• A post on the New York Times' Learning Network discussed students confronting 'what ifs' in classwork. "In this lesson, students will discuss how they 'read' their favorite television shows in order to make predictions about what will happen, then apply these skills to speculate about what happens to literary characters after their favorite novels or plays end. Finally, they will use the inferences they gain through close reading to create imagined futures for these characters in comic strips, next chapters, letters, journals or videos."
• Fandom scholar Henry Jenkins' hosted an exploration of comics fandom in Poland on his blog. "In the 'Participatory Poland' report a group of Polish aca-fen makes a preliminary attempt towards defining the specificity of an Eastern European country’s participatory culture shaped both in the communist and post-communist periods. By placing the development of selected fan-based activities against a broader socio-historical background, we are trying to capture the interplay between the global and the local context of participatory culture, as well as take preliminary steps towards making its Polish branch available for academic research."
• Pinboard creator Maciej Cegłowski gave a presentation titled "Fan is a Tool-Using Animal" on fandom communities online and their use of bookmarks. He discussed his interest in having fans come to his site after observing their intriguing use of Del.icio.us, but due to their attachment to the site he had no luck until the site changed enough to drive fans away. He also spoke about the importance of fandom culture and its endurance over time. "Part of the reason our television sucks less than it used to is because people are more sophisticated about the way they watch them...fandom analyzes this stuff to death and deconstructs it...and this percolates back into the culture." (Audio only)
• The University of Iowa, which houses Open Doors' Fan Culture Preservation Project, released a video about the Doctor Who fanzines in their Special Collections & Archives to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary. Although there is no transcript available, the post description includes a mini guide to the collection.

What academic explorations of fandom have you come across? Write about them on Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

• The romance publishing industry was among the first to start bringing in self-published writers and first time novelists, which they are now doing through Wattpad. The site has been active internationally, both promoting its site and now partnering with publishers to create a print imprint. Allen Lau, CEO of Wattpad, said “A lot of writers are afraid of sharing their work...And if you hide your work, you miss the opportunity to let other people appreciate your writing, and also missing some big opportunities in the process—your story might even become a movie, for example.”
• Writers wary of sharing their work have a good reason for it though -- theft. The case of Shey Stahl is a good example of many writers feeding one person's career. "Goodreads reviewer Ari Bookzilla posted a word-by-word comparison between excerpts of Stahl's latest novel, For the Summer, and a popular Twilight fanfic known as Dusty...Other Goodreaders claimed that the novel's summary had been lifted from another Twilight fic: another popular offering called Pickup Truck...Even the title, "For the Summer," is the title of another well-known Twilight fic...The question of why Stahl may have stolen so much from Twilight fanfic authors is simple: She was one. Stahl wrote fanfic under the pen name Jaydmommy, and she was plagued by plagiarism allegations then, too."
• Such cases of plagiarism make cases such as the ongoing lawsuit involving Sherlock Holmes seem as antiquated as the copyright at the center of the battle. As Tech Dirt pointed out, it would seem that the Conan Doyle Estate Is Horrified That The Public Domain Might Create 'Multiple Personalities' Of Sherlock Holmes. The estate's argument "presents a way to make copyright on characters perpetual. You just need to have someone continue to release new works that have some minor change to the character, and they get to pretend you have a new starting point for the public domain ticker" meaning that "so long as you never 'complete' the character creation, they can never go into the public domain."
• Shadowlocked argued that there not only can be should be multiple takes on a franchise. "Neill Blomkamp's humility in acknowledging the subjective side of fandom and that his take on the franchise wouldn't have been for everyone is admirable, but perhaps fans as well as filmmakers could learn from this approach. As a fan, it's arguably better to look at a film in a franchise made by a particular director as that director's take on the franchise, rather than, 'How dare they ruin my beloved franchise?' Because directors can be fans too, and not all fans appreciate the source material in exactly the same way."

What stories about fanfiction publishing and legal rights have you seen? Write about them on Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

• Movies.com noticed the fandom angle in its review of the documentary Spook Central. "In a similar vein to Room 237, Spook Central is a documentary that asks fans to explain their theories about the hidden meanings in Ivan Reitman's 1984 film about a team of nerds who use science to bust ghosts. What hidden meanings, you ask? We don't know. We thought it was a pretty straightforward genre mash-up, but apparently director Ivo Shandor found enough of them to turn it into a feature film. Or maybe he's using a movie as apparently transparent as Ghostbusters to gently mock overly analytical movies like Room 237?"
• Suzanne Walker wrote in the Oxford University Press blog about her involvement in superhero fandom. "I have always been an eager student of American history, and superheroes offer an important reflection not only on our current society but also on our own cultural history...It’s quite telling, for example, that it took until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s for Marvel to create its first African-American superhero, the Black Panther, and that one of Ms. Magazine’s first covers was an image of Wonder Woman in 1972, heralding the second-wave feminist movement. More recently, I re-watched the 2008 Iron Man film and was struck by how dated it already is even five years later. It’s extremely attuned to the politics of the late Bush years, and strives to offer commentary on the United States’ wars abroad even as it delivers high-flying adventures with Tony Stark."
• Blogger Luz Delfondo wrote about Five lessons I learned from fandom and how fandom can expand people's awareness of story content. The lessons? 1. Characters of different races are not interchangeable, 2. Asexuality is a lot more complicated than just not wanting to have sex, 3. You can’t just say you’re going to give marginalized characters their due. You have to do it, 4. All kinks are normal, and 5. Together, women can form a powerful and just community of writers and editors. "When I write fic about female characters kicking ass, my beta readers (fandom lingo for editors) cheer me on. When I read a sex scene between two women, I can be almost certain a woman wrote it. I’ve had a reader tell me that she’s taken quotes from my fic and tacked it to her bedroom wall. I’ve had a reader tell me that a fic I wrote helped her think more deeply about her own gender identity and sexuality. It touches me deeply that I’ve had an impact on other women that way."

What lessons have you learned from fandom? Write about them in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.