The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Last night, after having listened to even more of Tweet Me Harder‘s amazing fanfiction that they’re doing, as well as having recently read Wide Sargasso Sea for class, I got to thinking: There’s a lot of critically acclaimed fanfiction out there. One could think of countless Bible fanfictions, for example, many of them important works of literature, like Paradise Lost. There is plenty of stuff in the canon that, when you think about it, is just fanfiction.

That’s so weird.

I mean, there’s no doubt that there is a bit of a difference between, say, a fanfic where two characters in your favorite anime fuck because that would be nice and a book like Wide Sargasso Sea. I’m not comparing these works of literature to that. But, well…

Way back, when I was much younger, I read most of a huge, I’m talking Novel-length here, fanfiction crossover between Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon. Much like Wide Sargasso Sea, the author was attempting to reconcile the various canons of these works into this story, which explained things that she thought were important. It wasn’t written in a tongue-in-cheek way. It was very serious. It was treating the base subject matter with respect, and really trying to create something entertaining and significant.

I look back on that now, and my first response is to shake my head. “I really read that stuff?” At the same time, as I think about it, I almost certainly enjoyed that fanfic more than Wide Sargasso Sea, because I am more of a fan of those two properties than I am of Jane Eyre. I mean, I certainly know more about them. Most of my Jane Eyre knowledge comes from my reading of The Eyre Affair, which isn’t exactly a perfect picture of the novel.

Maybe that’s it. Because they’re based on “respected” properties, the sorts that the people picking the canon would know about and have an appreciation for, stuff like Wide Sargasso Sea gets a free pass, even if it is just playing off someone else’s brilliance. Is that fair? I don’t know. Sailor Moon is not going to have the cultural significance of Jane Eyre in the future. Or is it?

I forget where I heard or read about this, but when the Scott Pilgrim movie came out, there was a lot of discussion about how it used video game references in the books and movie. There was talk of video games being at the point where they can be used as cultural touchstones, where you can work recognizable elements into another work, much like you could references to famous literature and key movies, without actually making the work be about video games. Now, I don’t think that’s totally true for Scott Pilgrim, but there certainly is a measure of it. Overall, too, things that I’m sure people of the time never would have dreamed would gain the cultural significance it did are super important. I’m sure those in charge of the canon who saw Star Wars for the first time probably wouldn’t understand how timeless it was going to become.

I guess what I’m trying to say is: write on, fanfiction writers. I mean, if nothing else, working those writing muscles is going to help you to create something completely original down the road, to be sure. At the same time, fanfiction is just one incredibly intense literary allusion. In this copyright-happy world, we maybe have lost sight of how wonderful people can make things when they build off of the ideas of others. At some point, I remember someone putting forth the idea of a world where anyone can write about Spiderman, because he’s no longer under copyright. Wouldn’t that be awesome, they said? I agree. It kind of would be. There’d be plenty of shit, sure, but soon, someone would hit upon something fantastic. That’d be cool.