Fan Fiction

Mug White " Fan Fiction is for girls, cause men can't handle it " Hobbies
$9.99
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Fan Fiction Degree: Custom Gag Diploma Fanfiction Doctorate Certificate (Funny Customized Joke Gift - Novelty Item)
$13.99
One customized novelty certificate (8.5 x 11 inch) printed on premium certificate paper with official border. Includes embossed Gold Seal on certificate. Custom produced with your own personalized information: Any name and any date you choose.

The Democratic Genre: Fan Fiction in a Literary Context
$17.95
Pros:
+ Has some insightful and true observations about fanfiction.

Cons:

- Focuses too much on specific, little known fandoms.

- Focuses too heavily on fanzines.

- Uses incredibly specific examples to support incredibly broad conclusions.

No one seems quite sure how to approach writing about the topic of fanfiction since it is both so widespread and so new. It seems to me that the most reasonable way to approach a study is to either limit it to a specific genre of fanfic or a specific fandom or, if you attempt a general study, to stick to the big name fandoms which tend to set trends and to provide examples that are familiar to a larger number of people. Pugh does neither, approaching the topic in the unfortunate way that many other academics have done by focusing on a number of completely unrelated and not necessarily well known fandoms that I suspect are the ones that Pugh likes the best. This gives the book a disjointed feeling from the beginning which is only compounded by the fact that this book seems to be useful to absolutely no one. If it is meant to be read by literary critics, then the analysis is not deep enough. If it is meant to introduce people to fanfiction, then it plunges too deeply into issues that only a literary critic or a person already immersed in the world of fandom would care about. If it is meant to be read by people who read fanfiction, then it contains a awful lot of condescending definitions. My impression is that the author tried to cater to all these audiences and succeeded in pleasing none.

The real problem with this book, however, is that the author is trying to draw incredibly broad conclusions about the whole of fanfiction by looking at incredibly narrow examples. The fact that slash authors on one community that the author frequents write in a certain way and for certain motives does not convince that slash writers in general behave this way. In fact, the author seems to base much of this broad analysis upon the stories of three or four favorite authors and even sometimes draws these broad conclusions based on a single story. This is not even as useful as it would be in the world of published fiction because no one fanwriter has nearly the level of influence on fandom as a whole as well known writers can have on literature.

This is not to say that Pugh doesn't put forward some interesting observations. I found the wanting more of/wanting more from distinction to be a very useful way of thinking about different types of fanfiction and there were some points which were very well taken. In general, though, most of Pugh's assertions are overgeneralizations -- not surprising as the book uses a small amount of evidence to make broad observations on a variety of fanfiction subjects.

Stage Fright
$1.99
While Dollhouse may have started off as a somewhat confusing series, it is slowly building and becoming an interesting watch. I find myself coming back to it every time Friday rolls around.

Note, there may be spoilers in my post so read on if you've seen the episode.

I think "Stage Fright" was an interesting idea. Having Echo go undercover as a back-up singer who gets close to the lead singer was interesting. Echo was programed to sing and get close, but had a second imprint to protection her with her life.

Also, it's interesting to see that even after the 'wipe' of previous imprint's Echo seems to be developing as a person. When her roommate Siera (spelling?) is in danger she switches gears and ends up saving her.

I liked the fact that after the assignment was over and she was wiped she kind of shook her head when Siera passed by after taking a shower (or was she working out?). Sorry if I'm rambling but this is a good series that's just getting off to a slow start! I hope people will give it a chance because it has a lot of promise.