On fanfiction.net there are 344,628 different stories available to be read about Harry Potter. So it's pretty obvious that not every single one of these are going to be astoundingly original. I found a video on youtube that was actually quite funny. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=09Hi1VVSh9g) In it a girl talks about all the common scenarios she has read that have to do with a Draco/Hermione love affair. She said that she was able to come up with at least 26 repeated themes. Some of these include: Hermione becoming a pureblood, an emotional breakdown, a mascarade ball, detention (stuck in potions class together), hermione gets pregnant with Draco's baby, etc... At one point the video-blogger says "believe it or not people actually write this", sometimes it's hard for me to understand the motivation behind a lot of these fanfictions other than humour. I suppose though, when you are really attached to a work of art you feel the need to reproduce it in your own way. Anyway, I thought this video was funny and interesting in relation to Harry Potter fanfiction.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
On fanfiction.net there are 344,628 different stories available to be read about Harry Potter. So it's pretty obvious that not every single one of these are going to be astoundingly original. I found a video on youtube that was actually quite funny. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=09Hi1VVSh9g) In it a girl talks about all the common scenarios she has read that have to do with a Draco/Hermione love affair. She said that she was able to come up with at least 26 repeated themes. Some of these include: Hermione becoming a pureblood, an emotional breakdown, a mascarade ball, detention (stuck in potions class together), hermione gets pregnant with Draco's baby, etc... At one point the video-blogger says "believe it or not people actually write this", sometimes it's hard for me to understand the motivation behind a lot of these fanfictions other than humour. I suppose though, when you are really attached to a work of art you feel the need to reproduce it in your own way. Anyway, I thought this video was funny and interesting in relation to Harry Potter fanfiction.
The usual thought associated with fanfiction is that it is a written work of fiction based on another work. There are tons of available "original" writing surrounding this idea. However, with the rise in popularity of youtube, a new form of fan fiction is being created. In some cases parodies are made using characters and ideas that rise from Harry Potter. Such as "Harry Potter: Bad Roomate" (http://youtube.com/watch?v=DhDdmwJrVPo), which has had 275, 543 hits since being added in August. Another popular youtube video is for a fanfiction writer to create a trailor for their writing (much like a movie trailor but for a work of fanfiction). Adding even more depth, or perhaps credibility to their creations. I found this video: (http://youtube.com/watch?v=wq6sGHz6KkY) as one example. Authors are not sticking strictly to writing only, they are using a whole new technology to add to their initial creation. This shows that people are putting a lot of time and energy into these pieces of writing. One final video option of fanfiction is not as creative as the others. It it simply a video of a bunch of movie-stills mashed together with background music. An example is "Bad Boys in Harry Potter Films" (http://youtube.com/watch?v=aKJbDt0LGC4). It seems that all you need is an editing program, devotion, and time to create these videos. Yet, they are a tad more involved then the "simple" task of writing a fan fiction.
Tutelary Review Part 2: Application
Thanks 'Stina!
That's the beauty of having three authors to one blog (and one upcoming due date): You never know who's going to post next! (To make myself completely nerdy, I used to be part of a forum where we would have 'post frenzies'...)
Anyway! Back to the 'Tutelary' podcast!
So McLuhan's idea is that radio creates a deeper multi-sensory awareness in comparison to literature which primarily focuses on one sense - sight. But does this effect occur with the podcast? While McLuhan might be loathe to looking at the content (for that is what distracts us, as listeners), I do have to say that the form of the story itself, a dramatic monologue of sorts from the perspective of Albus Dumbledore, suits the medium exceptionally well. Having Albus narrate a sort of pseudo address to Tom Riddle (who later becomes Voldemort, the main antagonist of the series) but in second person creates the interesting effect of placing the listener/audience in Voldemorte's position (an awkward position for any 'fan' of Harry Potter).
However, while the form of the story lends itself to the audio/radio medium well, there are certain pitfalls that accompany the delivery as well. First, a lengthy disclaimer explains the legal precautions of non-plagiarism, etc. which removes the audience from the initial 'state of disbelief'. Second, the narrator of the piece speaks with an accent. Now this accent wouldn't normally bother me (and I'm sure McLuhan would say that it adds a certain texture to the work) but I'm fairly certain the narrator has a mild lisp which makes understanding some of the fanfiction difficult.
Third, the narrator also appears to rush through the narration at a faster-than-regular-flow-of-conversation which leaves the listener in the precarious position of not being able to understand the action (I felt this at the beginning and in the middle of the fiction when the narrator switches from dramatic monologue to limited omniscient perspective).
I would agree with McLuhan's notion that the radio medium fills out a sort of 'greater sensory awareness' in that while listening to the podcast, I could pick up on intricacies of speech that defined concepts of character quite well (small sayings on Dumbledore's part).
