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The Literary and Academic Claims of Fan Fiction and Fan Meta

The 2011 Remix

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Index

1. Introduction to an Introduction

2. Introduction - Fandom, Fans and Fan Writing

3. Chapter One - Culture Clash in Real and Fictional Worlds

4. Chapter Two - Character Rebellion

5. Chapter Three - Formal Experimentation

6. Conclusion - Fan Fiction in The Mainstream and Mainstream Fan Fiction

7. Glossary

8. Bibliography

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Introduction to an Introduction

The year was 2007, Snape had killed Dumbledore, LiveJournal was still cool, I was young,

pretentious and in my final year of University. I was working on a dissertation, which I hoped

would keep my interest (and have a reasonable amount of secondary source material) while being

sufficiently obscure that my tutors wouldn’t mark it too harshly. It was handed in two months

before the release of Deathly Hallows and driven in part by the feeling of pre-emptive nostalgia for

the biggest fandom in existence at that time. All our years of theorising and fixation, late night

conversations and midnight releases and threaded through all of this was the internet; the

technology which made it possible for all of us to scream into the void about our loves and hatreds

and longings and how adults just didn’t understand and have other people yell back. The first time I

realised that I could go online and find people who cared about the things that I cared about whether

that was painting my bedroom black (my parents were so cruel!) or Harry Potter.

And so my dissertation was written, or to be more precise, slowly dragged out of me over the

course of a year while I complained frequently online about what I had and had not written. Some

of this was typed up in a frenzy of desperation on my laptop during Whitby Gothic Weekend. My

original outline for this piece would have split it in two, one focusing on Harry Potter fandom and

another on fan fiction resulting from the movie adaptation of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

and how that secondary interpretation of the text affected fan responses. Sadly by the time I’d

written even half of this I realised that it wouldn’t match the original word count of 10,000.

I promised any number of people that once University was over I would put it online for posterity

after I’d finished some secondary editing but Deathly Hallows came and went and then I had a full

time job and what with one thing and other the years have slipped away. It wasn’t until DiaCon

Alley this year that I seriously started thinking about reworking it, when I went back to the original

version I was slightly embarrassed to see some of the rookie errors I had made despite receiving 2:1

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so I suspect I just set higher standards for myself nowadays. This is not the University copy of my

dissertation, this is the 2011 remix written with the benefit of hindsight, another book, access to

secondary canon and another stack of late night conversations from some wonderful friends.

The 2011 remix is dedicated to Maddie Plum and Emily Duranorak who suffered through editing

the first version and everyone who made DiaCon Alley possible and reminded me why we were so

excited about all this in the first place.

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Introduction - Fandom, fans and fan writing

I realise both with my choice of title and of subject matter I am going to be working with

concepts where there is an on-going debate as to their meaning; those of literature, academia (both

as an institution and a discourse) and fan fiction. As these are culturally contextual they exist in a

state of constant quiet flux; what academia means, how it is used and represented across class and

cultural boundaries, has changed within the time that fan studies has been a discipline. While mass

culture (or pop culture) is relatively recent in its current incarnation its boundaries are permeable. I

will be using this introduction to lay out the arguments for some of the concepts that I will be using,

the work that already surrounds them and to better explain how I shall be exploring them in context

of this dissertation. I will be considering ‘literature’ and ‘academia’ to be what is broadly

understood and thus read as literary and academic in Western discourse; I believe that this process

of placing concepts within culture is key in understanding fan culture and fan meta and I will only

be working with texts written in English. In a sense fan culture subjects artefacts and texts from

pop culture to the kind of rigorous academic re-reading and interpretation which is usually reserved

for traditional novels, despite the fact that these texts are not usually considered to be 'worthy' of

such focus. This is an interpretation of fan culture which has been discussed from the earliest

academic studies (Jenkins:1992:12) to the present day. The tension between the traditional

academic and the academic fan remains despite close to 30 years of academic writing on fan and

pop culture. There is, to put it mildly, distrust on both sides.

Although I will not be using the term fan fiction in reference to the texts that I will be discussing it

remains in the title of this dissertation because I believe that the “fan” element is part of what makes

these texts worth studying; it is not something which can or should be easily separated from the

final product. The re appropriation of stories has a long tradition in conventional literature, from

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individual authors, such as Shakespeare, re-using plots and characters up to literary movements

including Post Colonialism taking conventional works and exploring issues through subverting

older stories. This is similar to the way that ancient and modern mythological figures are often

written and re-written by ancient and modern authors. For example let us consider the modern day

use of Lovecraft’s ‘Cthulhu mythos’ in horror fiction, which can be seen on one end of the

spectrum as a mythology for pop culture and on the other end in the tradition of pastiche and

parody. The two most immediately obvious differences between the on-going reuse of an author's

ideas or mythology and the texts which are designated “fan fiction” are that the methods of

dissemination for work are through publications, forums and websites created by and for fans along

side the fact that this is how the authors self-identify. I feel it is important to note that I consider

these to be fragments of the same tradition which focuses on the unspoken or the underplayed parts

of the text or culture within which the fan fiction author resides: they are not necessarily a literature

of the conventional or the majority. I believe that fan fiction differs enough from other genres that it

certainly deserves of its own distinct label. Although it spans any number of traditional categories

depending on the genre of canon text, the way that it approaches the source material often sets it

apart from other styles of literature and I feel that this is due to the intentions of the authors. As I

will discuss shortly, one of the defining characteristics of fan fiction is often seen to be that it is not

commercially published.

The beginnings of fan culture as we recognise it now are normally dated back to the early

Star Trek fandom, although this differs in many ways from the culture that exists today as it

depended on fan zines and conventions whereas modern fandom is heavily dependant on the

internet. It was in these zines and mailing lists that fan fiction in its current incarnation first began

to be circulated, most famously the underground Kirk/Spock slash (Penley:1997:135) which is a

subject that I will be exploring in more detail in another fandom in a later chapter. Fan fiction was

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written to share with an audience of like-minded, self-identified fans, a fact that I find to be

important when we consider the debate on whether fan (even fan academic) readings of texts are

'bad' as opposed to 'good' pure academic readings(Hills:2002:7). Setting aside whether or not it is

possible or desirable to have a purely objective view of any text this makes fan fiction not only

closely tailored to the kind of views which are common in the fan culture they belong to, but also a

potentially subversive force; they often 'write in' issues which are hinted at or outright ignored in

the fan culture's primary text. They can deviate wildly in tone and form from the canon text

enabling new perspectives as well as experimentation with forms ranging from the crude to highly

academic in style. I will be discussing slash and other so called minority political issues in greater

detail in Chapter Two. As I will be considering fandom to be a discourse in its own right I will be

working with the language that has developed around it, I have provided a glossary of the more

unusual terms, and where fandom meanings of words differ from academic or other usage I will be

providing definitions and explanations for them.

