Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture

Commentary
Title:	Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture
Commentator:	Henry Jenkins
Date(s):	1992
Medium:	book
Fandom:	media fandom
External Links:	Textual Poachers, cover art by Jean Kluge: "The Quest"
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Textual Poachers, written by aca-fan Henry Jenkins, was massively influential in the development of fan studies and coincidentally introduced many new fans to media fandom. The book was unusual in that it celebrated fandom instead of pathologizing it. Though, being pre-internet, somewhat outdated now in its focus on old-skool slash fandom, it remains a sympathetic and insightful book about media fans and our creative community, and features chapters about fanac like fanfic, fan art, vidding, and filk. One of Jean Kluge's ST:TNG drawings was used as the cover for the book.

The book's focus is on media fans as an "interpretive community" that "poaches" media texts in order to subvert their intended meaning and reclaim ownership of popular culture from massive corporate interests. In Jenkins' words, the book "documents a group insistent on making meaning from materials others have characterized as trivial and worthless."

Glimpses of Fannish History

In his discussion of various fan activities, Jenkins used examples of then-current fandoms and fannish moments that now offer a glimpse into history:

• close reading of a K/S VCR vid by Mary Van Deusen
• Beauty and the Beast fans' dismay over changes in the show's direction, especially the replacement of Catherine (the first female lead) with Diana
• Twin Peaks fans theorizing about "Who killed Laura Palmer?"
• fanfiction in the print zine era
• The chapter on slash quotes from Gayle F.'s Cosmic Fuck Series, as well as stories by Jane Carnall, HG, M. Fae Glasgow, and many others.
• this new thing we now call vidding

Reactions and Reviews

the art, by Jean Kluge, on the cover of the zine Sub Space Chatter

I have recently found a fanzine-related topic worth discussing: a book, issued July 31,1992, called Textual Poachers by Henry Jenkins. Don't be misled by the title—this is a highly sympathetic and insightful discussion about fandom and fanzines. I must warn potential readers, however, that this is a book for mature individuals—and not simply because one chapter covers slash (K/S), and not just because the author occasionally quotes sources using four-letter words. The language is unabashedly college-level English, written in academic style, and there is a detachment from the subject matter, which, in a couple of places, I found shocking. Beyond those drawbacks, however, there is a lot of fascinating material in this book. The title comes from an analogy made in academia about producers and consumers of popular culture. The movie, television, and book industries manufacture a text (in our case, Star Trek), and "the text becomes a cultural weapon, a private hunting preserve." The author goes on to elaborate:

Like the poachers of old, fans operate from a position of marginality and social weakness. Like other popular readers, fans lack direct access to the means of commercial cultural production and have only the most limited resources with which to influence the entertainment industry's decisions. Fans must beg with the networks to keep their favorite shows on the air, must lobby producers to provide desired plot developments, or to protect the integrity of favorite characters. Within the cultural economy, fans are peasants, not proprietors, a recognition which must contextualize our celebration of strategies of popular resistance."

Much in this book is made of the struggle between fans and producers for possession of the text. Part of the strategy fans use to mold the text to their own needs is the production of fanzines, and a lot of the book is dedicated to the analysis of fan publications. Another substantial portion of the book deals with the discussions fans have with each other through letterzines and the impact of these discussions upon fans as well as producers. Most of all, the author thoroughly debunks the myth that fans are "cultural dupes, social misfits, and mindless consumers," and instead presents fans as mature, intelligent, socially responsible individuals. This book also presents a concrete answer to the eternal question, "Why is Star Trek attractive to so many people?" Although this book covers many "media" fandoms, not just Star Trek (for instance, there is an entire section of Beauty and the Beast fandom as well as Alien Nation fandom), Star Trek is well covered, and many of the general points apply to fans of ST and ST:TNG as well as fans of other shows... I would be interested in reading the reaction of other fans to this book.

'Enterprising Women' brought back a lot of memories, both good and bad, about my early years in fandom. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a women's persecutive of media fandom. If you would like to read a book that takes a wider selection of media fandom, you might want to read Textual Poachers. This book looks at everything from fanzines to filk and covers more genres than 'Enterprising Women' did. These two books make good companion pieces to each other. A note, however. Both of these books look at slash fiction in detail, with 'Poachers' using explicit excerpts. If you are offended by slash, you might want to skip those chapters.

... every fan should get a hold of a copy of Textual Poachers. (I love that title!) Every time one of my political friends bugs me about bring into popular culture, and fandom, I trot it out to show them that, unlike most TV viewers, fandom is made up of people who are active critical consumers, who work to improve their favored product.

As a teenager, I'd read Star Trek: The New Voyages and had adored my Star Trek Foto novels. But even by 1992, I'd never heard of this thing called fandom. Then the newly-published book, "Textual Poachers," arrived at the university library where I work. I was intrigued by the cover but even more intrigued by the contents. As I paged through it and arrived at the slash section, I felt my face start to burn. Kirk and Spock? Starsky and Hutch? Kissing? And, like, doing other... stuff? I looked up and studied my co-workers. Could they read my mind? Did they know that I was horrified... wait, wait, no... not horrified, rather very, very intrigued by this possibility? It took me another two months to work up the courage to officially check the book out on my library card so I could read it in the privacy of my own home. When I went up to the library stacks to find it, I discovered someone had stolen it. Rats.