Yet, I find there is also a certain lack in the podcast that real radio (particularly radio drama's or radio plays) more adequately fulfills: ambiance. Now this probably has more to do with the fact that the fanfiction is not a play, but is more of a 'book-on-tape'. With radio (and I can only speculate that by radio, McLuhan meant radio plays), a whole realm of sound effects, multiple voice actors, and music accompany a work. With the podcast narration, all the listener has is the narrator herself. As I mentioned already, the form of this particular work lends itself well to the podcast form because of it's dramatic monologue form, but other works of fanfiction might find themselves inadequately represented by the podcast medium as it lacks (or at least the creator of the podcasts lacks) the rest of the sound effects, voice actors, and music that would assist in 'filling in' the rest of the 'sound image'.
However, the podcast form does have the advantage over it's written counterparts as a wider audience (non-literates) can listen to it. Though, I'm not sure about whether that audience would be able to navigate their way too the podcast site as the internet itself requires a certain level of literacy too.
Huh, perhaps the internet, to that extent makes text and literature more 'cool'?
Stay tuned for more reviews!
That's the beauty of having three authors to one blog (and one upcoming due date): You never know who's going to post next! (To make myself completely nerdy, I used to be part of a forum where we would have 'post frenzies'...)
Anyway! Back to the 'Tutelary' podcast!
So McLuhan's idea is that radio creates a deeper multi-sensory awareness in comparison to literature which primarily focuses on one sense - sight. But does this effect occur with the podcast? While McLuhan might be loathe to looking at the content (for that is what distracts us, as listeners), I do have to say that the form of the story itself, a dramatic monologue of sorts from the perspective of Albus Dumbledore, suits the medium exceptionally well. Having Albus narrate a sort of pseudo address to Tom Riddle (who later becomes Voldemort, the main antagonist of the series) but in second person creates the interesting effect of placing the listener/audience in Voldemorte's position (an awkward position for any 'fan' of Harry Potter).
However, while the form of the story lends itself to the audio/radio medium well, there are certain pitfalls that accompany the delivery as well. First, a lengthy disclaimer explains the legal precautions of non-plagiarism, etc. which removes the audience from the initial 'state of disbelief'. Second, the narrator of the piece speaks with an accent. Now this accent wouldn't normally bother me (and I'm sure McLuhan would say that it adds a certain texture to the work) but I'm fairly certain the narrator has a mild lisp which makes understanding some of the fanfiction difficult.
Third, the narrator also appears to rush through the narration at a faster-than-regular-flow-of-conversation which leaves the listener in the precarious position of not being able to understand the action (I felt this at the beginning and in the middle of the fiction when the narrator switches from dramatic monologue to limited omniscient perspective).
I would agree with McLuhan's notion that the radio medium fills out a sort of 'greater sensory awareness' in that while listening to the podcast, I could pick up on intricacies of speech that defined concepts of character quite well (small sayings on Dumbledore's part).
Yet, I find there is also a certain lack in the podcast that real radio (particularly radio drama's or radio plays) more adequately fulfills: ambiance. Now this probably has more to do with the fact that the fanfiction is not a play, but is more of a 'book-on-tape'. With radio (and I can only speculate that by radio, McLuhan meant radio plays), a whole realm of sound effects, multiple voice actors, and music accompany a work. With the podcast narration, all the listener has is the narrator herself. As I mentioned already, the form of this particular work lends itself well to the podcast form because of it's dramatic monologue form, but other works of fanfiction might find themselves inadequately represented by the podcast medium as it lacks (or at least the creator of the podcasts lacks) the rest of the sound effects, voice actors, and music that would assist in 'filling in' the rest of the 'sound image'.
However, the podcast form does have the advantage over it's written counterparts as a wider audience (non-literates) can listen to it. Though, I'm not sure about whether that audience would be able to navigate their way too the podcast site as the internet itself requires a certain level of literacy too.
Huh, perhaps the internet, to that extent makes text and literature more 'cool'?
Stay tuned for more reviews!
A quick intro to our project and our blog...
Fan fiction, for those who don’t know, is fiction written by fans of a book, movie, or other similar media, which uses the characters or environment from the story (from the book, movie etc.). Fan fiction often continues where the other story left off, although there are also fan fictions which rewrite the story, perhaps with a different ending, or which parody the original story, as well as other variations. Fan fictions are most often published on the web. A popular site that publishes fan fiction is:
Fanfiction.net - www.fanfiction.net
A popular website that publishes articles on Fanfiction is:
The Fanfic Symposium - www.trickster.org/symposium/symp173.htm
For our project, we will be focusing on Harry Potter fan fiction. Some popular Harry Potter fan fiction sites we’ve come across are:
http://fanfiction.mugglenet.com/
http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/
MuggleNet also has some other interesting Harry Potter stuff, such as a podcast.
The Critic will be looking at a podcast in his next post.
'Tutelary' review: Part 1 - Theory
I am going to look at a podcast fanfiction (an interesting form - a sort of radio play or book-on-tape - that intrigued me when I came across it) titled 'Tutelary' by the writer Bowles.
Here are the links to both the podcast and the written story:
http://www.harrypotterpodcast.net/
http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php?chapterid=188003
However, I will mention that I will base this 'review' of sorts purely on the podcast version and not the written one.
First, some introductory jargon: Fanfiction writers post most of their work on the internet in written form. Some fictions combine different media - for example, visual art and writing - but still contain an element of text. With podcasting, the text becomes audio - a whole different medium with different strengths and weaknesses.
