Bizarre and exciting thing

[birdsofshore]

Somebody at the University of Western Ontario has written an academic paper about young women who read explicit fiction online and they analysed one of my stories as an example. She presented it last year at a conference and the abstract is online and you can read it here if you like:  Reading for Alternatives: The Experiences of Young Women Who Read Sexuality-Themed Fiction Online. But I'd really love to read the whole thing! The paper sounds so interesting and talks about "how narratives of sexuality found in YA Literature have informed the sexual lives of young women readers."

I could read about that for days, but I completely admit the part that I most want to see is this:

"It includes a textual analysis of a piece of Harry Potter slash fanfiction to exemplify key differences and similarities between fanfiction and published YA Literature in regards to content, form, theme, language, and authorship."

And the footnotes reveal that this 'piece of slash' is MY FIC, HUNGRY:  "Hungry, a fanfiction short story written by birdsofshore on AO3. Set in the world of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, this canon-divergent short story spins a tale of romance between Harry Potter and his nemesis Draco Malfoy that blossoms into a sex-positive discovery of their mutual sexual attraction to one another. The term “slash” refers to texts that have been queered by depicting homoerotic relationships between characters (Duggan, 2017)."

I'M IN A FOOTNOTE!!! It's very exciting. I threw dignity to the winds and emailed the author, Davin Helkenberg, and asked if she would consider sharing the paper with me, but I didn't hear anything back yet. She may be moving house to get away from the weird stalker person, I dunno. Or possibly snowed in and busy trying to dig her way out. But if anyone knows Davin, please say HIIIIIIIII, and tell her I'm just excited to read what she wrote. It's quite possible she said my fic was crap, hah, which is why she doesn't want me to see it. I don't care, I'm still excited. I'M IN A FOOTNOTE.

Comments

[lightofdaye]

You're famous! Congrats.

Though I'd sort of expect them to ask you before citing you in a paper.

[birdsofshore]

I'm totally famous to anyone who has read this footnote! I'm sure, once read, this footnote can never be forgotten! :DD

I'd sort of expect them to ask you before citing you in a paper

I don't think that happens, I guess they have tons of sources and it's fair use to quote bits of someone else's work. I would have loved it if she had told me she was writing it, but she probably never even thought about it or didn't think I'd be interested?

[nocturnus33]

[Excuse my poor English] I'm not sure it is necessary to contact the author. Even if it is polite to ask the author before writing, it is unnecessary as the content is publicly available. Unless it is something published in a private domain or a private forum in which case there is an ethical breach as they could be exposing people's privacy.

I'm a researcher and have to submit my proposals to the Research Ethics Committee before starting a new project. Most research journals asked if you have the approval of your committee before publishing your research.

Taking care of people is an important issue to consider when making a research design. In this case, the main question should be: Will I hurt or exposed Birdsofshore in any way by doing this research? How can I protect her?

Quoting you and addressing your work properly is fair game, I think.

I find the whole thing so cool. If I were the researcher, I would love to be contacted by you wanting to read the full paper. It would make my day.

[birdsofshore]

Hello, thanks for adding me to your circle on here! I agree, I don't think contacting the author is necessary. As you say, it's a public work and quoting from it is fine.

I think it's so cool as well and I really hope 1) she is still on the email address that I found and 2) that she replies to me!

And your English is spot on perfect with no apology necessary <3

[nocturnus33]

If she replies, do tell me. I'm curious.

[birdsofshore]

I will do - I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

[nocturnus33]

That's nice. If I were David Helkenberg, I'd feel happy to send you the paper.

[birdsofshore]

I hope she does! (it's a woman called Davin) I felt a bit silly and fangirly emailing her, but I hope she doesn't mind. I was just rather excited!

[nocturnus33]

Don't feel like that. Scholars are common people who work on research. Like most people, we are happy when someone shows an interest in what we have done.

[oldestcharm]

That sounds both cool and kind of terrifying. But from what I've heard most academics are willing to send a copy if you ask. It may take some time, but I doubt she's packing her bags. :'D

[birdsofshore]

Yes, definitely cool but also a bit crazy (in a good way). I couldn't believe what I was seeing at first. I thought she wouldn't mind being emailed, as she has a public website giving details of her papers, but who knows what she'll think about it, really! I hope I hear back from her.

[writcraft]

I love this!!! Also the paper sounds right up my street. Just to echo comments above it wouldn't be typical to contact the author for permission just as you wouldn't contact a published author for permission to cite their work as it falls under the 'fair use' exemptions in most jurisdictions. When I have quoted fanfic in my studies I tend to contact the authors but that's because I'm in a fortunate position of not minding sharing my RL identity with authors and being active in multiple fandoms - like it might be odd to you if I quoted your work and didn't ask but it's more out of respect for our friendship than a research ethics point, I guess. Fandom ethics! I have actually been eager to contact one of the poets I'm looking at for my PhD and have been discouraged to do so, as it adds a different question of ethics to my research (data collection, engaging with actual humans and so on) that isn't required for the work I'm doing. I'm sure that wouldn't be an issue in terms of you contacting them now the paper has been published, but more another reason why they might not have done so.

I really hope you do hear back and please do share the paper with me when you do as I would be interested to read from an academic perspective too.

[birdsofshore]

Oh, I completely get that, and I didn't mind at all that she didn't ask permission. I would love to hear from her, though! I hadn't thought of it adding an extra dimension to the ethics issue while she was researching. And yes I will definitely share if I hear anything!

[brunettepet]

That's really cool. I hope they share the paper with you. It sounds like a fascinating read.

[birdsofshore]

It does, doesn't it? For instance, I'd honestly never considered that the comments section could be a useful source of non-judgemental sex education. I'll post again if she does share it!

[gracerene]

Haha, that's awesome!!

[birdsofshore]

Awesome and slightly scary, hah!

[enchanted_jae]

That's incredibly exciting!

[birdsofshore]

You're all very kind, I suspect it's only me that finds it exciting but I love you all for getting enthusiastic about it!

[pir8fancier]

Way cool!

[birdsofshore]

I love that people are researching this kind of stuff!

[dewitty1]

I think this is uber exciting too! I'd be fangirling all over the place! How did you find out about the paper? I'm really interested in hearing of she lets you read it. It sounds like a really neat subject. I can definitely say that reading fanfiction has changed my views on a lot of things,lol!

[birdsofshore]

Uhhhhh, I was waiting for someone to ask that, and the shameful answer is that I was googling my own username :DDD I'm so glad I did, though. This was hidden amongst the pages and pages of instagram type reposts, like a little gem.

[dewitty1]

LOLOLOLOL! That's too funny, but sometimes you have to just to see what people are saying about you. I actually have never done that, just because I'm pretty open about all of my stuff, except Facebook, on the internet.

[birdsofshore]

I forget to do it often, but it can be very interesting, like a nice rec, or annoying, like a reposted fic on someone else's social media. And sometimes it's goodreads, which is like the third circle of hell and every time I swear to myself I'm not going to look any more. They are brutal on there! Although I did find this excellent review of one of my stories which I cannot argue with:

if you're looking for a drarry fic about wanking, look no further. that's all they do basically

:DDD

[magpie_fngrl]

Wow this is amazing! I'm so thrilled for you!

[birdsofshore]

It is so exciting and slightly surreal!

[norsellie]

8-D

[birdsofshore]

<3

[firethesound]

Omg that's awesome!! I'd be dying to know what the paper says if I were in your shoes! Do keep us posted if you manage to get ahold of a copy :D :D :D

[lijahlover]

Yay congrats sweetie. 😊

[emansil]

I must say, that is pretty damn awesome.

Well deserved, as well!