• Not that fans haven't always known about published works that have had their serial numbers filed off, but apparently the wider world is taking notice. Book Riot took a tongue-in-cheek look at YA literature to speculate on which of its works might secretly be fanfiction. "By now we know that Twilight spawned not one but TWO works of fan-fiction that became hot publishing properties...What’s super-amusing about this is that all the books in the Twilight series are Stephenie Meyers’ fan-fiction-y versions of her favorite classics...I have a feeling there’s more popular YA out there that’s secretly fan-fiction and am going to put on my Girl Detective hunting cap and jump right in and start guessing." Among her choices: "The Fault in Our Stars is just Dawson’s Creek if both Pacey and Joey had cancer" and "Matched by Ally Condie is obviously just fan-fiction for The Selected Works of Dylan Thomas."
• Le Figaro highlights some RPS written about George Hergé, author of Tintin and his friend Tchang Tchong-Jen. In Georges & Tchang : une histoire d'amour au XXe siècle the graphic novel speculates on the private life of Hergé "because of the ambiguous sexuality of Tintin." The creator, Laurent Colonnier describes himself as a fan of Hergé who was inspired to create the work after reading an interview given by Hergé where he describes his work "Tintin au Tibet" simply as a story of love and friendship. This made Colonnier wonder about the loves of Hergé, given his solidarity for Tchong-Jen's views of China. Similarly, Tchong-Jen praised Hergé's work as a magnificent lesson against racism.
• Slashfilm.com started off its review of Bates Motel by saying "The line between prequel/sequel and fan fiction blurs further." They ponder what constitutes canon given that "[t]he movies don’t have the clearest story path with respect to what is 'official'." At the TCA's, producer Carlton Cuse "explained that, when it comes to the film series, “We don’t really view any of that as canon.” The show might be likened to another reboot, Sherlock, given that "[t]he TV show takes place in the modern day, rather than in the ’50s or ’60s, and...the origin of Norman Bates 'will not be what you expect it to be.'"

What reboot, prequel, and fanficcy rewrite is among your favorites? Tell us something 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.

The Links Roundup posts are getting a new name! The Communications Committee has been using the #OTWFannews hashtag for them at Twitter for a while as it's a more distinctive name for the series and a clearer name for their content. OTW Fannews is meant to be a selective look at discussions of fandom, and issues affecting fans, in both traditional and non-traditional media venues. It also includes interviews where OTW staffers and volunteers have taken part, or discussions of the organization appear.

Here's a roundup of women in fandom stories that might be of interest to fans:

• CNN's Geek Out! blog ran an excerpt from Rob Salkowitz's book on the commercial side of pop culture. "Many of today’s best online comic and fantasy-genre news sites and discussion groups were started by, and remain powered by, women. Today, there are increasing numbers of proud girl geeks of all ages; I count myself fortunate to be married to one. Crowds at conventions and even some comics stores now reflect a much more equal gender balance. As for the comics industry itself, not so much." He concluded that the future of comics was likely to favor women. "Typically, female comics fans who speak out on this issue from a feminist perspective are roundly and rudely shouted down, sometimes from the podium. It’s hard to imagine a more self-defeating strategy for the long-run health of the industry. Women today are the loudest and most compelling voices in fandom; young girls are making some of the most popular self-published comics. Decades from now, Twilight will be fondly remembered (or ironically inflected) nostalgia for millions of middle-aged women, some of whom will be able to look back on the shared communal experience of sleeping out for days at Comic-Con and having had the time of their young lives."
• Tracey Sinclair at Fanboy Unleashed wrote about a recent round of geek credential checking and declared "There seems increasingly to be the idea that there is some level of arcane knowledge required to be a ‘proper’ geek, but only, of course, if you have a vagina. Nobody’s calling the guy dressed as Thor a fake – hell, it wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t spell Thor, nobody would think to question that he belonged there. But there is still an ingrained suspicion that girls aren’t really geeks – or, if they are, they should look a certain way, and dress a certain way. Dare not to fit into a category you had no input in defining, and you’re a ‘fake’." Writing for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Aisha Sultan makes it clear that this treatment is not limited to geek fandoms or to adult women.
• Certainly women tend to get little support from content creation companies. While Ashley Eckstein's Her Universe company provides a stereotypically feminine product -- fashionable clothes -- her observation of the sexism behind the dearth of such material was all business. "'I think we are now starting to wake up and say 'no, we don’t want to deal with this anymore' and if we do speak up, people will listen and it’s becoming more accepted to like sci-fi from a social standpoint,' said Eckstein. 'We finally opened our mouths.'...According to Eckstein, a number of companies told her that female fans just aren't interested in and don't buy science fiction and similarly themed merchandise...'We said we'll prove you wrong,' asserted the actress, 'and we did.'"
• Some people seem to feel that if they can't stop the presence of women, they can stop voices supporting them from being heard. The Daily Dot reported that Sam Killerman's Gamers Against Bigotry website was hacked. "Where 1,500 people once pledged to curb their sexist, racist, Ableist, and homophobic language during gaming, hackers have inserted NSFW images like Goatse. Killerman said he’s been unable to restore the pledge page permanently, but users are continuing to sign it in the gaps between takedowns." Fortunately, panels at conventions are a little harder to disrupt, such as the Sexism in Anime Fandom panel at Otakon (no transcript available).

If you've been a woman in fandom, share your experiences at Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup. 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.

