As of this week, Fanlore is out of its beta testing phase. This is an online encyclopedia, a wiki, which is one of the projects of the Organization for Transformative Works. It’s intended to document the history of fan communities
[META] The where of it all
One of the things I like to do in these posts is to look back at articles from Transformative Works and Cultures, directing people to things they perhaps wouldn’t have otherwise read or things they perhaps believed might have been
[META] Whose pregnancy?
Mary Ingram-Waters wrote an article in the most recent issue of Transformative Works and Cultures called “When Normal and Deviant Identities Collide”, about her experiences trying to collect information from authors of mpreg fan fiction stories at a Harry Potter
[META] Fan fiction as play
Our guest blogger this week is: Susanna Goodin, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Philosophy Adjunct Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies University of Wyoming ~~~ No other type of writing does what fan fiction does: It allows the writer to play.
[META] Why, yes, sloppy journalism does provoke me, why do you ask?
Every now and then, an article catches my eye from the mainstream press (or in this case, the GLBT press) about a presumed connection between slash fan fiction and gay romance novels. Most recently I noticed this article, W4M4M, in
[META] Genre shift?
When I started reading fan fiction, around 2002, I ran across fan fiction of all ratings right away. I had vaguely heard of fan fiction and ‘zines as far back as the seventies, but I had never read any or
[META] Existing settings, existing characters
We are all familiar with the elements of fiction: plot, character, theme, setting, point of view. When a writer decides to set a story in San Francisco in 1980, or in Bonn in 1950, or in her home town the
[META] A look at “Supernatural”
The most recent issue of Transformative Works and Cultures (the link is at your right) was a special issue about the show Supernatural. Many of the articles examine the way that show has “broken the fourth wall.” The idea of
[ADMIN] Feeds now available
Feeds of this blog have now been created for two platforms used by many fans: LiveJournal: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/symposiumblog/ Dreamwidth: http://symposiumotw-feed.dreamwidth.org/ Enjoy!
[META] Slash does not equal porn
Science fiction author John Scalzi and TV star Wil Wheaton are getting a lot of blogospherical mileage out of their commissioning of a piece of art by painter Jeff Zugale featuring them as cracktastic SF or fantasy characters, and their