Fanaktivität = Einschaltquoten

Eine Studie von fanhistory.com stellt einen Zusammenhang zwischen Fanaktivität und Einschaltquoten einer Serie her: "Fan fiction is a really popular outlet for fan expression of interest in television shows. The stories are creative, explore plot lines in the show and, according to many fans, help market a series in a positive way. Fans often argue that their activities mirror larger interest in a show, and that producers should pay more attention to them and cater to their fannish interests as the example provided seems to demonstrate. (...) The results confirmed what many fans already suspected: Levels of fan activity, specifically in terms of the production of fan fiction, mirrors interest specific episodes of television. Fan fiction can be used to predict Nielsen Ratings". - Quelle: Online PR News vom 25. September 2009.

"The scene that smells of zine spirit"

Jessica Bateman berichtet im Independent vom 25. September unter den Titel "The scene that smells of zine spirit" über Fanzines: "It should have died out with flexi discs and VHS, but now a new generation is embracing the DIY world of the fanzine".

Buchpaket :-)

Bei betterworldbooks (ein US-amerikanischer Buchversand, mit dem ich bisher nur gute Erfahrungen gemacht habe) bestellt und vor wenigen Minuten aus dem Postkastl geholt:

Frances Early, Kathleen Kennedy (Hrsg.): Athena's Daughters. Television's new women warriors. New York: Syracuse University Press 2003 (enthält unter anderem den Aufsatz "Tall, dark and dangerous: Xena, the Quest, and the wielding of sexual violence in Xena on-line fan fiction" von Helen Caudill)

Lincoln Geraghty: Living with Star Trek. American culture and the Star Trek universe. London/New York: I.B. Tauris 2007 (enthält unter anderem den Abschnitt "A network of support: identification and emotion in Star Trek fan letters")

"Slashfic perverts the source material"

"Slashfic intentionally perverts the source material, in the sense of an enjoyment in subverting mundane norms one doesn't respect, along homosexual and homosocial themes".

Aus: Steve Abrams, Smaragd Grün: "Mundanes at the gate... and perverts within: Managing internal and external threats to community online". In: Tyrone L. Adams, Stephen A. Smith (eds.): Electronic tribes. The virtual worlds of geeks, gamers, shamans, and scammers. Austin: University of Texas Press 2008, S. 211

Fanzines - "being killed by the Internet"

Unter "50 things that are being killed by the Internet" reiht ein Artikel in den Economic Times u.a. "Listening to an album all the way through", "Letter writing/pen pals", "Geographical knowledge", "Privacy" und "Footnotes" auch "Fanzines".

Fans "are not your lab rats"

"Fandom to researchers: We are not your lab rats", titelt Yonmei im Feminist SF-Weblog und fährt fort: "The problem people have who decide to 'study fandom', if they do not do sufficient prior research, is that they frequently underestimate fannish intelligence. (...) Anyone smart enough to successfully do scientific research inside fandom will be perfectly aware that fandom will likewise be researching them". Ich hoffe ja, bei meiner Diplomarbeit als langjähriger Star Trek-Fan genügend Wissen und als Nicht-Fanfiction-Schreiberin genügend Distanz mitzubringen, aber das ist auf alle Fälle ein sehr wertvoller Hinweis.

Call for Papers: Fan works and fan communities in the age of mechanical reproduction

Im Frühjahr 2011 wird ein Sonderheft der Zeitschrift Transformative Works and Cultures zum Thema "Fan Works and Fan Communities in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" erscheinen. Herausgeberinnen sind Nancy Reagin und Anne Rubenstein. Einreichfrist war leider schon im Mai, aber hier ein paar Informationen über das, was uns erwartet (hoffentlich bin ich zum Zeitpunkt des Erscheinens schon mit meiner Diplomarbeit fertig...):

