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lurieta's review against another edition
5.0
A great compilation of fanfics and a rumination on fandom as community, as reimagining, as creative work.
mnboyer's review against another edition
4.0
Good overview examples of different archetypes in the fanfiction world.
deathbotly's review against another edition
5.0
If I wanted to introduce the concept of fanfiction to someone, this would be an excellent start. As a reader already familiar with it (to the extent that I had already read some of the samples within) and who knows most of the terminology on sight, I still found the further analysis/theory reading sections full of helpful paths to follow deeper into the fanfic crevasse.
zigzagzmak's review against another edition
5.0
Overall just an absolute blast to read. Such an in depth look at fanfiction, what it is, why it is what it is, and how it's come to be this way.
This book is structured like the Canterbury tales—each chapter a different short fic exemplifying a type of character or story; the communication officer, the detective, the demon hunter, the slayer, the wizard—because what is fanfiction if not folk stories reinvented under capitalism? Coppa reminds us of Rebecca Tushnet saying that "people who create with no hope of monetary reward make different things than people who want to participate in the money economy—and both are valuable," adding the important caveat; "although they may accomplish different things." Fanfiction writers are creating something for an audience that is different than the audience capitalism demands, and for that we are fortunate. The book also dances at the argument against corporations owning stories, but doesn't take a stand against it as strongly as it could have, especially given that Coppa has testified in Congress on behalf of the Organization for Transformative Works. I suppose one could argue that the entire book is a love letter to fandom and fanfiction and in a way takes that standpoint. Coppa does point out that "fans do creative work that one could get paid for—if one were willing to accept the limitations and restrictions that make it more like work and less like self expression."
I went into reading this book thinking "fanfiction has always existed" and while I still think that's true to some extent, I now understand that fanfiction is just a new label for something that only exists because we live in a world where someone can own a story. Dante's inferno wasn't fanfiction because it was publishable in its original form, whereas fanauthors today must change details to avoid copyright concerns before having any hope at making money off of their work, simply because it is derivative of something else.
People have always re-mixed stories and changed details and passed on myths and folk tales to be more interesting and personable to their audience. Fanfiction authors do the same today, just under very different circumstances.
I found myself intrigued with this book right away from the Communication Officer's Tale—a star trek fic. Not a fandom I've ever participated in nor source material I'm familiar with. The intro to the fic was really helpful in grounding my understanding of what it was functioning as in this anthology. Fic so often explores relationships where people talk through things and communicate (eventually!!) through their issues in ways real world people so rarely do. This first fic exemplifies this so wonderfully, by showing an example of two characters finding common ground and understanding through their own cultural taboos and conversation. It was an incredibly strong start for the book, though I felt like I needed to read through the lines of the introduction to get to that point of understanding why it had been included in the anthology to begin with. Coppa hints at it but refuses to give the reader all the information and instead asks you to think: Why is this story noteworthy? How is the way this author wrote this showing off something new or something specific to this trope/fandom/character type/etc.? Why is this important?
While I felt like most of the time I was able to make that realization and understand why each story was included, I found a few introductions lacking, and a couple of fics that were included seemed like incorrect choices shoved into the book for the sake of being the right length and in the right fandom. My gripes with this book are few and not enough to take my rating down from 5 to 4 stars, but I would be remiss to not mention them. This book was published in 2017, and so I understand that my mental trove of fics from some categories may not have even been conceived of when this book was published, I still found that I was disappointed in a few inclusions.
I will start with the Spymaster's Tale—fandom statistics alone reveal that James Bond is one of the few large fandoms where a single pairing makes up a majority percentage of works in that fandom (On AO3 specifically)— and that pairing? James Bond/Q, which is a queer relationship and a queer read of James Bond. One that to me, and to many fans of media that leans heavily on the "Babe of the Week" trope, should be no surprise. And yet Coppa argues that James Bond's story is "harder to queer," and included a het fic written by her friend, another co-founder of Ao3. I have nothing against cheering on and uplifting the work of one's talented friends, but this chapter truly felt like a square peg in a round hole. Q has "master" in his full job title- Quartermaster. He is a Spymaster, and there are plenty of tales about them. What could have been a chapter showing the ways that people make sense of Craig's portrayal of Bond as queer became a chapter with a boring and classic heterosexual read of the character, and one that is not subversive or characteristic of the fandom at all.
My next gripe is the Wizard's Tales—three stories from Harry Potter. I take issue with Coppa's insinuation that Snape is Harry's [one and only] obvious narrative foil, his obvious queer counterpart in the story, and then firms up with the inclusion of a Snape/Harry fic. I don't have issue with that being the pairing of the fic included, because for whatever reason, a lot of fandom DID see them as narrative foils and clear romantic and sexual companions for one another, but it is so stupid to pretend that that's the ONLY way fandom took it. Coppa briefly mentions that Harry Potter has so much fic from so many different time periods and focusing on many different characters and pairings, but she still chose to include three short stories all from the same generation, with a pretty homogenous attitude and approach to their writing. There is so much potential in this chapter and then it is lost.
