Monday, March 13, 2006

How to Write Your Own Happy Ending


My disturbing fascination with the fringe elements of the fan fiction universe has finally received some minor literary cover with a mention in a recent Times article about happy and sad sendings in novels:

"Literature is constantly being refashioned, if not actually rewritten. The whole of Austen has recently been repackaged as chick-lit, complete with pastel covers and skinny women with handbags. So-called fanfiction is booming, on websites where amateur writers continue their favourite stories: the further adventures of the Darcys, the Hobbits, Sherlock Holmes and Captain Kirk. The Fanfiction.net website has more than 200,000 Harry Potter stories that J. K. Rowling never wrote."

That general level of interest seems reasonable enough, even if the numerical total is initially surprising. It's when you get to the 71 She-Ra, Princess of Power stories, the 272 Voltron stories and the 6,544 Sonic the Hedgehog stories that things become difficult.

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