"Fan
Fiction Cybercommunities: Celebrity Appropriation on
the Internet"
by
The worship of celebrity in the late twentieth century has catalyzed the creation of a specialized cybercommunity on the Internet: writers and publishers of fan fiction.1 These voices, utilizing the Internet to expand upon traditional fan clubs and fanzines, have created a new context within which they continue the life of their favorite celebrity/character in fictional stories based on the celebrity/character’s original vehicle, such as a television program, film, or novel. Many Internet sites now exist within the fan fiction cybercommunity, and many began as simple electronic extensions of the fan club; however, frustrated with the fickleness of the entertainment industry (i.e., high character turnover or shows being canceled early in their development), these fans looked to the Internet to develop a community of the electronic Other, their need for expression and recognition finding a release in stories that carry the original celebrity/character beyond the original into the desire of the fan to appropriate that celebrity/character’s essence, that which initially draws the fan to the celebrity—be it fame, power, wealth—and that become an exploration of the fan’s own character beyond the celebrity. As Clive James observes in Fame in the 20th Century, "[t]hose who are famous have their importance only to the extent that they help give meaning to the lives of those who aren’t."2 To these fans, the celebrity/character is an entrance into a world that they create in their fiction, a world in which they take the place of the celebrity/character, and the very nature of the chosen technological medium that decentralizes the body/self allows for this appropriation to take place much more easily than in real world. With Internet fan fiction, it seems as if any self is attainable for as Howard Rheingold suggests, "the stories (true and false) we tell about ourselves (or about the identity we want people to believe us to be) are what determines our identities in cyberspace."3
The first forays into fandom on the Internet—including celebrity/character photographs, gossip, program and film summaries, and scanned copies of print fanzines—reflected the traditional notion of the fan club. The area in which the greatest growth appeared to occur was, of course, that connected with that genre which itself is shaped and motivated by technology: science fiction/fantasy. Bulletin boards and chat rooms sprang up, then came the fiction, at first mere extensions of program or film story lines for such vehicles as the existing versions of Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr. Who, then later for Highlander, Babylon 5, X-files, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and Xena: Warrior Princess. Fans displayed devotion through the creation of such sites and the fiction posted on these sites, but they also displayed power. The later Star Trek television series accepted unsolicited manuscripts from the general public, and other television shows, including Hercules, have even made casting decisions, such as putting popular celebrities/characters into heavy rotation or even returning them from the dead, based on fan feedback posted on the Internet. Such an influential online presence is not the privilege of science fiction/fantasy fans, however. The Phish.net site has had a similar effect on that rock band’s musical development. Phish fans’ online efforts brought the band into the mainstream, and their online demands for the release of certain material was answered by a song the band wrote in response to that demand, which resulted in Phish fans garnering a role in the band’s future productions.4 Thus, fan sites in general on the Internet play a significant role in decisions affecting their desired celebrities/characters.
Many contemporary television programs focus on the celebrity and not on the character. On shows such as A&E’s Biography, The Jerry Springer Show, and more recently Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?, the characters are "common" people, who become celebrities/characters by acting in their real life stories. This is similar to what Linda Hutcheon says about certain postmodern texts, which take historical characters and events and fictionalize them to that point that the line between history and fiction blurs so that history can only be realized through its various representations.5 In the same way, the line between the celebrity and the fictional character has blurred so that a celebrity is often realized only through his or her various representations or characters. Therefore, it seems only natural that this postmodern bridge would carry a genre like fan fiction to the next phase in which the writer masks himself or herself in the story’s main character in order to realize and appropriate that which creates the celebrity. This is what occurs in the majority of fan fiction.
