Transformative Works and Cultures - TWC (Organization for Transformative Works)
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No full textThe author recounts the history of female exclusion by the Baker Street Irregulars, contrasting it with the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. She reveals her reactions both to the exclusion and to her later admittance to the previously all-male realm
The Great Game and the copyright villain
No full textThis essay explores the reactions of Sherlock Holmes fans and enthusiasts to assertions of intellectual property ownership and infringement by putative rights holders in two eras of Sherlockian history. In both the 1946–47 and 2013–15 eras, Sherlock Holmes devotees villainized the entities claiming ownership of intellectual property in Holmes, distancing those entities from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and casting them as greedy and morally bankrupt. Throughout each era, Sherlockians did not shy away from creating transformative works based on the Holmes canon over the objections of putative rights holders. This complicates the usual expectation that copyright assertions against fans are likely to chill fan production. The essay explores possible reasons why Sherlockian fandom might differ from other fandoms in this respect, including the role of the Great Game form of Sherlockian fandom in shaping fan attitudes toward their subject
Bisexual erasure in queer sci-fi "utopias"
No full textI discuss the paradoxes of queer representation in contemporary science fiction television by analyzing bisexual female protagonists of the CW's The 100 (2014–), BBC America's Orphan Black (2013–), and SyFy's Wynonna Earp (2016–). Queer female fans engage in femslash to make sense of the utopic intentions of executive producers who attempt to create better queer representation through labelless premises that de-emphasize queerness
"Post-object fandom: Television, identity and self-narrative," by Rebecca Williams
No full textReview of Rebecca Williams. Post-object Fandom: Television, Identity and Self-Narrative. London: Bloomsbury, 2015, hardcover, £80 (235p) ISBN 978-1-623-56463-6
The expanding universe of Sherlockian fandom and archival collections
No full textSince 1887, in sometimes cosmic fashion, nearly every medium and format has been used in sharing the original 60 Sherlock Holmes adventures along with their pastiche and parodying offspring. Such creative energy is evidence of a literary big bang, and an expanding universe of creative possibilities, many of them now born digital or residing on digital platforms. We trace older and newer Sherlockian enthusiasms; their points of entry; the creative manifestations of these fandoms over time and through various media; and the emerging challenges and opportunities presented to library and archival professionals by the explosive growth of creative works, especially those produced during the last decade. Curatorial actions involving acquisition, preservation, description, and user discovery of these materials are considered alongside the relationship building necessary between curator and fan in acquiring evolving, dynamic new Sherlockian expressions and insights
"The florals": Female fans over 50 in the "Sherlock" fandom
No full textThis article uses e-mail interviews with nine female fans to explore what it means to be a fan over the age of 50 of the popular BBC drama Sherlock (2010–). The research aims to better understand the role of fandom in later life, in particular how the participants in this study negotiate their perceptions of their subjective age in relation to being a fan in this part of their life course. This study combines theory on cultural gerontology with fan studies and mediatization theory in order to understand the dynamics and processes that guide fans' negotiations of subjective age as well as the role of fan practices and the affordances of social media in these processes. I argue that fandom, as a manifestation of a mediatized culture, augments the relevance of subjective age and informs the way in which participants in middle and later life perceive and negotiate their own subjective age specifically in relation to fandom as youth culture, women's passion, and creativity
How digital remix and fan culture helped the Lego comeback
No full textThe LEGO Movie, the highest-grossing animation film of 2014, surprised and impressed children, adults, and critics worldwide. The film's transfranchisal approach and its clever merchandising helped the Lego Group become the world's biggest toymaker in the following year. In order to provide context for understanding the Lego comeback, we first address the corporate history of the Lego Group and how its product range has developed over the years. Next, we take a closer look at adult fans of Lego (AFOL), in particular a German fan club that considers Lego building to be a form of art. The final part of our paper deals with brickfilming as a cultural practice bringing together fans, the brand, Lego-building, and filmmaking. Taking The LEGO Movie and the overwhelmingly positive response to it as a starting point for cultural analysis helps to deepen our understanding of contemporary media production and resulting (trans)formations of fan phenomena. Furthermore, investigating Lego allows us to tackle some of the key rules and mechanisms underlying cultural participation and creativity today. Ultimately, the difficult past and current success of the Lego brick may attest to the often challenged yet sometimes reaffirmed status of tangible objects in a now predominantly digitally mediated era
"Can I take your picture?": Privacy in cosplay
No full textIn this piece I examine the privacy concerns faced by costume players, or cosplayers, as a means of beginning to examine the question of how privacy can still exist in an increasingly public world. I first offer a brief overview of philosophical and current legal approaches to the concept of privacy, and then discuss the cosplay community and its concerns regarding harassment at conventions. I conclude by demonstrating how these concerns are actually privacy concerns and what this suggests regarding attempts to address these concerns both presently and in the future
A case of Sherlockian identity: Irregulars, feminists, and millennials
No full textThis essay describes a study of how fans participate in memory-making activities. I call this activity participatory memory, blending theories from collective memory and participatory culture. Interestingly, while studying spaces of memory for Sherlock Holmes (the Canon) and BBC's Sherlock (2010–), I began to realize that these spaces have much to do with gender, generations, class, and cultural differences that helped regulate (and even segregate) different ways in which people were allowed to participate in the Sherlockian fandom
Milk and mythology in "Singin' in the Rain"
No full textI debunk one of the most widely disseminated myths about the film musical Singin' in the Rain (1952): that set designers added milk (or ink) to the water so that raindrops would show up on screen. In so doing, I also attempt to locate the milk myth's origin and explain why this falsehood has intensified over the last 20 years