"Scholars of literature and popular culture, along with ethnographers and sociologists, have produced a rich and sophisticated body of literature about fan communities and creativity over the last twenty years, but most of this work has focused on groups of fans who have been active since the 1960s, and very little of it has been produced by historians. This special issue will focus on the rich history of fans and their engagement with a variety of objects of fandom. We seek to expand the range of topics and methodologies available to studies of fans and their communities, and we hope to understand fans better by studying them in their historical contexts.
We invite contributions that focus on fan works and/or fan communities from any place and time since the late eighteenth century. This periodization is informed by Walter Benjamin's idea that—thanks to the invention of lithography—the original artwork, with its unique aura, came into being at that point precisely because of the availability of cheap copies. He argued that the distinctions between original and mass-produced commercial art and media created the boundary between high and popular art, and between mass and bourgeois tastes. We wonder whether the historical study of fans and fan works might modify Benjamin's formulation of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Does the long-standing existence of fan fiction, fan art, and other forms of community-generated fan works clarify or muddy his argument?
The special issue will be divided between scholarly contributions of 4,000 to 7,000 words, and oral histories of older fans. We will seek to include scholarly articles and oral histories that can be read against or with each other. For example, an interview of a present-day cosplayer might be juxtaposed with an article on nineteenth-century amateur drama".

Technovelgy

Eine Seite, auf der Science Fiction-Fans Stunden zubringen können, ist Technovelgy von Bill Christensen: "Explore the inventions and ideas of science fiction writers". Für mich als Bibliothekarin ist die Kategorie "Data storage" besonders interessant, aber auch Einträge wie "micro book", "electronic paper" und "robot librarian". - Die Seite verzeichnet nicht einfach nur Technologien, die von SF-AutorInnen ersonnen wurden, sondern ergänzt diese Vorstellungen durch Links zu Medienberichten über tatsächliche Erfindungen und Entwicklungen (ein simples Beispiel wäre Kommunikator > Handy).
Suchen und Browsen sind nach Kategorie (von Armor bis Work), Timeline (beginnend mit Schwerelosigkeit - Kepler 1634), AutorIn (von Adams bis Zelazny) und Buch möglich.

Star Trek "K/S" Fanzine Auction

Aus der Beschreibung: "Virginia 'Bitterwind' Smith discusses her experiences as a writer and artist in Star Trek fandom, and her extensive collection of 'K/S' erotic fanzines".

Fanzine über "Why I Am a Fan"

Der Fanclub Las Vegrants feierte die vierte Ausgabe des Fanzines "Idle Minds" mit "a 54-page issue devoted to the theme: 'Why I Am a Fan.' Nearly 50 fans have contributed to make this project a success". Abzurufen auf efanzines.com.

Neu auf der Literaturliste

Wertham, Fredric: The world of fanzines. A special form of communication. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press 1973

Hills, Matt: "Patterns of Surprise. The 'Aleatory Object' in Psychoanalytic Ethnography and Cyclical Fandom". In: American Behavioral Scientist 48 (2005) 7, S. 801 – 821

Chatelain, Julianne: "Learning from the review culture of fan fiction". In: Journal of Digital Information 3 (2002) 3

Rehak, Bob: "Mapping the bit girl: Lara Croft and new media fandom". In: Information Communication & Society 6 (2003) 4, S. 477 - 496

Filk, Gender und Copyright

Gerade entdeckt: Melissa L. Tatum / Robert E. Spoo / Benjamin Pope: "Does Gender Influence Attitudes toward Copyright in the Filk Community?". Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No. 09-21, 23. April 2009.
Aus dem Abstract: "While many filk songs are original lyrics set to original music, many more filk songs consist of lyrics written to existing music and/or lyrics based on characters/worlds created by other people. These practices potentially create problems in light of existing intellectual property law. In this paper, we explore those issues and whether a filker's gender influences his or her attitude towards intellectual property law. After setting out a basic explanation of filk and the intellectual property issues, the article details the various statistical results generated from the databases we built (one objective and one subjective) and draws some conclusions about gender and filk".