Although I will be focusing on fan fiction texts I have broadened the question to include fan meta, a

word which has been appropriated by fandom and is often used to mean any writing which is about

the text in question on a secondary level. They are sometimes written using the academic style and

discourse. I will be working with source material, both on-line and conventionally published, which

is written largely by academic fans. I believe that this unique viewpoint warrants an inclusion in the

question over all as it is part of fandom as a discourse and can constitute a bridge between fandom

and academia as well as fandom and the world at large. It is in part due to this that much of my

source material has been taken from the Internet as this is where many of these discussions are

taking place. Where relevant from this point onward I will be using the term archontic fiction as set

out in 'Archontic Literature' by Abigail Derecho in which she discusses the relation of fan fiction to

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its canon text and why she finds the use of “derivative” and “appropriative” to describe this kind of

literature to be limiting.(Derecho:2006:63)

Archontic texts are not deliminated properties with definite borders that can be transgressed. So all texts that build on a previously existing text are not lesser than the source text... An archontic text allows, or even invites, writers to enter it, select specific items they find useful, make new artefacts using these found objects, and deposit the newly made work back into the source text's archive(Derecho:2006:65)

I believe that it is important to recognise the significance of fandom as a discourse; however, it is

obvious from the phrase “fan fiction” that there is a great deal of negative baggage attached to the

notion, and “archontic fiction” expresses the same concept just as well, without the attached

baggage, and expands on the potential of the genre. Since the time that this was first written the

term “transformative work”(OTW:2011a) has been popularized in part by a fan run group, the

Organization for Transformative Works who state that they are,

established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms. We believe that fanworks are transformative and that transformative works are legitimate. (OTW:2011b)

I will be continuing to refer to fanworks as archnotic rather than transformative literature in this

dissertation however I find the new term to be noteworthy . It’s increasingly widespread use marks

a change in how fans who read archontic fiction (or transformative works) and authors who write it

perceive their work; it could be said that fans are once again taking charge of how they are framed

in Western cultural discourse to reflect themselves in a way they feel is more accurate. It is also

worth noting that it is an American influenced term relating to a Supreme Court judgement

(OTW:2011a).

I will be using the archontic texts that I have chosen to discuss a number of pertinent issues

for which I now wish to give a brief introduction. It is impossible to generalize on the reaction of

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professional authors (hereafter known as authors only) to archontic fiction and its associations, and

the line between authors and archontic authors is more flexible than many may wish. However, I

feel that it is safe to say that the relationship between authors and archontic authors is often

strained. Although for legal reasons authors usually refrain from reading archontic fiction based on

their work, the level of approval or rejection they show towards the fandom that they have inspired

can have an effect on how it grows. Authors such as Anne Rice and Robin Hobb have outright

banned archontic fiction based on their texts in their respective fandoms and spoken strongly

against it on many occasions. Robin Hobb's self-titled “madwoman in the attic”(Hobb:2005) post

on fan fiction is a good starting point for discussing many of the issues that authors may have with

archontic fiction.

Every fan fiction I've read to date, based on my world or any other writer's world, had focused on changing the writer's careful work to suit the foible of the fan writer. ... To me, it is the fan fiction writer saying, 'Look, the original author really screwed up the story, so I'm going to fix it. Here is how it should have gone.' At the extreme low end of the spectrum, fan fiction becomes personal masturbation fantasy in which the fan reader is interacting with the writer's character. That isn't healthy for anyone.(Hobb:2005)

Although Hobb admits that she is “not rational”(Hobb:2005) about archontic fiction she brings up

issues which are not unique to her perspective. She returns again and again to the idea of complete

ownership of the text by the author, and says that this means that the archontic authors are diluting

or polluting her work and concepts. This is not a point that I will argue against entirely as in some

cases archontic authors have written archontic fiction precisely because they are unhappy with

characters or elements of the story. Where this differs from Hobb’s perspective is that she finds this

to be an unredeemable negative action; call it a philosophical difference if you will. It could be

argued that archontic fiction is inherently post modern (Derecho took the term archontic fiction out

of Derridas work on archives) as it relies on a view of the text as open and flexible, in ways that

Hobb and others dislike. Hobb also considers self insertion (where the author uses a thinly veiled

version of themselves to act in the story) and simplistic characterisations, a valid critique, however

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one which is also widely looked down upon in most fandoms. I will return to the self-policing

nature of fandom later.

Other authors such as J. K. Rowling accept archontic fiction in a fashion that is equally public. It

could be argued that one of the reasons that the Harry Potter fandom was so large was in part due to

Rowling's acceptance and encouragement of its activities. However Rowling did speak against

“obscene”(Waters:2004) archontic fiction, thus tacitly suppressing the potential range of work

although for perfectly understandable legal reasons. One current examples of the flexibility of the

line between archontic author and author coming from the Harry Potter fandom (although I will not

be looking in any detail at her work), is Cassandra Claire. Claire was a well known if somewhat

controversial figure in the Harry Potter fandom who wrote three novel length pieces of archontic

fiction known as the Draco Trilogy (Claire:2006). She went on to have original fiction published

however there are many similarities between her first trilogy and the Draco Trilogy, and in some

cases the direct copying of text from the Draco Trilogy to her first original novel City of

Bones(Clare:2007). It is interesting to note that upon getting a literary agent she removed or closed

down access to her more 'obscene' works.

This leads us to an issue that I have touched on but not yet explored, and one that is

particularly important as it is often held up as the primary difference between archontic fiction and

conventional fiction. Archontic fiction is most frequently unpublished and in many cases

unpublishable as in the situations where it is supported by authors of the canon texts it is under the

agreement that no money will be made from the use of their intellectual property. The majority of

archontic authors are not professionals, publishing is often seen as the line drawn between real

authors and people who simply write and work is often only given worth (or capitalist value) when

it is published. Is it then that we see work as only being literary when it has passed an arbitrary

marketable test? This line is being blurred by the recent availability of channels through which

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authors can publish their own works, Amazon’s Kindle eBook service, Lulu and so on. Although it

can be argued that publishing ensures certain standards for texts, acting as a gatekeeper, the culture

of archontic fiction can be just as strict with numerous beta-readers and 'Brit Picking' (for British

spellings and cultural references in archontic fiction based in Britain). There is a certain amount of

peer review quality control, and archontic authors, particularly the good ones, have a certain status

in fan culture. Published work must also conform to certain expectations as after all it is a capitalist

market and as such the scope of the work can be limited in order for it to be tailored for a targeted

audience. Much archontic fiction would be considered unpublishable, despite the fact that it is

inspired by mainstream texts, due to the subject matter that it deals with and the way in which it

does so. Archontic fiction can allow for a greater range of material to be explored, and in new ways

that would not necessarily be possible in today’s market.

