Lit Bit: Fangirl and the problems with reblogging

Tumblr is a community comprised of bloggers who, in addition to posting original content, spend most of their time “reblogging” the content of others. Even most of the content sources are not entirely original; bloggers create sets of GIFs of their favorite shows or write fanfiction about their favorite characters.

Tumblr has faced some disapproval due to these copyright violations. However, most bloggers I have seen discussing this issue claim no right to the characters or content. They simply want to contribute their talents to the community of fans.

As the first book in Tumblr’s official book club, Rainbow Rowell’s brilliantly written novel Fangirl incorporates this emerging issue of content originality into the story of a geeky writer’s first year at college.

Cath is a huge fan of the fictional Simon Snow series (an ode to Harry Potter). Amidst difficult family issues such as a missing mother, a mentally-ill father and a college-crazy twin, the painfully introverted Cath retreats into writing Simon Snow fanfiction to escape reality (and human interactions in general).

I’m not going to completely spoil the story for those of you who will, I hope, read it, but there are two situations this novel sets out that I want to bring up. They made me question the hours I have spent “tumbling.” So, spoilers ahead!

The first situation is the crushing failure Cath experiences in the one area of life over which she feels control: writing. Her creative writing professor fails her for plagiarism on an assignment Cath writes as a piece of Simon Snow fanfiction.

The second instance is plagiarism committed by Cath’s partner in creative writing class. He attempts to submit a story the two of them wrote together as his own. After the professor calls him out on it, he begs Cath to agree to put her name on the piece, as this is the only way the professor will let him publish his writing. She refuses.

I promised I wouldn’t completely spoil the book, so I won’t talk about its conclusion. I will say that Cath manages to hold onto her loves of literature and fanfiction and her dream to create successful, original writing. She learns to separate those aspects of her life.

The answer to whether fanfiction is a legitimate form of art remains unclear, but I am inclined to think that either way, it is valuable. It is a form of expression devoted to the love of a specific work of literature or media, and it helps form the skills of its creators, if they can be called creators.

Tumblr inspires me often, and I discover amazing expansions of the things I love there. Yet the definition of original content is incredibly important. Tumblr emphasizes the importance of maintaining the source when reblogging, and writers of fanfiction must credit the original author. Yet the line of originality and artistic creation remains blurred.

Fangirl is both a fantastic, original piece of writing and an ode to the world of fanfiction and Tumblr. It shows a genuine appreciation of literature and the modern turn it has taken, as well as being a heartfelt tale of growing up in college, and I highly recommend it.