Textual Poachers Response -Jason Andrews

Henry Jenkins, the author of Textual Poachers, a book about the significance of fan culture in media. He argues that fans—primarily Trekkers—were appropriating various pop culture narratives and using them for their own purposes of self-expression. Based off of Michael de Certeau expression of poaching—“an impertinent raid on literary preserve that takes away only those things that are useful or pleasurable to the reader”—Jenkins examines the role in which textual context plays in the creation and devotion of fans and fanatics (24). Since Jenkins wrote his book, the Internet has enabled an explosion of fandom, now a “permanent culture”, as well as access to fan materials. Episodes of most TV shows are now imbedded, transcribed, abstracted, and tirelessly discussed by a plethora of online fans. For Jenkins fandom is created in the adaptation of context and the expansion of media which fans create based off the initial subject. His theories and observations have transcended the last 30 plus years and in our current media driven society have become an even larger cultural phenomena. Through out this response I will analyze key points of Henry Jenkins and attempt to relate and expand on them occasionally through the use of the television show LOST.

Within his book Jenkins chooses to focus on three central aspects of “a fans’ characteristic mode of reception”, first he relates how lived experiences of a fan drive their interest in texts (53). Jenkins believes that the transition from a viewer of a program to a fan depends on the intensity and emotional involvement with which they watch their program. As is the case now as then, committed viewers will make time for their favorite series blocking out time to sit and watch an episode as it airs. Jenkins soon analyzes the way in which these series are viewed arguing the modern viewer is “able to hold the text at a greater distance and to gain mastery over its meaning” (62). This reading against the grain and analyzing a series plot twists, props, costume, and dialogue while almost seemingly trivial to a writers initial purpose when Jenkins published his book, now has become a goal in modern fan series such as LOST. Small visual clues—book titles, visions, and quotes, beat sticks— all become revisited as the series grows and expands. The intention of the writers and producers is to play into the fandom encompassing the show. Luckily modern technology lends a significant hand to what Jenkins addresses as his second central aspect of fans reception.

“The role played by rereading within fan culture” (53). Jenkins seems to attribute the growth of fandom to a growing culture of VCR recordings and reruns that allow the viewer to replay episodes and develop almost obsessions with dialogue and character development. He would surely be astounded with the aide developments in modern technology have lent to this process. Tivo online video’s—both on the networks websites and video sites such as You Tube— torrent downloader and DVD box sets, have made the process of analyzing a past season or scouring an episode frame by frame a piece of cake. I imagine countless LOST fans along with myself watching seasons 1-3 on DVD before the airing of the fourth season so the continuous plot was fresh on my mind. Even searching through past episodes to find that small mystery that was exposed and developed two seasons later to better understand the relevance to the series as a whole. However as Jenkins examines in his third aspect what good is knowledge of mystery and clues if they cannot be shared with others who hold the series close if not closer to their heart.

“The process by which program information gets inserted into ongoing social interaction” (53). This one is easy for me, because similar to the story Jenkins’ recounts of a first time viewer exposed by a veteran to Beauty and the Beast, my interest with LOST was developed on a road trip down to Florida, when my best friend played me the first season in its entirety on his laptop. Almost instantly I was hooked (yes, his enthusiasm did help spark an initial interest). Interaction like this and on a much more massive scale I believe is the driving force of Jenkins argument. Fandom survives on its ability to gossip and share. Jenkins momentarily mentions the web when he states, “the computer net only intensified this process, letting fans compare notes, allowing theories to become progressively more elaborate…. (and so on)” (79). Today the internet is ground zero for fans of any and all texts. Fan newsletters have become fan pages (http://lostpedia.com/wiki/Main_Page), and gossip and conversation once locally isolated can spread across the world with blog sites and twitters. Fans can post artwork and mash-ups on a variety of host sites and share theories and questions with anyone willing to listen. The internet has revolutionized the fan and the juxtaposition of media that is “poaching” has indeed become a culture of its own. The accuracy and detail in which Henry Jenkins explores the culture of fans was astonishing and even more so was its continued relevance in today’s society. As he predicted media fandom has established itself as a permanent culture, and its Mecca is San Diego’s own Comic Con.