Although I will be looking at the archontic texts contextually as part of fandom which is a

discourse in its own right I will also be considering them to be what we think of as conventionally

literary and treating them as such. I will argue that archontic fiction and other creative products of

fan culture or fandom are just as important in their own ways as the canon texts they focuses on and

that they is as worthy of academic and literary study. Although I have discussed a number of

different fandoms in this introduction I will be focusing on Harry Potter as it was at the time of

writing the largest current culture with a wide range of issues and experiences. Let us consider the

sheer range of eras and genres covered in Harry Potter archontic fiction as hosted by one of the

most successful fandom specific archives, Fiction Alley (Fiction Alley:2007).

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Chapter One - Culture Clash in Real and Fictional Worlds

From a purely practical perspective given the number of students at Hogwarts a proportion

of them will be homosexual. This is a minority which was never actively represented in the primary

canon text, while J.K.Rowling revealed in an interview after the release of Harry Potter and the

Deathly Hallows that,

“I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] ... Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was.” (The Leaky Cauldon:2007)

this fact was never addressed directly in the plot to the extent that it was entirely possible to read

Dumbledore as heterosexual; Rowling needed to correct the scriptwriters for the film adaptation on

this point(The Leaky Cauldron:2007). I wish to make it clear that I only consider this a failure of

the book in so far as it is a failure of social pressure as concerns children's fiction and

heteronormativity.

Do I personally believe that Rowling had a duty to social realism? I would say that this hinges on

the important question of what we consider the text to be. The Harry Potter series has an

exceptionally large audience, some of who are gay, some of who simply find the endless series of

straight relationships unbelievable. These authors and readers of archontic fiction are writing their

own relationships and desire into a text which it has been made obvious will not include them

directly. This is not to say that all slash is written as a direct political act but rather that I find it's

subversive nature, as a very sexual genre written largely for an audience of women, to be an

interesting starting point to reflect on fan culture and the canon text. It would do well for us to bear

in mind the oft-quoted slogan, “the personal is political”. The range of focus in slash fiction, from

angst to PWP to 'fluffy' romance stories (where sex is referenced if not shown) would make it a sub

genre in its own right.

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All The Substance of His House is a Harry/Snape post-war piece of archontic slash fiction

written before the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; it's rated NC17 but although it

contains graphic scenes the focus is on the personal conflict between the main characters. Harry and

Snape's relationship is one of the most complex in the canon text, and can be read as a

mentor/student relationship paralleling Harry and Dumbledore's (particularly in light of the events

in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince). The books are in some cases structured as mystery

novels with Snape's actions being one of the most consistent red herrings (in particular in Harry

Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) which could be considered one of the reasons that the post-war

interpretation of Snape put forward in All The Substance of His House was widespread in fandom

after the release of Half Blood Prince but before Deathly Hallows. Harry had so persistently and

erroneously believed in Snape's guilt that even what looks like its revelation could, and did turn out

to be, three layers deep. The series up to Half Blood Prince had revealed as much about Snape's

past and reasoning as they did about any other major character, far more than Dumbledore as

Harry's other main mentor figure, making him just as sympathetic as Harry himself in terms of his

actions. Harry and Snape are shown to us as quite similar in their personalities and reactions, but the

actions of Harry's father have placed them on opposing sides. At the very least a friendship might

not be out of the question in canon given how much Harry found he had in common with the 'Half

Blood Prince'; although this is in no way a canon perfect reading from Rowling's point of view it

certainly has a solid textual basis, as do the problems that they encounter in the archontic text. It is

perhaps indicative of fandom that the main issue for Harry's friends is not to do with the fact that his

love interest is male as much as it is everything to do with what Snape represents for them.

The complexity of Harry and Snape's relationship and the problems they have working as

equals are based in Snape's role as a former teacher and the abuse of power therein, as well as his

links to both, one might say all three, of Harry's father figures and his role in their deaths. This is

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not glossed over in the archontic text but rather explored through the conversations and actions of

the characters. One of the signs that they continue to be defined even in their adult relationship by

their original student/teacher role is they are unable or unwilling to refer to each other by their given

names.

'He’s been trying to get Snape to call him by his given name for a month now. However, seeing that he can’t seem to call Snape “Severus,” he’s not having much luck making Snape call him Harry. '(Rinsbane:2006)

Although by the end of the text Snape has referred to Harry by his given name, Harry still thinks of

him as Snape. They have been able to move some way away from their past it has not left them

entirely and while they end up resolving their conflicts as concerns Dumbledore they are not given

a Happily Ever After in the traditional sense. In many ways it is an ending without the same kind of

closure that we would expect and are often given in heterosexual love stories which, in its refusal to

conform to usual tropes, subverts our expectations for a story which is primarily a romance.

Romance is one of the oldest and most traditionally formal of story patterns and the use of queer

romantic pairings can be instrumental in its fragmentation; particularly given that as I have

mentioned the canon text is to this date exclusively heterosexual and fairly formal in its portrayal of

relationships. In this case it could be considered that slash is being used as a critique of the canon

relationships.

The house in question, Godric's Hollow, has embedded in it any number of personal

associations for both of them and most importantly is Snape's choice of venue for their

confrontation. We have our attention drawn not just to the house as a physical object (a markedly

dilapidated one) but its history as a battle ground a number of times in the past over the first and

second Voldemort wars; this sets the stage for a more subtle, personal battle. In some ways Harry

and Snape could be seen as competing for the recognition of their very differing interpretations of

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events and people, the house can not be restored until they come to an agreement. The title is given

in full in the introduction as a quote from the Song of Solomon: “if a man would give all the

substance of his house for love, it would utterly be condemned” (Rinsbane:2006) and this link to the

famous heterosexual erotic poetry gives it an extra dimension as concerns the social expectations of

partnership. The house is a building, is a history, which stands for figures in both their lives who

colour their reactions to each other and the world.

All of these concepts tread directly around the already complicated reader/author relationship, made

even more volatile when it turns into author/archontic author. In “Keeping Promises To Queer

Children” Willis speaks of her own experiences writing slash,

writing fan fiction first of all makes gaps in a text that the cultural code attempts to render continuous, and then, rather than filling them in, supplements these gaps with intertexts which are not docile but which... “make the tacit things explicit”.(Willis:2006:158)

As I mentioned previously many of these particular flaws and plot issues are embedded in the canon

text, but through this reading are given new meanings and new potential. This sideways reading of

the canon text enables us to consider the issues from a new perspective and adds depth to the plot.

