Media Bitchfest

“Do You Write Fan Fic?”

September 18th, 2006 by Justin

The above question was spoken to me, Matt and Beth while we waited for a train back to Hoboken after attending a midnight screening of the Joss Whedon film Serenity. For those who don’t know, Whedon has what one might term a “cult” following after he masterminded the seminal WB dramas Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel along with the short lived Fox skein Firefly, whose story was the inspirado for Serenity.

The above question was spoken with the kind of confidence seen from an entrenched 1940’s southern aristocracy asking a new neighbor if he was “coming to the meeting.” There was little doubt in this woman’s mind that if we were interested enough to come out to Manhattan and watch Firefly, we would be penning steamy tales of the time Mal accidentally brushed his hand across Jayne’s lap in a steamy, hopelessly locked, cargo hold.

Also, the Wall Street Journal wrote a story about it today.

There are two things worth mentioning about how they covered this topic.

Topic the first, the fan fic community (unbearably geeky as it is) can be used as a tremendous example of how a redefined look a property rights and copyright enforcement can greatly benefit a creative property. In short, the more online fans penning steamy tales of the time Ron accidentally brushed his hand across Draco’s lap in a steamy, hopelessly locked, storage closet the more people need to buy the Harry Potter books so they can make sure every fetish tickling detail is correct.

Secondly, the article completely ignores the homo history of fan fiction. Spanning both ends of the rainbow, stories exploring gay and lesbian interactions between established literary, television and film characters has been an important pillar of the fan fic community. In fact, in the case of Buffy and Xena: Warrior Princess, it would be hard to argue that fan lust didn’t steer the shows themselves. To not mention that aspect of the genre is just ill informed.

All that being said, that lady from the train was weird.

• WSJ’s John Jurgensen accidentally brushes his hand across the lap of journalism in a steamy, hopelessly locked, article [WSJ]

Posted in Joss Whedon, Fan Fiction

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