Democracy and Accessibility in Fanfiction Erin Maley Agnes Scott College

Deconstructing My Immortal: Democracy and Accessibility in Fanfiction Erin Maley Agnes Scott College

Abstract Fanfiction, as a field of literary study, is relatively new and unexplored. Ofte1n viewed as a “counterculture,” fanfiction frequently subverts the conventional structures and methods of traditional literature, whether through structure, content, or attitudes towards ownership (Goodman 662). Post-structuralism posits that the distinction between “high” and “low” art is, and should be, dissolved. Therefore, fanfiction is a valid field of study. The notoriously poorly written Harry Potter fanfiction, My Immortal (2006), in which the author creates a persona who interacts with altered gothic, or as the author writes “goffik,” versions of existing characters, provides an interesting view into the role of fanfiction, especially considering the debate as to whether or not My Immortal is intentionally bad. The style of writing, which devolves in quality as the fanfiction progresses, mocks common tropes or clichés present in popular, and often poorly written, fanfiction of the time. The misspelling and inconsistent lack or presence of continuity, in addition to a superfluity of clichés, exposes the structures of popular contemporary fanfiction. The author also engages in a critique of common themes or elements of contemporary fanfiction, such as the fetishization of queerness and of “Mary Sue’s,” a subgenre of self-insert characters which are often criticised as being idealised and seemingly flawless. Through the use of language, wordplay, and intertextuality, My Immortal exposes a new way to engage with texts and democratises access to both reading and writing.

anfiction, or “fiction that utilizes pre- privilege that is placed on high art, thereby existing characters and settings from a enabling fanfiction, a field of writing that is F literary or media text,” is a relatively typically looked down upon as being new field of study which subverts both the “lesser,” to be viewed as a valid field of study structure and methods of traditional and writerly engagement. As well as literature, such as novels and poetry expanding the type of writing that is viewed published through established publishing as worthy of being studied, fanfiction allows houses. (Tosenberger 185). Fanfiction’s people previously debarred from traditional attitudes towards authorship and subject forms of writing and reading to explore them matter do not conform to what are typically in a new way. Unbound by the rigid rules of deemed as “acceptable” topics in traditional form, structure, and authorship, fanfiction is forms of writing. Its breakaway from the inherently post-structural and can be playful expectations and rigidity of traditional and create new forms of reading and writing. literature allows it to disregard both the form As an example of fanfiction more broadly, and style of writing as well as subject matter. the Harry Potter fanfiction My Immortal As a result, fanfiction is typically considered (2006), through the unique use of language, as “low art”. Post-structuralism deconstructs wordplay, and intertextuality, not only the binary between high and low art and the exposes a new way to engage with texts, but