As to why it is so popular as a form of erotica I would direct the curious towards the large

amount of supposed lesbian pornography for and by straight men; although slash is sometimes more

complex in it's portrayal of relationship between the characters and the reader the basic premise is

there. It is intriguing in that whilst it may require the reader to identify with the characters, it

demands that the presumed reader take their desire outside of conventional gender into something

much closer to role-play. This is suggestive of the idea that for much of fandom desire is not

gendered in the same way, and that where it is the gender roles are much closer to the butch/femme

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translations as Patrick Califia notes on femme style 'Their skirts usually have pockets, and

sometimes they are carrying sharp objects in their artful little evening bags' (Califia:2002:157).

One of the main issues at work in Rowling's wizarding world is the status of non-wizards, or

“muggles”, and their culture. The argument has been raging for centuries as to who was responsible

for the original split of the Hogwarts founders, indeed it is responsible for what we are told was a

vast number of atrocities and two world wars. Rowling’s original name for the Death Eaters was the

Knights of Walpurgis (BBC News: 2003) which has been seen by many as a further connection in

as far as the books mirror World Wars 1 and 2. This would suggest that there must be real political

and economic issues underlying this kind of extremism, without excusing it. We are told a number

of times during the series that the witch hunts had nothing to do with real witches and all the

aggression we are shown would seem to be on the wizarding side with muggles being powerless

against them.

Although we see deep-seated prejudice on the side of the Slytherins and everything from

bemusement to misunderstanding on all others it is not a subject which Rowling looks at on a

serious, personal level. All of the muggle born students at Hogwarts adapt to their lives in the

wizarding world from which it is unheard of for them to leave. This is highlighted in the Hogwarts

module Muggle Studies, through the textbooks Hermione is given and the essays she is set. We can

see that Muggle Studies focuses on the superficial and ridiculous. Later in the series the job with the

lowest qualification requirements involves working with muggles. The archontic texts I am

focusing on show the wizarding world swinging back into anti-muggle prejudice for one reason or

another, and in doing so explore the cultural issues which are rarely touched on in the book.

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Memorial focuses on Hermione's relationship with the muggle and wizarding worlds and her

increasing difficulty in coping as she takes the same path as all of the muggle borns that we are

shown in the series, moving deeper into the wizarding society at the expense of the muggle one.

The gap between her actions and desires, her beliefs in apparent equality and her life which

supports wizarding superiority, grow further and further apart. She puts a memory spell on her

parents who do not understand her unwillingness to re-enter the muggle world, which she

disparagingly refers to as “Muggleland”(Maddie:2006), but wipes their minds by accident and has

her actions defended by everyone, even Dumbledore, as reasonable. This is particularly interesting

in light of the memory spell Hermione uses on her parents in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

although with different motivation, in both the archnotic and canon text she erases her family. This

could also be thought of as a critique which is often stated concerning Rowling telling not showing

as concerns characters and culture, although she tells us one thing the actions to back it up are often

contradictory and occasionally non existent. In Memories Hermione's work for the Ministry brings

her into direct conflict with the remnants of Voldemort's failed revolution, which exposes her

attempts at getting to grips with their actions.

the truth is this: Muggles are people too, and because they are people, just as witches and wizards are people, they have fears and prejudices and hatred, and they have power. More power all the time. (Maddie:2006)

The actions of both the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix are examined and despite their

differing rhetoric are shown to be remarkably similar, this too is consistent with canon where any

and all muggle interaction is kept to a minimum and proof of the wizarding world is wiped from

their minds. Where the Order of the Phoenix, although it claims equality as a standard, makes no

effort to put it into practice beyond the inclusion of muggle borns in the wizarding world. This

double standard and its potential consequences are explored in Hermione's defection.

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In contrast Unsticking the shadow goes over similar ground, once again using Hermione as

the protagonist, but with a very different style and plot. This explores the potential reaction of the

wizarding world to the fact, of which as readers are already aware, that Voldemort is a half blood

and the backlash on the muggle born community. It follows the social upheaval in Hogwarts as

previous certainties concerning political allegiance are lost; this his means Death Eaters may be

sympathetic towards muggle borns and in return all muggle borns are potential Death Eaters. When

Voldemort places himself on the side of the muggle borns the wizarding world reacts with greater

intolerance towards them, even from previously liberal figures. One of the very intriguing aspects is

that in Unsticking the shadow Pogrebin places Harry firmly on the wizarding side,

Harry was raised by Muggles, of course, and Lily was a Muggleborn, but there’s nothing in the Muggle world for him. Hermione knows exactly what his answer would be. If it comes down to that. (Pogrebin:2004)

As we are shown in the series, Harry has no real connection to the muggle world beyond a family

that despises him and who he despises in his turn. He is the saviour of the wizarding world.

These pieces of archontic fiction are shorter and fast paced, the use of extracts from the Daily

Prophet and speeches made by Lucius Malfoy to link the story together juxtaposes the actions of

Hogwarts students against the rising tide of public opinion. This fear of war, which we have already

seen in the canon text causing the Ministry to react in violent ways, rebounds onto the muggle borns

in ways which are entirely likely in the light of current social xenophobia. Unsticking the Shadow

explores the unspoken prejudices which we see at work in wizarding society in the series on a very

personal level “There’s a “them” and a “them” and a “them”, and most of the time Hermione’s only

ever sure of the “us”.” (Pogrebin:2004)

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It is difficult, through personal experience I would say impossible, to return to reading the

canon text free of all of these layers and associations which have been considered in the fandom.

We cannot perhaps even think of it as subtext any more, but rather super textual as it has been

superimposed over the original subtext by fandom itself, on most occasions without the author's

knowledge. Whilst some archontic authors and readers are aware of the social and literary

implications of the work a large number are not, and this is in fact a strangely positive thing. It

could be considered that within this artful desire without textual or economic basis working around

conventional artefacts from popular culture, its very lack of a political statement makes it the most

subversive and political thing of all. It is not even outside of social boundaries, it simply is.

