• Death and Taxes complained about What happens when fan fiction takes over the original? "It’s not unusual to do a concept production of a play or musical." But "Playbill has just announced a national tour of the long-running musical The Fantasticks that is 're-envisioned as a steampunk-inspired production.'" Writer Madeline Raynor complained "not only are you foisting a misguided concept onto the show, but you’re not actually integrating it in?" and concludes "[W]hen the creative team behind the source material uses fan fiction-like elements to change the original? That gets weird."
• Some reviewers agreed with this sentiment in regards to the third season of Sherlock. The International Business Times said "Some people have not been too happy that the series has catered to its online fan base over more casual viewers. 'While any successful TV drama these days should generate fan fiction, it can not afford to become entirely fan fiction itself,' said Mark Lawson in The Guardian." But IBT countered "It's an interesting point, but fails to recognise the unique position of Sherlock as fan fiction since its inception, as well as how over recent years the boundaries between professional media and fan fiction have become increasingly blurred."
• Laurie Penny at The New Statesman agreed, claiming "The BBC's Sherlock doesn’t just engage with fan fiction - it is fan fiction." However she goes further to note "What is significant about unofficial, extra-canonical fan fiction is that it often spins the kind of stories that showrunners wouldn’t think to tell, because fanficcers often come from a different demographic. The discomfort seems to be not that the shows are being reinterpreted by fans, but that they are being reinterpreted by the wrong sorts of fans - women, people of colour, queer kids, horny teenagers, people who are not professional writers, people who actually care about continuity (sorry). The proper way for cultural mythmaking to progress, it is implied, is for privileged men to recreate the works of privileged men from previous generations whilst everyone else listens quietly."
• NPR's Monkey See blog discussed both Sherlock and the opening episode of Community when questioning the amount of outside intrusion. "Fan service is kind of a cheap gimmick, like a drug thrown out to keep the fans quiet for now, in case something happens down the line that will really upset them. It may feel really good, but it doesn't last, and like a lot of other temporary boosts, it will one day lead to withdrawal...I didn't tune in to Sherlock to see slash fiction or to Community for jokes about the people writing the dialogue. It's great that they know their fans, but they should also remember what they did to get fans in the first place."

What percolating fandom influences have you noticed in media texts? Write about it 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.

• Allena Tapia wrote at The Huffington Post about 4 F-Words That Support Your Child As a Writer. The tips included encouraging fanfic, use of graphics and multiple platforms, "and total freedom over what he reads and writes."
• MTV.com wrote about The Janoskians' One Direction mockumentary. In a familiar fan move, further installments are being held hostage until they get sufficient feedback. "The video has already clocked up over 200,000 views on YouTube in just a couple of days, but episode two will only be released once number one hits the big 500K. On their ‘#NotABoyBand World Tour’ earlier this year, The Janoskians performed a One Direction skit as part of their act, but insisted at the time that there is no 'hate' between them and the most famous boy band in the world. Beau told MTV UK back in May: 'To be honest, me and Luke actually love One Direction, we’re huge 1D fans.'"
• The Daily Dot wrote about the Inception musical staged in New York City. "The event has garnered considerable buzz from the Inception community as well; fans are planning to make the trek to the show from as far away as Canada. It might seem like a surprising act of devotion, but to fans who’ve had no new canon for years, getting the chance to see any new spin on their beloved movie is a not-to-be-missed chance. Fans are also drawn to the musical for shipper reasons: the libretto blatantly indulges the reading of the popular subtext between Arthur and Eames."
• The L.A. Weekly wrote about slash and the fan con Escapade. "Slash has expanded beyond small, old-school communities like Escapade to younger, Internet fans, who are expressing themselves not only through stories but also via images and GIFs on Tumblr. Over Twitter, some share their obsession with the creators of the shows themselves, a breach that older slash fans used to view as unseemly. Still, among the general public, slash remains little known and little understood."

What fannish works and fannish history have you experienced? 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.

