Fan fiction is an absolutely fascinating cultural phenomenon. These are the people that sit down and write anywhere from a chapter to multiple books in the world crafted by an existing fictional work. When they can make any world they can possibly imagine, why would they limit themselves to a world they previously read about? Sure, I can understand how a few people could be into this, there are some ridiculous hobbies out there. But it is much bigger than that. Way bigger. Prepare to have your mind blown.

Harry Potter is by far the most popular book world for extension into fan fiction and fanfiction.net is the most popular site for “authors” to post their stories. So let’s check out their HP section. There are over a half million stories in over 20 languages! But taking a closer look, many of these are not short stories involving a character or two. They are full on books even longer than the original Harry Potter books!

There are 1,084,170 words in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling spread over 7 books. If we define a book as over 100,000 words (similar in size to the first couple HP books), there are over 4,000 on fanfiction.net in English alone! And 62 of those are longer than half of the entire series. Can’t get enough Harry Potter? Don’t worry, there’s plenty more out there for you to check out.

What else is fascinating? Most authors of fan fiction release chapters as they write them. I am intrigued by this way of releasing written material – in yesteryear this is how most fiction was done. Ok, maybe not as it was written, but released by chapter. For example, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens was originally published in 36 weekly installments. Only a year later was it condensed into three books. Publishers take note: this could target a larger market – anyone and everyone can read a chapter a week but a full book seems so daunting. Oh, and it gives you the opportunity to earn more money from the biggest fans. In order to get the book ahead of everyone else, you have to buy it in 36 parts that will cost more than if you just waited a year. Brilliant!

With fan fiction though, you can’t always be confident that there will be a next release – sometimes the “authors” just stop in the middle and move on with their lives. I like to think this is when they find someone in the real world that actually loves them and is freaked out by their hobby. But that’s just my take.

Now on to the non-fiction side of things. What is fan non-fiction? Well it isn’t technically a term, but here is how I define it – a non-fiction work written by a fan based upon the world in a fictional work. Does that make sense? I hope it will soon.

The TV show Lost was extremely popular for fan non-fiction. Fan’s would write essays analyzing the various clues in the show in an attempt to predict what was going to happen next or how it was all going to end. They erroneously believed the producers were also keeping track of this stuff and were going to answer all the questions in the last show to tie up every loose end. Turns out the producers wanted to entertain and make money, the fans are the ones that actually care about this stuff. Need proof? Check out this video of a World of Warcraft fan asking the game’s designers a question about a flaw in the plot:
 

 
There was a recent Baseball Prospectus article analyzing Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. In particular, they wanted to figure out the baseball game in which Ferris caught his foul ball and who hit it. In other words, merge the fictional world in the movie with the real world. Turns out it was on June 5, 1985 between the Cubs and Braves. Ferris caught a foul ball to left field hit by the Braves Claudell Washington in the top of the 11th inning. But the actual filming of the scene was on September 24, 1985. Check it out for the details.
 

 
The article also goes on to analyze the feasibility of Ferris’s day. He stole a noon lunch reservation, went over to Wrigley for a 1:25 game that lasted 3 hours and 9 minutes. That means he caught the foul ball at 4 pm at the earliest. Given that they arrived home at 5:55 pm, that leaves less than two hours for: a trip to the museum holding kids hands, putting their heads against the glass of the Sears Tower, two dances at a parade, a quick dip in the pool, and Sloane’s house. Wow, what a stressful day!

A 16 page practically academic work analyzes the social structure in the TV show The Office. My character (Jim Halpert) starts off as a loser (more in the economic sense than the cultural sense you imagine when you hear the word) and progresses throughout the course of the show to become a sociopath. If you want to know what the heck that means, click the link. The depth of this analysis is outstanding – I am as big a fan as the next guy, but who seriously thinks about The Office this much?

What other examples can you think of? Do you enjoy fan non-fiction? Is it fun to analyze fake worlds and people as if they were real?
 

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Here’s another thought for you to chew on: time travel can’t exist because we have inflation. If time travel did exist, someone would simply be able to take their money and go back in time with it to become rich. But if this actually was happening the true value of the money would quickly change and there would be no inflation. I don’t remember where I originally heard this concept, but it relates to fan non-fiction so I thought I would share it with you.
 
Big shout out to Clay Shirkey’s Cognitive Surplus for the insights into fan fiction.