Franz Ferdinand Changed the Way I Think About Fanfiction

News Media Commentary
Title:	Franz Ferdinand Changed the Way I Think About Fanfiction
Commentator:	Sarah Kurchak
Date(s):	October 11, 2017
Venue:	ontheaside.com (A.Side)
Fandom:	Music RPF
External Links:	Franz Ferdinand changed the way I think about fanfiction, Archived version; archive link
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Franz Ferdinand Changed the Way I Think About Fanfiction is a 2017 article by Sarah Kurchak about fanfiction.

It has the subtitle: "Fanfiction isn’t for the people it’s written about — it’s for the people writing (and reading) it."

A Look Back

It is a retrospective essay that revisits the author's 2004 article Franz Ferdinand Don't Mind Being Coupled With Morrissey In Gay Fan Fiction. Kurchak includes this statement:

Almost 13 years later, it holds a unique place in my heart (and my CV.) I’ve written much better stories, and I’m even proud of some of them. I’ve also misjudged a few issues and penned things that I genuinely regret. This is the only piece that leaves me feeling completely ambivalent.

Some Topics Discussed

• RPF
• journalists showing/mentioning fanfiction about them to celebrities, and how it has become somewhat of a interviewing norm
• when journalists turn to the topic of fanfiction, it is almost always done for laughs
• two examples of journalists "forcing" celebrities to read and/or comment upon slash fic, with malice, ignorance, or both: Caitlin Moran's Fic Stunt and a youtube video of Idris Elba (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQXZTt04CBo), and how "...the punchline is the same. The work is regarded as laughable. The authors portrayed as ridiculous. The imaginations of often young and predominantly female fans are regarded as the inherent subject of ridicule."
• the ambivalence the author feels about their part in shoving fanfiction into spotlights its creators probably didn't want
• society's derision of fanfiction and how this is a reflection of disregarding and denigrating females, especially young ones
• reading, listening, and viewing mainstream products doesn't have to be a passive act, but one that can include pushing back at norms, and inspire creativity
• the hypocrisy of Guy Ritchie, Mark Gatiss, and Steven Moffat getting praised for their socially acceptable and well-funded fanfiction

Excerpts

At best, these conversations about fanfiction border on irrelevant. The stories are only about the stars in the most superficial sense, and they’re not necessarily for the artists. They are primarily for the people who write them and the communities of fans they are shared with. As long as fans aren’t forcing their work upon their muses – and most prefer to keep some separation between their art and the artists who may have originally inspired it – then there’s really no point to asking the latter about the former.

As I’ve watched the treatment of fanfiction in media change, I’ve also noticed my own opinion about the phenomenon itself evolve. Thirteen years ago, I enjoyed fanfiction, but I just accepted the idea that it wasn’t as good as “real” fiction without question. Now I realize that the lines between the two are blurry, if they exist at all. And that sometimes the only thing that separates fanfiction from fiction is having an already established (and usually male) writer and a budget behind it. What is BBC’s Sherlock, for example, if not Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat’s Sherlock Holmes fanfiction? Why does Guy Ritchie continue to receive praise for the homoeroticism that he brings to his adaptations of Sherlock Holmes and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. when he’s simply producing a watered-down version of what two of the oldest slash fandoms in the history of pop culture have been doing for over half of a century?

I also used to think that writing and reading fic were simply amusing. Fascinating, but a bit of a trifle nonetheless. Now I think of its creation and circulation as a genuinely and thrillingly subversive act. Pop culture in general and pop music in particular has long treated – and maybe even relied on – the passion of its fans as a passive entity. Young fans, especially female fans, are supposed to love their idols in a way that makes them want to consume and fund their art (and the art industry). They’re not supposed to respond with creativity of their own. Fan art upends the relationship and the power balance between fans and artists by elevating the former to creators in their own right who can engage with material in ways that aren’t limited to just watching, listening, or reading.

As former purveyor of fanfiction, I’d infinitely prefer it if more mainstream coverage of fanfiction wasn’t so derisive, or that it didn’t prioritize the opinions of its subjects above any other potential points of discussion. But as long we’re stuck here, I’m happy that I was at least involved in bringing a dissenting opinion into the mix.