The Onyx Review E. Maley / DECONSTRUCTING MY IMMORTAL also democratises literature and makes it 185). The term “slash” originated from a Star accessible to a broader audience. Trek fanfiction in the 1970s, wherein the Fanfiction, prior to the popularisation of punctuation mark of a slash (/) was used the internet, was originally published in between the names “Kirk” and “Spock,” magazines, or “zines”. These magazines were indicating that “the major romantic pairing run primarily by fans, subverting the was homosexual,” although the punctuation traditional format of publication i.e. through mark itself has come to signify any romantic established publishers. The magazines pairing, despite the term “slash” still referring allowed fan writers to write on topics and in exclusively to “homoerotic romance” styles that would never be published by (Tosenberger 186).1 The rise of slash fiction traditional publishers. Henry Jenkins, in his was possible due to fan communities and book Textual Poachers (1992), discusses magazines allowing writers to submit writing how fan magazines often had to choose that reflected their sexual orientations and between “’professionalism’ (the desires. In the Harry Potter fandom (the development of high technical standards and name given to a subculture of fans who are all the showcasing of remarkable engaged in a specific piece of media, in this accomplishments) and ‘acceptance’ case, Harry Potter), some of the most popular (openness and accessibility for new and pairings are slash: Harry/Draco, inexperienced writers)” with the magazines Sirius/Remus, and Snape/Harry, amongst the often leaning towards “acceptance” in order most popular. However, even though these to “[represent] the fledgling efforts of new magazines allowed for more freedom and fans” (Jenkins 159). Interestingly, acceptance access to reading and writing than other in this context does not refer to acceptance as traditional structures did, there were issues something to be gained by traditional that limited access and inclusivity. The publishing sources or mainstream society, but magazines were run by people who could rather from fans themselves, displaying the control what was published in the magazines, power and importance of the fan community. thereby censoring some writers who did not Almost any writer who wrote fanfiction “had fit the moulds prescribed by the magazine a good chance at publication, since most zine publishers. Access to magazines was also an editors [struggled] to find enough acceptable issue. Unless you knew about them, they material to fill their zines” (Jenkins 159). The were hard to find. It was also harder for democratising effects of almost anyone being adolescents and people with limited income able to publish their writing and gain to afford the magazines. As a result of these “national and even international recognition limitations, most of the writing in these as fan writers and artists” provides an magazines is written by adults, and adult “alternate source of status, unacknowledged women in particular. by the dominant social and economic systems Using Hélène Cixous’ concept of but personally rewarding nevertheless,” Écriture Féminine as a base, Bonnstetter and subverting traditional routes to literary and Ott, in their article “(Re)Writing Mary Sue: artistic acclaim and redistributing the power Écriture Féminine and the Performance of imbalance between traditional forms of Subjectivity,” posit that as traditional publishing and fan writers (Jenkins 159). publishing is seen as a male space, the The rise of the subgenre of slash claiming of fanfiction as a space outside of fanfiction, or “fan writing concerned with the male-dominated publishing scene same-sex romance” created space for constitutes action against the patriarchy and marginalized topics and writers (Tosenberger the establishment of an Écriture Féminine, or

The Onyx Review E. Maley / DECONSTRUCTING MY IMMORTAL feminine writing, and thereby grants access universe in a more direct and personal sense, to new “feminine” forms of writing that were as well as makes the writing process more unavailable to women in the past. Given that, accessible for beginning writers, as many historically, “popular culture was equated people unfamiliar with creative writing find with the feminine and consequently critiqued it easier to write from their own perspective as lowly, frivolous, and passive,” the fact that rather than from that of others. Mary-Sue fanfiction, being primarily written by fanfiction is somewhere that the women, is seen as “lesser” or as “low” art democratising power of fanfiction could accentuates the reasoning behind the genre expand, as it is mocked within fan being seen as “lesser” because of the communities, yet it increases accessibility patriarchal structures of society and an and gives a marginalised style of writing a unwillingness to give precedence to female voice. artforms (Bonnstetter and Ott 352). The rise of the internet, primarily in the Fanfiction, therefore, is democratising as it is 1990s and 2000s, was essential in the further an “instance of feminine writing, [that] democratisation of fanfiction. Anyone, “of rhetorically undermines the patriarchal any age, with a computer and a modem,” can economy of writing by allowing women to have access to the internet, and it is free on write their own desires” (Bonnstetter and Ott free sites such as fanfiction.net, 346). archiveofourown.org (AO3), wattpad.com, Fanfiction creates space for subversion etc. (Tosenberger 189). This increased and criticism of existing forms, as well as for accessibility allows teenagers to have the creation of new ones. Mary-Sue relatively unimpeded access to fanfiction and fanfiction is “a popular genre of fan writing exposes them at an earlier age to types of in which (typically) female authors” insert literature that enables them to explore things “’glorified versions’ of themselves” as main such as sexuality and desire at their own characters “into the universe of a beloved leisure rather than by what is dictated by the media text” and is often “denigrated” by invisible rules of sexuality and desire “scholars and fans alike” (Bonnstetter and Ott published in traditional Young Adult (YA) 342-44). My Immortal provides an example fiction. Catherine Tosenberger, in her article of a fanfiction that utilizes the Mary-Sue “Homosexuality at the Online Hogwarts: trope, as the main character Ebony is a “self- Harry Potter Slash Fanfiction” asserts, in insert” of the author, Tara Gilesbie. In fact, contrast to YA fiction, that fanfiction, there are several “slip-ups” where Ebony is specifically Harry Potter fanfiction (fanfic), referred to as “Tara,” for example when operates outside of the institutional “Profesor Sinister” (Professor Trelawney) paradigms that control children's and YA says: “Tara, I see drak times are near [sic],” literature; unlike the Potter books themselves, or when Ebony’s friends yell “Good Luck it is not bound by publishing conventions that Tara!11” to her, cementing the relationship obligate it to contain sexuality within between the author and Ebony (Gilesbie parameters of page (of both characters and Chapter 28; Gilesbie Chapter 42).2 readers) or of pedagogy. What makes Potter Bonnstetter and Ott posit that underneath the fanfic different is that teens have criticism of Mary-Sue characters, critics have unprecedented license not only to read stories failed to notice the “potentially transgressive that might not meet with adult approval, but and liberating dimensions of this genre” also to write and distribute them. (350). Mary-Sue and self-insert fanfiction (Tosenberger 188) allow (fan) writers to explore the fictional

