The Shoebox Project
| Fanwork | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Shoebox Project |
| Creator: | Lady Jaida and Rave |
| Date(s): | 26 June 2004 - November 2008?? |
| Medium: | Multimedia |
| Fandom: | Harry Potter |
| External Links: | Lomara's .pdf backups- Archived Version of Lomara's PDF Backups - Original URL, got hacked |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Shoebox Project was a multimedia collaborative fic, with each author taking on the voice of several characters. As the title implies, it's a recounting of an imaginary shoebox under Remus Lupin's bed, containing everything from Hogwarts to (presumably) James and Lily's death. Each section contains photos, letters, cards, diary entries, and so on, with the text of a character's chief memory about them providing the bulk of the post. The fic is Remus/Sirius as well as James/Lily, but contains several chapters of pure gen.
In 2005, around the publication of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, updates slowed to a trickle, where they remained until the community was hacked in November 2008. At the time both authors insisted that it remained a WIP and they would continue to collaborate whenever they found time.[citation needed] However, as of 2016 it appears that no more chapters were published and the authors consider it finished:
Q. Did you really write the Shoebox Project?A. I did! I was one of those two people.
Q. Why didn’t you finish it, asshole?
A. IT IS FINISHED. JESUS CHRIST. IT COUNTS AS FINISHED.[1]
In 2008, the Wall Street Journal wrote a review of Shoebox[2], among other fannish projects, which helped launch Lady Jaida's profic career. She continues to publish under her fannish pseud.
From the WSJ article:
Refresh your memory by visiting Jaida Jones's "Shoebox Project" on LiveJournal. Jones, 20, a student at Barnard College, has created a richer romantic history for the two men than Rowling ever could have using books alone. Her multimedia site features original artwork and handwritten letters. She has received e-mails from parents saying they read installments of the Shoebox Project aloud to their children indiscriminately alongside the Harry Potter books because it teaches lessons of tolerance.
In 2011, the author Jaida was interviewed for a CBS News article about fan fiction
Jones read her first Potter book at age 11. By college she and a friend had co-authored The Shoebox Project, a history of the fictional Hogwarts school of magic. "In the end, you know it was just our story," she said, "and I don't think anyone other than J.K. Rowling can know exactly what the truth of the characters is. But we as readers get a feeling for that truth and we want to be a part of their lives."[3]
Fan Communities
Fans of the story started several LiveJournal communities related to it:
- cult_sbp (archived) - over 3000 posts and 47000 comments
- giftbox_project
- sbp_100 (archived)
- sbp_aloud
- sbp_dc (archived)
- sbp_london (archived)
- sbp_midwest (archived)
- sbp_script
- sbp_toronto (archived)
- shoebox_icons (archived)
- shoebox_meetups (archived)
- shoeboxmoments (archived)
- sims_sbp (archived) - yes, for making Sims of the characters, but there were only 3 posts
Further Reading
- 21 Completely Engrossing Fan Fictions You Won't Be Able To Stop Reading, Archived version by Ellie Bate, buzzfeed.com, The Shoebox Project is the first fic listed in the Harry Potter section
References
- ^ I KEEP SAYING I’M GOING TO DO AN INTRO/FAQ POST AND I DON’T DO IT SO HERE IT IS, posted by sashayed (Rave), 17 June 2014.
- ^ Rewriting the Rules of Fiction, 2006 article in the "Wall Street Journal"
- ^ Harry Potter lives on through fan fiction dated July 11, 2011.