Over dinner, I mentioned the fanfiction article to John. This article made me think about the "outsiders" when I was in high school---the kids who were not in the major cliques and who generally did their own thing, or tried to act like they did their own thing. At my school, they were called "freaks." In retrospect, I think this is a horrible term for a clique-- I'm sure "freaks" has been replaced by terms like goths, punks, emo kids, etc. All the kids I knew that were "freaks" had one thing in common: their utter LOVE for music--dressing, talking, and looking the part. When I was in high school, I was a circulator...just kind of went back and forth between my "freak" friends and the girls I knew from Honors classes. It was an interesting dichotomy.
Rhiannon and Eileen reminded me of the outsiders from when I went to high school. I think in a 2007 world, they'd probably be less of outsiders because I know of several students who have mentioned anime like Gundam Wing to me.
The key issue in the fanfictions article was the fact that these two girls were being outstandingly creative in how they were responding to anime texts. They were putting themselves into storylines and interacting with anime characters through their own original fiction. They even were illustrating their storylines!
Whereas most teachers would LOVE to hear about students voluntarily constructing complex storylines in their free time, this article mentions how Rhi and Eileen kept their writings out of the classroom. The article specifically mentioned how most students are trained to construct creative writings with definite beginnings, middles, and endings. Since Rhi and Eileen were composing fanfiction under the assumption that any readers would not need a specific introduction or concise conclusion (because of anime knowledge), Rhi and Eileen did not include those aspects in their writing.
This article makes me think of NCLB and how we always put standards on students' writing. Even with my own students, I always emphasize that their Reader's Responses MUST have an intro sentence. Emphasizing all of these requirements can make students feel like there is no place in school for their other creative writing endeavors. Much like the article mentioned, if the girls had brought their fanfiction into school and had showed it to a teacher, they could have at least gotten help with learning word procressing programs and learning how to edit within a program like MS Word, which they were both unfamiliar with. Rhi and Eileen's unfamiliarity with word processing programs brings up another good point--- I think that far too often teachers assume that students know how to do things like email attachments and edit Word documents. This is where our role as teachers can come into play. We know that students can update profiles and download songs easily--but they could actually use our help when it comes to instruction on MS Word editing and emailing attachments. I remember last month I was shocked when I found out my students did not know about MS Word's thesaurus feature. Many times, kids don't know as much tech stuff as we think they do.
Discussing classroom implications for anime fanfiction brings me to my next finding. When I told John about the fanfiction article we had to read, he mentioned Mary Sue. Wikipedia (information bible) states that Mary Sue is: " (sometimes shortened simply to Sue) is a pejorative term for a fictional character who is portrayed in an overly idealized way and lacks noteworthy flaws, or has unreasonably romanticized flaws. Characters labeled Mary Sues, as well as the stories they appear in, are generally seen as wish-fulfillment fantasies of the author." The term first came into "vogue" in 1973 when Paula Smith, a Trekkie, wrote a fanfiction story in connection to Star Trek. In stories, Mary Sue characters are generally exceptional, either in personality traits, appearance, or both. I guess one could say Mary Sue characters are something along the lines of wishful thinking----someone attempting to put themselves into a fiction situation and paint him/herself in the best light possible.
As teachers, I think that the Mary Sues of fanfiction have a lot to offer. Nowadays, I think that a lot of teachers assume that kids are simply obsessed with video games, music, and surfing the Net (but not necessarily doing anything "productive"). Fanfiction not only shows a high level of creativity but it also brings higher level thinking skills into play. If students are able to put themselves within a complex storyline, that means they have formulated an organized way to recall the storyline's plot, setting, conflicts, main characters, and so on.
I don't know of many recent students who have mentioned Gundam Wing. I know that many of my female students read Fruit Baskets; one of my 8th graders is reading a series called Happy Hustel High. I want to find out more about manga and anime--- I read Princess Ai (by Courtney Love, and others) but I do not know much more about manga. Something is telling me Courtney Love is not a manga afficionado. I want to find out more. Any recommendations?
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