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TheFangirl

The Fangirl

Long time geek, fangirl, mother, and reader. I've got a lot to say, you might not like it all, but it will be honest and hopefully helpful.

Reading progress update: I've read 39%.

Fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World - Christina Lauren, Lev Grossman, Tiffany Reisz, Rachel Caine, Jen Zern, Heidi Tandy, Rukmini Pande, Samira Nadkarni, Wendy C. Fries, Jolie Fontenot, Randi Flanagan, Tish Beaty, Cyndy Aleo, V. Arrow, Brad Bell, Andrew Shaffer, Darren Wershler, Anne Jamison, Jules Wilkinson, R

It is striking how Jamison continues to only reference a small group of Twilight fans (adult women in the Twilight Fan Fiction Fandom) when talking about "Twilight fandom" and never expands to examine how any of these issues affected young girls, or male fans. Again it points to the narrow scope of the book, and her own myopic perspective on the subject. 

 

I'm especially disappointed by the oversight of issues that directly relate to similar phenomena in literature and publishing, considering that is Jamison's area of expertise. For example, the controversy surrounding "under age" fans reading and writing erotic fan fic, which is not all that different from similar arguments about sexual content in YA novels.  Or how significantly more popular erotic fan fic written by men is in comparison to works by female writers. Which isn't all the different than Nicholas Sparks' success with writing what is essential romance, as general fiction. 

 

This isn't a new issue in this book. Time and again I keep seeing fascinating examples of how fan fiction and fan communities mirror mainstream literature, and publishing going unexplored. I'm not sure if this is because the author didn't see them or doesn't consider them as important to the points she is making. Either way it's a huge loss, and really disappointing as a reader.