Why Read Fan Fiction

News Media Commentary
Title:	Why Read Fan Fiction
Commentator:	Jessica Bridges
Date(s):	November 2007
Venue:	airline magazine
Fandom:	multifandom
External Links:	Wayback copy
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Why Read Fan Fiction, subtitled Sometimes The End is just the beginning, is an article by Jessica Bridges, an assistant editor at Spirit Magazine, the complimentary on-board magazine of Southwest Airlines. The article was included in the November 2007 issue.

The article describes Bridges' disappointment when Dolores Umbridge ("one of the more wretched villains ever to appear in print") did not receive an on-screen "comeuppance".

However, as Bridges shows, in the world of fanfic she could find a satisfying conclusion; she quotes several paragraphs from an unnamed story where Umbridge's wand is snapped and she is thrown out of Hogwarts.

Bridges goes on to describe how she got into fanfic, by searching for meta after the end of the fourth HP book. She acknowledges that there is a lot of badfic out there, but also mentions several outstanding "gems," such as a Harry Potter/The Dark is Rising crossover and a Heroes Fairy Tale AU. She also quotes, in its entirety, a drabble by LOTR author Mordelhin, which deals with Tom Bombadil's reaction to Frodo leaving Middle-earth.

The article describes how some pro authors, like Anne Rice, dislike fanfiction, but goes on to claim that "most" authors, like J.K. Rowling, "understand that fans write not out of malice but from love."

At the end of the article, Bridges gives links to fanfiction.net and Fiction Alley, as well as to the Fanfic Symposium.

The article was available for a time from Spirit Magazine's website but is now unavailable except through the Internet Archive.