As a side note, (just to show that the podcast form itself isn’t ’numbingly’ new) I’m actually listening to a podcast (CBC Radio 3) while writing this.
Let’s see what McLuhan has to say about the written word:
The written word “has nothing to do with the content of the alphabetized words; it is the result of the sudden breach between the auditory and visual experience of man [sic]. Only the phonetic alphabet makes such a sharp division in experience, giving to its user an eye for an ear, and freeing him from the tribal trance of resonating word magic and the web of kinship.” (McLuhan 84)
Phew! Okay, so that’s quite a bit to unload, but let’s just quickly (and very informally) go over what McLuhan is getting at here with writing. Not surprisingly, McLuhan immediately strips text of its content; it‘s not what the text says but what the physical placement of ink in specific shapes does to the audience. In this case, the embalming (if you’ll bare with me waxing poetic) of speech - an auditory medium - into text - a visual medium - metaphorically strips the audience of shared (heard, tribal) experience for personal interpretation (read, individual).
So that is what’s happening with text but what does McLuhan have to say about radio (which is the closest to podcast form that I can surmise)?
“Radio affects most people intimately, person-to-person, offering a world of unspoken communication between writer-speaker and the listener. That is the immediate aspect of radio. A private experience.”(299); “All those gestural qualities that the printed page strips from language come back in the dark, and on the radio. Given only the sound of a play, we have to fill in all of the senses, not just the sight of the action.” (303)
Two key differences of radio compared to text are that 1) rather than being indifferent (text as readable for anyone/everyone), radio is an intimate exchange from speaker to listener, and 2) Radio provides a ‘second sight’ where the sound does not take place of sight but fills in sight and physicality.
I didn’t anticipate how much I would write within this, so what I’ll do, just so the post doesn’t take up an intrusive amount of the page, is I’ll split it into two sections. You’ve just read the ‘theory’ section and I’ll post the ‘review’ section right after!
End of Part 1
Here are the links to both the podcast and the written story:
http://www.harrypotterpodcast.net/
http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/viewstory.php?chapterid=188003
However, I will mention that I will base this 'review' of sorts purely on the podcast version and not the written one.
First, some introductory jargon: Fanfiction writers post most of their work on the internet in written form. Some fictions combine different media - for example, visual art and writing - but still contain an element of text. With podcasting, the text becomes audio - a whole different medium with different strengths and weaknesses.
As a side note, (just to show that the podcast form itself isn’t ’numbingly’ new) I’m actually listening to a podcast (CBC Radio 3) while writing this.
Let’s see what McLuhan has to say about the written word:
The written word “has nothing to do with the content of the alphabetized words; it is the result of the sudden breach between the auditory and visual experience of man [sic]. Only the phonetic alphabet makes such a sharp division in experience, giving to its user an eye for an ear, and freeing him from the tribal trance of resonating word magic and the web of kinship.” (McLuhan 84)
Phew! Okay, so that’s quite a bit to unload, but let’s just quickly (and very informally) go over what McLuhan is getting at here with writing. Not surprisingly, McLuhan immediately strips text of its content; it‘s not what the text says but what the physical placement of ink in specific shapes does to the audience. In this case, the embalming (if you’ll bare with me waxing poetic) of speech - an auditory medium - into text - a visual medium - metaphorically strips the audience of shared (heard, tribal) experience for personal interpretation (read, individual).
So that is what’s happening with text but what does McLuhan have to say about radio (which is the closest to podcast form that I can surmise)?
“Radio affects most people intimately, person-to-person, offering a world of unspoken communication between writer-speaker and the listener. That is the immediate aspect of radio. A private experience.”(299); “All those gestural qualities that the printed page strips from language come back in the dark, and on the radio. Given only the sound of a play, we have to fill in all of the senses, not just the sight of the action.” (303)
Two key differences of radio compared to text are that 1) rather than being indifferent (text as readable for anyone/everyone), radio is an intimate exchange from speaker to listener, and 2) Radio provides a ‘second sight’ where the sound does not take place of sight but fills in sight and physicality.
I didn’t anticipate how much I would write within this, so what I’ll do, just so the post doesn’t take up an intrusive amount of the page, is I’ll split it into two sections. You’ve just read the ‘theory’ section and I’ll post the ‘review’ section right after!
End of Part 1
Monday, February 4, 2008
The Assignment
This is what we are here to do:
Group On-Line Literature Project Criteria
In the three-person groups set in the critical theory assignment, complete an on-line literary engagement with fanfiction. The objective of the assignment is demonstration of familiarity with and critical understanding of literature in the online medium.
- There are two sections, each worth ten percent of the course grade, for a total assignment grade of twenty percent.
- The due dates for the two sections are chosen by the group, with three weeks at minimum between the two dates.
- Each section will work hands-on with an aspect of fanfiction. Some alternatives are:
- a blog on an existing fanfiction
- a fanfiction creation of the group's own
- a Second-Life project
- a critical-theory essay or manifesto
Select from the course list of fanfiction sites or research a choice of your own. Each section assumes 10% of the course grading effort for each group member. Hand in a hard-copy proposal for the full project (both sections) by February 4th.
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