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Chapter Two - Character Rebellion

There is a particular word for non-canon but popular fandom interpretations of characters,

that word is 'fanon', fan canon. This is a phenomenon which denotes a reading of a character by a

reasonable portion of the fandom in question, with its own clichés and flaws, which none the less

differs from the canon authorial interpretation in at least one significant way. There is a long history

of writing alternative interpretations of characters or the lives of minor characters in literature, in

particular when they are used to political ends. Character-focused archontic fiction (sometimes

referred to as genfic, although this does have the connotation that the text will not be relationship

centric) is often used to explore or focus on aspects of the character that are not dealt with in great

detail in the source text and to consider background and motivation. The Harry Potter series has a

reasonably large cast of characters with many of the background ones taking on shadow narratives

(such as Blaise Zabini, a name taken from the list of names in Harry's first year who then became a

popular fanon character and was eventually given another cameo in Harry Potter and the Half

Blood Prince) with the way that motivation is revealed from book to book lending itself to a certain

amount of speculative character-focused archontic fiction. It is in these texts that authors such as

Hobb are right in so far as they are often written portraying a different vision of the characters than

the authors; they can be the texts with the most tension as concerns the canon. I find the most

interesting texts, and the ones that I will be considering, to be the ones where the actions of the

character are in line with their canon actions but where the motivation and interpretation is entirely

different. I will also be looking at how these particular authors deal with Rowling's ideas of what

constitutes good and evil.

There is a particular style of archontic fiction which, although it has no separate genre or

classic identifiers, none the less has enough consistent points of similarity for texts of this kind to be

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considered as a group. These are often highly charged texts heavy with canon referential symbolism

that give an other or dissenting viewpoint for characters and decisions in the canon text, these texts

are in many ways similar in their mode of operation to Feminist (Carter:1995) and Postcolonial

(Rhys:2000) literature as well as certain kinds of historical fiction.

The character of Severus Snape has always been a very controversial one as I have discussed

earlier, inspiring a great deal of polarized debate, which makes him a popular subject for this kind

of archontic fiction. Although throughout the series he has been used as a foil for Harry he is not an

entirely unsympathetic character as we see that his feelings, based on Harry’s parentage, are not

entirely unjustified. This Masterpiece of Nature by Anneline is an interesting example of this style

of archontic fiction. It is worth bearing in mind that this text was written before the release of Harry

Potter and the Half Blood Prince although its themes and events are fairly in line with the events of

the book. It opens with a quote from the canon text concerning Snape's knowledge of the dark arts

and companions at Hogwarts, but as the archontic text invites us to recall that the character making

this statement is Sirius Black who in our only view of his interaction with Snape unbiased by

character interpretation was shown to bully him with little provocation. Snape is rarely shown to

have friends, particularly not at Hogwarts and not among the Order of the Phoenix. However in

This Masterpiece of Nature Annaline gives us both metaphorically and literally photographs of his

relationships.

These are the photographs: Wilkes with an arm flung around Rosier. They're both outside, still at Hogwarts, tiny autumn leaves caught in their hair. They both look smug like they always did, and young. Wilkes smirks and makes kissy faces when Severus wipes the glass. Rosier just smiles slightly, the way he used to whenever Severus made jokes. Their frame is black.(Annaline:2005)

This is echoed throughout the text by the style in which we are presented with these viewpoints,

dense paragraphs which give us short glimpses of the characters. The idea of the photographs is

used to stand for and to highlight change, both what has and what has not, what the photographs

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and the snippets say about the Death Eaters and how they differ from their portrayal in the canon

text. In one way it could be considered that the photographs stand opposed to what we are told

about them - in particular the wedding, could stand for the canon text and the subsequent

interpretation in archontic texts.

The paragraphs are separated and not in sequential order which Annaline uses to show how

they were affected by the war that the Death Eaters were supposed to be winning. They are filled

with small details that make characters who in the canon text are shown briefly (if at all) and in a

very one-sided fashion a great deal more psychologically realistic. These are characters with

loyalties for one reason or another. Although Annaline doesn't use the text to either deny or justify

the actions of the Death Eaters she does give them scope for character, for flaws beyond genocidal

mania and xenophobia. These aren't Severus's colleagues, they aren't simply people with whom he

shares or shared a common political agenda, they're his friends. When this is juxtaposed against the

way that he was admittedly treated by past and present members of the Order of the Phoenix it is

clearer why he made the choice to serve Voldemort. This could be seen as a canon based but not

canon compatible interpretation, Rowling has given us enough to work with from the canon text to

give us the potential for a sympathetic portrait of Snape and an unsympathetic portrayal of Harry's

father and his friends. Rowling has used him Harry's protector often enough, although not a

particularly graceful one, that this is not an unrealistic line for archontic fiction to take. However

this is used in This Masterpiece of Nature to offer dissension on acts for which Rowling has made

Snape entirely irrational or out of line morally speaking- his actions and reactions concerning Sirius

and Remus in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban are a good example here of the challenge

to authorial intent, “And they'll all be so proud. They'll all be so proud of him -- in their own

fashion.”(Annaline:2005).

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This is in some ways exactly what Robin Hobb was concerned over in the introduction, but where

we differ in our respective opinions is in the intent and results of this kind of writing. The writing is

coherent, interestingly structured with a running theme that it plays with and uses to further our

understanding of the characterization, it helps us to question not just our concepts of morality but

also our readings of morality in the canon text as fans. It works on layers that would be very

difficult, if not impossible, to create in the same short story format that makes it so poignant. Both

texts, source and archontic, are necessary.

The expansion of a particular universe using minor characters from the source text is

another kind of archontic fiction that has a long history of use in professional literature. One for

Sorrow was written as a response to the events concerning Snape in Harry Potter and the Half

Blood Prince, and to the second short appearance of Eileen Prince. Lilith Morgana has also picked

up a quote from an interview given to the administrators of two large Harry Potter fansites at the

launch of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for the introduction.

MA: [...] Has Snape ever been loved by anyone? JKR: Yes, he has, which in some ways makes him more culpable even than Voldemort, who never has.(Morgana:2005)

Rowling has a tendency to pick names for characters which say something about them and how she

sees them so we can speculate a certain amount about her from this alone. This fits in with the way

that her treatment of the house system is archetypal, something else which is often picked apart by

archontic authors. The only canon material we have on Eileen Prince is one short unpleasant

memory of her “cowering”(Rowling:2003:521), a picture found by Hermione in the library, and in a

more general fashion how her son lives. This very sparse information gives both great scope for

development and a certain amount of challenge to make sure that it fits with canon actions. Here I

wish to make a distinction between the events that take place in canon and the interpretations given

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to us by the author and lead character as this is often where the author/reader relationship is

complicated, as is the further canon author/archontic author. Archontic authors will often want to

(and can be critiqued for failing to) keep their characterization within the boundaries set out in

canon, however they may well disagree with Rowling's interpretation of the actions and wish to

show this in the text. This tension can be expressed in the archontic text in a number of ways, in

One for Sorrow it comes out partially through the bias of the wizarding world as portrayed by

Rowling towards subjects in which Gryffindor’s are often shown as having greater skill.

