Sam's Fanfic Links

Here begins my list of ten fanfic links from which i'm meant to draw inspiration or like-concepts or something.

1. Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a John Cameron Mitchell film, (whose genius can also be seen in the brilliant 'Shortbus' of 2008), about a gender confused, 'anatomically incorrect' punk-rocker called Hedwig from Berlin, chronicling her multiple substance dependencies and harrowing (often fleeting) relationships. This fanfic redeems a character that was perhaps unfairly treated in the original narrative and is a satisfying external-conclusion to several emotional loose ends, which weren't really loose ends; rather they were interesting ambiguities against which this fanfic is no travesty.

2. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves; I don't really know how much information I'm pressed to give for this one, too little being presumptuous and too much condescending. But here goes; Snow White is a Disney come Brothers Grimm tale (or Hans Christian Anderson; I never can remember which) following a banished princess, living-in with a bunch of under-sized men to keep a low profile while an escalatingly murderous step-mother plots against her. Follow the link to find a feminist re-hash of the story's conventionally 'fairy-tale' ending.

3. His Dark Materials, a fantasy trilogy aimed at younger readers yet startlingly broad in it's themes, these including anything from Greek philosophy to quantum physics and the nature of original sin; what twelve to fourteen year old wouldn't lap this up! Admittedly anti-Christ (to which author Philip Pullman infamously confessed in a press-conference re the then up-and-coming film adaptation of first instalment 'The Golden Compass'), the books were openly critical of a 'fictional' theological organization strikingly similar to the Catholic Church. Two very sore fan-regrets of Pullmans ending though, a) Lyra loses her ability to read a divinatory device known as the alethiometer (literally truth-meter) and b) protagonists Will and Lyra end up separated by necessity of some existential-malady that worsens the longer a person is in a world not their own. Follow link to a fanfic that tries to right these wrongs (albeit feably).

4. Cube, Vincenzo Natali's nineties film from which the Saw franchise draws heavily, only the Saw movies went more crime-thriller than Kafkaesque Brilliance. It's the story of a group of strangers having been abducted from their normal lives, and waking up together in a monstrous, lethally booby-trapped cube within cubes within cubes without any explanation as to how or why they're there (to be sure, dismemberments ensue!). It becomes a rather interesting character study as each person's been chosen for the contrasting demographic they hold, spicing up the survival race for the entertainment-value of whatever anonymous sicko social-experiementer. Quality viewing for the whole family. This particular fanfic works as a sequel, and it does work; simply because for those having seen the film, it picks up from a cliff-hanging ending in which interests of the initiated are already piqued!This is what fanfic should be; a continuation or innovative branching off of an already genius concept, an intriguing elaboration of stories with which people cannot bear to part.

5. Tomb Raider, the much loved video-game (and inevitably film, though we all love Action-Angelina) in which painfully British Lara Croft is an experienced 'archeaologist' of sorts, employed by anonymous millionaires to sweep ruins in exotic locations for priceless artefacts. Armed and scantily clad, she's Inidana Jones meets Anna Nicole Smith; in other words, perfect. This fanfic is unfortunately just more of the same, doesn't take as many risks with Lara's established universe as I'd like, which seems to me the point of fanfic. Tomb Raider however, as an existing narrative rests heavily on a solidly successful formula and as a source material is monotonous, lethargic in it's popuilarity; attempts to reboot the franchise both cinematically and in the gaming world have been glib and probably won't see an expansion of an already sizable fanbase. There's now only the intiated and the uninitiated, and no in-between; femme fatale is an acquired taste.