Are you a textual poacher? Anyone of us who has attempted a Star Trek poem, story or filk song qualifies to be called a textual poacher according to Henry Jenkins. A textual poacher is someone who takes a TEXT, in our case Star Trek, and fashions it to fit his or her image of what the characters and story should be, so we POACH the TEXT from the original. Just where we English/Aussie fans fit into this academic exploration of television fandom is a bit ambiguous as it largely concerns fandom in the United States. Jenkins is careful to distance himself from other academic examinations of fandom; in fact, by being a fan himself he has had to work hard at NOT identifying too closely with any particular fan group or text. However, it is that distance which annoys; a book of this nature will be used as a reference in years to come, but the people who want to read it may not do so because its slant, language and presentation alienates them completely. As a person without a media/communications/academic background I found it hard going but did manage to finish it completely. In fact, this was made easier by the last two chapters being less awkward; Jenkins actually relaxes with the video and filk song sections because his fascination with both mediums takes over and he becomes more fannish than observer. There are few errors; he gets most things right, if in a somewhat dry and structured way. Most of the quotations, songs, story examples and illustrations come from a small group of well established fans, those who are both articulate and comfortable within fandom and its various sub-groupings. It is a pity then to find that he uses that 1989 Saturday Night Live 'Get a Life' sketch for the introductory chapter. Academia may understand but J.Q. Citizen may not; straight away he places understanding of fandom in a tenuous position. However, having seen this particular sketch, in fact all of that programme, I know why it was cited. There are aspects in the sketch that are true and it could be said that fandom can be a millstone around any actor's neck. What I deplore is the fact that Jenkins didn't chose to contrast this particular Saturday Night Live sketch with the earlier one starring Elliot Gould, but then that particular one was about the programme, not its fans and therefore not useful for this study. By its very nature, this book will end up on some sociology/media studies list and I expect it will cause much discussion among those quick enough to grasp its implications and meaning. As much as I am interested in stories, character, discussion, song and video centered around favourite television programmes, this book also leads me to say: "What's the use of having a hobby if all it's going to lead to is dissection, microscopical analysis and dissertations by budding Ph.Ds." No thanks, think I'll join the Space Marines. Despite this gloomy prediction, I did find the book interesting, yet at £35 a copy it's not exactly "must buy' material. Try your library.

Has anybody read Henry Jenkins' book Textual Poachers? Jenkins is an Assistant Professor at MIT, and a fan. He examines fandom as a valid social phenomena, and constructs arguments for fans' motivations that take us well beyond the "geek" and "nerd" stage. There's an interesting chapter on Slash, entitled, "Welcome, Captain Kirk, to the world of bi-sexuality.' Other chapters cover filks, songtapes, and general fan writing. I think Jenkins comes very close to understanding what fandom is about, although I disagree with some of his conclusions, and the emphasis he places on some motivations. For instance, I don't consciously write K/S because I'm striving to create a new version of sexual politics, or to "thumb my nose at the world." Both those motivations are present, somewhere way down deep in my psyche, but really I write because I love these guys and their world, and writing is the best way that I can share that world. Jenkins talks a lot about the difference between male and female fans, and the fact that the slash relationship we write about is really an idealized version of what women wish relationships were like, but he misses the point. Feelings are what its all about. At least, in ay opinion. I'd be interested in hearing from other fans who've read this book. There was quite a discussion of it and other academic works as Revelcon; there was a great deal of resentment of this invasion and analysis of fandom, and a fear that we could lose something very special. I have mixed feelings on the subject. It would be nice to understand what makes me tick, but I wouldn't give up fandom for the galaxy.

... about the Jenkins' book: The other one is Enterprising Women by Camille Bacon-Smith. This is, also, at times, massively off the mark. Despite the intriguing title, the bulk of the text concerns fandoms other than K/S, and at one point, the author refers to slash as "dangerous"! Evidently, she talked to some fans and writers who were pretty far out in left field, who needed a BIG reality check! Textual Poachers shares some similar problems. A treatise needs to be written, perhaps from the "inside", more in-depth interviews done with a larger segment of fans, writers and publishers. But, still, I share [name redacted's] doubtful feelings about having this thing analyzed AT ALL. While it's sort of fun seeing such a book in the mainstream bookstore, lending it an ersatz legitimacy, in truth, I don't want too close of an examination that might destroy the "magic" of K/S. I'd rather DO IT, than READ about IT. I'd rather curl with a good zine than analyze it to death. I'd rather discuss K/S with fellow K/Sers than read some report by an outsider (or maybe "outworlder"?) Sharing it with others is a lot different from explaining it.

I think this would be a fantastic introduction to fandom for non-fans. While Jenkins himself is a fan, he is writing for an academic audience, and an academic audience that has often underestimated and misestimated the power of fandom. In Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers, Jenkins talks about how critics of video games often assume that children are empty vessels we’re pouring content into, and you can see the beginning of that argument here. Jenkins is mostly arguing against Michel de Certeau and Theodore Adorno, who don’t view fannish activities as creative. But his writing is straightforward, warm, and very accessible; there’s nothing obfuscating about it. For instance, in one chapter about how certain texts attract fandoms over others, Jenkins uses The Velveteen Rabbit to explain how texts become real to their fans. He lets fans speak for themselves when necessary—in the chapter that analyzes Beauty and the Beast fandom, Jenkins is careful to point out that some fans have different views on what happened in the conflict over the third season that divided the fandom.