Page 8 - Fandom: Fic Writers, Vidders, Gamers, Artists, and Cosplayers

JANEITES

British author Jane Austen (1775–1817) began to write as a teenager
by mimicking and creating parodies—humorous exaggerations—of the
romance novels of her day. (Parodies remain a popular form of fic.) She
went on to anonymously publish six novels. Her books were quite popular
at the time, but most readers thought them light entertainment rather than
serious literature. But Austen, who began her literary career as a fanfic writer
of sorts, soon became one of the first published women writers known to
have had an actively engaged, interactive fan base.
By the end of the nineteenth century, members of the literary elite
calling themselves Janeites declared Austen to be one of the great writers of
English literature. British writer Rudyard Kipling, whose hypermasculine
characters tromp around the British Empire, was a fan. He read her stories
to his family and even visited Bath, the site of an Austen novel, to reread
her novels there. He also wrote a story, “The Janeites,” about a group
of soldiers during World War I (1914–1918) who form a secret Austen
fandom. Though one soldier in the story says that Austen’s books “weren’t
adventurous, nor smutty, nor what you’d call even interestin’,” another
declares, “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.”
According to his biographer, Kipling wanted to capture “the sense of
fellowship felt by people who shared a powerful joint experience—whether
fighting in war, or membership of a Mason’s Lodge, or even familiarity with
the works of an author such as Austen.” The power of shared experience is a
big part of fic.

SHERLOCk HOLmES AND THE GAME

Sherlock Holmes stories are one of the first sources of fanfic in the
modern sense: amateur stories based on copyrighted source material.
(Legal protection of original work didn’t exist until Great Britain passed

16 FANDOM