This journal is platform for my postgraduate dissertation on (meta)narratives in online fandom. I will post research and questions here, partly because I want to keep a history of my own progress, and also I want to create discussion. For me the point of having an online record of a dissertation is to gather criticism and opinions on the topics I am writing about. Sometimes the topics and research material will be sporadic, but I will try to be as scheduled as possible.

So, if you are interested in fandom discussion and would like to put your two cents in, please feel free to comment on the posts and friend me, I will friend you back. There will be very few flocked posts here. I will lock threads if the participants and commentators really wish it, but the purposes of this conversation and research is to be visible to all.

The entries I post here will be very informal and will consist of notes I have made in the basis of something of interest I have read, and then a free text space where I can spill out my reactions. None of this is meant to be highly academic or thoroughly thought out. The idea is to spark conversation and discussion over the issues and themes.

If anyone has any topic suggestions, interesting readings or discussions, please don’t hesitate to bring them up!

If you want to introduce yourself, please feel free to do it on this post. It would be nice to know a bit about you and what kind of fandom activities you are involved in and what your specific interests are? For me it would be very interesting also to hear how you got into fandom.

Anonymous posting is allowed, but I reserve the right to remove anonymous comments if I deem them inappropriate.

( About me )

Sorry, again, for the long absence. This is the last month I have to work on the dissertation, and it's been really labour intensive for the past few weeks. I will try to be more active in the following week, but I can't make any promices.

I had a really long discussion with my tutor yesterday, and this topic came up:

( Wonderings and Discussion under cut )

Hey,

I just had an interesting discussion with my tutor, and I wanted to ask this of both readers and writers.

Fic commenting of LJ?

Readers: do you like the comments, do you read them with the story? Do you consider them a part or an addition to the narrative, for instance, if the author answers questions about the story?

Writers: how do you see comments in relation to your writing? What about when working of WiP's, does it affect the story line at all?

Tell me all,

I'll be off line for a few days, so I might not comment immediately, sorry!

Okay, I'm sorry for the lateness of this. I got sucked in to the Deahtly Hallows mob and I am now only finding my way back home.

So more on slash today, just because I want to. Sheenagh Pugh had some really interesting points about slash, so...

( Notes and Discussion under cut )

Slash week! I'm one day late, but the workload just got the better of me.

I have collected here some notes from Henry Jenkins' essay Normal Female Interest in Men Bonking : Selections from the Terra Nostra Underground and Strange Bedfellows So discussion of slash will ensue (hopefully).


( Discussion and Notes under the cut )

This is (hopefully) going to start off my slash week, were I'll be posting all the discussion topics and interesting theories I've found on slash reading/writing.

This interview was done for a case study I am doing on misslucyjane's Torchwood fanfic series "Lovers in a Dangerous Time". What interested me in this series was that it worked perfectly inside the canon of series 1 (and the subsequent Doctor Who episodes). As a case study I wanted to look at the construction of fanfic narrative that was supported by canon events, instead of changing things, which is how fanfic is often perceived.

( Interview and fic under cut )

Thank you very much to misslucyjane for answering all my questions and being a great help!

Are there anybody out there (or do you know of anybody) who has moved from zine-based fandom activities to the internet-fandom?

I would be interested to hear what kind of changes you experinced in that move? Are there things that you miss from print zines that aren't available online, or vice versa? Is it easier now, ro did you enjoy the communication of print more?

Also, have your reading (and wiriting) habits changed at all in that move?

I would really apriciate any information you have on this,

This is not so much of a theory based question, rather than something I have been personally wondering for quite some time. This is specifically aimed at the writers out there, but even if you don’t write feel free to tell me what you think.

( Notes and Discussion under cut )

I'm sorry for the delay in this post. I wanted to get this out last week, but narrative theory got in the way. I'm relatively familiar with theoretical works about fandom, but narrative theory and narratology are completely new fiels for me. It took me longer than expected to find something coherent to post about.

However, this is not really what I expected to talk about with narraive theory, but I just could not post about this. I found the most interesting book by Peter Conrad that deals with myths and narratives that live on, that continue in literature and oral tradition. This struck me as interesting in realtion to a lot of things that I've experince in fandom writing.

This is a rather rambling and emotional post, so bear with me.




( Notes and Discussion under cut )

I knew I couldn't stay away from canon discussion for long. Well, this will be a rather short one, because oterhwise I will be late for work.



( Discussion under cut )

I'm going to move the discussion away fron canon (at least for a while), and change the topic to Matt Hills (well, to his writing). I read his book Fan Cultures when I did my undergrad dissertation, and I disliked it then. I started reading it again, hoping to get a new perspective on it with a few years of experince added on to it. His views on fan culture are drastically different from anything else I've managed yet to read, so this should be interesting.



( Notes and Discussion under cut )

Sorry for the delay in this topic. My internship is rather more intensive than I expected so I've been too tired to upload anything, or take part in conversations. Now, I'm more awake and prepared. Even though this entry is very short and keeps with the subject of the last discussion post.
( Notes and Discussion under cut )

I started my internship last Tuesday, and due to that fact was off LJ for a while. So I completely missed the purge and the backslash that followed it. I have just now started to go through my flist (both here and on my fandom journal) and I am appaled. Appalled at the behaviour of the LJ team, but I'm also proud at how well the fandom has defended itself and how we have managed to cover our bases.

I am not eloquent enough today to express my anger over this, but please show your suppor here if you want:




fandom_counts

Also there are people whose replys to this incident I found very poignant and interesting (There are a lot of discussion on this elsewhere as well):

ivyblossom's An Open Letter To fandom

icarusancalion's Article summing up FanLib.

If you want to discuss this, feel free. Even if it is just to vent, on this topic/post I don't mind ranting.

I will try to get the next proper post here within the next few days.

Much love to everybody and keep on fighting!

Okay, my presentation is tommorrow, and thank you to everyone who helped me to refine my approach, it was much appriciated.

Now, another topic. Today I've collected some bits from Henry Jenkins again on how fans react to cannons and play around them. Feel free to discuss, and bring up new stuff!

( Notes and Discussion under the cut )

Firstly, welcome to all the new people who have friended me. Discuss and have fun!

( This is kind of linked to the last post, in a way.  )

Allright, first proper post. If you think that I should do a different kind of organization within the post, or if my notes are not clear enough, let me know. I’m just making this up as I go along.

I decided to start with this Jenkin's article because this was the first fandom related academic article I ever read, and even though it’s very old I think there are still themes and issues that are of importance. I have concentrated here on how fans are perceived and how we see ourselves. I hope that this is relatively interesting for a first topic and will get us talking.

( Notes and Discussion under cut )