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The mainstreaming of the internet height of the popularity of Harry Potter. coincided with the rise of the Harry Potter Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way, the books from 1997 to 2007, enabling “young main character, is a vampire and a “goth,” a fans not only to access slash,” and by extent popular subculture amongst teenagers at the fanfiction in general, “but also to write and time, and attends Hogwarts. She is in a distribute their own” (Tosenberger 198). The relationship with an altered version of Draco sheer size of the Harry Potter fandom and the Malfoy. The “plot” follows Ebony’s range of interests that it necessarily struggles in love and her adventures at encompasses, along with practically Hogwarts. The internet creates a space for the unimpeded access to both reading and writing author of My Immortal to step into the fanfiction, created a breeding ground for position of an author and create something Harry Potter fanfiction. Harry Potter’s outside of what is considered acceptable. She “enormous success among reluctant readers” is able to explore things such as desire, in particular “offers a safe space for them not notably her attraction to members of the band only to improve their writing skills, but also My Chemical Romance (MCR), for example, to explore discourses of sexuality […] describing Gerard Way as a “major fucking outside of the various culturally official hottie,” writing in general, and, more stances marketed to them (Jenkins qtd. in specifically, writing sex scenes between her Tosenberger 202; Tosenberger 202). This self-insert character, Ebony, and established means that adolescents, and adults, can read character Draco Malfoy (Gilesbie Chapter 1). and create fanfiction at any level, and creates The fact that the author was a (young) a community where the intimidation, teenager when she wrote the fanfiction is formality, and inaccessibility of traditional apparent in how she approaches sex and literature is removed and allows people to sexuality, describing Ebony and Draco feel more comfortable in engaging with texts “[making] out keenly” and Draco putting his through both reading and writing. They can “thingie into [her] you-know-what and [they] inhabit the role of “Author,” a role “which did it for the first time” before writing: “’Oh! traditional publishing reserves for a cultural Oh! Oh!’ I screamed. I was beginning to get elite” (Tosenberger 186). When adolescents an orgasm” (Gilesbie Chapter 4). However, begin to inhabit this position, they are despite mockery and criticism of the inherently subverting the traditional immaturity displayed in the handling of the processes of writing by not going through the sex scenes, writing fanfiction allowed the typical channels and by writing about “taboo” author to explore and discover her topics, such as queer or female desire, they relationship to sex and sexuality in a space subvert the roles, arbitrarily and societally that would not have existed prior to the decided upon as ideal roles, laid out for them development of fanfiction, and specifically by society. By writing fanfiction, they, in the accessibility of it through the rise of the turn, are making it more accessible for other internet. readers. The interesting status of authorship in My Immortal is an example of Harry fanfiction contributes to its democratisation. Potter fanfiction published during the initial Unlike conventionally published texts, surge of its popularity that allowed its author fanfiction writers are not paid for their to explore her writing and sexuality. The writing and are therefore not “restricted to notorious fanfiction My Immortal was institutionalized discourses” as with originally published on the popular fanfiction traditional writers. (Tosenberger 185). Henry website fanfiction.net in 2006, during the Jenkins discusses the idea that “fan