Another aspect of postmodernism is the creation of other worlds within a text while the text itself fully acknowledges the fictive nature of its making and of those worlds.6 This ontological awareness leads the reader to question the definition and nature of those worlds and the interaction between them.7 Thus, many postmodern texts imitate Bakhtin’s carnivalesque exchange in which all classes mingle on familiar terms, "foregrounding," as Hutcheon believes, "the figure of the author and the act of writing, and even violently interrupting the conventions of the novel, but without relapsing into mere technical self-absorption."8 Therefore, if we look at Internet fan fiction in this light, and in particular through the catalyst of television programming, we can see it as a product of the development of postmodern celebrity:
Just as the private worlds of actual individuals are relentlessly pillaged by TV, with the multiplication of intimate explorations of private lives and fly-on-the-wall documentaries, so the private world comes to enfold or be inhabited by the public world of historical events, which are made available instantly in every living-room by the agency of TV. The public possesses the private, the private encompasses the public.9
This mediation of public and private, of author and text, of celebrity/character and fiction, this "imitation of reality [that] is accomplished not so much at the level of its content, which is often manifestly un- or anti-realistic, as at the level of form,"10 is what occurs in fan fiction as the writer knowingly appropriates first the celebrity/character, then usurps the celebrity’s position. Celebrities, and by extension their characters, seduce the public to such a degree that people often substitute for their own memories those of the celebrity/character.11
John Seabrook, in a recent New Yorker feature on the deterioration of "highbrow" culture, confessed his epiphantic visit to a Guggenheim exhibit of the finalists for the Hugo Boss Prize.12 Of the six multimedia or installation artists represented, the piece entitled "Sip My Ocean," by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist, became the catalyst of his realization. Rist appropriates the music video "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak and places herself at its center. As Seabrook notes, however, Rist’s version of the video is two videos joined at right angles and projected onto an L-shaped surface, and both videos sport the quick-cut, sound bite style now especially familiar to music videos. For Seabrook, "Sip My Ocean" represents a merger similar to that of fan fiction: the artist or writer manipulates the celebrity/character’s vehicle in order to construct the artist’s or writer’s desired Other represented by that celebrity/character. Add to that the technological dimension—which includes not only the freedom to create and publish one’s own work, but also the freedom to escape one’s real body to explore its many selves—and, as the postmodern writer J.G. Ballard points out, in society and by extension in fiction, we arrive at that place where "social relationships are no longer as important as the individual’s relationship with the technological landscape," and with many writers exploring their many selves, that landscape is developing exponentially, "filling the environment with fictions of every kind."13 A look at the fan fiction based on the popular television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, which is no longer in production, will illustrate this developing aspect of fiction online.
Two types of stories are represented in the majority of Hercules fan
fiction archives online. The first type closely
follows the show itself, feeding off of existing plot lines, in an effort by
fans to hold onto their favorite celebrities/characters. The
second type, however, is created by writers who use pseudonyms based on their
favorite Hercules celebrity/character, becoming an extension of that
celebrity/character, such as Aresfan or AresVixen relating to the popular character Ares played by
Breanna moved through the Amazon forest as silently as a ghost, entirely in her element.[…]she was glad she'd honed her skills; they came in handy with the Amazons who had adopted her when her family had been slaughtered by a marauding warlord.[…]She cursed Ares under her breath. Damn the god. Why couldn't he just leave her alone? And why couldn't she resist him?15
The Amazon warrior is raised up to the level of a god and is granted the worthiness of his attention, especially his sexual attention.
This sexual element often found in fan fiction, which underscores the desire of the writer/character to appropriate the celebrity/character’s essence, usually turns sadomasochistic or non-consensual in that the celebrity/character is dominated by the writer/character. The story "Total Control" is no exception. The Amazon Breanna, and by extension the writer JinXavier, uses sexual domination as a means to appropriate Ares, and by extension the actor Smith. In the beginning, Ares has hired thugs to ambush Breanna in order to test her strength, for which she is well known. She prevails, and when she learns of Ares’ deception, she threatens him: "Bree glared at the god. ‘Control. That's what it's all about, isn't it, Ares? You always have to be in control. Well, not with me. You have never controlled me, and you never will.’"16 Ares is unshaken. Later, however, he is confronted by his sibling, the goddess and protector of the Amazons, Artemis, to pay for his deception through classically ironic means: "‘So what is this punishment you think I'm so deserving of.’ ‘The girl will choose your punishment,’ Artemis said simply."17 Although at first hesitant, as is typical in these types of stories, the celebrity/character always succumbs to the whims of the writer/character. Breanna decides to tie Ares up and force him to endure her sexual control:
Grudgingly, the god complied, and Bree slowly undid his gauntlets, slipping them from his muscular forearms, then kissing the inside of each wrist. She quickly and deftly tied his arms to the posts of her bed so that he couldn't move. "Now remember," she warned. "You can't use your powers, so you can't get out of those until I release you. Now, if you'll be good and lie still, I won't tie your feet. But if you move again . . ." Her voice held a clear warning as she gazed down in anticipation at the prone god. The warmth that had coiled in her stomach began to spread, sending tingling sensations throughout her body.18
In the end, Ares has no regrets but in fact seems to acknowledge and accept his reversal of power: "‘Now let me go!’ he commanded. Bree shook her head. ‘ASK me, Ares. Don't tell me.’[…]He paused, then grimaced. ‘Will you PLEASE let me go?’ Breanna gave him a quick peck on the cheek. ‘All you had to do was ask.’"19 Her appropriation, however, is not yet complete. Breanna considers, just for a moment, letting Ares regain control, but then she says to him, "‘You still have to do what I want you to.’"20 Breanna continues to call the shots, and Ares complies: "‘And what do you want me to do, my sweet?’ he asked seductively. Breanna pulled his mouth back down to hers. ‘Make love to me, Ares,’ she breathed."21 Although she allows him to get on top of her, Breanna, like the "reformed" shrew Kate placing her hand beneath Petruchio’s boot, appears to acquiesce in order to pull Ares’s strings and make him act as she wishes him to act. Thus, she maintains total control.
