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akademiskacademic quarter<strong>kvarter</strong>Transgression and TabooJens KirkThe maintenance of that difference between taboo and transgressionis a necessary condition for the success of the website. First ofall, Rowling’s promise to furnish a “safe” 5 experience for the readerof fan fiction presupposes a hierarchy of taboo and transgression,author and fan. Secondly, her separate identity as the author of herwork is important for guaranteeing the site as the exclusive placewhere Potter audio and e-books are sold. 6 Lastly, maintaining thefundamental distinction between author and fan underwrites thevalue of the collaborative expansions of her fictional universe. Incontrast to the participatory endeavours by her fans, the supplementaryinformation emanating from Rowling is particularly importantbecause it increases the parameters and borders of theknown Potter universe authoritativelyConclusion: The Fan Is in the TextThe notions of transgression and taboo suggest that fans, on theone hand, and authors and media producers, on the other, cannotbe conceptualised monolithically as transgression and taboo. Rather,both categories manifest an awareness of and a dependency onthe other. Fans violate the boundaries of their favourite fictionalworlds by creating fan fiction, for instance, but they do so out of asense of loyalty to that universe. This loyalty to specific characters,events, and places gives them their identity of fans in the firstplace. Conversely, authors and media producers, who lay downthe law and incarnate the taboo as the inventors and originators offictional characters, events, and places, achieve their identities bymaking room for and taking into account fan practices that mayviolate the very borders they set up. Few writers have done whatRowling is doing with her new web site, of course. Instead, themajority of writers, in fact, rely on their work to do just that. Texts,in creating fictional worlds with boundaries, provoke transgressionand make room for fannish production. To qualify as a sourcetext, in fact, a text has to be producerly in this way according toJohn Fiske. Source texts “(…) have to be open, to contain gaps, irresolutions,contradictions, which both allow and invite fan productivity”(1992: 42. Emphases mine). Fiske is suggesting thatsource texts are particular kinds of speech acts that not only mapout the boundaries of fictional universes but also request and facilitatetheir violation through inciting audience participation. ToVolume03 156
akademiskacademic quarter<strong>kvarter</strong>Transgression and TabooJens Kirkdiscuss specific source texts in this manner as taboo and transgressionwould be highly interesting, but falls outside the scope of thisessay, however.Notes1 Fanfiction.net lists Harry Potter, Twilight, and Lord of the Rings as thethree most popular books or series of books for generating fan fiction(http://www.fanfiction.net/book/#). Fanfiction.net, which is just oneof many sites for fan fictions on WWW contains more than 800,000 fanficsrelating to those books.2 In the field of fan fiction, policing is often institutionalised in the form ofthe “[…] so-called beta readers who critique, read, and help revise onvarious levels, including spelling and grammar, style and structure, andcanonicity and remaining in character” (Busse and Hellekson 2006: 6).3 Thanks to Steen Christiansen for calling my attention to Rowling’s announcement.4 It should be pointed out that Rowling’s initiative is hardly a responseto an unfulfilled desire among fans for a Harry Potter knowledge spaceon WWW. In fact, several web sites for Harry Potter fan fiction are alreadyin existence making available thousands of Potter related fanstories. To give just three examples to add to the one mentioned in Note1, see, for instance, Harrypotterfanfiction.com (http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/),which styles itself as “the oldest, (and best) unofficialdedicated Harry Potter Fanfiction site on the net”, Mugglenet FanFiction (http://fanfiction.mugglenet.com/), and Fiction Alley (http://fictionalley.blogspot.com/).5 Interestingly, the nature of the security is never made explicit. Is Rowlingoffering an environment protected from electronic dangers such as computervirus? Or does her web site offer a moral sanctuary where Rowlingwill ensure that, for instance, slash and adult material are disallowed?6 That Pottermore in this way becomes a market place intensifies the dividebetween Rowling and her fans in terms of buyers and sellers andconsumers and suppliers.Volume03 157
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