- In the post Fandom as Inhabitation of Negative Space, Tumblr blogger Saathi 1013 addressed the common question “Why don’t fanficcers write original stories instead of fanfic?” She uses the poetic concept of enjambment to explain the differences in thinking between fanfic and original writing. “[O]ne of the cool things about enjambment is that the break is…essentially a half-second of playing conceptual mad libs before your eye tracks to the next line and you finish the sentence…the way the author wants you to. But the thing is, good poets build that moment of unknowing into the meaning of the poem…It’s not just a pause for breath or for emphasis, but it can also be the thing that gives room for the poem to do something special: to ignite from the essential spark of the reader’s imagination, to turn and twist like a living thing, never the same twice.”
- Boston Metro‘s take on fanfiction was decidedly different, as it described an Erotic Fan Fiction competition. “The thing is, though, that while we’re sure a fair amount of this particular type of literature is penned by pasty, 50-year-old virgins, typing sweatily and furiously in their parents basements at 3 a.m., fan fiction can also be mined for comedic gold. That’s the idea behind comedian Bryan Murphy’s Competitive Erotic Fan Fiction, a monthly comedy show (soon to be made into a podcast) he’s hosted for the past two-odd years at the Nerdist Theatre in San Francisco. The premise: eight comics write — and read aloud — short pieces of erotic fan fiction based either upon their own fancy or audience suggestions. The audience decides who has written the most titillating — or just plain absurd — story by a show of applause.”
- The fan practice of remixing TV content to filter out specific storylines is presumably only as racy as its original content, but it was upsetting to at least some creators, regardless. “Mr. Lindelof, who was aware of Mr. Maloney’s chronological re-edit of “Lost,” said he could not quite bring himself to watch it, even if he appreciated the impulses that led to its creation. ‘I totally embrace the experiment,’ Mr. Lindelof said. ‘But part of me feels like, oh my God, if it actually works better in chronological order, what does that say about me?'”
- Twin Peaks is a show some might say could benefit from plot clarification, but The USA Today instead gave a nod to its fandom’s Welcome to Twin Peaks photo project “in which fans submit pics that combine the iconic image from the series’ opening credits with a road/scene in their town.”
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