Here's a roundup of the benefits of fandom stories that might be of interest to fans:

• Blogger Suzanne Lahna wrote recently about things she's learned from fandom. Concluding that "Fandom is important, and I think the why needs to be told," she lists a few benefits from the immediately practical to the lifelong. "Fandom taught me how to make a fight scene work like a fluid thing. Fandom taught me that present tense is actually okay, and can be used well in the appropriate scenarios...Fandom taught me how to write boldly, without shame, without hesitance." She writes, "Fandom has given me hope. Fandom reminds me that there are no limits to what we can write about, what we can do, only the limits we place on ourselves."
• The Atlantic looks at soccer fans and finds much the same thing as Lahna. "Trying to rationalize fandom can be a complicated, even futile process. But studies by psychologists have shown that identifying yourself with a sports team can have profound implications. According to Daniel L. Wann, a professor at Murray State University, and a pioneer in the field of sports psychology, the more passionate your fandom, the more positive the impact is on your psychological health. Based on surveys of American sports fans over more than two decades, Wann has categorized fans in relation to the degree to which they consider their team an extension of themselves. He describes the more ardent fans, the ones who consider their team to be an important part of their lives, as 'highly identified' fans, and the ones who follow their team more loosely, with a sense of detachment, as "weakly identified" fans. He says, in the case of the highly identified fans, the social connections that are formed through their fandom—the camaraderie that comes out of following games with a group of people—plays a significant and positive role in their lives."
• A piece on sci-fi cons in The Seattle Times came across the same opinions yet again: "'It's a community,' Katrina Marier, editor of Westwind, the magazine of the Northwest Science Fiction Society, said. 'People in fandom care about each other. We're excited to get together.' She said when someone gets sick, people visit with casseroles and offers of help just like in any group." Indeed some ideas should spread outside of fandom. "'Some [people] you'll like and some not. Some you'll agree with and some not,' she said. 'You all can occupy the same space for the course of a weekend. That is very important, and we could use a lot more of that in our national discourse.' That's reason enough to be involved. Besides tolerance, Marier says, fandom has solidified some other good traits. 'Fandom has encouraged my tendencies to both be open to new ideas and to think about them critically, and to ask questions.'"
• Indeed a story in The Advocate stresses the ways in which fandoms and society can be intertwined with their feature on a comic book store wedding. Various comics shops honored the marriage of characters Northstar and Kyle with fundraising events and receptions, but Midtown Comics took it a step further when they hosted a wedding in-store. The groomsmen featured in the story "were selected from more than 50 applicants because 'they really stood out as super-fans,' said Thor Parker, Midtown Comics’ social media and events director. They met online and had one of their first dates at a comics-related event."

If you're an X-Men fan or in a comics or sci-fi fandom, or want to share your own story about what fandom has meant to you, why not write about it in Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup at transformativeworks.org. 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.

Here's a roundup of views of fandom stories that might be of interest to fans:

• Discussions that surround fandom in the media tend to take on some familiar themes, such as in the recent study of Bieber Fever that concludes fandom is a disease (spread, no doubt, by fans of Rudolph Valentino or Frank Sinatra in the last century), but there are also often discussions of religion. LiveScience discussed how Twilight may be a religious substitute for some teens. "In Denmark, where religion is not a large part of daily life, teens seem to use media — often, American media — to explore questions of good and evil, life after death and destiny, Line Nybro Petersen of the University of Copenhagen's film and media studies department has found. The communal experiences of hardcore fans of the series can even echo religious communities." Persephone Magazine begins their own discussion by quoting Joss Whedon "'I guess the thing that I want to say about fandom is that it’s the closest thing to religion there is that isn’t actually religion.'" The article focuses on sacred texts, rituals, and communities of faith.
• Many companies, however, are less interested in the temple than the marketplace. Diverse strategies to commercialize fans through new services continue to make the news. Fans in commerce for themselves are not new however, although long-term success is always a challenge.
• Isaac Butler recently wrote about the significance of fandom in an article which compared his reaction to an uncle's death to that of Community's showrunner being fired. Meanwhile cartoonist Nicolas Mahler spoofed superhero comics and their fandom. "With Mahler's interest in the culture surrounding superhero comics, the cartoonist also has a bit of fun with Angelman's 'fans,' who are a thoroughly miserable lot, complaining about every issue (except the ultra-violent one). 'I have seen a lot of those fanboys at comic festivals over the years, and the funny thing is that they are completely the same everywhere,' Mahler told CBR News. 'I think behind any collector, there lurks a sad, unfulfilled person.'"
• Sports blogger Hayden Kane would disagree however. "Having been fortunate enough to attend three Rockies games this week, I was reminded of something: nobody actually knows what the fan thinks, because the idea that there is some embodiment of what every single fan believes is a fiction. We can speak from the perspective of a fan, not the fan." In describing different motivations and activities while attending games Kane resolves "We should all quit trying to lump these groups together. We should quit trying to speak for all fans. There are plenty of other ways to enjoy being a fan and to have interesting discussions about the team’s future..[events] will resonate differently with different fans. That’s a good thing." The Atlantic takes that view too, declaring presidential candidates Obama and Romney to both be serious Star Trek fans.

Fanlore was created as a place to record fannish history from diverse points of view so that all fans could share their perspectives. If you're a fan, why not contribute to your own stories?

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. 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.