ENG111: Project #3: Radical Thinking

Useful definitions:
Fan Fiction: Stories written by fans, based off works of original works of published authors (also can be movies, cartoons, televisions shows, etc.).
Canon: The original piece of work. Also refers to characters, settings, and other sources from original works, used by writers of fan fiction in their own writing.
Shipping/Ships: The relationships, and couples in a work. Example: Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley is a canon shipping.
 
Characters:
Raven Pegasus: Original character (non-canon). Created to live out a life in the Harry Potter universe. Originally written about in a work of fan fiction entitled: A Most Unconventional Student, she now resides in her third year of a Harry Potter roleplay, and is also a representative of her creator and author.
 
Peter Pettigrew: Canon character from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
 
Barty Crouch Junior: Canon character from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
 
Rabid Canon Fan: A generalized character created to represent those readers of original works who believe others should not use someone else’s characters, settings, sources, etc. in their own stories.
*Side note: Some authors, such as J.K. Rowling admit to reading fan fiction based of their own writings, and even enjoying some of it. Other authors, such as Anne Rice, refuse to allow fan fiction of their work to be placed anywhere where it can be seen by the public.

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Question posed, Is fan fiction a valid form of ‘self-expression.’

 

(house lights raise, revealing a circular table with four chairs around it. Three of these are occupied. Barty’s is turned so he is seated in it backwards, arms resting on the table)

Barty: Where are we?

Raven: Does it matter?

Barty: Atmosphere is important.

Peter: S-somewhere good then.

Barty: The cottage?

Raven: Works for me.

(lights raise further to reveal a cozy room, and someone lingering in the background)

Peter: (jumps and lets out a squeak) Wh-what’s that!

Raven: Oh Gods no…It’s a Rabid Canon Fan.

Barty: Maybe if we ignore it, it’ll go away. (snickers) So, what are we here for?

Raven: Discussion.

Peter: Ab-bout what?

Raven: Well…(glances over towards the Rabid Canon Fan with a smirk) How about whether fan fiction is a valid from of self-expression.

Rabid Canon Fan: Nooooooo! All those people are just taking the authors characters and destroying the integrity of the story.

Barty: Have to agree with some of that. Bloody Muggles…One more of them puts me in HufflePuff, or ships me with the Dark Lord. (shakes head) I’ll bloody well hex the lot of them. (nods)

Raven: Personal feelings aside. How do you feel?

Barty: Okay, I think my main reason for agreeing with the rabid one would be the obvious lack of care and consideration given to a ‘character’. It’s all fine and good if you want to do whatever with your own original characters. If you’re going to write canon characters though…Keep to their personalities.

Raven: (glances at Peter)

Peter: (glances at Raven)

Barty: Oh bloody hell, don’t you two go getting all defensive on me now.

Peter: B-but…

Barty: What did I say?

Peter: Keep to th-their personalities…

Barty: Exactly. Given my knowledge of you, I’d say the girls do rather well.

Peter: The b-books.

Raven: The books, when it comes to some characters are quite…two-dimensional. I think that offers a bit of creative license. It’s not as if I haven’t presented my reasonings for the things that I do. Everyone whose read them says I’ve come up with rather good points. It’s like after the sixth book, and everyone was ‘is he’ or ‘isn’t he’ about Severus. We bloody well knew the truth, and could point out very good points as to why we knew it.

RCF: That’s not the point. It doesn’t matter if the character is two dimensional. It’s someone else’s intellectual property. You don’t know anything about their characters.

Raven: (brow furrowed) We don’t?

Barty: I thought my back-story was set up pretty good, minus a couple details mind you. My father was a prat, my mother was a saint. I suffered under father’s tyranny. What else was a teenager to do other than rebel? What was the greatest bit of rebellion one could do at the time? (shrugs) Join Voldemort.

Peter: W-would of been nice to have the wh-whys of things included.

RCF: You don’t need the whys! It’s not your story. The story is about Harry Potter!

