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stellahibernisI read again Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red, which is extremely beautiful and yet another example of how she always knows exactly which words to use and how the turns of phrase work. It reminded me of how the first time I read it I had this short exchange with myself in my head. I thought, "It feels like fanfic," to which the pedantic part of myself replied, "Technically it is a fanfic."
In fact, it is a multilayered fanfic. It is about Geryon, the the monster Heracles killed during his tenth labour. The poet Stesichorus wrote a song telling the story from the point of view of Geryon, which has only partly survived, and it is the version on which Carson's poem is based on (she calls it a novel in verse, which is as good a description as any). As an added twist, the story is set in modern time, and there are musings on Stesichorus and even a whimsical interview taking the place of prologue and epilogue.
If we say fanfic is something based on previously existing media, this book definitely is a fanfic, as are a lot of other things as well, but it wasn't quite what I was thinking when I had that exchange inside my head. Here's where we come to the genre of fanfic. Of course, fanfic comes in many genres, depending on both the source material and the whims of the creator, but there's also a common core that applies to at least a large swathe of it.
It's not that uncommon to hear people say they like reading fic more than books, and it's not about being attached to particular characters and wanting more, it's probably more due to the qualities that fanfic has that we find less often in published books (they're not obviously completely absent, but rarer anyway). There's of course the diversity in every sense of the word; the kinds of characters there are and their relationships, as well as the topics of the stories. There's also the focus in the stories, it often rests on things and qualities that in published books are treated as superfluous, cluttering up the plot, and hence usually cut away. What's insignificant in the original story is often important in fic, and when one grows to like stories like these, transitioning to traditionally published books can be harsh. One can grow to like both styles, or one can dwell in fic, we're in a happy place where there's a lot of it easily accessible.
Coming back to Autobiography of Red, it is a published book, but it very much has the fanfic core. It transforms the original story both in time and in content, in it Geryon and Heracles are lovers in a dysfunctional and fragmentary relationship. In addition its focus is on Geryon rather than on the progression of the events, and there are passages discussing details that do not move the plot forward, but show us him as he grows and struggles. So it's not fanfic only in the most technical sense of being based on something else, but also due to its focus and atmosphere, and it feels like the motives of writing were much the same as we all have when we take our favorite characters and stories and strip them down and build them up again, into something else, into something that says the things we needed the story to say.
***
This was book number 51 of the year, so one to go until my goal. I'll definitely reach it, it's just a matter of choosing a suitably slim one.
In fact, it is a multilayered fanfic. It is about Geryon, the the monster Heracles killed during his tenth labour. The poet Stesichorus wrote a song telling the story from the point of view of Geryon, which has only partly survived, and it is the version on which Carson's poem is based on (she calls it a novel in verse, which is as good a description as any). As an added twist, the story is set in modern time, and there are musings on Stesichorus and even a whimsical interview taking the place of prologue and epilogue.
If we say fanfic is something based on previously existing media, this book definitely is a fanfic, as are a lot of other things as well, but it wasn't quite what I was thinking when I had that exchange inside my head. Here's where we come to the genre of fanfic. Of course, fanfic comes in many genres, depending on both the source material and the whims of the creator, but there's also a common core that applies to at least a large swathe of it.
It's not that uncommon to hear people say they like reading fic more than books, and it's not about being attached to particular characters and wanting more, it's probably more due to the qualities that fanfic has that we find less often in published books (they're not obviously completely absent, but rarer anyway). There's of course the diversity in every sense of the word; the kinds of characters there are and their relationships, as well as the topics of the stories. There's also the focus in the stories, it often rests on things and qualities that in published books are treated as superfluous, cluttering up the plot, and hence usually cut away. What's insignificant in the original story is often important in fic, and when one grows to like stories like these, transitioning to traditionally published books can be harsh. One can grow to like both styles, or one can dwell in fic, we're in a happy place where there's a lot of it easily accessible.
Coming back to Autobiography of Red, it is a published book, but it very much has the fanfic core. It transforms the original story both in time and in content, in it Geryon and Heracles are lovers in a dysfunctional and fragmentary relationship. In addition its focus is on Geryon rather than on the progression of the events, and there are passages discussing details that do not move the plot forward, but show us him as he grows and struggles. So it's not fanfic only in the most technical sense of being based on something else, but also due to its focus and atmosphere, and it feels like the motives of writing were much the same as we all have when we take our favorite characters and stories and strip them down and build them up again, into something else, into something that says the things we needed the story to say.
***
This was book number 51 of the year, so one to go until my goal. I'll definitely reach it, it's just a matter of choosing a suitably slim one.
