Way back in April I wrote a diddle in which I briefly compared fan fiction to some of the most well renowned literary works of all time. Today in my English class my prof dared to make the same comparison.
Before I go any further I would like to stress the fact that my teacher is a mad vampire linguist from Florida, she also wrote her dissertation on harry potter. Yes, I lucked out by the ten fold.
Intertextuality: Its basically the idea that all works of writing in some form or another reference each other. The idea of there being no new stories to write is rooted in this concept. The literary world is supposedly like a big pot of soup filled with different ideas that can be pulled out, mixed and matched. My teacher goes as far as arguing that originality in itself is none existent. In truth the concept of being original did not exist until the nineteenth century, before then all forms of art were (apparently) based on older pieces.
Fanfiction is a prime example of intertextulality. The entire concept is based on stretching the idea of using old ideas and presenting them in what ever way you like. Copyrights (and quality) are really the only things that prevent fanfiction from being published and publicly praised. However, when a copyright runs out, the ideas of the author are free to be rummaged with. For example, the best selling novel, Wicked is no more then wizard of oz fanfiction. My teacher also made a point of letting us know that pornography makes heavy use of intertexuality through the example of, "Edward penis hands". Apparently there's this one great scene of him trying to eat spaghetti.
The deffinition my teacher came up with probably sums up everything I'm trying to put togeather here: Fanfiction is recursive literature that circulates unofficially.
Furthermore, the conformity vs individuality conflict is obviously a large part of western culture so contemplation of the idea of originality being null is probably worth the time. What is originality? Dose it exist? Let me know what you think if you have the time.
Other then that, I've just been super busy with school and music. I'm starting another project with a girl. She is going to play piano and sing all the while I do the same thing on guitar. The other band is playing its first show on friday. Go here for info. Were listed as Océanic which is just a temporary name.
I'll likely be writing on here more due to school and my simple want to talk about things no one else is interested in.
Maybe Next: deconstructualism and the relevence of lsd in the field of psychology! School rules.
2 comments:
No new stories left to tell? Interesting point. I don't actually think that anyone even possesses the qualifications to provide us with confirmation of such a theory. Wouldn't making such an assumption demand that you be intimately familiar with every story that has been told as of now, as well as an active interest in contemporary worldwide storytelling?
Also, what the hell? All we've done in my English class is discuss medieval poetry and struggle with understanding Middle English.
I think "originality" these days is interpreted by the majority of people as being or acting more so uninfluenced by others or previous things than doing or creating something that has never been done or created before. This is parallel to what Mr. H states about new stories and needing to be versed in all to make that claim. Original means "not derived, copied or translated from something else" Therefore if someone who has never read or heard poetry writes The Raven, is it not an original work? It all came from nothing but their own mind. Of course that would be a very extreme case, but what I am saying is that I believe originality does exist.
Post a Comment