Power Play, Struggle and Resistance

So far, in my posts, I have been writing about various kinds of anime fan behaviour and what goes on within the fan community.

Several scholars who look at fan behaviour have typically looked it through the framework of resistance (Matt Hills does a pretty good review of this approach in his book*). My own understanding is that this 'resistance' stems from fans refusing to interpret the media text in the way intended by the producers. This is a form of resisting the dominant code in the media text (I borrow this idea from Hall's (1980) # suggestion that the encoding of a message in a media text, i.e. the insertion of meaning in the media text, by producers is very much affected by dominant ideology).

While I agree that fans are active users in the way they interact with and interpret the media text, I see the issue as more of negotiation of meaning rather than resistance to dominant meaning. I see it as more of an issue of negotiation of the authority to interpret and add more layers of meaning rather than an issue of struggle for the power to decide what the text means. My personal observations suggest that fans do realise that they have limited power in what they can do to sway the direction of the plot of a media text. More often than not, one can see them lamenting the fate of a certain character in a show in forums (e.g. "Noooo! Why must XXX end up with YYY? I think XXX should have married ZZZ instead! What are the producers thinking??).

The concept of resistance also seems to suggest that producers and consumers are in two opposing camps. I do not really think that's the case. The respectful tone when referring to the original creators and the delight fans have expressed in being able to interview or talk with creators seem to suggest a great deal of love for the producers (until they threaten fans with legal action). I have to admit that fans do not seem to have much love for the middleman though (as can be seen in the torrents of negative remarks against Odex as well as possible collaboration between Viz and MangaHelpers). But that mistrust seems to have grown out of past unhappy dealings with the distributors. After all, Kristin Thompson noted the wonderful relations that the cast and crew of The Lord of The Rings had with fans.** Of course, it might have helped that Peter Jackson was a self-professed fan of The Lord of The Rings.

The fact that fans write in to producers pleading some plot change or the resurrection of certain characters, seem to me, to suggest an attempt by fans to negotiate plot development. Of course, if producers were to cater to every fan demand, then we could end up with a very weird television series or we could end up with fans being so satisfied with the main text then they probably will not explore other possibilities in fanworks. (Here I am assuming that fans engage in fanworks out of a desire to control the plot development. Of course, fans could probably engage in fanworks out of some other desire instead.)

Furthermore, it appears to me that the interpretation of characters and plots within the fan community (which in turn, affects how the characters are used in fanworks such as fanfiction, particularly in pairings) is very much negotiated by members of the fan community. Discussion threads devoted to individual characters or story arcs can be found on popular discussion boards where fans come together to offer their two cents worth on these characters or plot developments. Some fan interpretations have even gone on to become canon in the fan community and fan work. If we were to use the idea of fanworks as a manifestation of resistance of dominant readings here, then I would have to say it is pretty ironic that fans are adhering to dominant interpretations within the community itself!

Hence, to me, fan behaviour is really a negotiation of different types of readings of the media text rather than resistance to dominant readings. Of course, my research might prove me wrong and it could really just be an issue of resistance to power or I could unearth other issues that no one else has thought about.

* See Hills, M. (2002). Fan cultures between consumerism and 'resistance'. In Fan cultures (pp. 27-45) New York: Routledge.

#See Hall, S. (1980). Encoding/decoding. In Hall, S.,Hobson, D., Lowe, A., & Willis, P. (eds.) Culture, media, language. (pp.197-208) London: Hutchinson.

** See Thompson, K. (2007). The Frodo franchise: The lord of the rings and modern Hollywood New Zealand: Penguin.