Raven: Harry Potter, Harry Potter. (Raven stands up from the table.)

Peter: Wh-where you going?

Raven: To shove Harry Potter in the vanishing cabinet. (Leaves)

RCF: She can’t do that! It’s not right! Harry’s the hero! He saves the day!

Barty: (raises eyebrow) I thought the Dark Lord’s own stupidity did that. One would think after two failed attempts using the killing curse on your enemy, you’d find a new trick.

RCF: (opens mouth, fails to speak, closes mouth)

Raven: (returns)

Peter: (looks anxiously)

Raven: What?

Peter: D-did you?

Raven: (nods) Oh yeah. Tossed Draco in there for good measure too. (smirks) Now where were we?

Barty: Dark Lord’s inability to learn from his mistakes.

Raven: Oh, the lame deaths of book seven…I could write a novel just on those.

Peter: (looking apprehensive)

Raven: Not going to happen, as your ‘death’ got the ‘World’s Lamest Death Award’.

Barty: It was pretty lame.

RCF: He’s evil! He had to die!

Raven: He’s not evil. He didn’t need to die. It didn’t even serve as a good plot point. Silver hand…(olls eyes) What was the bloody point. Other than to find out it was cursed. Should of been used for something useful, like killing Fenrir. What ever did happen to him anyway?

Barty: (shrugs) Got away.

Peter: He’s eating sm-small children in Uruguay.

RCF: If Peter had used his hand on a werewolf, it would of been Remus.

Peter: (squeaking) N-no I w-wouldn’t!

Raven: See, this is the point that rabid canon fans miss. They want to see in black and white, and forget that, gee…Grey is a colour.

RCF: What is that suppose to mean.

Raven: I think it goes to the point that fan fiction can be a viable form of self-expression. We, the fans, get the chance and opportunity to flesh out the background stories of lesser known characters.

RCF: But it’s not suppose to be about them!

Raven: (waves Rabid Canon Fan off): In my story of ‘The Choice’, I offered up, not even as the main point, but a sub point, a reason for Peter’s betrayal.

Peter: (frowns)

Raven: Sorry, you know you are near and dear

to me. Thing is, it was a viable reason, something Rowling didn’t bother to show. Something I think, a lot of people would of liked to know. Just as much as why Dumbledore knew he could trust Snape. Besides (smirks) I made people feel sorry for you. (nods to Peter) Personally, I find it a great accomplishment.

Barty: (claps Peter on the shoulder) I feel sorry for him all the time.

Peter: (frowns) Thanks.

RCF: You’re not suppose to feel sorry for Peter Pettigrew!

Raven: Don’t we have a muzzle for the Muggle?

RCF: I’m not a Muggle!

Raven: You a witch? A wizard? A magical creature?

RCF: (shakes head)

Raven: Then you’re a Muggle. (Peter nods in agreement)

RCF: Well…So are you!

Raven: (shakes head) Nope. I personally see myself as a magical being of some sorts. I feel magical, I am magical. There fore, I am not a Muggle. Anyway…Back to the topic at hand. Peter?

Peter: Wh-what?

Raven: You’re thoughts?

Peter: It’s still the writer’s ideas, right?

Raven: (nods) I’m thinking it’s a combination. Yes, you have the published writer’s thoughts, as they have created the characters. Given them background, in some instances. Given them personalities, though sometimes, as previously stated, two-dimensional. Set the main focus for one story line, and perhaps a couple subplots, and designated shippings. Then, you’ve got the fan fiction writer who takes what the original writer wrote previously, hopefully staying mostly true to any canon characters used, but given them new stories.

RCF: But it’s not the fan fiction writers self-expression, it’s just a continuation of the original writers!

Raven: Well, take story form roleplay then, as it can be likened to fan fiction. We are running the sixth year currently, along side the events that occurred in the book. Yet, we still have distinct stories going on that’s only connection to the original work is location, and canon characters we use to help tell our tales.

