Fan fiction is an unauthorized reinterpretation of a copyrighted story

Modern fan fiction exists in a legal gray area

Modern copyright law prohibits using someone's intellectual property (like a character) without their permission. By and large, fan fiction is tacitly condoned by copyright holders because it's commonly distributed for free. If anything, the copyright holders often benefit by allowing passionate fan communities to flourish.

If a publisher wants to sell fan fiction, they encourage writers to change key details

Historically, companies that publish popular fan fiction have their authors change a few details—like character names, settings, or other details—to avoid potential copyright violations. Many believe the risk is worth the reward, though the legality remains murky. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Fan fiction implies art is an ongoing, communal practice

Although some serious literary types disregard fan fiction, other academics consider it a fascinating development in art and communication, one that allows everyday people to participate in worldbuilding and storytelling.

Fan fiction is now studied at universities, including Princeton and Harvard

Some professors approach the genre as a unique form of literature that expands the boundaries of art. Comparative literature courses read the source material as well as its fan fiction byproducts, asking students to analyze the conditions that might've produced such dramatic reinterpretations.

Fanfic can provide fans with wish fulfillment

Rather than complaining about a writer's decisions, fan fiction is interactive, providing the fandom with the opportunity to tell the story in the way they see fit. That's especially evident in "shipping," a popular fan fiction trope that's focused on the romantic pairing of characters who are not romantically involved in the source material.

Fan fiction relies on tropes and subgenres

Fan fiction sites often appear to be littered with inscrutable codewords, with stories labeled as "AU," "drabble," or "PWP." These alert readers to elements of a fan fiction: "AU" is an alternative universe narrative; "drabble" is a very short story; "PWP" stands for "plot? What plot?"

Many believe modern fan fiction began with 'Star Trek'

While people have always reinterpreted preexisting stories, fanfiction is often noted for its communal, interactive element, which many believe started with the TV show "Star Trek." Fans were so passionate about the show that they began creating stories set in the show's universe and sharing them with fellow superfans through conventions and self-published fanzines, like 1968's "Spockanalia."

Some fan fiction allows readers to place themselves in their favorite stories

One subgenre of fan fiction is called "self-insert." It's exactly as it sounds: The form takes a preexisting story and inserts a reader proxy into the world of the story, acting as a form of wish-fulfillment.

Several bestsellers began as fan fiction

Ali Hazlewood's "The Love Hypothesis" began as "Star Wars" fan fiction. Cassandra Clare's "Mortal Instruments" series was about "Harry Potter" characters Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley. Anna Todd's "After" series was an example of "real life fiction," or fan fiction that is about real people rather than fictional ones (the books were originally based on the boy band One Direction).

Lucasfilm discouraged fan fiction that sexualized its characters

The self-published fan fiction zines of the '60s, '70s, and '80s were obscure enough that they rarely attracted the attention of the copyright holders of their source material. But Lucasfilm, the production company behind the "Star Wars" films, threatened legal action against fans who published X-rated stories and "homosexual expressions of love" featuring its characters.

The success of 'Fifty Shades' raised questions about fan fiction and copyright

James might've revised her "Twilight" fan fiction book "Master of the Universe" before it was republished as "Fifty Shades of Grey," but studies found that the two manuscripts were essentially the same text. Some wondered whether that meant Stephanie Meyer, author of "Twilight," was entitled to royalties, though Meyer never pursued legal action.

George RR Martin opposes fan fiction

The "Game of Thrones" author is all for fans creating their own stories, but he finds attempts to commercialize fan fiction distasteful. He's also not interested in reading it. "What I see doesn't affect me, so if you want to do it, I don't care," he said in an interview, "but please don't send it to me."

Jane Austen inspired stories that some now consider fan fiction

Sybil G. Brinton's 1913 novel "Old Friends and New Fancies" brought together characters from Austen's six major books. Other works of JAFF (Jane Austen Fan Fiction) followed in the same style. The books appealed to the budding group of Janeites, a term referring to Jane Austen superfans.

