SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Fan fiction is everywhere - if you know how to look. That's according to Washington Post reporter Rachel Kurzius' new piece about books inspired by other books. Now, most notably, "50 Shades Of Grey" is inspired by "Twilight." But we also found - oh, boy - a public radio fan fiction, "Car Talk: Zombie Edition," where Click and Clack can't stop joking around long enough to avoid being eaten, and "Staycation Had To Get Away," where our colleague Stephen Thompson's vacay goes haywire and the Pop Culture Happy Hour crew comes to his rescue. Those titles are all from a website devoted to fan works called Archive of Our Own. Fan fiction is changing publishing and changing reading.
Rachel Kurzius joins us now. Thanks so much for being with us.
RACHEL KURZIUS: Happy to be here.
SIMON: Yeah, I'm not sure how to explain fan fiction. How do you define it?
KURZIUS: At its core, fan fiction is basically a transformative work inspired by something that has already been written or that otherwise exists already. So if you watch a TV show and are so tickled by the characters that you want to put them in a different situation or have characters who didn't get a chance to interact talk to each other, then that could be fan fiction. So these are works that fans are making for one another and for kicks and giggles, and just to kind of make themselves and other people feel things and get to feel these works that they care about in new ways.
SIMON: Where do we find fan fiction?
KURZIUS: I would say most famously currently, Archive of Our Own - literally an archive, and people can just search it, right? Like, maybe I'm not even interested in particular fandoms but I love a certain kind of storytelling. I could click on a tag there and find hundreds of thousands of fan works that reflect my tastes.
SIMON: A lot of fan fiction is what I'll just carefully say - in the vein of "50 Shades Of Grey." And you even use the word smut in your piece.
KURZIUS: Yes. I would be a liar if I were sitting here with you, Scott, and saying smut isn't an important part of fan fiction. There is absolutely a bunch of smut to be found in the world of fan fiction. People are curious about how the characters they love might love one another. But I think that there's so much more going on than just smut, which isn't to degrade smut at all. But the most recent Pulitzer fiction winner, "James" by Percival Everett - I mean, that's "Huckleberry Finn" fan fic.
SIMON: Yep, absolutely. That's taking Twain's novel and, more than a century later, casting it differently, isn't it?
KURZIUS: Right. And, I mean, that's not even the only Pulitzer Prize-winning example of fan fic, right? We have "Demon Copperhead," which is Barbara Kingsolver's version of "David Copperfield." But I think that often people focus on the smut as a way to dismiss fan fiction, whereas I really think that fan fiction is, like, the primordial soup of storytelling. It is people exploring, what are the kinds of stories we like to tell? And what are new and exciting ways we could tell them?
KURZIUS: There is Bible fan fiction, I gather.
KURZIUS: They call it the Good Book for a reason. There are a lot of really great characters in there, a lot of really fascinating storylines. If you look at a lot of our popular culture, so many works are inspired by the Bible. And so, sure, you see that in fan fiction, but I think you see that more broadly in culture.
KURZIUS: You have a reading for us, I gather.
KURZIUS: I do. This reading is by Daisies and Briars. That is the name that Daisies and Briars uses on Archive of Our Own. And I'll say that many - most writers are anonymous, and that also kind of helps them really push the boundaries of creativity here. It's about one of the most currently popular couples to write about. They're known collectively as Buddie. It's the characters Buck and Eddie from the ABC first responder procedural "9-1-1." And so this is a short snippet from there.
SIMON: OK.
KURZIUS: (Reading) Buck is fairly certain he's dead. There's really no other explanation. For one thing, he remembers dying. Then there's the fact that it's just like his old daydreaming. He's lying here, just like in the hospital or on his mattress, too stiff and pained to move much. And above him, right in front of his face, is Eddie - beautiful, perfect Eddie, cradling him like he's something precious, not a monster. So it must be heaven.
SIMON: I don't know what to say.
(LAUGHTER)
KURZIUS: I think you should...
SIMON: I guess I'd have to really get into it a little.
KURZIUS: Yes. What I would say to you, Scott, is, like, allow whimsy into your life, you know? Allow the idea of connecting with people over something niche and exciting. Like...
SIMON: Yeah.
KURZIUS: I feel like that is one of life's greatest pleasures.
SIMON: Is fan fiction changing publishing?
KURZIUS: Right now we are seeing publishing recognizing the power of fan fiction. You see, especially with genre fiction, agents are soliciting successful fanfic writers directly. And you're also seeing this in the kinds of stories that you're seeing on bookshelves and in libraries - for example, a lot of joyous same-sex romances or stories told in kind of an urgent present-tense, first-person perspective. These are things that fan fic has been doing for a very long time, and now we're seeing traditional publishing really take a close look at that. And I think part of that is also because this current generation of people who are now literary agents or editors at traditional publishing houses - they grew up on fan fic. So they have an appreciation for it that perhaps previous generations didn't to the same degree.
SIMON: All right. Thanks so much. Rachel Kurzius of The Washington Post, nice to be back with you.
KURZIUS: Thanks, Scott.
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