Why Twilight is Great, and so is Saturday Night Fever

I'm going to share a childhood memory and date myself at the same time. Brace yourself.
My sister and I fought, seemingly non stop, for about a decade. We used to beat the stuffing out of each other regularly. She had the natural advantage of being 5 years older than me, but I was small, agile and had long finger nails. We hated each other throughout the long years of childhood until, at 16, she lent me her passport so we could go out clubbing together. After that, we've been what sisters should be to each other - like a portable piece of home.

But there is one really good memory I have of those fighting years. Anamari would dress me up in one of my mom's lilac or baby blue silky nightgowns (using belts and safety pins to keep it on) and we'd do exhibition dance shows for our parents. We'd do the hustle. She would lead (of course) and get to flip me up in the air, throw me down between her legs and spin me around. I'd circle her while she did this pointing thing (see picture) moving my shoulders up and down in what I was sure was devastatingly alluring. I think I was six.

That would have been me in the red.

My sister and I had never seen Grease or Saturday Night Fever. We heard the music and saw the pictures in magazines. At Halloween there'd be girls dressed as Sandy, like the sock hop had never ended. We didn't know about the origins of the pop culture memes of the day, but it didn't matter. We took it and created something of our own out of it.

You may love Twilight, the Hunger Games, Harry Potter. You might hate (some or all of) them and think they are over blown. You may be scratching your head wondering what I'm talking about (if you are, may I suggest you go back to the hermitage and contemplating the sound of one hand clapping?) But whatever you think of the original material, you can't deny that they are sparks. They have seeped into the cultural fabric with a vengeance and spawned movies, parody, music, art, fashion and tchotchkes you can buy at Hot Topic. Then there's the fan fiction, which 50+ shades of gray I will post about on Thursday.

So ultimately, though I don't think it's the best book in the world,  I do think Twilight is great. I've got my Hunger Games tickets for Friday. I've ridden the Dragon Challenge at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. These books make people want to be creative. How can that be a bad thing?

Wait, that wasn't rhetorical, I'm asking; Am I wrong? Can it be a bad thing? Do Twilight or the Hunger Games, irrespective of their intrinsic value, make junk? Does anyone need a tin mockingjay pin or Bella's cubic zirconia engagement ring?

Fan or Fiction

I went to art school. All the way up to graduate school. For those of you who went to a regular school, one that didn't smell like turpentine or teach arc welding sculpting, that meant no papers, no dissertation. None. I can't even remember writing a paper in Art History class - pretty sure there was a multiple choice exam with an essay. The only other word based assignment I remember having was about James Joyce. Instead of writing a paper, I illustrated and hand bound a picture book. I did get an A in that class, but I think the teacher, who must have daily beat his head into the blackboard dealing with us, just wanted me to shut up.

So I often think about what it would have been like to go to normal school. I admit, I've fantasized about writing a dissertation (though I don't know exactly what that means). And one of the topics I'd tackle is Fan Fiction. Wikipedia defines fan fiction as follows:

"Fan fiction (alternately referred to as fanfiction, fanfic, FF, or fic) is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters (or simply fictional characters) or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator."

I love fanfic. I don't read a lot of it, but I love that it exists.  I love that there's terrible, badly written fan fiction, fan fiction that is better than the original work and erotic fan fiction that makes beloved characters do nasty things to each other. It's so democratic, I love it.

But does fan fiction have to be written by an amateur to be fan fiction? It seems like that's the logical definition, but what do terms like 'pro' and 'amateur' mean in these cases? Tons of pros have tried their hands at extending the worlds of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet (usually with some hot sex thrown in amongst the curtsies). Lots of the pros have done awful jobs.

Laurie R. King, a writer who I admire very much, writes a series of novels about Sherlock Holmes but her Holmes is almost (to me) unrecognizable to the original, in that he's much more developed, three dimensional and interesting- is that fan fiction? What about  Dracula: The Undead - written by Bram Stokers great-grand nephew? Not sure if he's a 'pro' but he's got name cred. Okay, what about the bible? Lots of folks say that parts of it were written 'in the style of' years after an original author - does that count? Not to mention (okay, I'm mentioning) comic books/graphic novels etc?

Fan fiction is irresistible because it allows us to go on with characters we love. My fan fiction catnip revolves around Lord Peter Wimsey. I've read all of Jill Paton Walsh's books, even the one I didn't like, just to spend more time with Harriet. I hunted down a fragment that Stephen King wrote, a depressing couple of paragraphs where Peter and Bunter are old, Peter's lost Harriet and everything is shit. God I wish he'd finished it. And I just found out JP Walsh has written another LPW book called the Attenbury Emeralds. You know I've already ordered it, in hardback, which is contrary to my thriftiness. I'm addicted.

So, questions: What fanfiction are you addicted to? And would you ever write fanfiction yourself? If so, what about?