Author Archives: hzty

After reading the article, I was a little incredulous at what the wife was willing to put up with. It seems fairly clear that he’s cheating on her, given that he actually married another woman. We’ve talked some about the legitimacy of internet relationships, and I think it’s undeniable that in an era of digital communication there’s at least emotional infidelity going on. Even if it’s not specifically cheating (which I would argue it is) he’s at least neglecting his relationship to a dangerous extent (not even realizing that his wife had talked to him). The hours he’s pouring into his other life are clearly detrimental.

Is there such a thing as internet relationship therapy? I wonder if a separate sect of psychology will develop to discuss couple’s therapy with a slant towards the digital. I know there’s psychology aimed towards addiction (to video games, internet lives etc) but I think it would be interesting to see the more relationship-focused therapy, exploring why people feel the need to escape their current partners to something online.

So my response to this reading has to do with my reaction in correlation to my/our recent experience with Sophie. Gamer Theory is described in the about section as “a new sort of “networked book,” a book that actually contains the conversation it engenders, and which, in turn, engenders it.” and “an invitation to read in a different way.” I think these goals are aligned with the purpose of Sophie. Gamer Theory has a physical counterpart but the about section clearly encourages virtual reading.

Yes, it’s presented as more of a game than the options that Sophie provides, but both present a new way to read. The page visualization that both offer as well as additional figures that are viewable create a different type of book.

I also think that the Gamer Theory presentation is lacking, albeit in different ways than Sophie. I think we’ve… extensively (although arguably not comprehensively) covered Sophie’s issues so I’ll talk a little about Gamer Theory’s presentation. I find the “each page as a paragraph” format frustrating. This creates an unnecessarily large number of pages and moving from chapter to chapter is difficult once you’re in the page view. I could also see Gamer Theory pushing it’s status as a game even further. The “load saved game” is a cool nod to the purpose of the site, but I also think that Gamer Theory could have taken some things from Sophie and pushed itself to be even more interactive.

While incest remains one of the most taboo topics in our culture, when it comes to fandom and transformative works, (as we read in “The epic love story of Sam and Dean”: “Supernatural,” queer readings, and the romance of incestuous fan fiction) it’s actually a more popular topic when it comes to fandom’s. In researching for our discussion, I came across several very popular fandom’s involving incest: the afore-mentioned Supernatural, Heroes (so-called “Petrellicest,” spearheaded by niece/uncle Claire/Peter and brothers Peter/Nathan), and Harry Potter (which has a pairing for everything, including twins Fred and George). For the first two, these incestuous pairings are in many ways more popular than any other of the shows’ pairings. While the article proffered that the first was a lack of female and acceptable outlets, I feel that the strong pro-incest following presented in Heroes provides evidence to the contrary. I think that may be a too simplistic view of incest, our culture, and transformative works’ place.

With its influence on fanfiction (which definitely existed before JKR, but not in the same age range and numbers) Harry Potter has brought up some previously untouched debates (some of which were touched on by Jenkins) about copyright and intellectual material. Because along with introducing literature and fanfiction to young adults, it also introduced them to the idea that they might be stealing intellectual property from the original author (JK Rowling in this case). Consider the lawsuit leveled against RDR Books by Warner Bros. and Rowling over the publishing of the Harry Potter Lexicon. The author, Steve Ark, had even previously corresponded with Rowling and was planning to publish a Harry Potter encyclopedia.

Although this is an example of an author upset with someone making money off their work, other authors take issue with fanfiction itself, and non-profit works. While parody and criticism are under fair use, much of fanfiction is more homage or derivation than either of those things. While it’s easy to criticize authors for trying to control what, even by name, is someone appreciating their work, it’s also easy to see how some people might take issue with someone, however well-meaning, writing Judas/Jesus fanfiction (seriously. This is a thing that exists.). We’ve discussed how once you publish something you sort of lose the rights to it, but I can’t pretend I’m not sympathetic to the authors’ pain as their characters are twisted and mischaracterized.