Comments on: Fan Fiction

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:16:05 +0000

Robert, I think you have a good point. The Marxists in particular did a lot of art supporting their narrative – not just literature, but painting and sculpture as well. Some of the environmentalists are good at it. Look at the anti-sealing stuff and other protests. I can’t bear to read much of it, but there is a tendency to write heroic epics online about those idiots who run around in little boats on the high seas, risking not only their own but others’ lives.

I don’t think you can have a narrative strong enough to build a society on without these kinds of stories, even if the stories themselves don’t indicate that the narrative will last (as in the Marxist case). I think we lost a lot when we stopped reading our children nicely sanitized versions of our heros’ lives. There’s time enough later for them to realize that even the greatest heroes have warts; reading and being told or read these stories in childhood teaches them their national myth and the kinds of behaviour their culture considers admirable or even heroic.

By: robert_piepenbrink

robert_piepenbrink — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:01:54 +0000

I’ve read and enjoyed some fan fiction, and some of the franchise novels which are very close to it, and I agree with the basic point about a strong story drawing people in. But I’m not sure I understand the Marxist/Movement exclusion.
There has been, it seems to me, a huge body of song, film and text which places people–some real, some fiction and some effectively reworked–into Marxist or Movement narratives. (Of course, not a lot of it is on my shelves, but still..) Joe Hill, Sacco and Vanzetti, Norma Rae of the movie–these are all real people reworked by the hagiographers to fit the narrative. I’ve seen accounts of Benjamin Banneker right to the edge of fiction, and “memoirs” of a black soldier at New Orleans which went well past that line. (Yes, there were battalions of black soldiers serving under Andrew Jackson. No, the popular “memoirist” in school readings wasn’t one of them.) The Soviets had folk heroes from Stakhonov and the child informer whose name escapes me on down. I’d love to do down both Marxism and the Movement, but to the degree Marxism has failed and the Movement hopefully failing, I don’t think it was the result of an absence of human figures. I think the fiction ended when the narrative ceased to inspire.

By: Lymaree

Lymaree — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:00:22 +0000

I meant to say this last week and didn’t get around to it. But I recorded and watched “Trekkies 2″ off TV, and found it interesting in ways that resonate with Jane’s posts of a common narrative.

“Trekkies”, the first movie, was funny in ways that this second film is not. The adolescent boys living in their basements and drawing minutely detailed floor plans of the Enterprise, and getting excited because a girl showed up this year at the convention…it was a hoot.

But now, 15 years later, those boys are grown up. Some of them have actually spoken to girls, others gone so far as to marry them. The Trek fan base is adult-to-middle-aged with children of their own.

And the Trek fan organizations don’t just talk Trek all the time. They actively work to bring the values of community and humanity expressed in the original series to the present world. Without the scenery chewing of Capt. Kirk, of course, but these people are really active in charity work and in promoting tolerance. They walk the walk, in other words. Except for the Klingons. They’re still crabby.

They have their narrative in place, and they’re working to extend it to others and bring in as many as they can by living the example.

Anyway, if anyone is interested, maybe your local cable system will reshow Trekkies 2 sometime soon.

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:53:21 +0000

I’ve sometimes thought some Catholics treat the saints as though they are neighbours. It’s even easier to ask St. Anthony for a prayer or a bit of help than to ask Mrs. Smith next door, even though St. Anthony might be expected to be more effective with both, what with his extremely well-established reputation for sanctity and effectiveness. The fact that he’s been dead a long time is irrelevant. Some people do bargain with saints, and with God and even with doctors who have just given them bad news, but that’s not the only way they interact with them.

I think that people spontaneously developing stories around a narrative is a sign of its popularity, certainly. The basic narrative has to come first, though.