The rise of the internet has brought about many awesome cultural innovations; this is, in a large part, due to the incredible level of communication it allows us to achieve. One of the most exciting things that has happened is the mass fanbases: thanks to online forums, communities and fan pages, it is more fun than ever to be a fan of something. However, one medium that has unfortunately been rather left out of the fanbase excitement is classic literature, which is unfortunate for me as there are many classic novels that I think should really have modern fanbases, as I would very much enjoy being a part of them. In this blog, I will list several awesome fanbase trends that would vastly improve my enjoyment of classic literature.
1) Relationships
Even if you've never personally followed this trend, it is highly likely that you have experienced it in some form or another. Remember the "team Edward" and "team Jacob" t-shirts? The people who wore those are frequently referred to as "shippers", or as being part of a "ship". These people are insanely dedicated to supporting a relationship between two fictional characters: they usually form vast, intense communities including forums, merchandise and websites. They even sometimes come up with their own lingo, and frequently name themselves after a combination of the two character's names (Puckelberry shippers support the relationship of Puck and Rachel Berry. Spuffy shippers support Spike and Buffy).
Now, although I must admit I belong to quite a large number of modern ships (Piper/Leo, Angel/Buffy, Finnchel), I would seriously love if there could be a good community of Janechester (Jane Eyre and Rochester) shippers, or Biacentio (Bianca and Lucentio from Taming of the Shrew) shippers. Forums, communities, even team Rochester/ team St. John t-shirts would make life so much better.
2) Fanfic/ fanart
Although some fanfic can be really really really really really really horrible (in the world of fanfiction, pretty much every character from every fictional universe has slept with each other), there is actually quite a fair amount of decent fanfiction out there. Fanfiction is great once you've watched every episode of a tv show too many times for them to be interesting anymore, but still feel the need for more. Unfortunately, Animal Farm fanfiction isn't exactly common, however I would really love to read some fan's ideas of additional stories from the farm. Fanfiction based on classic literature would be awesome! (To be fair, we do have the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies series, but that's a bit different, and not technically fanfic because it is published).
Fanart would also be great, especially since your average classic novel isn't illustrated, so the art would be completely up to interpretation. It would be awesome to see some cool art on deviantart.com dedicated to some great novels.
3) Frequently quoted quotes
From Kanye's "I'm gonna let you finish", to pretty much every quote from the Simpsons, quotes are thrown in to pretty much every conversation, and usually recieved with considerable laughs. However, if I ever throw in a "you'd be a great king... on a desert island!" (Antigone) to a conversation, all I get is awkward looks and confusion. It would be really cool if it would be as normal to throw a literary quote into a conversation as a Simpsons quote, life would be good.
4) Merchandise
Although briefly mentioned in the Shippers section, I must repeat that a Jane Eyre t-shirt would be awesome. Pretty much everything in the world nowadays can be found with a Harry Potter logo or a Twilight quote on it... they even have Twilight-themed sex toys now (I learned this from a cracked.com article... not from firsthand experience), so why can't classic literature get the same treatment?
Anyway, my point is, it would be pretty cool if modern fanbases applied to classic novels. They make it so much more fun to be a fan of something, and offer an interactive, community-type way to interact with your favourite medium: all I'm asking is for a Janechester fan page (which constantly argues with the St.Janeivers fan page) and maybe a team Rochester t-shirt... is this really such a difficult request, internet?
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