(2008-02-06) Harrington Fan Fiction

Sebastian Mary Harrington gives some insight into the FanFiction world. FanFic is 90-95% female (Women), in contrast with the canon of authors I studied at college. It's often collaborative, and engages with an existing fictional universe, while - say - literary Fiction is generally written by single individuals and is fixated on the idea of originality "without realising", Roz says, "how overrated this concept has been since the Romantic era". Fanfic is structured socially around a Gift Economy of stories, and Money is frowned upon; literature writers usually aspire to Making A Living from their work. Fanfic is pleasure-oriented; literature intellectual; fanfic is non-hierarchical and networked, while literature tends towards canons.