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When I Grow Up I Wanna Be Adam Cartwright: Thoughts on the Origin and Value of Fanfic By Garrie Keyman
fan·ta·sy: creative imagination;
unrestrained fancy; a capricious or fantastic idea; a conceit; an imagined event or
sequence of mental images, such as a daydream, usually fulfilling a wish or
psychological need; an unrealistic or improbable supposition; [from Latin
phantasia and Greek
phantasi
Despite the core truth that all fiction is fantasy, in literary circles the term fantasy has become equated chiefly with unicorns, magic, and caped protagonists engaged in swordplay. This is one reason the term speculative fiction has come into favor. Still, be it western or romance, horror or high seas adventure, fiction begins as a personal fantasy in the writer's mind.
Fantasies come in all shapes and sizes, yet have one major component in common: they serve a sound psychological function. Essentially, a fantasy is a pictorial conversation we have with our psyche, an avenue we all use as a trial-and-error means to explore our external capacities without ever having to venture beyond the inner sanctum of our minds.
Replete with all the emotional impact of real-time experiences, fantasies are the creative fuel that forces us to heal, helps us expand, and permits us the power of pretense. After a fashion, fantasy is the year-round Hallowe'en of the heart that allows one to strap on a holster when she needs to stand strong, or to sport a tiara when she needs to believe that she, too, can be as beautiful as a princess.
As tykes, our typical fantasy was apt to extend as far as the commercial costume rack at the local five-and-dime allowed, or to have been neatly framed within the limited dimensions of Saturday morning T.V. As children of the Sixties and beyond, we grew up at a time when, in any given week, more fodder for the fantastic could be harvested from the fertile playing field of television than our parents in their youth could garner in a month of Sundays reading by lamplight and listening to Fibber McGee.
Fantasy, then, took on the shape of the times, becoming what I'll call fan-tasy: the propensity for television-- and thereby television actors, producers, writers, and directors-- to construct the playground of the collective subconscious.
From the time I can first recall watching television, I experienced it not so much as a spectator sport as an invitation to interact, if only in my mind. I was never satisfied merely watching my favorite characters have adventures, suffer strife, and overcome challenges; I wanted to be there with them, offer my support, to march into the fray by their sides. To do this, I developed peripheral characters for all my favorite shows: a neighbor, a sister, a daughter, a friend. Then at night, as I lay awake in bed waiting for sleep and those other dreams that I couldn't control to claim me, I orchestrated my daydreams.
When I was in kindergarten, Timmy wasn't the only kid on the farm who adventured with Lassie, and at seven, I distinctly recall being that other stowaway on the Space Family Robinson's sleek Jupiter II: a firecracker of a little girl conversing with Will and rescuing Penny from peril.
Till college days came along, I suffered under the lonely illusion that I must have been slightly deranged; surely no one else lived secret lives cavorting with pop culture heroes and heroines in the dark little corners of their mind? But with college came my good friend Mary, and with Mary arrived the sure knowledge that I was neither alone nor-- at least not entirely-- deranged. Soon our personal, peripheral characters to the number one sci-fi pop-culture icon of the Seventies had joined forces, developed a life, a language, and adventures of their own-- ones entirely distinguished from the universe that spawned them-- and went on decades later to become an entirely independent series of sci-fantasy novels penned with professional publication in mind.
Yet, what of those characters we all create who never grow apart from the roots of their origin? They, my friends, populate a world we call fanfic. Of fanfic I have spoken before, defending what I perceive as its purity and devotion of purpose, if not exactly lauding its paucity of literary quality. But if college taught me I wasn't alone in my appreciation for fan-tasy, the advent of the Internet has taken this knowledge to new heights; fan-tasy, it seems-- and the passionate proliferation of fanfic it fosters-- is everywhere.
Because no man is an island, fanfic proves a logical progression from fan-tasy. People (fans) want to share. They want to share their insights about characters others know-- whether those characters hail from movies, novels or television-- as well as share new characters into whom they have lovingly breathed life and meaning.
The characters that fanfictionalists create for personal enjoyment-- as well as those they create to share with others-- and the choice of characters with whom they've been created to interact-- can surely speak volumes about the fanfictionalist's psyche. But more than anything they lend us common ground: a playground for minds long past Play-Doh and Pac Man yet never past play itself. Yes, in the final analysis, fanfic is a form of play. And, as with any playing field, there will be those who play exceptionally well and those who can only ever aspire. There will also be bullies imposing their will and their rules upon others.
If the play's the thing, though, have at it.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've a few chores at the Ponderosa that I can't put off any longer.
Garrie Keyman is an online columnist, homeschoolmom, and aspiring fantasy novelist. Her column "Lititz With a Twist" is featured on www.LititzPa.com and her "KeyCOMMentary" appears in The Illuminata, the monthly speculative fiction webzine at www.TyrannosaurusPress.com. Keyman is a former police officer and seventeen-year-veteran of the fire service who fought forest fires in Utah, Idaho, and Florida. Her award-winning stories and poetry have been published by Lynx Eye, GRIT, and Literary Mama, are featured in anthologies by Sun Rising Poetry Press (Cosmic Brownies), Tyrannosaurus Press (Beacons of Tomorrow: Illuminating the Future), Literary Mama (Readings for the Maternally Inclined) and are available in audio format from www.tellyouatale.com ("Home Free," "Jonathan Ked"). Garrie loves to hear from readers.
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