Transformative Works and Cultures - TWC (Organization for Transformative Works)
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"Fan phenomena: Sherlock Holmes," edited by Tom Ue and Jonathan Cranfield
No full textReview of Tom Ue and Jonathan Cranfield, editors, Fan Phenomena: Sherlock Holmes. Bristol, UK: Intellect, 2014, paperback, $28.50 (164p) ISBN 9781783202058
Where the femslashers are: Media on the lesbian continuum
No full textSome texts are femslashier than others. Drawing on Alexander Doty's argument that television shows with primary relationships between women are "lesbian sitcoms," I argue that media driven by relationships between women are "structurally lesbian media" that generate femslash fandoms
Subversive drinking: Remixing copyright with free beer
No full textFor over the past decade, the Free Beer movement has provided producers, consumers, and hobbyists in the craft beer industry with a way to uniquely engage issues related to innovation and creativity: an "open source" beer that is encouraged to be uniquely transformed in the production of each subsequent batch. While contemporary conversations regarding copyright law and the legal protection of one’s work increasingly take place in digital contexts, Free Beer allows these conversations to (re)emerge outside of these settings, in an analog format, and inform those who are not engaged in the production of software or other digital media of the broader ramifications associated with excessive restriction and control. This paper examines how Free Beer functions as a critique of both copyright law and the suppression of creativity and innovation, and as a demonstration of alternative models of information protection and exchange
Classical monsters in new "Doctor Who" fan fiction
No full textAlthough a number of classic Doctor Who episodes featured story lines and characters drawn from Greek myth, no new Who episodes based on Greek myth appeared until seasons 5 and 6, in 2010 and 2011. These episodes featured Pandora's box, the Minotaur, and a Siren. They all use the mythical monster or artifact outside of its ancient Greek context, and I argue that the mythical monsters were additions to earlier story ideas. I compare this with the treatment of the myths of the Minotaur and the Sirens in five stories posted to FanFiction.net between 2008 and 2013. These stories all engage with classical myths, and the longest, "Lure of the Sirens," even engages with different versions of the myth of the Sirens. In this article I discuss how the writers use the classical myths within their stories, and how the myths fit in with the primary aims of the writers, for example in developing romantic relationships between characters
Are fan fiction and mythology really the same?
No full textThis short piece addresses some of the assumptions about the connections between Greek and Roman mythology and fan fiction that underlie this special issue of Transformative Works and Cultures, arguing that the connections are not always as simple as they are sometimes made out to be
"The cultural politics of colorblind TV casting," by Kristen Warner
No full textKristen Warner, The Cultural Politics of Colorblind TV Casting. New York: Routledge, 2015, hardcover 54.95 (748 KB) ASIN B00YY64066
Mashing up, remixing, and contesting the popular memory of Hillary Clinton
No full textThis essay looks at the viral video "Rebel Girl," released in 2015, which was produced by fans of Hillary Clinton. Following the trajectory of the video, one can see the potential for fan mashups to make arguments that subvert dominant narratives of public memory and, conversely, the way the way mainstream media moves to subsume outsider voices
Hoarding and community in "Star Wars Card Trader"
No full textTransitioning collectibles from the physical to the digital sphere changes the culture of collecting by increasing the accessibility of trading partners and adding digital limitations on personal interaction. In this analysis, I examine the collecting game Star Wars Card Trader (2015) and its culture of mass hoarding—the collecting of vast quantities of a single, valueless digital object—through which players reintroduce elements of personality, camaraderie, and nonrivalrous collecting into a system designed primarily for anonymous profitable acquisition. Via an analysis of player behaviors both within the game itself and in online venues, I argue that mass hoarding—a user invention—acts as the central community-building behavior in this digital realm. Mass hoarding is thus a clear indication that even in the digital realm, human personalities and relationships are vital to the construction of collecting as a pastime that is more complex than an investment opportunity
"Playing fans: Negotiating fandom and media in the digital age," by Paul Booth
No full textBook review of Paul Booth, Playing fans: Negotiating fandom and media in the digital age. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2015, paperback, 45, 978-1-60938-320-6
Amateur mythographies: Fan fiction and the myth of myth
No full textThis paper draws on classical scholarship on myth in order to critically examine three ways in which scholars and fans have articulated a relationship between fan fiction and myth. These are (1) the notion of fan fiction as a form of folk culture, reclaiming popular story from corporate ownership; (2) the notion of myth as counterhegemonic, often feminist, discourse; (3) the notion of myth as a commons of story and a universal story world. I argue that the first notion depends on an implicit primitivizing of fan fiction and myth, which draws ultimately on the work of Gottfried von Herder in the 18th century and limits our ability to produce historically and politically nuanced understandings of fan fiction. The second notion, which is visible in the work of Henry Jenkins and Constance Penley, is more helpful because of its attention to the politics of narration. However, it is the third model of myth, as a universal story world, where we find the richest crossover between fan fiction's creative power and contemporary classical scholarship on myth, especially in relation to Sarah Iles Johnston's analysis of hyperserial narrative. I demonstrate this through some close readings of fan fiction from the Greek and Roman Mythology fandom on Archive of Our Own. I conclude the paper by extending Johnston's arguments to show that fan-fictional hyperseriality, specifically, can be seen as mythic because it intervenes not only in the narrative worlds of its source materials but also in the social world of its telling