Fictitious??
One fine day, a few years ago, I went to the movies to see X2. Movie magic happened and brawny Wolverine found himself a drooling new fan. The Pow!Wowy! action movie and Mr. Jackman’s muscle flex had me hooked, the night was spent researching the two. It was then that I stumbled upon the myriad world of internet fan fiction. It was a world where fans made sure Wolverine bagged Jean, where Magneto turned over a new leaf, and a world where Jack returns an old man just as Rose is wrapping up her story about the Titanic. And by Jove! it is an amazing world.
We are all born actors and story-tellers. Fanfics are one way of not agreeing with how your favorite work of entertainment (movies/television series/books/game) developed, while at the same time exercising our humanness by telling a story. Although the credit of “decultifying” the concept and bringing it to the mainstream (not necessarily a good thing, some would argue) lies with the Internet, fanfics have been around longer than has the Internet. There are some works of scholarly research on the subject as well. No mean achievement for what was considered an outlet for nerdy fantasies.
There are issues of copyrights associated since fanfictions build on existing work, lots of information floating on the Internet and battles being fought on that front. What is more interesting is how fanfics have come a full circle. This art form (yes! I dare call it art!) is increasingly being used to bolster interest in the original work that they take off from. A very neat example was the crazy creativity and interest that Peter Jackson (that nerdy fellow J) generated before the release of his trilogy by indulging Tolkein fans to unleash their creativity and add to the already complex story with a few hundred more side-characters resulting in a few thousand more sub-plots.
And these fan are not your run-of-the-mill fans, the fanfic writing world is populated by a devoted fan base. It would be interesting to see if fanfics can actually work the other way round and create hardcore fans out of the regular fan populace.
All said and done, the next few years, fanfic, along with mobile games (based on the fictional work’s characters) is going to become an integral part of pre and post movie/TV show/game/ book release hype.
Here is a list of the top 5 movies by way of the amount of fan work put into their characters, in no particular order:
LOTR (No prizes for guessing this one)
Star Wars
Star Trek
X-men (all the three from the franchise)
Pirates of the Caribbean
Source: My very unscientific observations.
And the same for TV shows:
Star Trek
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Smallville
X-Files
*Why do none of the above surprise me*
Gilmore Girls (Boo! Here’s the surprise!)
Source: The same unscientific observations.
We are all born actors and story-tellers. Fanfics are one way of not agreeing with how your favorite work of entertainment (movies/television series/books/game) developed, while at the same time exercising our humanness by telling a story. Although the credit of “decultifying” the concept and bringing it to the mainstream (not necessarily a good thing, some would argue) lies with the Internet, fanfics have been around longer than has the Internet. There are some works of scholarly research on the subject as well. No mean achievement for what was considered an outlet for nerdy fantasies.
There are issues of copyrights associated since fanfictions build on existing work, lots of information floating on the Internet and battles being fought on that front. What is more interesting is how fanfics have come a full circle. This art form (yes! I dare call it art!) is increasingly being used to bolster interest in the original work that they take off from. A very neat example was the crazy creativity and interest that Peter Jackson (that nerdy fellow J) generated before the release of his trilogy by indulging Tolkein fans to unleash their creativity and add to the already complex story with a few hundred more side-characters resulting in a few thousand more sub-plots.
And these fan are not your run-of-the-mill fans, the fanfic writing world is populated by a devoted fan base. It would be interesting to see if fanfics can actually work the other way round and create hardcore fans out of the regular fan populace.
All said and done, the next few years, fanfic, along with mobile games (based on the fictional work’s characters) is going to become an integral part of pre and post movie/TV show/game/ book release hype.
Here is a list of the top 5 movies by way of the amount of fan work put into their characters, in no particular order:
LOTR (No prizes for guessing this one)
Star Wars
Star Trek
X-men (all the three from the franchise)
Pirates of the Caribbean
Source: My very unscientific observations.
And the same for TV shows:
Star Trek
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Smallville
X-Files
*Why do none of the above surprise me*
Gilmore Girls (Boo! Here’s the surprise!)
Source: The same unscientific observations.
posted by Shefali | 3:11 AM
2 Comments:
I think sometimes fanfics form an extension of the story and aid in the development rather than conflict with it as you mention in your blog (which I don't refute...I just speak of exceptions to that rule or the other side of it).
See for example some cancelled TV serials like Firefly, Star Trek and FArscape (mostly SciFi I know) which have so much quality written material because the original creators never got a chance to get their ideas out.
Then again there are the Potter stories and such which people do to change the events in the books or bring their own interpretations tot he table (The Matrix movies)
True! Somehow, the idea of taking someone else's creation and toying with it enough to make it unrecognizable from what and how it was meant to be seems to be more fun. Don't we always do that? Even something like human mutation, could be done to augment the creatures we already are but think of mutants and the first thing that comes to mind is an unhuman green lizard-like form....I might just have gone a little off tangent, I realise :)
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