She knows she is not the kind of witch the wizarding world holds in highest regard – she is bad at defence, her Transfiguration skills are limited and she will never master duelling.(Morgana:2005)

In this we can see that Lilith Morgana has chosen to take a cue from Rowling over her portrayal of

Snape in the way she develops Eileen Prince, she is brilliant at the subjects that she is interested in

(maths based) and has little to no interest in the others. However these are not subjects that

Rowling's wizarding world considers to be particularly prestigious, it could be suggested that this is

because they are closer to pure academics whilst the subjects which all good men and Gryffindors

excel in have a direct effect on the physical world. Unlike Eileen Prince, Snape has proved in the

canon text to be more than competent at duelling and Defence Against the Dark Arts so the area in

which they both overlap is perhaps unsurprisingly Potions. It is understandable that academics has a

deeper significance in One for Sorrow given the way that it is used (similar to the house system) in

the canon text to separate kinds of personality as well as on occasion “good” and “evil”. Potions as

the province of Slytherins (in particular the Potions Masters) is one of the most obvious examples

of this tendency. Lilith Morgana uses these assumptions to help to build and develop the character

of Eileen Prince and later to challenge Rowling's moral categorizations which can tend towards the

extreme. This is also a good example of the strained author/archontic author relationship from the

archontic side, their fiction may be a reaction to canon elements that they do not agree with.

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Although Eileen Prince is portrayed as a pureblood in One for Sorrow she lives in an area of

high Muggle population and has a fascination with Muggle religion, specifically its trappings rather

than aspects of God, a theme which Lilith Morgana uses coupled with the repetition of the chant

“Miserere, Miserere, I was shapen in iniquity.” (Morgana:2005). Eileen's initial reaction to religion

lies in a comparison between Muggles and wizards, who are not shown to have any spirituality of

their own or any links to conventional religion, was to conclude that they need a great deal of

“consolation” (Morgana:2005). This could be considered to be a canon compatible direction in

which to take Eileen, as much like the canon Snape she is shown to be not so much solitary as

having no real wish to find or belief that she is among equals and holds a certain disdain for

everyone else. Eileen is a flawed and contradictory character, and these are often characteristics

which it is possible to recognise in her son and the way that he interacts with others. However this

is essentially reverse engineering as Lilith Morgana has used Snapes character in order to consider

what Eileen Prince may have been like. It is interesting that she chooses to use religion as one of the

ways in which we can see the contradictions in Eileen Prince, her wilful isolation and great love for

her son, as it is as I have mentioned so very absent from the canon text. It could be considered that

much as I have discussed earlier in Chapter One Rowling treats serious subjects with occasionally

glib humour which is consistent with the series as children's books, however the actions and

characters can have serious issues that are therefore not discussed further. These are often picked up

on by archontic authors.

all the swollen prayers for something else rising from worn alleys, worn humans, a grief swallowing life itself. Eileen thinks this is good. It humbles her to do what must be done. (Morgana:2005)

The sacrifices that she makes in the name of love for her child (which we may note Rowling

considers makes Snape responsible for his actions) are accompanied by tacit images of martyrdom,

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and are not simple. Sacrifice for love is a strong repeating theme in the canon text and this plays off

it in a similar fashion to Lily's sacrifice for Harry in so much as it is the mother is giving up her life

for her child. In echoing the actions of the canon text in unexpected ways Lilith Morgana is drawing

attention to (and exaggerating) parallels between Snape and Harry which have a strong canon basis

given the events of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Eileen Prince's character and actions in

many ways fits in to the canon text, but in doing so she challenges the author on her interpretations

of events which is often the use for such kinds of archontic fiction. The images that Lilith Morgana

uses to explore the character are also used to consider and play with the issues in both canon and

archontic texts thus drawing attention to the archontic nature of One for Sorrow.

Although I have already discussed some of the issues of character rebellion in archontic

fiction when I considered This Masterpiece of Nature there are a number of differences in style

where the non-canon interpretation is a more negative rather than positive one. I wish to look at the

way that Pogrebin presents the canon actions of Dumbledore in The Taste for Nothingness and how

this is in some ways a more violent twist in the author/archontic author relationship than redemption

as it involves re-defining the moral “good” in the canon text as well as the moral “evil”. I will also

be using parts of an email interview I conducted with an author of similar archontic fiction on their

reactions to the canon text. Dumbledore carries several of the main themes of the canon text (love

and sacrifice), he is responsible for mentoring Harry and for releasing equipment and knowledge

when it is needed. He is a complex plot device; however, in order to do all of the work required of

him by the plot he needs to achieve great victories and failures in a short space of time and as such

his reputation and the response of characters to him often differ from the way that we perceive his

actions as active readers. This is part of a larger flaw which I have looked at briefly with Rowling's

text, that what we are told of the characters and what we see them do can be quite disparate. It

perhaps does not help that we experience Dumbledore primarily through Harry's eyes, and Harry is

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a character with a tendency towards hero worship. Pogrebin has chosen to deal with these textual

contradictions by focusing on Dumbledore's canon actions and in doing so in a way that does not

follow the canon interpretation she changes the nature of both wars.

All greatness is: adjusting your vision to the brightness of stars, measuring movement in the aeonic swirl of galaxies, moving beyond good and evil into these primordial games of physics and chaos and spaces so infinite that human thoughts are lost in them, diluted in them until consciousness adulterates into nothingness The cost of greatness is: in the light of the supernova, human faces are invisible. Tom and Dumbledore, like the two outflung arms of a galaxy engaged in a centuries-long celestial waltz. (Pogrebin:2007)

Given that Dumbledore is in the canon text Voldemort's direct enemy this strikes at the core of the

way that Rowling has structured the moral universe of Harry Potter. The way that Dumbledore

deals with Harry certainly shows a much greater care for his usefulness than his happiness. After all

we should remember that the original reason that Harry uses Voldemort's name is because he wasn't

raised to know better and that it was Dumbledore who was given responsibility for Harry's

upbringing. We know that Dumbledore is trying through his actions to mould Harry into someone

who can fight Voldemort and that no one (aside from the Ministry) questions his judgment. But the

way that Pogrebin presents this gives him a more sinister cast. This is one of the extreme ends of

the author/archontic author relationship, where the archontic author is in direct and open conflict.