The Onyx Review E. Maley / DECONSTRUCTING MY IMMORTAL publishing constitutes an alternative source the text to rise to prominence (Barthes of status, unacknowledged by the dominant “Death” 87). In this model, the reader has a social and economic systems but personally responsibility to engage with and build on the rewarding nonetheless” (159). Fan writing is text. Fanfiction, as a whole, depends on the a non-commercial form of writing, metaphorical death of the author. Fan writers subverting the power that the traditional take the fictional universes that the original publishing systems have over writers who author constructed and repurpose them to can only publish their work through the meet their own expectations of the characters systems set up for them by profit-driven and the fictional universe. In My Immortal, publishers, and that makes fanfiction for example, numerous MCR and Good accessible to everyone (Jenkins 160). The Charlotte concerts are held in Hogsmeade, “conception of authors as owners of their even though this could never happen in the texts arose alongside the development of original text. However, since this is what she copyright laws” which themselves are “of wanted to do, she was able to disregard the recent date since it was only really legalized author’s intentions, i.e. Rowling’s. at the time of the French Revolution” Interestingly, Lesley Goodman, in her (Goodman 668; Barthes “Work” 118). By essay “Disappointing Fans: Fandom, disregarding the intellectual property of the Fictional Theory, and the Death of the author, and therefore the “respect for the Author,” claims that rather than seeing the manuscript and the author’s declared author as dead, fan writers see the author as a intentions,” fan writers are able to explore disappointment. Working with a distinction and write what they want (Barthes “Work” between texts and universes, Goodman 118, emphasis original). By subverting the asserts that “fan interpretation privileges the traditional capitalistic forms of publishing coherence of the fictional universe while and writing and being unbound from the downplaying the authority of the text and limitations that these forms place upon its insisting that the author is not dead, but a participants, fanfiction makes writing (and failure and a disappointment” (Goodman therefore reading) more accessible. 663). The distinction between the author The concept of an author, and of an author dying and the author being a disappointment having ultimate authority over their work, is indicates that fans are aware of the author’s deconstructed by Roland Barthes, a supposed intentions and that by calling it a foundational post-structuralist, in his 1968 disappointment they destroy the power article “The Death of the Author”. On one imbalance between Author and reader even side of the binary, the image of an “Author- more violently, as it is almost a direct attack God,” as Barthes terms it, on the other, the on the author, rather than a passive reader, historically undervalued by scholars. ignoration. The removal of the author and the Barthes deconstructs the power imbalance democratisation of writing exposes between the Author-God and the reader, thus fanfiction’s relationship with authorship as placing the reader in a position of power over an inherently post-structuralist form of the work. He claims that once the author has writing. written a work, it ceases to belong to them; To give a Text an author is to “impose a they die and cease to be relevant; their limit in that text, to furnish it with a final intentions no longer matter. Barthes posits signified” (Barthes “Death” 86). By limiting that “the birth of the reader must be at the cost the reading of a Text to one definitive answer, of the death of the Author,” allowing the or signified, because that is what the author reader’s interpretation and interaction with “intended” discredits all other possible