As Ballard observes, sexual or pornographic fiction in general is highly politicized in that it uses sex as the context within which to explore "how we use and exploit each other in the most urgent and ruthless way."22 In regards to JinXavier’s "Total Control," the exploitation achieved through sex is the means by which Breanna appropriates Ares’ power. This outcome is common to most sexually-infused fan fiction. Thus, the original story lines as well as the celebrities themselves become backgrounded. This supports Ballard’s belief that social interaction is losing ground due to technology’s facilitating the exploration of one’s many selves.23 That is, real people seem to become less important as more disembodied selves come out to play on the Internet. In an ironic twist, however, these fan fiction writers/characters have collected their many selves together, have even collaborated on stories, and have thus created a cybercommunity based on a lack of social interaction caused by an increase in technologically-based personal exploration. As Rheingold states, it is this "aggregation of personae, interacting with each other, [that] determines the nature of the collective culture."24 By archiving "Total Control" and other such stories throughout the Hercules fan fiction Webring,25 a term used to denote the central reference page for related Web sites, appropriation is completed not only within the story, but also through its archiving.
This paradoxical development raises a question: is the action of the story itself representative of celebrity/character appropriation or is it the act of creating, archiving, and sharing the fiction that completes the appropriation? In terms of Kenneth Gergen’s relational research,26 that is, does the appropriation occur not only within a writer’s fiction, but also between the relationship of that fiction to the celebrity/character’s original vehicle, to the writer’s many characters, and to other fictions also archived online? It does seem that fan fiction archives and Webrings themselves are of greater importance than any one story. JinXavier’s "Total Control" is part of Ronan’s Adult Fan Fiction Archive and, more specifically, part of a story challenge, which begins when someone posts an initial story as well as the ground rules for all stories that will be posted in response to the challenge. JinXavier responded to the following challenge: "What would YOU do if the object of your affection/lust/whatever would do anything you wanted them to do for 24 hours? And why would they be in that predicament?"27 Three of the four stories in this challenge, including JinXavier’s, use Ares/Smith as the object of their appropriation. Fan fiction cybercommunities such as Ronan’s Adult Fan Fiction Archive, therefore, seem to reflect Leo Braudy’s conclusion, reached in his examination of the developing nature of celebrity, that "[a]s the networks of visual and verbal communication enwrap the world, the older binders of community and the older conferrals of status rely more and more on them for sanction."28 While it is indeed the celebrity/character who provides the framework for fan fiction on the Internet, it is ultimately the community based on the individual creations of writers/characters that make desired explorations and appropriations possible.
Notes
1 I would like to thank the
participants of Session #416, Popular Culture And
Computers: Alternative Outlets And Forums For Expression, at the 2000 Southwest/Texas Popular Culture
Association/American Culture Association Annual Conference and Dr. Dave
Samuelson of the English Department at
2 Clive James, Fame in the 20th Century (New York: Random, 1993) 252.
3 Howard Rheingold, "A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community," Global Networks, ed. L. M. Harasim (Cambridge: MIT P, 1993) 61.
4 Nessim Watson, "Why We Argue About Virtual Community: A Case Study of the Phish.net Fan Community," Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, ed. Steven G. Jones (London: Sage, 1997) 127-28.
5 Steven Connor, Postmodernist Culture: An Introduction to Theories of the Contemporary (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997) 132.
6 Connor 129.
7 Connor 130.
8 Connor 132.
9 Connor 192.
10 Brain McHale, Postmodernist Fiction (New York: Methuen, 1987) 38.
11 Linda S. Kauffman, Bad Girls and Sick Boys: Fantasies in Contemporary Art and Culture (Berkeley: U of California P, 1998) 162.
12 John Seabrook, "Nobrow Culture: Why It’s Become
So Hard to Know What You Like," TheNew
Yorker
13 Kauffman 163.
14 JinXavier,
"Total Control," Ronan’s Adult Fan Fiction
Archive,
15 JinXavier ¶ 1.
16 JinXavier ¶ 35.
17 JinXavier ¶ 63-64.
18 JinXavier ¶ 116.
19 JinXavier ¶ 157-58, 161-62.
20 JinXavier ¶ 167.
21 JinXavier ¶ 168-69.
22 Kauffman 167.
23 Kauffman 176.
24 Rheingold 61.
25 Hercules Fan
Fiction Webring, WebRing
Inc.,
cgi-bin/webring?ring=htljfanfic;list>.
26 Kenneth J. Gergen, "Technology and the Self: From the Essential
to the Sublime," working chapter for Constructing the Self in a
Mediated World. ed. Debra Grodin
and Thomas R. Lindlof (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1996),
Ken Gergen’s Home Page,
27 "Story
Challenges," Ronan’s Adult Fan Fiction
Archive, ed. Ronan,
28 Leo Braudy, The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History (New York: Oxford, 1986) 582.
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