The Erosion of the Fourth Wall
So I've been long absent from this journal and fandom has a whole, the publishing, and graduate school has been eating my time. Along with that I have been increasingly more active on other kinds of social media (twitter and tumblr) which has made me sadly neglect this journal. I have recently however had some fandom thoughts and I thought I might as well share them with you all.
This is something that has been happening for a long time. Back in the day when I first became involved with fandom it was almost unheard of for someone who actually created the original material, whether it was books, music, tv or movies to be aware of all the funky things fandom got up to, fanart, fanfiction, viding, cosplay etc. Cons provided some back and forth but by and large that was controlled. Fans decided what parts of fandoms got seen in public and by creators and what parts did not. Specifically the parts that did not were the ones with possible copy write issues, namely vidding and fanfiction and also the gay stuff.
Yeah that's been a lot of shame about the gay stuff for a long time. In a lot of fandom it's all fun and games when you're writing slash with your friends but you don't want anyone to see it (ironically since the whole internet sees it) and specially not anyone who is involved in the production of the original source.
Back in those days when creators did come into contact with these parts of fandom it was usually in a highly negative or uncomfortable way (Anne Rice being the most legendary example.)
This has changed thought.
Writers, musicians, actors, directors are increasingly aware of not just some but all fan activities, even the smutty gay porn parts which have been causing more then a few melt-downs/freak outs in the fandoms I lurk in. Asides from just a greater awareness of fan activity from creators, there has also been a change in the response from creators about fanfiction, fanart, vidding etc as well. We are see a lot fewer writers having their own melt-downs over the idea of someone else writing their characters and fewer actors being totally weirded out (and not in a good way) that someone is writing gay porn about them.
Things are shifting over to writers/directors/actors finding fanart and fanfiction funny, or fun, or flattering, or amazing or praise worthy. Yeah not everyone who creates shows, music, movies, books that people create fandoms around are supportive, a lot of them don't know about the fanficiton or the slash, or don't understand the implications or think it's weird/creepy. By and large fanfiction, fanart, vidding; specifically slash this is becoming a normalized part of being a geek and it is recognized as such. This is especially true among the younger generation of actors and writers, which I, as a writer, totally get.
I would not in any way shape or form be upset if at some point someone decided to write fanfiction/vid/make fanart about my character. In fact I would be extremely flattered, in fact I would probably read it because who doesn't want to read amazing stuff about something they created. As long as no one is making any money off of it I say more power to them. I am a geek and I am young enough that for as long as I can remember fanfiction/fanart/viding/squeeing about your favorite ships has been a large part of being involved in fandom and being a geek. I'm not surprised as time goes on it's becoming a normalized, accepted form of the large fan-body and geekdom as a whole. I certainly don't think it's anything to freak out about.
What does upset me though is that most of the freaking out is happening over slash, especially the smut and the fact that creators are realizing that it exists and liking it, condoning it even. I personally thing it's great, and wonderful and mostly just unsurprising. Yet fans are freaking out and saying it makes them sick, or they would die is X or Z ever read their stuff or they will leave the fandom and never write fanfiction again if Y person doesn't stop acknowledging the existence of a slash pairing (and approving of it.) The first time one of these freak outs passed across my radar I actually did sit down and imagine the person who created the characters I have written or the actors who portrayed them read my fanfiction. Even the really, really smutty stuff. Frankly I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't care, maybe they'd be freaked out by it, maybe they'd love it or I'd hope they would at least. Really either way though it's not a big deal. I put stuff out there to be read, whether it is original published fiction or fanfiction, I can not control who reads it or if they like it or if they don't. This is what it means to create things and then put them out there into the public eye. I'm okay with that. Most importantly though I think this shame around writing about gay characters and writing about sex needs to be interrogated. Why is it something we need to be ashamed of, why is it something we need to hide or we considered some how vulgar to share with the people who created the characters in the first place? Because quite frankly, the growing trend seems to be that the people who created the characters in the first place don't care, or think it's okay. So if they are down with it why can't we be?
The most recent freakout passed across my Tumblr dash this morning when Kacey Rohl tweeted that she was spending an enjoyable evening trolling through Hannibal fanfic. Much rings of hands and fans throwing themselves on their own swords ensue. Frankly though she's twenty one and a self-identified geek I would be surprised if she didn't read fanfiction.
So yeah, it's official, the fourth wall is not what it used to be slowly becoming more and more permeable and less and less clearly defined.
I'm not saying this will never be a problem, potentially even a huge problem, but it is now a fact and one fandom needs to deal with. From someone who's been on both sides of the dividing line as far as I'm concerned a.) that line is not as clear cut as many people seem to want to believe b.) this could potentially be a really good things c.) the weeping and wailing is not going to make it go away.
Actually from a published stand point I think this is an amazing thing. I think there is a lot of creative energy, risk taking, and ability to change and adapt on the fly involved in fandom which the creative processes designed to make creative people money could learn from. I think the legion of slash writers lends legitimacy to the idea that the viewing public wont fall down in a faint if there was more gay characters or even (lets all take a combined step back) gay main characters. There are probably ways that being more accepted and main stream will help fanfiction and fanarts especially of the slash variety as well.
