Fair warning: This may make absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I believe that this may have gelled because, for reasons obvious, Charles Schulz was on my mind yesterday, and I recalled a comment he made in a scholarly work about Peanuts that I read some years ago; about him being somewhat intimidated at the idea that when a child plays with a Snoopy doll, s/he is creating stories about Snoopy that Schulz would never know about.

As always these days, *REPLY* *DIRECTLY* *TO* *ME*.

Towards a Psychosocial Theory of the Origin of Fan Fiction

The "classical" explanation of an author's decision to write stories about characters created by another -- the sudden realization that he or she is able to write a scenario equal to or better than a scenario written by those who are currently writing about those characters -- has always seemed simplistic to me. I propose that the roots of that decision lay farther back in the background of the prospective author.

In this view of matters, there are three stages of development through which an individual who might become a fan fiction author will pass, identifiable with the phases of childhood, adolescence and maturity. It could be argued that sub-stages exist within these stages which are deserving of study, but I leave such refinements to others.

The initial stage -- "childhood" -- is one which is experienced by the majority of humans in developed countries, regardless of any later career as a fanfiction author. Within these countries, children of almost all economic classes are exposed to audio-visual entertainment from infancy onward. Indeed, there are well-documented complaints that the economic requirements of lower and middle class families transform the television into a "subsitute parent" or "electronic baby-sitter".

Regardless of the validity of such complaints, it cannot be denied that television has become the primary medium of children's entertainment. Furthermore, because of the economic realities of the production of such programs, there are uniformly supported by merchandising, even ostensibly non-commercial and educational programming such as "Sesame Street". From toys and clothing bearing licensed images or insignia from the programs to books and games which deal with new scenarios not shown on television to (in my view most significantly) dolls representing the characters from the programs, merchandise based on children's entertainment always sells as long as the programs themselves remain popular. In many cases, the programs themselves are created for the sole purpose of advertising the existence of such merchandise. The most classic Western example would be the "Transformers" and "G.I. Joe" cartoons of the mid 1980s, but there are many earlier and later examples. In Japan, this is even more clearly the case, since there are no laws which in the West prohibit the advertisement of merchandise relating to the program.

Let us consider now the child whose parents have been persuaded to  purchase a doll (or, in the case of a "doll" for boys, an "action figure") based on a character from his or her current favorite program. Unlike a teenaged or adult toy collector, the child will not place the doll on a shelf and never touch it again for fear of destroying its resale value. He or she will play with it. The child will use the toy to create scenarios involving the program of which the character is a part, especially if the child possesses several dolls or other toys ("accessories") involving the program. Perhaps the scenarios will only be representations of the scenarios which the child watched on television, but I suspect that in many cases they will be quite original.

These children are engaging in fan fiction authorship, whether or not they realize it. In fact, I suggest that just as almost everyone creates an "alternate history" whenever they imagine how an event in their personal life might have gone differently, so too does everyone who envisions a scenario involving a meeting between two or more fictional characters writing a crossover story.[1] The stories created in this stage are boundless in their creativity, but rarely possess internal consistency or adequate plot or characterization.

Eventually, the "child" will encounter another "child" who shares his or her interest in a specific program or character. Since no two people ever perceive the same event in the exact same way, there will be differences between the perceptions that the children have of the programs. In discussing their views, those differences may be revealed, and the revelation might be viewed as a challenge to either or both of the children's viewpoints.

The outcome of the challenge has a number of probable outcomes. The new viewpoint could be rejected, and the original viewpoint reinforced by the experience; the new viewpoint could be accepted, and the original modified to incorporate the new information.

Regardless of the outcome of the challenge, however, the "adolescent" now realizes that other viewpoints on characters and scenarios exist, and may be inclined to communicate his or her point of view to others. It is therefore most likely that in this stage a prospective fan fiction author will begin to record the scenarios.[2] It is during this period that skills at story-telling are acquired, allowing the creation of better plots and more accurate characterization. Needless to say, not all "children" become "adolescents" -- some simply never care that much.

The Internet has facilitated the development of many authors to the "adolescent" stage of authorship in the same way that it has aided the formation of many groups of fans -- by allowing communication between "children" who might otherwise never have encountered each other. In this way the computer network takes the role once filled by Amateur Press Organizations and "'zines". Whether this substitution, which may ultimately place fan fiction exclusively in the hands of those wealthy enough to own a computer and Internet connection, is a more-or-less positive development remains to be seen.

To return to the study of the development itself, however, I must reiterate that the fiction produced in the "adolescent" phase is ultimately reactionary. Hence the explanation usually given: "I thought that I could do better than the people who were already doing it". Whether consciously or unconsciously, the author is expressing his or her ideas of character and scenario in reaction to the opinions of others.

Ultimately, this limits the potential stories which he or she can create. In many cases, this results in an author losing interest as every new story only provokes violent dispute from those who disagree with the underlying opinion (sometimes called "theme"), slavish agreement from those who concur with it, or overwhelming apathy from those who do not care. Or the author may learn to live on dispute, feeding on the anger and vituperation of those who read their work; a "troll", in UseNet parliance.[3] Or the author may find or create an audience completely converted to his or her views, and spend all efforts to preach to them. In all of the above cases, the author has not reached for the next level, "maturity".

This final step -- something of a misnomer, as will be seen shortly -- is actually a synthesis, combining the storytelling skills honed during "adolescence" with a self-confidence recovered from "childhood". The stories that a "mature" author of fan fiction tells come from within him or her, rather than from reaction against or towards another viewpoint. Ironically, work produced at this stage sometimes ceases to resemble fan fiction. It may seem more like stories written about characters who resemble the characters whose names and images they bear in some respects, but who have been allowed to develop beyond the bounds of the characterization laid out by the original stories.

I should emphasize that when I speak of "maturity" as a writer, I do not necessarily speak of the quality of the story, but of the author, and the way that the story is told. A story told by a mature story teller will not always recieve universal acclaim, but the author will be unaffected by criticism based on other opinions of character and scenario, since he or she is now secure in his or her own interpretations.

While I have attached labels based on physical age to these stages of development, they do not necessarily indicate that an author will fall within such age groups when he or she goes though the stage. In fact, I would hypothesize that an author goes through the cycle whenever encountering a story which piques his or her interest. At first the author has no knowledge that other viewpoints exist, then is challenged by them, and ultimately beomces secure in opinions that he or she formed.

One might even view this as a metaphor for other forms of decision making.


Footnotes:

[1] And anyone who has a sexual fantasy about a fictional character is clearly creating an erotic fiction. (Note that the public personas of celebrities are, essentially, fictional characters.)

[2] Not always, though. Many "precocious" authors begin to record their new scenarios before they encounter other examples. Speaking for myself, I know that I literally recorded (on audio-tape) certain stories composed extemporaneously during my childhood. Furthermore, my first Internet-published story was written before I had almost any familiarity with the opinions of others on its subject matter.

[3] Practitioners of Transactional Analysis will recognize much of their behavior for what it really is.

Chris Davies, Advocate for Darkness, Part Time Champion of Light
Fanfics: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/banks/277/
Fanfic Revolution: http://come.to/hauthor
"So when I heard that she'd destroyed that alternate universe's version of Windsor Castle, I turned to her and said, `you know, Ms. Sparks, I've always thought you had a real anti-authoritarian attitude. And that's how I ended up in this body cast." -- me.
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com