What is a Third Space?
_Turns out that "Third Space" is a bit of a common buzzword these days.
For the purposes of this website, I refer to Ray Oldenburg's concept of a
place that resides between home (the first space) and work/school (the
second space), which promotes critical discussion in an informal
setting. Now, you might be thinking that this sounds like any old "home
away from home," but Oldenburg's idea of a Third Space must adhere to a
few ground rules.
What is Fan fiction?
_You could ask 100 different people this question - 'fic readers,
writers, and those who have never read a word of it -- and get 100
different answers. The Urban Dictionary has a pretty basic, concise definition of the term, so I'll go with that one:
"A piece of fiction within a fandom utilizing characters and situations from a pre-existing work including (but not limited to) books, television programs, films, and comic strips."
Clearly there's more to fan fiction than this, or you wouldn't be here reading this. In a July 2011 Time magazine article, fantasy author Lev Grossman wrote:
Fan fiction is what literature might look like if it were reinvented from scratch after a nuclear apocalypse by a band of brilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. They don't do it for money. That's not what it's about. The writers write it and put it up online just for the satisfaction. They're fans, but they're not silent, couchbound consumers of media. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to the culture in its own language.
Fan fiction is a way for people to interact - with the characters and stories they love, with other people in a particular fan community, and with the culture within which they and their media reside.
Link to Grossman's article
"A piece of fiction within a fandom utilizing characters and situations from a pre-existing work including (but not limited to) books, television programs, films, and comic strips."
Clearly there's more to fan fiction than this, or you wouldn't be here reading this. In a July 2011 Time magazine article, fantasy author Lev Grossman wrote:
Fan fiction is what literature might look like if it were reinvented from scratch after a nuclear apocalypse by a band of brilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. They don't do it for money. That's not what it's about. The writers write it and put it up online just for the satisfaction. They're fans, but they're not silent, couchbound consumers of media. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to the culture in its own language.
Fan fiction is a way for people to interact - with the characters and stories they love, with other people in a particular fan community, and with the culture within which they and their media reside.
Link to Grossman's article
What is a Twovel?
"Twovel" is a portmanteau of the words Twitter Novel. Twitter is a social networking site that limits each post to 140 characters. Several authors have used Twitter to create novels with fans, starting with Neil Gaiman's Hearts, Keys, and Puppetry, which was organized, edited, and published by the BBC. Head here for more on Gaiman's Twovel.
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