'Romeo and Juliet' was based on a preexisting narrative poem

Arthur Brooke's "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet" was first published in 1562 and shares many details with Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." Shakespeare wasn't alone in his borrowing; Brooke's poem was based on other earlier Italian stories. None of this writing was considered fan fiction—copyright law didn't exist, and stories were regularly cribbed from preexisting sources.

JRR Tolkien believed fantasy literature was an entirely different world

Tolkien effectively invented modern fantasy, which often relies on an intricate universe, complete with its own languages, cultures, lifeforms, physics, and systems. When an author did this effectively, he called it “Faërie”—a sort of enchantment that transports the reader into the fictional world.

'Fahrenheit 451' is a perennially banned dystopian story

This late-in-life interview with Ray Bradbury, author of “Fahrenheit 451,” details the book’s origins, providing background for one of the most popular titles in dystopian literature. As a book lover, Bradbury was horrified by the book burnings of Nazi Germany and imagined a version of the United States where firemen were censors, protecting their fellow citizens from literature’s harmful ideas. “We are a democracy of readers,” Bradbury explains. “And we should keep it that way.”

The 1819 novel 'Ivanhoe' popularized the word 'freelancing'

In the novel, the author wrote about “free-lances:” mercenary soldiers who were “free” to use their weapons (called, yes, “lances”) in service of whoever paid them the most. A video details that story and other gig economy basics.

In 'Frankenstein,' Mary Shelley questioned both Romantic and Enlightenment ideals

The classic monster story is a richly philosophical tale about the role of technology, written by Shelley at the age of 18. This podcast episode explores Shelley's deeper intentions with the story and debunks some of the popular misconceptions about its plot and meaning.

What is free verse?

Free verse is a style of poetry that does not conform to any set meter or rhyme scheme. In essence, it’s poetry whose form has been created by the poet.

Novels sometimes use unreliable narrators

When we read a book, we’re effectively forced to take the narrator’s word for what’s unfolding. But what if that narrator has a biased take on those events? What if, in a general sense, that narrator can’t be trusted? Enter the unreliable narrator, a strategic way of shaping a story that adds an additional layer to the narrative.

Many satires use parody, though not all parodies are satires

A parody is an impression of another artist's or work's style that intentionally exaggerates its aesthetics. Many satires employ parody to convey their message, although some parodies are simply humorous embodiments of a style without offering any deeper, satirical point. That's often the case with music parodies.

George Orwell: What is fascism?

This 1944 article by George Orwell attempts to answer the question, "What is fascism?" Orwell's book Animal Farm was published at about the same time at the article, and he penned 1984, a book with anti-totalitarianism sentiments, a few years afterward. In this article, Orwell argues that the term "fascism" has become near "meaningless" due to being essentially demoted to a swearword.

Why Percival Everett decided to reimagine 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'

Percival Everett's novel "James"—a retelling of Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Jim, an escaped slave—was one of the most acclaimed books of 2024. In this interview, Everett explains why he decided to rework the classic American novel and why he felt it was necessary to infuse his own with a different voice.

Constitutional originalism and living constitutionalism are the 2 main theories of interpretation

Hear from experts about originalism—the view that the Constitution should be interpreted according to its original public meaning—alongside its main counter-ideology, living constitutionalism, which argues that the document's meaning should evolve with changing social and legal norms.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

An ‘auteur’ is another name for the chief creative mind of a film

“Auteur” is French for author. In film studies, the word refers to a film director who is considered the principal creative mind, or author, behind a film. Directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Steven Spielberg, and Greta Gerwig are often considered auteurs.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

Dirty lightning is a thunderstorm created from friction between rising and falling flows of ash and smoke during volcanic eruptions.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Venture capital is a form of funding provided to early-stage companies with high growth potential, typically in exchange for an equity (or ownership) stake

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.