6. Kick-Ass, every viigilante fan-boy's cinematic wet-dream in which a loser-ish teenage boy with too much ambition seeks to eradicate the banality of his hackneyed adolescent existence, dons a wet-suit and becomes a super-hero! Though titled after it's adorably useless lead, Dave-come-KickAss, the film belongs to a lethally lilac twelve year old super-girl, Hit Girl, whose strong stomach and imaginative use of profanity has seen critics condemn the film for it's explicitly distorted sexualization of a child; turning a tween into Tarantino's 'Bride' seems like fun and games to me, so poo-poo you critics because KickAss is the funniest, most innovative and genre-splicing film I've seen since . . .maybe ever! The following fanfic however chronicles Dave, following the Dimico debacle, his developing relationship with Katie and an attempt at life without his alter-ego. It doesn't really work because, what with it's lack of gratuitous violence, it's at variance with the style of the source material, and fans will mostly dislike this soapy, melodramatic take on what's meant to be a cartoony blood-bath. Booooo indeed.

7. Blade, the comic-book come movie-franchise about half-breed vampire hunter of the same name. Debatably the peak of career for actor Wesley Snipes, the movie adaptation was an obvious move for Hollywood considering it's comic-book fanbase, and was conseqiuently triumphant at the box-office with instalments one and two. Part three however, not so good. The Blade trilogy is a bit of a dinosaur in the vampire canon, meaning it hasn't been watered down for a preteen audience, preferring it's violence explicit and it's blood-suckers villainous; gone are the good old days. The fanfic which by clicking on the link you're about to behold is neither sequel nore prequel, rather exists parallel to the main narratives of the films. It features Blade finding a potential heir to his necessary vampire-slaying duties, a twelve year old orphan half-breed just like himself; only female. There's a window here for Buffy/Blade crossover, should literate vampire-buffs see the value. I personally don't, though the further this already lame genre gets away from unending sexual tension between celibate teens, the better.

8. The Most Absurd, Fettishistic Crossover I've Ever Come Across, a fantasy interview situation in which the following pop-culture icons are summoned from their natural habitats and suffer each other in a series of overt personality clashes. These icons include; Freddy Kruger of A Nightmare on Elm St, Jason of Friday the 13th, Spiderman of Spiderman, Hannibal Lecter and Clarise of Silence of the Lambs, Ash of the Evil Dead trilogy (as seen above), and not forgetting Sidney and Norman Bates of Psycho (what the . . ?). I was already convinced that this fanfic business was strictly a geek practice; should there be any doubts about this, simply click on the above link, and read. To be fair though, the cross-over fanfic is an opportunity to cherrypick characters and scenarios from favourite stories and blend them as you see fit, and perhaps for the self-serious geek to send them to Spielberg as potential screenplays (or Micheal Bay; he's the modern Geek-Lord, what with Transformers).

9. Kill Bill, in which Tarantino somehow gets away with a brazen American rip-off of Japan's 'Lady Snow-Blood'.  The following fanfic, rather than a new chapter of Beatrice Kiddo's revenge plot, is a poem inspired by the samurai-style showdown in a snow covered Japanese tranquility-garden between Kiddo and O-Ren, second patron on The Bride's now infamous deathlist. It's interesting because I'd so far understood fanfic to be a love of a story so great that one sought to either extend it or revise some of it's privately felt flaws, fanfic as the product of obsession. And this poem still is, only it isn't sequential, more a hymn or ode to a particular moment in the story, the aesthetics of which must have pleased this author; so much so that he or she has distilled that feeling in a poem!

10. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam's latest and tragically, Heath Ledger's last. It's a film about 'Doctor' Parnassus, a centuries old polymath having acquired occult knowledge and skills helping him to build the imagniarium; a portal that takes it's unwitting viewer into the seldom sought depths of their own mind, to battle their own demons, conquer their fantasies, and come out enriched by the stuff of their dreams. The above fanfic again isn't connected to the main narratives character wise, rather a fan experiments with the idea of someone going through the imaginarium only to find, on the other side, just their demons, their own reign of terror and a world on fire. Being an initiated Gilliam fan and subsequently fond of the film myself, I too found the imaginarium an invention over which I couldn't help but wonder, should I pass through and peruse my own three-dimensonally exhibitted subconscious, what would  I find? That a fan has had the same idea and has explored it for the pleasure of similarly inquisitive fans makes for a pleasantly communal experience; what's more it's strengthening the role of the audience, making us less passive and more interactively involved with the stories that charm us. Very cool, but still very geeky.