Well, this is the end. I'd like to thank you for taking the time to view my blog and for joining me in my discovery of fan fiction. I've learned a lot, and really so much more than I had expected.
When I chose this topic, I had an extremely limited amount of knowledge on fan fiction and had the impression that fan fiction was relatively new and being written by uber geeks who seriously needed to get a life. I also mistakenly thought that fan fiction was plagiarism or referred to those people who leaked authors' works on to the Internet before they were released. What I found was a long history, a rich subculture, and a lot of writers--some talented, some not--who write because they either highly admire the original works and/or because they feel the story can be told better--often to better represent certain genders, races, or classes.
It was interesting learning how respected writers view fan fiction and I'll be interested in keeping an eye on these two opposing camps in the future. I also found Lee Goldberg's blog intriguing. While I don't agree with him on every point, and in some ways I find him a hypocrite, he is staunch in his beliefs as well as fun to read and I plan to check in with his blog every so often.
I made a new friend called Mary Sue and I learned a new word. Archontic. Your assignment is to use archontic in a sentence today. I learned that Slash does not mean horror and does not refer to the guy from Guns & Roses.
I also learned more about copyright law and how it applies to fanfic, especially in regards to parody. However, I do realize that I barely scratched the surface regarding copyright and for that matter, the topic of fan fiction. While I feel I have a much better understanding of copyright upon finishing this class, one thing I learned is that it is very ambiguous--kind of like nailing Jell-O (insert copyright symbol) to a wall, to borrow a saying from Pat Farney. What makes it more interesting and a little more understandable is seeing it applied to real life--or at least to fan fiction--and I will be interested to see what direction it follows in the future.
Read Online A Little SPOT of Kindness Kobo PDF
3 years ago
Hi Beth,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for all your hard work. I enjoyed reading your findings. Impressive! You mentioned in the first post that you chose a topic you knew little to nothing about, and I think the blog did a good job of illustrating your journey and findings. Your knowledge obviously grew and it was great to read your exploration.
I’m a sucker for organization, so I especially liked your post on Fair Use. You did a good job of breaking up the different Fair Use factors and applying them to your topic. (I also appreciated your comment about how a “checklist” is offered by Russell, despite the fact we cannot actually determine what is Fair Use from a plain checklist. I thought the same thing myself.) Fair Use is a very ambiguous exemption that requires case-by-case analysis, and I think you stated this well in your conclusion. I also enjoyed your discussion of how fan fiction is the “literature of the subordinate.” Your discussion on Mary Sue characters was enlightening. Also, I was surprised that the majority of fan fiction writers are women! I think this is very cool.
As for the content of your blog, your personal reflections were great and very valuable. I would have benefited from more references or links to sources you used in each post, as I sometimes got confused as to what source you were talking about. I would also suggest not citing to Wikipedia at the beginning, although I don’t know how easy it would be to find another source. I’ve gotten into trouble myself for relying on information from Wikipedia then having it disappear—it’s not always so reliable. Having said all that, you did a great job. This was a well-researched blog, and your personal reflections were honest and valuable. I knew absolutely nothing about fan fiction before we started the blog presentations, and you really added to my understanding.
Thank you! I hope you have a wonderful summer.
Ellen
Ellen-
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your kind and insightful remarks. I did learn a lot and enjoyed exploring this topic.
This is only the third time I have tried my hand at a blog and all three attempts have been school related. I have always found myself torn on the amount of casualness to project on blogs and this one was especially challenging--I like being able to insert my own views but felt I should still maintain a certain level of professionalism. This blog in particular felt like a term paper broken down into small parts, which made it more manageable, but also posed some cohesiveness issues, so I'm glad it all came together for you.
I also appreciate your comment on referring to Wikipedia. I agree and normally only use Wikipedia as a jumping off point for my own personal understanding. However, in my research, I found there was not a lot of neutral information or even definitions on what fan fiction is, so Wikipedia really fit the bill as far as a solid starting point.
Thanks again!