For one of the Wizard's Tales, the story features Dudley, which I appreciate. Coppa describes how this specific pick exemplifies how fans who are members of minorities will see themselves and write themselves into stories, and I appreciated that. The story features a trans woman version of Harry's cousin, but I take Huge issue with Coppa describing it as "transvestism" and not mentioning JK Rowling's TERF identity and how important fanfiction and fan works has been as a method of reclaiming worlds, stories, and characters who have meant so much to us from authors who would rather have us dead. This book was published in 2017 which was not too early to know JK's true colors and to not mention them, and certainly far too late in the game to still use the word "transvestism."
Lastly, I felt as though this book just skimmed the surface on race and racism in popular media, and didn't even broach the issues of racism within fandom. It's a big topic, and one that should be dealt with with grace and a serious approach, and I understand if Coppa didn't want to try to address it and not get it right, but there were a few opportunities where she could have at the very least described the issue further. In The Stormtrooper's Tale, Coppa almost hints at it by juxtaposing Finn/Poe's popularity—the first big slash pairing where both members are not white, with Kylo Ren/Hux, but the comparison falls flat when she misses the opportunity to talk about the issues there and instead jokes about the kinkiness of the dark side. She could have taken two sentences to mention how Hux has literally less than 5 minutes of screentime in the first movie and yet an incredibly large fandom spurned around these two white men, a fandom that rivals the size of that surrounding the actual leads of the movie, but she neglected to do so. It is a question that begs asking, and even if she doesn't have an answer, she could have reminded us to think about it. Why does fandom crop up around white men where it does not around people (& characters) of color?
I'm looking forward to getting more into fanfiction studies and reading more about media in general because of this book, and I'm thankful it exists. I know it cannot cover every topic and every pairing I've ever loved, and I'm thrilled to have been exposed to so much more of fandom and fanfiction history.
Strongly recommend giving this a read if you're into fanfiction and fandom!
This book is structured like the Canterbury tales—each chapter a different short fic exemplifying a type of character or story; the communication officer, the detective, the demon hunter, the slayer, the wizard—because what is fanfiction if not folk stories reinvented under capitalism? Coppa reminds us of Rebecca Tushnet saying that "people who create with no hope of monetary reward make different things than people who want to participate in the money economy—and both are valuable," adding the important caveat; "although they may accomplish different things." Fanfiction writers are creating something for an audience that is different than the audience capitalism demands, and for that we are fortunate. The book also dances at the argument against corporations owning stories, but doesn't take a stand against it as strongly as it could have, especially given that Coppa has testified in Congress on behalf of the Organization for Transformative Works. I suppose one could argue that the entire book is a love letter to fandom and fanfiction and in a way takes that standpoint. Coppa does point out that "fans do creative work that one could get paid for—if one were willing to accept the limitations and restrictions that make it more like work and less like self expression."
I went into reading this book thinking "fanfiction has always existed" and while I still think that's true to some extent, I now understand that fanfiction is just a new label for something that only exists because we live in a world where someone can own a story. Dante's inferno wasn't fanfiction because it was publishable in its original form, whereas fanauthors today must change details to avoid copyright concerns before having any hope at making money off of their work, simply because it is derivative of something else.
People have always re-mixed stories and changed details and passed on myths and folk tales to be more interesting and personable to their audience. Fanfiction authors do the same today, just under very different circumstances.
I found myself intrigued with this book right away from the Communication Officer's Tale—a star trek fic. Not a fandom I've ever participated in nor source material I'm familiar with. The intro to the fic was really helpful in grounding my understanding of what it was functioning as in this anthology. Fic so often explores relationships where people talk through things and communicate (eventually!!) through their issues in ways real world people so rarely do. This first fic exemplifies this so wonderfully, by showing an example of two characters finding common ground and understanding through their own cultural taboos and conversation. It was an incredibly strong start for the book, though I felt like I needed to read through the lines of the introduction to get to that point of understanding why it had been included in the anthology to begin with. Coppa hints at it but refuses to give the reader all the information and instead asks you to think: Why is this story noteworthy? How is the way this author wrote this showing off something new or something specific to this trope/fandom/character type/etc.? Why is this important?
While I felt like most of the time I was able to make that realization and understand why each story was included, I found a few introductions lacking, and a couple of fics that were included seemed like incorrect choices shoved into the book for the sake of being the right length and in the right fandom. My gripes with this book are few and not enough to take my rating down from 5 to 4 stars, but I would be remiss to not mention them. This book was published in 2017, and so I understand that my mental trove of fics from some categories may not have even been conceived of when this book was published, I still found that I was disappointed in a few inclusions.