RFC: (arms crossed in front of self, disgusted) Yeah, like a traitor and a dead guy.

Barty: Not dead, soulless…And I’m feeling much better now. Besides, that whole soul-sucking thing was just a plot point, and not a very well thought out one in my opinion. Had to keep the Dark Lord’s return a secret. Had to shut up the one guy who could say, ‘Yeah it’s true’. But if you really think about it, could I have? Did I see the Dark Lord? Not in the fully reinstated flesh. Last time I’d laid eyes on him, he resembled a sock puppet. (smirks)

Peter: (snickers)

Raven: Wasn’t that one of Peter’s socks you were talking to in that chair?

Barty: (nodded) Yep, sure was. No Dark Lord there. Anyway, as I was saying. What good would it have done for me to say he was alive? Would of given the Wizarding World a heads up. Wouldn’t of wanted to do that. Could of just rested my heels in Azkaban, waited for the jail break. You know, that other thing the Ministry did it’s best to hide.

Raven: That whole scene though brings up a point as well.

Peter: Wh-which one?

Raven: Your sock in the chair. That scene wasn’t even in the books. So isn’t that a bit of ‘fan fiction’ on the part of the script writer? Wouldn’t that ring true of any script writer. Which, actually, begs for this to be brought up…

Barty: What?

Raven: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Wonderful play. Wonderful movie. Tom Stoddard is a genius, and I’m not the only one to think so, Gary Oldman said so too.

Bart: (raises eyebrow) Doesn’t he play…

Raven: (glares) Don’t. We will have no Mutt comparisons in my English Project. Anyway…When it comes right down to it, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is fan fiction. If it wasn’t for Shakespeare’s original play of Hamlet, where the characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern originate (glances over to Rapid Canon Fan), where they are canon, Tom Stoddard wouldn’t have written it. It gives the readers insight as to what was going on with those two during the scenes in Hamlet where they weren’t present. And it’s bloody well funny on top of it. Something I think goes well to set apart the initial tragedy of the original play.

(Raven, Peter, and Barty turn their heads to face the RCF)

RCF: What?

Barty: No comments from the peanut gallery?

RCF: Just because he got lucky doesn’t mean it’s a viable form of self-expression.

Peter: G-got a stubborn one.

Raven: Not surprising. Most people tend to forget, or not even realize though, that fan fiction has been around for centuries, published even.

RCF: (scowling) How so?

Barty: The sequel to Don Quixote for starters.

Peter: Burnett’s and Nesbit’s r-revisions of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

Raven: And in 1820, Cyprien Berard wrote a story based off John Polidori’s The Vampyre.

Peter: (glances over at Raven): Anything t-to get Polidori in there.

Raven: (grins) Can’t help myself. Wonderful actor portrays him in Gothic too. (smirks)

Barty: (raises hand) Can we make Doctor Who references too?

(Barty, Raven, Peter laugh. RCF frowns)

RCF: But, those were all published works.

Raven: But, they wouldn’t have been, had the original not been written to begin with, and a fan had not taken the liberty to add to the story. Granted, we won’t see any Harry Potter legally published by fans, as Rowling won’t allow it. Though she is at least open to the writing of, and display of it, on the internet. Therefore, she herself even acknowledges it.

RCF: That is not the point!

Barty: (stands up) Excuse me, I’ll be back.

Peter: Wh-where are you going?

Barty: To get something. (smirks)

RCF: Whatever it is, it won’t do any good.

(Barty returns a moment later, dragging a trunk)

RCF: What’s that for?

Barty: It’s filled with the wonders of fandom. (opens trunk, glances inside, grins)

RCF: (approaches, glances into trunk) I don’t see anything?

Barty: (gives the RCF a slight push, where said rabid one falls into trunk. closes lid on trunk) It’s Moody’s trunk. Considering it, continuation. (smirks)

Raven: (nods approvingly) Good place for it.

Peter: I-I agree.

(house lights go down)