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Probably Børn og unges fankultur og fanfiktion didn't fit on the front of the book...
Why is it, one wonders, that when nerd culture hits the mainstream, it tends to get shown as for children and teens, no matter how many adults might participate and how much excellent work is done?
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There's this thing where anything in English called "genre fiction" - which is a terrible term - is low culture, delegated to immaturity. Blah. It's historical, I suppose. Academic, misguidede snobbery. I think it's dying out, but it can only be too slow.
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Which again proves that she has no idea what she's talking about since she can't keep Fandom and fandom apart. And I agree with what you said in the post.
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- AAAARGH! It's the hysterical women-presumtion again! No need to write fanfic when you get real dick, y'know... /bitter irony
And I don't think that I need to read this book anytime soon.
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