- More people are discussing the long reach of fandom into their lives. The Huffington Post spoke to the OTW and others about fanfiction and sexuality. “The opportunity to displace these risky desires, not just into pseudonymous fictions, but onto fictional characters, makes fanfic a welcoming sexual space for girls and women, where they can safely spin their more illicit fantasies off into the minds and actions of distinctly separate alter-egos. ‘It made me much more comfortable in myself. More comfortable in my sexuality and going out to find other erotica and pornography without having to feel ashamed,’ recalled Amy, 23, who lives in Portland and got into fan fiction early in high school. ‘These are characters, but they’re also people, they do normal people things and that includes sex and other sexual activities.’”
- The Deseret News spoke with various fans about how fandom has changed their lives. “’I started to feed back into nerd culture and all those happy feelings, basically everything that fandom gives you — not just escapism, but the immediacy of enjoying something with someone else,’ Smith said. “’I realized nerdiness isn’t being happy alone, it’s about being happy with other people. Nerdiness saved me from myself.’”
- The Salt Lake City Weekly spoke to Anne Jamison about why studying fanfic is important. “It’s crucial for people who study literature to pay attention to this way in which writing is now being produced and disseminated. It’s crucial for us as literature professors, because so many of our students will have read and written this way, [and have] learned to critique and engage this way—even if they sometimes won’t admit it. It has had and will have an effect on published books, but it is also where we first see how digital, networked texts are changing reading and writing habits and expectations—as well as the texts themselves.”
- Certainly more people than ever are giving shoutouts to their favorite fanworks including Rainbow Rowell who when asked asked about her favorite said “I have a few. My favorite fanfiction is a Harry/Draco fanfiction and it’s called The Pure and Simple Truth.”
What’s been the richest part of fandom in your life? Write about it in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.
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