The Onyx Review E. Maley / DECONSTRUCTING MY IMMORTAL readings of the Text and places all power into interesting as they are supplementary to the the author’s hands. There can be no final or text, and yet are inextricable from it once singular “correct” meaning to a Text, added. Jacques Derrida, foundational post- therefore the author’s intentions and power structuralist, discusses the idea of over the Text, once published, are irrelevant, supplementary texts in his 1967 essay thereby allowing the reader to do as they “…That Dangerous Supplement…”. While please with the Text. The Text plays with the supplements to the text, in this case Author’s “infinite deferment of the signified,” and can Notes, are inherently “exterior, outside of the never reach “closure” or a final meaning positivity to which it is super-added, alien to (Barthes “Work” 117). Essential to the that which, in order to be replaced by it, must functioning of fanfiction is this distinction be other than it,” once read with the text they between Work and Text. The Work refers cannot be separated from it (Derrida only to the physical book; a tangible object. “Supplement” 145, emphasis original). The In his discussion of the qualities of the Text, Author’s Notes, both at the beginning of Roland Barthes establishes the plurality of chapters and throughout the chapters the Text. The Text has “accomplished the themselves, and reader’s comments at the end very plural of meaning: an irreducible (and of chapters allow for conversation between not merely an acceptable) plural. The text is reader and writer, democratizing the process not a co-existence of meanings but a passage, and dismantling power imbalances between an overcrossing” (Barthes “Work” 117, them. emphasis original). He describes the Text as Post-structuralism is inherently playful, a “weave of signifiers” or as a “tissue,” and so, therefore, is fanfiction. Aside from echoing Derrida’s chain of signifiers (Barthes playing with authorship, the intertextuality of “Work” 117). By separating the Work from fanfiction plays with and often dissolves the the Text, it allows fanfiction writers to line between different works.3 My Immortal, engage more intimately with the Text and through the use of Author’s Notes in removes the emphasis on and power of the particular, is able to play with intertextuality author. Another point made by Barthes is the between different aspects of the Harry Potter fact that the “Text does not stop at (good) universe, specifically between Harry Potter Literature; it cannot be contained in a books, movies, and “fanon” or the “events hierarchy, even in a simple division of created by the fan community in a particular genres. What constitutes the Text is, on the fandom and repeated pervasively throughout contrary (or precisely), its subversive force in the fantext [body of fan creation]” (Goodman respect of the old classifications,” which 667, addition original). In one instance, the supports fanfiction’s deconstruction of low author states in an Author’s Note (AN), after and high art (Barthes “Work” 116). receiving criticism in the comments section Regarding how My Immortal deals with of the previous chapters about Dumbledore the issue of authorship, one interesting and being out of character (OOC) because he playful way it plays with authorship is yelled “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU through the Author’s Notes. Because it was DOING YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!” at taken down after it was originally uploaded, Ebony and Draco, that she “dntn red all da the version of My Immortal that I am using boox! dis is frum da movie ok so itz nut my has Author’s Notes from both the original folt if dumbledor swers! [sic]” (Gilesbie author of the fanfiction and from the person Chapter 4; Gilesbie Chapter 9). The infamous who re-uploaded the fanfiction to the shift in the characterisation of Dumbledore website. Author’s Notes themselves are between the books and the movies is subtly

The Onyx Review E. Maley / DECONSTRUCTING MY IMMORTAL poked fun at here, specifically in reference to the next chapter’s Author’s Note, the author the scene in the Harry Potter and the Goblet begs Raven to come back and Willow is of Fire (2005) movie where instead of resurrected and described as “really pretty “calmly” asking Harry whether he put his and everything” (Gilesbie Chapter 17). These name in the Goblet of Fire as he does in the extratextual interactions demonstrate the book, Dumbledore violently pushes Harry influence Author’s Notes have on the rest of against a trophy table and shakes him while the fanfiction, something previously rare or loudly and angrily demanding to know if unheard of in traditional literature. Harry put his name in the Goblet of Fire Playing with the slipperiness of language (Rowling 276). This moment in the movie is common in post-structuralist works. has since been roundly mocked and criticised Wordplay is a key aspect of the playful nature by fans for being extremely out of character of post-structuralism. My Immortal plays for Dumbledore. Intertextuality in fanfiction with wordplay, primarily through misspelling is not confined solely to other works and texts and puns. One of the defining aspects of this within the fictional universe in question. fanfiction is the incorrect spelling of almost Texts from other sources or fictional all words. The spelling gets gradually worse universes are also often incorporated and as the fanfiction progresses, for example “I blended to create new interactions between tohot he wuz in Azerbaijan” instead of “I characters who ordinarily would not meet thought he was in Azkaban” (Gilesbie within the confines of their own fictional Chapter 42). One of the reasons that universes and also allows fan writers to fanfiction is looked down upon by explore new possibilities within these established institutions is because of its lack universes to explore their own desires.4 of regard for conventional writing standards, The Author’s Notes in My Immortal, such as spelling, grammar, and structure. The following Derrida’s discussion of distinction between low and high art, or in supplementary texts, also convey a parallel this case writing, is deconstructed. Some narrative that can both be read separately misspelling, such as “fangz” instead of from the main text, but at the same time “thanks” serves to heighten the alignment cannot be disentangled. The author, Tara, with a stylistic choice to further the allegedly took her friend, who had been association with “gothic” fashion and editing the chapters and checking for lifestyle that Ebony is associated with. spelling, Raven’s poster of Gerard Way Others, like misspelling the name “Sirius” as because he “is such a fokin sexbom [sic]!” “Serious” almost every time and then the (Gilesbie Chapter 13). It appears Raven spelling of “seriously as “siriusly” plays with retaliated when an Author’s Note says: the confusion surrounding the spelling of “raven u suk u fuken bich gimme bak mah Sirius’ name in real life (Gilesbie Chapter 16; fukijn swteet [sweater],” followed by the Gilesbie Chapter 35). The use of puns is also author killing off Raven’s character, Willow: present throughout My Immortal, notably by “’BTW Willow that fucking poser got referring to Sirius Black as Harry’s expuld. […]’ (an: RAVEN U FUKIN SUK! “dogfather” instead of his godfather, amusing FUK U!) [sic]” and “after she got expuld because of Sirius’s ability to transform [Ebony] murdered her [sic],” and changes himself into a black dog (Gilesbie Chapter Ebony’s name to “Ebondy dark’ness 20). By purposely misspelling words and dementia TARA way” from “Ebony flagrantly disregarding conventional Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way” (Gilesbie grammar and syntax, My Immortal subverts Chapter 16; Gilesbie Chapter 1). However, in this binary further than many fanfictions