I will start with the Spymaster's Tale—fandom statistics alone reveal that James Bond is one of the few large fandoms where a single pairing makes up a majority percentage of works in that fandom (On AO3 specifically)— and that pairing? James Bond/Q, which is a queer relationship and a queer read of James Bond. One that to me, and to many fans of media that leans heavily on the "Babe of the Week" trope, should be no surprise. And yet Coppa argues that James Bond's story is "harder to queer," and included a het fic written by her friend, another co-founder of Ao3. I have nothing against cheering on and uplifting the work of one's talented friends, but this chapter truly felt like a square peg in a round hole. Q has "master" in his full job title- Quartermaster. He is a Spymaster, and there are plenty of tales about them. What could have been a chapter showing the ways that people make sense of Craig's portrayal of Bond as queer became a chapter with a boring and classic heterosexual read of the character, and one that is not subversive or characteristic of the fandom at all.
My next gripe is the Wizard's Tales—three stories from Harry Potter. I take issue with Coppa's insinuation that Snape is Harry's [one and only] obvious narrative foil, his obvious queer counterpart in the story, and then firms up with the inclusion of a Snape/Harry fic. I don't have issue with that being the pairing of the fic included, because for whatever reason, a lot of fandom DID see them as narrative foils and clear romantic and sexual companions for one another, but it is so stupid to pretend that that's the ONLY way fandom took it. Coppa briefly mentions that Harry Potter has so much fic from so many different time periods and focusing on many different characters and pairings, but she still chose to include three short stories all from the same generation, with a pretty homogenous attitude and approach to their writing. There is so much potential in this chapter and then it is lost.
For one of the Wizard's Tales, the story features Dudley, which I appreciate. Coppa describes how this specific pick exemplifies how fans who are members of minorities will see themselves and write themselves into stories, and I appreciated that. The story features a trans woman version of Harry's cousin, but I take Huge issue with Coppa describing it as "transvestism" and not mentioning JK Rowling's TERF identity and how important fanfiction and fan works has been as a method of reclaiming worlds, stories, and characters who have meant so much to us from authors who would rather have us dead. This book was published in 2017 which was not too early to know JK's true colors and to not mention them, and certainly far too late in the game to still use the word "transvestism."
Lastly, I felt as though this book just skimmed the surface on race and racism in popular media, and didn't even broach the issues of racism within fandom. It's a big topic, and one that should be dealt with with grace and a serious approach, and I understand if Coppa didn't want to try to address it and not get it right, but there were a few opportunities where she could have at the very least described the issue further. In The Stormtrooper's Tale, Coppa almost hints at it by juxtaposing Finn/Poe's popularity—the first big slash pairing where both members are not white, with Kylo Ren/Hux, but the comparison falls flat when she misses the opportunity to talk about the issues there and instead jokes about the kinkiness of the dark side. She could have taken two sentences to mention how Hux has literally less than 5 minutes of screentime in the first movie and yet an incredibly large fandom spurned around these two white men, a fandom that rivals the size of that surrounding the actual leads of the movie, but she neglected to do so. It is a question that begs asking, and even if she doesn't have an answer, she could have reminded us to think about it. Why does fandom crop up around white men where it does not around people (& characters) of color?
I'm looking forward to getting more into fanfiction studies and reading more about media in general because of this book, and I'm thankful it exists. I know it cannot cover every topic and every pairing I've ever loved, and I'm thrilled to have been exposed to so much more of fandom and fanfiction history.
Strongly recommend giving this a read if you're into fanfiction and fandom!
lmmixer's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent content analysis on fanfiction as traditional and exemplary storytelling.
will_meringue's review against another edition
only read the relevant parts for my essay
doubleinfinity's review against another edition
5.0
What can I say? This was amazing.
I'm already in love with fanfiction, but this book was so insightful and thought-provoking, with a stellar sampler of stories. It was so cool peering in on other fandoms I know very little about (I am very selective and then extremely thorough when it comes to my own) and getting a taste of what goes on in there, discerning what values and tropes reflect the culture, etc.
My favorite discussion was on the idea of the subjectification of erotica- the friendship-ization of sex. Fucking beautiful and on the nose.
And that LOTR fic was just- fucking incredible. It changed how my brain is arranged, I swear it. The Smallville short, Bleeding Kansas was absolutely devastating. I put the book down for a few seconds and just thought about it for a long time.
This was that special kind of book that I crawled through, savoring it, not wanting it to end and always feeling like there was so much to dwell on on every page.
This is going down as one of the books that I consider most precious to me.
I'm already in love with fanfiction, but this book was so insightful and thought-provoking, with a stellar sampler of stories. It was so cool peering in on other fandoms I know very little about (I am very selective and then extremely thorough when it comes to my own) and getting a taste of what goes on in there, discerning what values and tropes reflect the culture, etc.
My favorite discussion was on the idea of the subjectification of erotica- the friendship-ization of sex. Fucking beautiful and on the nose.
And that LOTR fic was just- fucking incredible. It changed how my brain is arranged, I swear it. The Smallville short, Bleeding Kansas was absolutely devastating. I put the book down for a few seconds and just thought about it for a long time.
This was that special kind of book that I crawled through, savoring it, not wanting it to end and always feeling like there was so much to dwell on on every page.
This is going down as one of the books that I consider most precious to me.
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