Carry On Is a Love Letter to Fandom

I loved many stories before I read Harry Potter, but in terms of Being In A Fandom, HP was my first. I can’t tell you how I first stumbled into fanfiction because I honestly, truly don’t remember, although I do remember spending hours hiding up in my dad’s home office, using his Windows 98 dial-up desktop computer to consume everything from the crackiest humor fics to the kinkiest porn. (I was beginning puberty. Everyone finds out what they like somehow. Sorry, Mom.)

I don’t know if you were part of this zeitgeist of transformative works, dear reader, but if you—like Lady Geek Girl, Luce, and I—were, reading Rainbow Rowell’s newest novel Carry On will feel like coming home.

Minor spoilers after the jump!

Fangirling Over Fangirl

Do you know what I’m tired of?

Well, there are a lot of things, but one of the things I’ve gotten particularly tired of is the demonization of both fanfiction and the shipping fangirl as perverted, evil, plaigiaristic, or just plain wrong.

Exhibit A: Becky from Supernatural.

That’s where Rainbow Rowell’s new novel Fangirl comes in. Fangirl’s main character is a dedicated slash fangirl named Cather with an online following of thousands. Cather is just starting college, and while her twin sister Wren seems to have put aside her ‘childish’ obsession with the Harry Potter-esque Simon Snow series now that she’s at school, Cather remains devoted to her stories.

In a world where family, classes, boys, and roommates are hopelessly confusing and stressful, Cath finds comfort in writing stories about Simon falling in love with his rival and roommate Baz.

Vague spoilers below the cut.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Musical

She’s at it again! Tessa Netting, fangirl extraordinaire, is doing her Broadway/Sci-fi/Fantasy fanart in this awesome little musical masterpiece. If you don’t recognize the tune, consider this my Christmas gift:

Tessa was a member of the original Broadway cast of Billy Elliot the musical which was where I was first introduced to her. She was hilarious as the Broadway’s original “Spastic Starfish” and I loved her so I’m very glad that she now does fun stuff like this online and on stage. She often does events with other awesome creative fans like the StarKid folks.

I thought this would be worth sharing since I think we’re all pretty fond of Tolkien around here and Tessa’s gone ahead and made an awesome video with his characters. I’ve gotta say, her costumes and wigs are pretty impressive! I mean they’re not like, convention-level cosplay but they’re pretty varied and detailed enough to make the characters distinct and recognizable. Her re-written lyrics fit the measure of the song very well so I have to say kudos to Tessa for a job well done.

Plus she’s combined The Hobbit with Rent and Christmas, making for an awesome video for fans of all kinds to enjoy during the holiday.

Merry Christmas!