This past term I have, alongside my esteemed colleague Helga Benediktsdóttir, been teaching an elective course on Harry Potter at the Commercial College of Iceland. This has been a great experience. We have recently heard that the course will also be on for the next school year which made us really happy.
One idea that I espouse, but, do not always live up to in practice, is that teachers should do the work they require of students. We ask students to write and produce this and that, but I fear we tend to forget to try out what we are asking of them. A simple example of this is that when we have a reading session in class we should also be reading, rather than marking something or being busy in some other kind of way.
Hence this little blog: we set the students the task of writing a little reflection on themselves as fans and to produce small pieces of fan fiction. And one way to go about writing about something is to read about it, and this article provides a very nice background to think about fandom:
Fandom and Participatory Culture
The word "fan" comes from "fanatic" - and fandoms are connected with sports (especially team sports, most especially football); music (particular genres and artists); gaming (video games, board games, role playing games, LARP), and creative media (film, TV shows, literature etc.). The Harry Pottter fandom belongs to the last category, and this type of fandom is the one discussed in the article and one that I identify strongest with.
Engaging with fandom has, according to article two important sides to it. you can engage in "transformative" ways on the one hand, and "curative/ affirmational" ways on the other. It seems to me that a majority of fans belong to the latter category. Transformative fandom is creative engagement with the material, writing fanfiction, creating and wearing costumes to cons and such like; while affirmational and curative fans settle for knowing the material very well, collecting merchandise (merch) etc. It seems to me that a vast majority of fans belong to the latter category. Sports fans for example have limited opportunities for transformative action; you only write so many songs and create so many scarves and slogans (no prejudice on my part here intended).
Other aspects of fandom are also discussed. I think interesting spins on these could be to consider fandoms as exclusive or inclusive. It seems to me that for example the Harry Potter fandom is highly inclusive, while certain music fandoms (punk for example) is very exclusive. This also applies to the question of to how seriously the fandom takes itself. A basic requirement in some fandoms seems to me to be a deep loathing of some particular cultural output (for punk for example this would include certain types of rock), maybe belonging to other fandoms. In such cases being a fan is very serious business indeed. In others it seems like participation can be tinged with a bit of lightheartedness and a certain degree of irony. In this context it is important to recognize that being a fan does not entail that you consider the object of your fandom necessarily to be the most perfect thing ever created on this Earth. It means you have a strong relationship with it, that you know a lot about it and it is an important part of your identity - it does not mean that there might not be elements to the works in question that annoy you, or even might find disturbing (this is the case with many Harry Potter fans).
Fandom is definitely connected with low / popular culture and is often portrayed in a negative light; and this ironically often the case in popular shows. The Big Bang Theory comes to mind as problematic, and this is also discussed in the article. I have a feeling that this might be changing a bit. An interesting idea that I had recently is whether we could identify "high culture" as a fandom in itself. This fandom would be highly exclusive, engagement with it non-ironic (even though members pride themselves on their superior grasp of irony) and loathing certain other cultural output a sine qua non of membership (for example Harry Potter). Familiarity with certain films and literature, classical music and visual high brow art is required. Certain use of language is involved and a definite dress code (for example an ironic tie). Statements about "not watching TV" and quoting Woody Allen movies appreciated. This fandom probably would not be comfortable recognizing itself as a fandom, or maybe it would, well, see itself as the Fandom - all the stuff that lies outside this group's scope of interest can safely be discarded as trash. This is in a fun way mirrored in certain mainstream authors' denying that their works, obviously sci-fi or fantasy works, are indeed sci-fi or fantasy (Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro).... this does not mean that these are not great authors, which they are, but this attitude is a bit wonky. An interesting discussion of high-brow, low-brow can be found here.
I would consider myself a Harry Potter fan, albeit an unusual one. I mostly belong to the category of curative/ affirmative fan - while it might be argued that creating and teaching this course could be seen as transformative fandom. An important inspiration for the course was following the blog Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.
My voyage into the Potterverse was taken with my daughters (14 & 18). I read all the books for each of them out loud, slowly getting more and more immersed. I think this is a kind of fandom that is becoming more widespread, family fandom. This I think can be children getting involved with their parents' fandoms, parents engaging with their children's fandoms... or possibly both parents and children grow into loving something through shared reading, watching and playing.
Being a bit on nerdier side generally I would also identify as a sci-fi and fantasy fan. Mostly curative-affirmative, or as a consumer. Me and my friends, however, as teenagers were completely obsessed with Tolkien to the extent that we created a game based on his world. If I remember correctly some of the mechanics were quite clever. I think the game is lost now, and it is interesting how we did not try to make any kind of connection with a wider world of fans - goes to show you how much effect the Internet has on fan culture.
Another example of transformative fandom are the lyrics to a song I wrote years back. In these lyrics I mix up stories from old songs by the band and the concept of the supervillain in the super-hero (and maybe James Bond) genre. This is a bit in the spirit of Filk (though I had no idea that phenomenon existed at the time of writing). Filk is an interesting example of where the boundaries between the ironic and non-ironic are blurry. Of course the lyrics are in Icelandic, but you'll hear some familiar names.... (thus I maintain that I have already produced a fan fiction item (two at that) and this one references Harry Potter, with the song's protagonist claiming he is worse than Voldemort). Enjoy:
