Week 9

What role does Hills (2004) suggest the fans play in the construction of cult TV? How

is new media central to this?

I used to be the biggest Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. When Angel left, I couldn’t bear to be so disloyal as to continue watching it, so moved on to Angel. When Cordelia died, I was so distraught that I turned to fanfiction – I had to sleep somehow. I had no idea how large the fandom was across the internet, and continue to be a bit gobsmacked at the lengths people go to for their favourite shows. This is part of what makes cult TV, well, Cult. Knowing that if I miss an episode, just a few clicks away are literally hundreds of sites – official and fanmade – that can either sum it up or provide the script, word for word. The efforts of fans (I stress, we are not all geeky!) are as much for others as they are for themselves, continue a world and widen it to allow everyone to participate in, long after the episode is over.

Cult TV is different from regular soaps in that episodes follow on from each other and often reference back, with characters evolving but staying believable. Narrative/series gaps allow for the creation of fan interactions such as fanfiction, websites, conventions etc, and Fiske (as cited in Hills, 2004, p.517) expands on this, saying that “secondary texts are no more univocal than primary ones”. The bigger the interest, the more outlets fans find to express their passion. This is seen by conventions held across the globe, such as Comic Con in America and New Zealand’s own Armageddon, and in turn these events attract media interest (Hills, 2004). Fans provide a market for memorabilia and merchandise, sometimes long after the show has finished airing (i.e Star Trek).

An example of how fans help construct cult TV is shown by the movie Serenity, by Joss Whedon. This film is based on the television series ‘Firefly’, which was cancelled due to poor ratings. However, the show achieved cult status after being released on DVD and the fan outcry prompted Joss Whedon to pen the movie, which took in over US$38 million at the American box office.

However, fan support does not always succeed. My favourite TV show when I was younger was Roswell (I will admit that my Angel obsession occurred when I was much, much older!) – everything about this series I loved. The first season attracted some hardcore, dedicated fans. As so often happens with cult shows, ratings began to slide and the studio was forced to sit up and listen to what fans wanted (this was done by sending mountains of tobasco sauce to the studio – inside joke!) and consequently writers opted for a more science fiction approach to the storytelling. Unfortunately, this failed dismally and alienated many original viewers so ratings slid even further. Roswell was cancelled after just three seasons and the final episodes were so rushed that I cringed watching them.

New media such as the Internet is so central to the legions of cult TV fans that its hard to imagine it existing on the same scale before. I suppose that the fans obviously existed then but on a less collective scale; nowadays people can continue the experience at just a click of a button. Kirsten Pullen (as cited by Hills, 2004, pg. 518) noted that the Internet opened up “the boundaries of fandom, allowing more people to participate in fan culture” and this is so true. I would like to mention one of my favourite films as a perfect example of fan attention, and that is “Galaxy Quest”. This is a cheesy but actually pretty clever piece of cinema starring Tim Allen, about the actors of a very popular (but cancelled) TV show that continue to attract fame due to the continuation of their status as “cult tv stars”. Aliens in space think they are watching historical fact and enlist their help, battles and confusion ensue and so on and so forth. It is the fans on Earth, who are so wrapped up in the Galaxy Quest universe that they know all the episodes and basically know every single facet of the show, are the ones that end up saving the day, and this is a perfect example of how important fans are to cult TV – or perhaps television in general.

I don’t want to paint fans as atypical ‘nerds’. Indeed, part of the beauty of cult TV is that it welcomes anyone who express interest, and is gender neutral (Hills, 2004). I also get drawn into the elaborate worlds popular in cult TV, mainly because I love the way it often relates to real life. Indeed, this is probably one of the very reasons why cult shows often contain elements of the supernatural – not a popular enough idea to be mainstream but enough for people who long for something more to latch onto. It’s a way for the impossible to become possible, and it is through the fans that these ideas are expressed and mutated in many different ways. With so many outlets, the world created on tv becomes living and perhaps, even invincible. It also helps nerdy girls like me sleep at night knowing that Angel finally got a happy ending!

REFERENCES

Hills, M. (2004). Defining Cult TV; Texts, Inter-texts and Fan Audiences, The Television Studies Reader, in R. C. Allen & A. Hill. London and New York: Routledge.

Firefly. (2011, 26 September). Retrieved 28 September, 2011 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_%28TV_series%29

Roswell. (2011, September 8). Retrieved 28 September 2011 from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_%28TV_series%29

Serenity. (2011, 27 September). Retrieved 28 September from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_%28film%29

week 5 ✿

According to Lent (2000), what place does animation occupy in Asian societies? How different is this across Asia (ie comparing China and Japan)?

Animations in Asia were influenced by western. They produced their animations in a similar way as Disney. Most Asia countries adopt western cartoons fully but China only adapted those elements that fit their culture. In China, they produce animations with the goal of bring pleasure to everyone but also must be educational. Indian’s animation industry was started and nurtured by foreign people. It was said that Indian animations always borrow from Western productions. Most Asia animation producers were trained under Western tradition.

Animations are influenced by political in Asia. Anime was banned in Korea and Taiwan for decades because of the fear of Japanese cultural imperialism, understandable as both countries had been occupied by Japan. China banned or postponed some foreign animations that are not in favour of the Chinese policies. On the other hand, Japan does not have limitation on animation productions and they can produce anything freely. As a result of that, Japanese have many good products and they are exporting their animations to the whole world.

Reference:

Lent,J.A.(2000).Animation in Asia:appropriation,reinterpretation,and adoption or adaptation.Retrieved 21June,2006, from AnimeResearch.com

week 4 ✿

How does Tolkien (1964) define fantasy? Compare and contrast this to the other definitions from last week’s reader?

The human mind is capable of forming mental images of things not actually present (page 44). Tolkien defines fantasy as the making or glimpsing of other-worlds (Page 40). In other words, fantasy is everything that we imagined and they do not exist. This is different to the definition we found in week 3’s readings. In week 3’s definition science fiction does not belong to fantasy. However, in Tolkien’s definition science fiction can be fantasy as some of the stuff does not exist.

I agree with Tolkien, everything that imagined by our brain and do not exist in real world should be classified as fantasy. In the past, people would consider travelling in the sky as fantasy as it was impossible in the past. Thanks to technology, in the present it is possible for us to travel in the sky and it is no longer a fantasy. My point is that fantasy may one day became true although some may never became true.


Reference:

Tolkien,J.R.R(1988;1964).Tree and leaf.London:Unwin Hyman.

week 3 ✿

How is science fiction different from fantasy, according to Le Guinn?

Science fiction is a story that didn't happen but the writer pretend it will happen or already happened. It tells a story that is possible to happen. It usually avoids events that will make readers doubt about the story or explains those events with a plausible reason. Science fiction is all about imagination, the writer came up with an idea of what the future would be and write a story on it. The idea must be plausible in order to get the readers’ interests. Everything in a science fiction will be explained with a plausible scientific reason.

Fantasy usually does not pretend the story would happen in the future or already happened. The readers might not believe the story would be possible to happen. In a fantasy story, everything would be different to our real world. The characters may not be human or relate to nonhuman beings in unexpected ways.

Some people think science fiction would give some ideas for our current technologies. Many people felt fantasy is a waste of time as nothing would happen in our world but some people think fantasy is an exercise of what may be our most divine and certainly is our most human capacity, the imagination.

Reference:

Attebery, B. (1980). The fantasy tradition in American literature: from Irving to Le Guin (pp.1-10). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

week 1 ✿

Do you think comics are a children’s or adult genre/media?

Comics are one of the most popular and pervasive media forms of our increasingly visual age. Comics combine words and pictures.

I believe comics are for both children and adult. There are lots of comics intended for children, for example, Pokemon, Sonic and so on. Those kind of comics usually have unnatural characters who can perform tasks that not possible to happen in real world. Some people may say comics are a waste of time for children to read but I do not agree. Children are more likely to be attracted by images than a purely written book. Comics helps teacher to teach students more effectively.

On the other side, there are many comics produced for adult. They may contain material that might be considered disturbing, horrifying, obscene, profane, immoral, and even pornographic. They are intended to help adult relax and can improve their imaginations. However, not all adult comics contain any of the above materials; they may just tell a story in a more mature way, for example, The Virgin Project.

Comics can keep the reader interested and may help us relax which would increase our productivity.

Reference:

Farr, M. (1991). The Blue Lotus. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp. 50-59). London: John Murray

Week Seven

What is the difference in emphasis between the terms science fiction and speculative fiction? Which is The Man in the High Castle?

Speculative fiction encompasses such branches of fiction as horror, fantasy, science fiction and the like – stories that can be “speculated” and not taken as certain fact. Science fiction is a genre under this umbrella which focuses on ideas that could be plausible relating to science. Often these stories contain elements of the supernatural and take place in the future, for this is the time when our imaginings may come to fruition. Underneath the label sci-fi are many more sub-genres such as cyberpunk and alternate history.

The Man In the High Castle is a short story by Philip K Dick. It takes place in an alternate time, where the Nazi’s and Japanese had been successful in World War Two and have consequently invaded separate halves of the United States (and the world political map is very different). There are no elements that usually appear in sci-fi such as aliens or time travel but nonetheless, the story is concerned with illusions. There are a number of key characters (quite a lot for such a short story) and one of the largest ideas at play is the concept of the story within the story - The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, which postulates an entirely different version of history. By using two false realities, the conclusion can be reached that one being false and one being true proves the existance of further realities. This is summed up by author Charles Platt "All of his work starts with the basic assumption that there cannot be one, single, objective reality. Everything is a matter of perception. The ground is liable to shift under your feet. A protagonist may find himself living out another person's dream, or he may enter a drug-induced state that actually makes better sense than the real world, or he may cross into a different universe completely."[

Which brings us to wonder: is this story classed as science fiction or speculative fiction? It contains no typical sci-fi inclusions however it toys with concepts of time and reality, and brings in practices such as the I-Ching. Speculative Fiction is a very broad term, and yes, this book does fall under this category. I myself would label it as the best example of Alternate History, merging Science Fiction with elements from Speculative Fiction.

REFERENCES:

Brown, E. (2001). Introduction. In Dick, P.K., The Man in the High Castle (p.v-xii). London: Penguin.

Dick, P.K. (2001; 1962). The Man in the High Castle. London: Penguin.