So yeah, I am cautiously hopeful about this but either way it's a reality so everyone be chill.
This is something that has been happening for a long time. Back in the day when I first became involved with fandom it was almost unheard of for someone who actually created the original material, whether it was books, music, tv or movies to be aware of all the funky things fandom got up to, fanart, fanfiction, viding, cosplay etc. Cons provided some back and forth but by and large that was controlled. Fans decided what parts of fandoms got seen in public and by creators and what parts did not. Specifically the parts that did not were the ones with possible copy write issues, namely vidding and fanfiction and also the gay stuff.
Yeah that's been a lot of shame about the gay stuff for a long time. In a lot of fandom it's all fun and games when you're writing slash with your friends but you don't want anyone to see it (ironically since the whole internet sees it) and specially not anyone who is involved in the production of the original source.
Back in those days when creators did come into contact with these parts of fandom it was usually in a highly negative or uncomfortable way (Anne Rice being the most legendary example.)
This has changed thought.
Writers, musicians, actors, directors are increasingly aware of not just some but all fan activities, even the smutty gay porn parts which have been causing more then a few melt-downs/freak outs in the fandoms I lurk in. Asides from just a greater awareness of fan activity from creators, there has also been a change in the response from creators about fanfiction, fanart, vidding etc as well. We are see a lot fewer writers having their own melt-downs over the idea of someone else writing their characters and fewer actors being totally weirded out (and not in a good way) that someone is writing gay porn about them.
Things are shifting over to writers/directors/actors finding fanart and fanfiction funny, or fun, or flattering, or amazing or praise worthy. Yeah not everyone who creates shows, music, movies, books that people create fandoms around are supportive, a lot of them don't know about the fanficiton or the slash, or don't understand the implications or think it's weird/creepy. By and large fanfiction, fanart, vidding; specifically slash this is becoming a normalized part of being a geek and it is recognized as such. This is especially true among the younger generation of actors and writers, which I, as a writer, totally get.
I would not in any way shape or form be upset if at some point someone decided to write fanfiction/vid/make fanart about my character. In fact I would be extremely flattered, in fact I would probably read it because who doesn't want to read amazing stuff about something they created. As long as no one is making any money off of it I say more power to them. I am a geek and I am young enough that for as long as I can remember fanfiction/fanart/viding/squeeing about your favorite ships has been a large part of being involved in fandom and being a geek. I'm not surprised as time goes on it's becoming a normalized, accepted form of the large fan-body and geekdom as a whole. I certainly don't think it's anything to freak out about.
What does upset me though is that most of the freaking out is happening over slash, especially the smut and the fact that creators are realizing that it exists and liking it, condoning it even. I personally thing it's great, and wonderful and mostly just unsurprising. Yet fans are freaking out and saying it makes them sick, or they would die is X or Z ever read their stuff or they will leave the fandom and never write fanfiction again if Y person doesn't stop acknowledging the existence of a slash pairing (and approving of it.) The first time one of these freak outs passed across my radar I actually did sit down and imagine the person who created the characters I have written or the actors who portrayed them read my fanfiction. Even the really, really smutty stuff. Frankly I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't care, maybe they'd be freaked out by it, maybe they'd love it or I'd hope they would at least. Really either way though it's not a big deal. I put stuff out there to be read, whether it is original published fiction or fanfiction, I can not control who reads it or if they like it or if they don't. This is what it means to create things and then put them out there into the public eye. I'm okay with that. Most importantly though I think this shame around writing about gay characters and writing about sex needs to be interrogated. Why is it something we need to be ashamed of, why is it something we need to hide or we considered some how vulgar to share with the people who created the characters in the first place? Because quite frankly, the growing trend seems to be that the people who created the characters in the first place don't care, or think it's okay. So if they are down with it why can't we be?
The most recent freakout passed across my Tumblr dash this morning when Kacey Rohl tweeted that she was spending an enjoyable evening trolling through Hannibal fanfic. Much rings of hands and fans throwing themselves on their own swords ensue. Frankly though she's twenty one and a self-identified geek I would be surprised if she didn't read fanfiction.
So yeah, it's official, the fourth wall is not what it used to be slowly becoming more and more permeable and less and less clearly defined.
I'm not saying this will never be a problem, potentially even a huge problem, but it is now a fact and one fandom needs to deal with. From someone who's been on both sides of the dividing line as far as I'm concerned a.) that line is not as clear cut as many people seem to want to believe b.) this could potentially be a really good things c.) the weeping and wailing is not going to make it go away.
Actually from a published stand point I think this is an amazing thing. I think there is a lot of creative energy, risk taking, and ability to change and adapt on the fly involved in fandom which the creative processes designed to make creative people money could learn from. I think the legion of slash writers lends legitimacy to the idea that the viewing public wont fall down in a faint if there was more gay characters or even (lets all take a combined step back) gay main characters. There are probably ways that being more accepted and main stream will help fanfiction and fanarts especially of the slash variety as well.
So yeah, I am cautiously hopeful about this but either way it's a reality so everyone be chill.