The Onyx Review E. Maley / DECONSTRUCTING MY IMMORTAL generally do, in order to underline the particular details or character readings even existence of said binary, and its power though canon does not fully support it— or, imbalance. at times, outright contradicts it (Hellekson In conclusion, because fanfiction can be and Busse qtd. Goodman 667). However, the accessed by almost anyone at any time, it distinction of what counts as Canon is hotly democratises both reading and writing. disputed amongst fans, resulting in two Reading and writing are no longer exclusive contesting answers. Canon is either anything to those who can pay for it or for those who that the original author adds to the fictional fit into societally prescribed moulds. My universe they created, including the book(s) Immortal is an example of a fanfiction that and, controversially, further statements and does this, to an exaggerated degree, and material the author publishes or releases that demonstrates how the subversion of add supplementary material to the text. In the traditional techniques and new relationships case of Harry Potter, this would include the to accessibility and authorship, amongst other seven books of the series along with the things, democratises reading and writing. supplementary books, such as Fantastic Going forward, the development of the Beasts and Where to Find Them (2001) and internet, and therefore various accessible Quidditch Through the Ages (2001), as well artforms, will create even more democratic as the numerous, extremely controversial, circumstances, as is already beginning to be retroactive statements that J.K. Rowling has seen with the increase in whole books being released through the years, for example the uploaded as free pdfs, amongst other things. interview wherein she claimed that Dumbledore was gay. The other option is Notes only to consider the original books, meaning in the case of Harry Potter just the seven 1. The divergence of the meanings of main books, as canon, disregarding the rest. “slash” and “/” illustrates the slipperiness of Then there is the question of whether or not the relationship between sign, signified, and the movies count as canon or not. signifier, as explained by Jacques Derrida 4.The genre of cross-over fanfiction and Roland Barthes, as well as the exemplifies this idea. In My Immortal, one broadening gap between them instance where the author plays with 2.The identity of the author of My intertextuality with a non-Harry Potter Immortal is often disputed. I have chosen to related source is when she refers to the young go with whom it is attributed to in the Voldemort, who she time-travels to in order Author’s Note of the reuploaded version I to seduce him to prevent him from becoming have been using for this paper. evil, as “Tom Bombodil”, who is a character 3.This dissolution between different from The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), a works can be seen in the distinction between text that is generally associated with high art, canon and fanon. Canon, "refers to the that is only included in the book, despite the original text(s) and their contribution to the fact that the original Tom Bombadil has no fictional universe," in other words what the association with young Voldemort (Gilesbie author of the original text wrote in the source Chapter 31). material (Goodman 667). Fanon, on the other hand, “describes 'the events created by the fan community in a particular fandom and [are] repeated pervasively throughout the fantext [body of fan creations]. Fanon often creates Works Cited

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