• In The birth of a fanboy, writer Larry Sukernik talks about the rationalization people use for their investments in something, as the seed that shifts them from consumer to fan. "[Once] you buy your first iPhone...you’re invested in Apple. Apple’s success is now your success, Apple’s failure is your failure. But why?" The reason is the continuation of the fandom product, because its loss will negatively impact your investment in it. "Not only does that leave you with an abandoned phone, but it also means that you made the incorrect phone choice. You made a bad decision, and you were wrong. Nobody wants to be wrong."
• A look at Girls' Generation fandom also discussed financial investment in a fandom. The group is "enjoyed by people of all walks of life. But within that is where we start to see sharp differences in fans: not in their love, but in their wealth. While there are individuals with high-paying jobs and disposable income, there are also students with nothing but a meager allowance attempting to import relatively expensive albums from halfway across the world. It’s situations like this that make us ask, 'Does merchandise and money spent on the group measure a person’s dedication?'"
• While the creation of fanworks has its costs, these days it increasingly has its rewards as well. Fanfiction contests are fairly common but one held by the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Library has a focus on fan crafts as well. "The contest was started seven years ago by an anime club that met at the library and has grown to more than 100 entries in the two categories" with fan art comprising any non-text entry. "[L]ibrarian John Hilbert said. 'Someone baked a cake in the shape of a cat. We had a tree skirt that ended up winning. It can be any medium as long as it can fit through the door.'"
• Of course these days a fanwork might make money for someone other than the creator. A review of Spank: The Musical, a parody of Fifty Shades of Grey, "pokes fun at James’ writing process and her roots in fan fiction. The musical centers on a woman named E.B. Janet (Suzanne Sole), who spends a weekend penning a steamy love story." The play caters to its "audience of mostly women" with fanservice, even if they don't know the term. "When Hugh performed a Batman-themed strip tease, and E.B. describes him as having the jaw line of, 'a pre-weight gain Val Kilmer,' the audience squawked and squealed. In another scene, Hugh and Tasha play out a 'Home Improvement' skit that E.B. writes as part of the show’s fan fiction while taking a break from her book."

What fanworks, financial issues and fan practices have caught your attention? Tell us about it 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.

Here's a roundup of stories about pros playing inside the fandom sandbox that might be of interest to fans:

• Dubbed the "world's very first (and only) Science Fiction Football Musical Comedy!" Packer Fans From Outer Space recently ran in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Geared to a hometown audience with its "songs about love, Wisconsin traditions and our historic football rivalry, including 'You Gotta Hate the Bears' and 'Winning is the Only Thing,'" it still provided insiderish/crossover/genre-hopping fannishness that lots of non-Wisconsinites could recognize.
• Not far away, Canadian Charles Ross performed a one-man show in Adrian, Michigan that was insiderish only to people who had never seen Star Wars (is there anyone left?) “It’s basically me onstage — with no costumes, sets, props or real talent — me, onstage, retelling the original, bad hair, 1970s-1980s ‘Star Wars’ trilogy, basically using my own body and my own impressions,” Ross said. His obsession with the saga came from a source many fan creators can relate to -- wanting to know what comes next. As a child he saw a double feature of the first two Star Wars films made. “But [my father] didn’t tell me that it wasn’t the end of the story. I was convinced that the sort-of lame tone left over at the end of ‘Empire Strikes Back’ was the way the story actually ended. And I was like, ‘What a bummer of a story!’"
• Sony Music decided to employ fan fiction to promote the band One Direction. They partnered with a Wattpad writer who created a five-chapter eBook about the band members "designed to coordinate with the video for the band’s single, 'What Makes You Beautiful.'" Fans then spread links to the books and video. The marketing effort is among the finalists for the GennY Award which "recognizes best practices of those who have applied new and innovative techniques to connect and communicate with youth." The winner will be announced at a conference focusing on youth marketing.
• Then there are some creators who are writing their own fanfic. One that was widely circulated was a story about Lost co-producer Damen Lindelof writing Mad Men fan fiction as fictional sci-fi writer Ken Cosgrove. Another frequently republished story was about romance novelist Diane Story writing Britney Spears RPF, made all the more notable given that she is the aunt of Britney's former husband, Kevin Federline. Story also "created a contest on her website where the winner can win an actual wedding invitation from Spears and Federline's 2004 wedding." And finally, Booktrib hosted an article on fan fiction that discussed Vampire Diaries actor Matt Davis writing fanfic on Twitter: "His crazy, sometimes smutty interpretation of the show he resides on is without a doubt the talk of the community. If the actors can write an alternate universe based on original content, why shouldn’t the fans?"

If you are a fan of Vampire Diaries, Britney Spears, Mad Men or One Direction, why not write about it on 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 — 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.