Ashley Reese

It's been a really fascinating shift in that way in which, you know, normies know about fan fiction now in a way they did not, you know, 15, 20 years ago.

My take is also kind of complicated, only this instead of, like, I've been a journalist, but also someone in these fandom spaces.

So it's kind of like...

How do I talk about these spaces that are kind of meant to be a little bit more niche and a little more private, but quite frankly, aren't.

This is all available for public consumption.

There really is an option on AO3 where you can lock a fan fiction to only people who have an account and only they can see it.

Most people don't do this.

This is public consumption.

I understand why people are frustrated.

We are being watched and we are being seen.

And it's not like I think people should act accordingly.

It's not like I think people should adjust their behavior because of that.

But I also think that we are in an era where we cannot feign this shock and surprise every time something might get a little more mainstream and fandom.

How do we not talk about these things that become phenomenons on the Internet?

Like the Internet is part of culture now.

We talk about that now.

Some free labor.

Like Eli said, fan fiction and fandom has always been free, you know, and it's kind of interesting to see this financial kind of...

The fact that I hear people talk about tropes, civilians talking about tropes so much more often now, which I always kind of associate largely as a very fandom heavy term.

Like, I can't say for sure that it originated that space, but things like, for example, enemies to lovers as a trope that is now I've seen used as a marketing tactic all the time in romance novels.