Looking at modern history, the
inspirational affects of reading cannot be argued. From scientific breakthroughs to political inspiration, books have inspired a lot of change that have shaped the 21st century as we know it. Famous accounts
include Star Trek’s communicator inspiring flip phones (and Dr. McCoy's medical pad inspiring the ipad, my personal theory) and the inspiration for the internet being accredited to Arthur C. Clark’s short story Dial F
for Frankenstein (1). Although J.R.R. Tolkien kind of hated fanfiction based off his works, he was a bit of a hypocrite. Lord of the Rings and much of his other writings were arguably his response to
the medieval texts and folklore he loved (2).
“It [is] not a new phenomenon for young readers to occasionally extend a
literary creation by becoming authors of new versions, sequels or spin-offs of
the story" wrote Bond and Michelson (3). Indeed,
the earliest form of fan fiction in a pure fandom-as-a-subculture form, published
without intent for profit, can be found in Star Trek the Original Series
fanzines from the 1970s (4). It was such an influential
force that the terms and conventions first coined in these Star Trek fanzines are still
used in modern fan fiction today. Terms like “slash” referring to the backslash
between two character names to indicate that they are the romantic couple in
the story (i.e. Kirk/Spock) was later written in full (“/” becoming “slash”),
taken to describe male/male homosexual relationships, a very common subject in all fan creations (4), as I will explore a bit in another posting.
Modern fanfiction, powered by the Harry
Potter phenomenon of the 2000s and the increasing access to the internet and
affordable home computers sparked a wave of creative response from children and teens that had never been seen before (4). While I
know first had the motivating powers of fanfiction and fandom on literacy, researchers have noted the increased traditional and media literacy that are natural benefits of students engaging in fandom (4).
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your views, the uncontrolled aspects of the internet which terrifies most parents is the key part of what makes engaging with fanfiction so exciting and rewarding for kids. (Parents reading this, take a deep breath out: you'd be happy to know that unsupervised kids on the internet create their own community rules as to how they want their forum environment to be, and nine times out of ten, they created democratic, respectful environments where members stick up for each other and do not let others abuse their anonymity and welcome to take advantage of participants. While the internet may be where children face the most cruel bullying, it is also the first place where they get exposed to, and have a voice to participate in, effective social justice.) Even if you had the misfortune of growing up in a household where every waking moment was pent hacking your way around parental control blocks on your family computer, you knew that the internet was a wonderful, adult free zone. You could write whatever you wanted, with no pressure of grades of word limits, and you knew that someone out there would read it and love it, just like you did. Fanfiction sites were places where age didn't matter, your ideas did.
More on this teenage cyber utopia in my next post.
Questions for the comments:
Do you have childhood memories of sneaking past internet blocks at your school or at home? What ways did you get around them?
Have you experienced or witnessed an act of tumblr social justice? Did you think it was justified? Were you amazed at the results and the number of people who banded together for a common cause?
Sources:
(3) Bond & Michelson as cited in Tosenberger, 2008, p.186
(4) Tosenberger, 2008, p. 186
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