Teach yourself cultural studies

Ich lese gerade die Einführung in "Cultural Studies" von Will Brooker, die 1999 in der "Teach yourself"-Serie erschienen ist. Das Buch enthält auch Kapitel über John Fiske und Henry Jenkins, an denen ich bei meiner Diplomarbeit wohl kaum vorbeikomme(n möchte).

random fandom links

eFanzines.com: hosts and lists science fiction fanzines on-line (RSS and mailing list available)

Fanac Fan History Project: "devoted to the preservation and distribution of information about science fiction and science fiction fandom. Here you might find your favorite fanzine, pictures of Walt Willis in Ireland or Harlan Ellison at the 1955 Worldcon. You can also find the words to an early filk song, information about an SF con near you AND all sorts of strange and wonderful information about fandom's past. And the present, too, because that's tomorrow's past"

Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database: "on-line, searchable compilation and extension of Science Fiction and Fantasy Reference Index 1878-1985, Science Fiction and Fantasy Reference Index 1985-1991, and Science Fiction and Fantasy Reference Index 1992-1995, including material located since publication of the last printed volume" (RSS available)

The Voices of Fandom: "Our continuing 'mission' is to collect audio interviews and audio clips, either newly recorded or historic artifacts, spoken word or music, for the entertainment of interested science fiction fans everywhere! The site includes rare clips, interviews, stories of 'fan history', readings of fan writings, music, filk room recordings and voices of fans in the ongoing Fandom Oral History project" (RSS available)

MidAmerican Fan Photo Archive: "a gallery of over 8,000 photographs of science fiction fans and professionals taken at science fiction conventions and events around the world"

International Association of Audience and Fan Studies: "this new organization will promote cross-disciplinary communication, activities, and scholarship through traditional academic venues"

Norsk Fanzinekongress

Norsk Fanzinekongress - Photo von svennevenn

Leider verstehe ich die Ankündigung bzw. Berichte auf den norwegischen Websites nicht, aber dieser Kongress hört sich wirklich interessant an... und unter "foredrag, presentasjoner, filmvisning og tegneverksted — alt med fokus på fanziner" (Quelle) kann ich mir schon ein bisschen was vorstellen.

Bradbury und Fanzines

Patricia Hysell schreibt in ihrem Artikel im Examiner anlässlich des 89. Geburtstages von Ray Bradbury: "He began selling newspapers and started to publish a few science fiction stories in fanzines in 1938".

kids writing fan fiction

Auf die Frage "What Can Your Kids Do Better Than You?" antwortet Corrina Lawson in Wired: "Write fan fiction. The oldest daughter has a thriving fanfiction audience in several Young Adult fantasy fandoms".

Wunschbuch "Investigating Audiences"

Ich habe mir heute das Buch "Investigating Audiences" von Andy Ruddock auf der UB Wien gewunschen: "The book is divided into chapters that deal with audience research in terms of concepts and topics. Regarding concepts, Investigating Audiences is firmly grounded within interpretive approaches to studying viewers, readers and listeners. Further to this, the book looks at the different ways in which media influence can be accessed and the attendant methodological consequences". Bin gespannt, ob es bestellt wird - bisher war die UB aber sehr entgegenkommend, was meine Ankaufsvorschläge betrifft.

Update 22.8.2009: Buch ist als "beim Lieferanten bestellt" im Katalog :-)

Phantastische Namen

Hilke Elsen: Phantastische Namen. Die Namen in Science Fiction und Fantasy zwischen Arbitrarität und Wortbildung. Tübingen: Narr 2008 (= Tübinger Beiträge zur Linguistik 509) [UB Wien Signatur I-1454011]

tvtropes.org

Auf der süchtigmachenden Seite tvtropes.org werden Television Tropes, also "storytelling devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations", gesammelt. Es gibt auch einige Einträge, die zu meinem Diplomarbeitsthema passen: zum Beispiel SlashFic, Continuation, Mary Sue, Peggy Sue, Possession Sue, Fanfic, Fanwank, Ficdom, Self insert fic, Gen Fic und Fanon. - Aber am witzigsten ist vielleicht die "Grand List Of Overused Science Fiction Cliches", die u.a. "'Reversing the polarity' is the solution to virtually every engineering problem" und "Cryogenically frozen people are never thawed on schedule. They are either revived way, way too early or way, way afterwards" beinhaltet.