Look, Ma! Meta!
A while back malnpudl alerted me to a call for a local-to-Toronto fangirl who was willing to appear on an academic panel sponsored by an annual Toronto literary festival. The panel was going to discuss "appropriation art" - writers and visual artists who incorporate copywritten material into their work. The panel organizer felt it was crucial to have some kind of representation from the fanfic community, and I volunteered because a) hey, it's close and b) I haven't actually done the academic panel thing, which is the one bit of the grad school experience I was really sorry to have missed out on.
Anyway, the panel is tonight, and I thought I would go over some of the ideas I want to discuss and shamelessly steal your talking pointsask you folks to weigh in on what it is we do, here, with this fanfiction thing.
The panel itself is going to be attended by two poets and a visual artist. I was told that one of the poets is particularly hostile to fanfiction, although no reason was given to explain her attitude. (That was meant as a heads-up on the part of the panel organizer, I think). Anyway, the official description of the panel is:
How do artists negotiate the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright - all rights reserved - and the public domain - no rights reserved? What is influence anyway? Who owns language and who should have access to it? How do countercultures challenge concepts of privacy rights? [Panel contributors] engage with issues of copyright, collaboration and appropriation, with each artist representing a unique perspective.
The panel discussion is followed by a night of "appropriation art":
The entirety of New York Sunday Times, retyped, bound as a book and sold as a work of literature. Moby Dick run through an auto-summary tool and reduced to 4% of its original length. An entire book composed of lines from other books with the word “edit” as an anchor. One person’s spam is another person’s poem. Textual excavators and conceptual pioneers...will perform derivative works that range from borrowed language to conceptual enclaves that will challenge and re-imagine (un)creativity.
I've only got five minutes to make a brief presentation about fanfiction and fannish works and explain how they relate to the idea of appropriation. Some of the points I hope to address in my brief discussion:
On Fannish Appropriation and Its Discontents - Key Questions
1. Is fanfiction legal? What about podfic? Vidding? Photomanipulation? I'm not interested in the legal minutiae as much as our own view of these issues - do we consider what we do to be in violation of the law? What kind of legal/moral/ethical quandaries does that present for us as creators? Do you feel ever feel guilty about your work in fandom? (And I'm thinking here specifically of the people who tend to use those disclaimers that specifically state that they don't own" and "don't profit" from the fic they've written, or the vids they've made. ( I realize the legal questions are much more complex for vidders - I hope to discuss that a bit here in the comments, and bring it up at the panel)
2. Does fanfiction "count" as a literary endeavor? Is it truly transformative? Do we view ourselves as artists?
3. Who writes fanfiction, and why? Is it part of a counterculture movement? Is it transgressive? Do we consider ourselves and our community to be "subversive"? How does that influence the way we see ourselves in connection with the wider (offline) culture? And are there degrees of subversiveness in fandom? Are slashers more or less transgressive than het writers?
Those are the basic questions I want to bring up. Five minutes really isn't a lot of time, but I want to convey the broad strokes of some of these issues. And there is a HUGE amount to talk about here. If you'd be willing to share your thoughts on any of these issues, I'd appreciate it. I want to speak for myself and share my own ideas about these topics, but I also would like to be able to offer some response from the community I am, for better or worse, representing tonight*
So, what do you think?
*I'd appreciate it if this wasn't included in the metafandom update, please
Anyway, the panel is tonight, and I thought I would go over some of the ideas I want to discuss and shamelessly steal your talking pointsask you folks to weigh in on what it is we do, here, with this fanfiction thing.
The panel itself is going to be attended by two poets and a visual artist. I was told that one of the poets is particularly hostile to fanfiction, although no reason was given to explain her attitude. (That was meant as a heads-up on the part of the panel organizer, I think). Anyway, the official description of the panel is:
How do artists negotiate the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright - all rights reserved - and the public domain - no rights reserved? What is influence anyway? Who owns language and who should have access to it? How do countercultures challenge concepts of privacy rights? [Panel contributors] engage with issues of copyright, collaboration and appropriation, with each artist representing a unique perspective.
The panel discussion is followed by a night of "appropriation art":
The entirety of New York Sunday Times, retyped, bound as a book and sold as a work of literature. Moby Dick run through an auto-summary tool and reduced to 4% of its original length. An entire book composed of lines from other books with the word “edit” as an anchor. One person’s spam is another person’s poem. Textual excavators and conceptual pioneers...will perform derivative works that range from borrowed language to conceptual enclaves that will challenge and re-imagine (un)creativity.
I've only got five minutes to make a brief presentation about fanfiction and fannish works and explain how they relate to the idea of appropriation. Some of the points I hope to address in my brief discussion:
On Fannish Appropriation and Its Discontents - Key Questions
1. Is fanfiction legal? What about podfic? Vidding? Photomanipulation? I'm not interested in the legal minutiae as much as our own view of these issues - do we consider what we do to be in violation of the law? What kind of legal/moral/ethical quandaries does that present for us as creators? Do you feel ever feel guilty about your work in fandom? (And I'm thinking here specifically of the people who tend to use those disclaimers that specifically state that they don't own" and "don't profit" from the fic they've written, or the vids they've made. ( I realize the legal questions are much more complex for vidders - I hope to discuss that a bit here in the comments, and bring it up at the panel)
2. Does fanfiction "count" as a literary endeavor? Is it truly transformative? Do we view ourselves as artists?
3. Who writes fanfiction, and why? Is it part of a counterculture movement? Is it transgressive? Do we consider ourselves and our community to be "subversive"? How does that influence the way we see ourselves in connection with the wider (offline) culture? And are there degrees of subversiveness in fandom? Are slashers more or less transgressive than het writers?
Those are the basic questions I want to bring up. Five minutes really isn't a lot of time, but I want to convey the broad strokes of some of these issues. And there is a HUGE amount to talk about here. If you'd be willing to share your thoughts on any of these issues, I'd appreciate it. I want to speak for myself and share my own ideas about these topics, but I also would like to be able to offer some response from the community I am, for better or worse, representing tonight*
So, what do you think?
*I'd appreciate it if this wasn't included in the metafandom update, please