Harry has grown used to the sight of his own blood, to losing bones like losing friends except only one set grows back. He has fought the Darwinian instinct swelling up in each cell and vessel and walked to his own death with his eyes clear and has tasted it in the back of his throat and has lost his will half-way between death & glory, between earth and heaven and now each second is a battle not to forget to breathe. (Pogrebin:2007)

One of the often-quoted facts of Rowling's wizarding world is that all Death Eaters were Slytherins,

and thus by default only Slytherins have the potential for that kind of behaviour. External

characteristics such as your house and name are used by Rowling to define internal morality, and a

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morality which is both stark and contradictory. The Gryffindor’s (and Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs)

are by their very nature “good” whilst the Slytherins are by their very nature “evil”, and this has to

do with a set of personality traits which can only be interpreted and used in one fashion. The

Slytherins challenge and undercut Dumbledore's power because they are “evil”, or to look at it

another way they are “evil” because they do so. For someone who claims to support house unity

Dumbledore certainly undercuts the Slytherins in favour of Gryffindor a surprising extent.

Rowling's Dumbledore is not a figure to be questioned and he has a certainty that his actions, in

particular the ones concerning the treatment of Harry, are fully justified in order to achieve his

goals.

Harry Potter dreams of Dumbledore’s face and the only time he ever cries is in his sleep when he dreams he is spitting in that face, the face of his old headmaster, and his tears are the burning hot tears of resentment rather than sadness… when he closes his eyes he sees Dumbledore’s smiling, wily face and Metatron voice curving around alphabets three feet high and ragged at the edges: FOR THE GREATER GOOD. Here is another moral: people never actually change. Another: all greatness is shadowed by cruelty. (Pogrebin:2007)

One of the few times we see Dumbledore being actively cruel in the canon text is in Snapes

memories in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I find it interesting that this side of him is

exposed towards a character that few will defend and who is whatever his reasons unable to defend

himself. Dumbledore is a character who demands a great deal of loyalty from his followers (it is

worth noting that neither he nor any other character admit to being equals) whilst keeping

information from them and in many ways orchestrating their actions and responses with little effort.

If we were to follow his actions through to their extreme this could be a reasonable interpretation of

them, and that originally small twist in the perception of character has ripples in how we perceive

Rowling's universe, the actions of the characters and their morality. As a character Dumbledore is

something of a catalyst, and in choosing this interpretation Pogrebin is going directly against

Rowling's choice of villains and heroes.

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In an email interview with an anonymous author who writes around similar issues I questioned her

about her choices of characterisation over the canon interpretation.

Rowling relies on what www.jabootu.com refers to as an "informed attribute" - the same sort of thing as when we're supposed to believe that a scientist in a B-movie is brilliant not because we see him doing brilliant things but because the other characters tell us repeatedly that he's brilliant. Rowling's the same way; she wants us to believe that the good characters are good, but her own ideas about what constitutes "good" seem to be terribly warped... sometimes I go with what she shows and carry her characterization to its logical conclusion

From this we can conclude that with such a stance they are adding depth and at the same time

conflict to the canon text, and given that both authors use direct canon it could be considered more

than a piece of archontic fiction but a potential reading of the text as a whole.

This kind of archontic fiction is one of the reasons cited for the strained and complicated

relationship between authors, archontic authors and their readers. However, are we to say that this

work is worthless because it is uncomfortable, or than in being uncomfortable it invites us to

examine our prejudices as readers as well as those of the text? Do we say that the author is the final

authority on all potential interpretation for the text? We would do well to bear in mind that Harry

Potter was written as a children's series with a morality which is at times simplistic and unyielding.

However as active readers enjoy the work it will become a more complex text by interpretation,

expanding on its potential.

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Chapter Three - Formal Experimentation

Archontic fiction is often seen by the academic and literary community at large as primarily

concerned with character and setting, this is certainly an important part of the genre and what I have

been focusing on so far. The nature of fandom as a literary community in its own right means that it

can be self-policing in regard to quality (Lee:2004) and that the form and structure of archontic

texts can range over from close to exact replicas of the canon text style (in particular encouraged for

texts with strong authorial voices such as in the Jane Austen fandom) to experimentation with form

often similar to the kinds of work produced by Modernist and Post Modernist authors. I have in

previous chapters explored the idea that the dynamic in the Harry Potter fandom between author

and archontic author could be considered in light of the tension between the status of the canon text

as a children's series and the nature of the expectations of the archontic authors as active readers.

Archontic authors are often involved in fandom at a meta level meaning that they write not just

archontic texts but also fan meta; this kind of fan produced work often encourages fans to have a

good grounding in literary critique and forms although not necessarily in what we might think of as

a traditionally academic fashion.

The way that some archontic texts draw attention to their nature as archontic could be

considered to be an extension of the Post Modernism form of drawing attention to the nature of the

text as text. This is something which is done in both ways with Reads which opens with the line

separate from the text with no citation and in italics “You've got it all backwards. It's a love story.”

(Nope:2003). This draws attention in a classic Post Modernist form to the text as a text in

presenting a reading, and presuming an inaccurate one, from the very beginning. Our expectations

as readers are thus for an unconventional love story and our reading of the text is shaped

accordingly. The structure of the archontic text is one paragraph prefaced with “SCENE: Father's

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Office, Malfoy Manor. Night.” (Nope:2003) adjusted for time and place, this also draws attention

to the text as a text but as we read through the first scene proves to be a daydream of sorts, and an

amalgamation of memories and wishes. A scene is then followed by a line in italics describing

wounds or scars with a stylised story/paragraph underneath it making personal stories for the

character in question. The pattern is repeated all the way through the text layering memories and

moments out of temporal order following themes rather than linear time through the archontic text.

This leads up to the final scene which does not technically even occur in the story arc, but is a

prediction of events which given the formatting of the opening scene neither the author nor the

characters are fully aware of.

SCENE: Somewhere, Somewhen. Inevitably. Draco will close the diary and light the fire and watch the paper curl and blacken and there will be tears and ash. And his wand tip will be hot in the hollow of his throat. (Nope:2003)

This draws attention to the author figure, and inevitably from this the author as an archontic author,

as not necessarily all-powerful or all knowing even when it concerns their own text. The structure

and tropes used are heavy and shift between Modernist and Post Modern, this mixing of styles

which are arguably quite similar to begin with adds another layer of complexity to a text which

already requires active reading to unpick.

In the Introduction I began to consider the idea of fandom as discourse encouraging

experimental fiction and one good example of this would be the Ominocular (an on-line invitation

only community dedicated to genfic) challenges. These can cover anything from alternative

universes to points on the canon time line that have not been written or in the case of the archontic

text I will be considering, both form and content. Two Memories by Spessartine was written in

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response to a prompt from one such challenge (a copy of which is included in the standard

disclaimer used by archontic authors and requested by Rowling) that concerned the creation of non-

fictional format artefacts. Spessartine chose to write Two Memories in the form of an official

document, a transcription of the memories taken from an unnamed character and Snape. This is an

interesting concept as texts have been produced (for charity) with the authorization and

participation of Rowling that were written as fictional text books within the series so this is not

without precedent.

