Important New Study Concludes Fan Fiction Writers Want to See Their Fave Characters Getting It On
It's been a revealing news day here at Late to the Party. First, I learned all men watch porn (really? All of them? In my mind's eye both my college editorial adviser and Prof. Lajeunesse of the University of Montreal are downing shots in an effort to forget this headline.). Then (because this is how my mind works), I started to wonder: if all men watch porn, do all women create fandom-based smut and post it on the web? Probably not. But how many do? Is there any way to find out?
Turns out -- not so much. Fandom is not the subject of the same intense academic scrutiny as Canadian men's porn-viewing habits. That may be changing, though. Intrepid researchers Kim Barthel, Ania Hutnik and Carnelius Puschmann of the University of Dusseldorf have begun laying the groundwork in what is sure to be an important new field. Their paper, "Forking Forks. A corpus study of Internet fan fiction based on the Twilight series" studies differences in word frequency between Meyer's work and that of fan writers. Their conclusion? Fan-fic writers "desire to be more explicit and overt regarding taboos, especially in relation to sexuality, that for publishabilities' sake can only be hinted at in the commercial source."
So far, Barthel, Hutnik & Puschmann's paper has been submitted to Digital Humanities 2010, but has not yet been accepted. I can only hope the Digital Humanities acceptance committee understands the seminal nature of this work.
Turns out -- not so much. Fandom is not the subject of the same intense academic scrutiny as Canadian men's porn-viewing habits. That may be changing, though. Intrepid researchers Kim Barthel, Ania Hutnik and Carnelius Puschmann of the University of Dusseldorf have begun laying the groundwork in what is sure to be an important new field. Their paper, "Forking Forks. A corpus study of Internet fan fiction based on the Twilight series" studies differences in word frequency between Meyer's work and that of fan writers. Their conclusion? Fan-fic writers "desire to be more explicit and overt regarding taboos, especially in relation to sexuality, that for publishabilities' sake can only be hinted at in the commercial source."
So far, Barthel, Hutnik & Puschmann's paper has been submitted to Digital Humanities 2010, but has not yet been accepted. I can only hope the Digital Humanities acceptance committee understands the seminal nature of this work.