Item 11099344A (a) 1 (one) recorded memory taken from the mind of condemned prisoner 88758 on March 24th 1980, two days prior to the administration of the kiss. (Spessartine:2006)

The way that it is presented and narrated with the asides from the transcriber and references to

further fictional files and documents serves to draw attention to its artificiality with its very reality.

It is interesting to note that although certain main canon characters are in the text both the

narrator/transcriber and the prisoner in question are anonymous in the first memory. Spessartine

uses these memories to house the core of the challenge prompt, speeches given by Voldemort. I find

these to be particularly interesting as they give an insight into the philosophy and rhetoric of the

Death Eaters, although we may not choose to agree with it. Given that the longest and most

involved speech by Voldemort that we are given in the canon text is mostly exposition as opposed

to insight we are required to extrapolate his personal views from other sources. Although

Voldemort is certainly a genocidal xenophobe in order to have gained such a large base of support,

or at least tolerance (as we are told by Rowling that he had) he would have had to be at the very

least a capable showman. We are given little to no first hand evidence of this in the canon text.

And each of these has words untranslatable into any other; concepts lost with the silencing of their thought. Languages corrupt one another just as disturbed water settles to a level mirror, so languages blend and will form one grey uniformity of thought – one uninspired lexicon.

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But I am different. I am the indrawn breath, the moment of light. I am the silence between words. They dare not speak my name. (Spessartine:2006)

Discussions of language within language, much like stories within stories, could be considered to be

a meta fictional device particularly given the unusual style in which this is presented. Archontic

authors are open to the idea of the canon text as a discussion rather than as a fixed object and as

such tend towards experimentation with style as much as with content. This support from fandom as

a community could be considered just as responsible for the exciting literary experimentation

perpetrated by archontic authors as the concept of the canon text as a set of open concepts to be

played with and rearranged. The nature of this sort of unpublishable archontic fiction, whether or

not this is a positive or negative aspect, frees it from constraints that would otherwise limit its

dissemination. It provides a well-known landscape within which archontic authors are free to be

stylistically as well as thematically inventive.

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Conclusion - Fan Fiction in The Mainstream and Mainstream Fan Fiction

Paul Cornell is a famous if unusual member of the Doctor Who fandom who has followed it

through many of its earlier incarnations up to modern day in a number of different roles. Having

written archontic fiction for fan zines such as Queen Bat he went on to writing the authorized

novels until being taken on board as a scriptwriter for the new series. From fanon to canon, as it

were. He is also something of a fandom scholar and edited a book of Doctor Who fanzines in a self-

professed attempt to preserve that particular style of fan culture.

the greater culture's parameters are enforced through ridicule and peer pressure... they want to portray fans as mad consumers, people who accept everything the television gives us, without question. That's them I'm afraid. Fandom is the culture that takes what television gives us, chops it up, laughs at it, pulls it apart, makes its own art with it, and eats it.(Cornell:1997:2)

This is to my mind, a valid representation of fan culture and its potential, the way in which literary

and academic discourse is used albeit in a very unusual fashion on pop cultural texts also

encourages critical readings and responses. I believe that fan culture is more creative than it is

passive. Neither publishing a text nor writing it with the intention or potential for it to be published

infers credibility or worth on it, so why does culture (both academic and otherwise) treat so called

amateur work with such disdain? It is worth baring in mind that a great deal of critically and

academically acclaimed texts studied in an academic context have not necessarily been commercial

successes. It is not always the case, and I am in no way arguing that all archontic texts have worth

by default, but archontic texts can be used to explore issues or experiment with styles which may

prevent a text from being published, or point to elements which are frequently lacking or glossed

over in the majority of published texts.

There is a valid, if strained, critical and creative relationship between canon and archontic

authors. No one text will ever encompass all possible issues and viewpoints, and nor should it,

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however as culture is currently biased towards one set of view points and experiences archnotic

fiction is more likely to focus on others. What this means is that these issues are not always flaws

on the part of the canon author but that they can be used by archontic authors to make more

literature above and beyond the expectations of the canon text. This is certainly not a denigration or

a call for the destruction of the canon author, archontic fiction would after all be unable to work

with the many unusual styles and layers of meaning that it does without the canon text to draw

from. I believe that this is a strong argument for archontic literature to be thought of and treated as

literature rather than being marginalized as well.

As I have shown these archontic authors are far from incapable of creating their own subjects or

forms. They are capable of using in some cases extremely sophisticated forms, images and

characterization and to work with volatile and unusual subject matter in their texts. Indeed that

archontic literature has been in many ways co-opted as the literature of the marginalized which it's

nature makes it suited for. When we read a well structured and thought out piece of archontic

fiction it cannot just work as a well-written text in its own right but also change how we see and

respond to the canon text. There is a culture of editing within fandom itself as the archontic authors

as much as the readers have an emotional investment in the quality and accuracy of their work

(Pugh:2005:116-121). Fans are certainly not blind consumers, indeed they are highly critical and

self aware with the potential to expand on the text that they have chosen in ways unimaginable in

the canon text. The academic style of discussion which they engage in both in meta and archontic

fiction is in no way inferior because it is not conventionally professional, I believe that an emotional

level of connection to a text does not have to mean compromised judgement and can often mean

that authors are willing to coax more out of a text than those who are conventionally detached.

All in all I think that there is a strong case for fan fiction and fan meta to be considered to be

literary and academic.

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Glossary

A.

AU : Standing for Alternate Universe this tag denotes a piece of fan fiction which has made significant alterations to canon events in their work. It can also be seen as a genre of it's own.

B.

Beta-Reader : A Beta-reader edits works of archontic fiction online, often as part of a group. Beta-readers may well also be archontic authors themselves.

BNF : The acronym of Big Name Fan, used to describe a particularly well-known member of any fandom.

C.

Canon : Plot points, characters, interpretations, events, characterization and romantic pairings that are given in the original text by the author. Canon text is taken to mean the text which the archontic text is working from.

F.

Fandom : A group of fans of one particular text, aspect of the text or genre. A collective term for a group of fans as well as another word for fan culture.

Fanon : Assumptions and theories which have become widely spread in the fandom in question, yet may have little actually cannon basis. Super text.

Fem-slash : Fiction pairing women.

G.

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Gen or Genfic : Fan fiction which may include but does not focus on a romantic pairing, this is often character focused.

M.

Meta : Non-fiction writing, structured or unstructured, about aspects of fandom and the canon text.

S.

Ship or Shipping : Originally short for relationship it stands for a romantic pairing held by the author in question.

Slash : Fiction pairing men, originating from the symbol used to separate characters names in a disclaimer e.g. Harry/Draco.

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Bibliography

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