The ‘Does This Make Sense?’ Check - Chapter 4, Part 2, Methodology and Motivation
Part 1 covers the introduction of Chapter 4, The Bookbinders.
Part 3 covers how bookbinding fic completes the fanfiction communication circuit
Part 4 covers how ficbinding challenges traditional publishing norms
Part 5 covers how ficbinding reveals the tensions of material preservation
The primary evidence for this chapter consists of interviews conducted with twelve bookbinders via Discord, a chat communication app. There was a preexisting community of bookbinders on Discord who use the app to share resources, techniques, and their completed projects. I coordinated with the founder of the server, @armoredsuperheavy, to introduce my dissertation topic and the opportunity to participate in interview questions. Participation was opt-in, and participants read an information sheet about the project and signed a consent form before being given access to a locked channel on the server.
Questions were posted in the locked channel over the course of two weeks; most interviewees responded directly in the thread to aggregate and reference one another’s responses. I followed up via private chat with four participants who preferred to answer all of the questions via Word document, and in one case, in an audio-only interview conducted over Discord.
In line with fan studies methodology, which prioritizes transparency and participation, all participants reviewed two drafts of this chapter to clarify the meaning of their statements, and they will all receive a copy of this dissertation. I refer to the binders anonymously (i.e. ‘one binder’, ‘another binder’) to respect their privacy.
Motivation: Bookbinding as Fannish Response
Bookbinders bind fic for many reasons: they want a print object to reduce screen time and to carry around; they want to gift book objects to fic authors; they enjoy the challenge and craft of putting a book together. One binder wrote that her major motivation is her ‘love of some fics that I read REPEATEDLY (too late at night when I should be sleeping and I can't set my phone down), but I do miss having something physical to hold’. The urge to have a material version of favorite fic is a theme. Another binder wrote, ‘I really like the idea that I can give fics to the author to help them know that others enjoy their fic and hopefully really cement their love of sharing that fic with others’. By reciprocating a gift to the author, there is explicit encouragement to continue sharing their work, completing the communication circuit (Figure 1). Many binders consider bookbinding an alternative form of fannish response, allowing them to reciprocate a gift to the author who gave them their favorite fic. Intentional preservation falls lower on the list for most binders, but is the primary motivator for one binder.
Figure 1 I.D.: Model labled ‘Fanfiction Communication Circuit’. Two circuits, connected by arrows. The right hand circuit begins with ‘author’, points to ‘publisher’, points to ‘distributor’, points to ‘reader’. The center of the circuit reads ‘circulates text’. The left hand circuit begins with ‘fic writer’, points to ‘distributing platform’, points to ‘reader’, points to ‘fannish response’, which has a red circle around it. The center of the circuit reads ‘circulates text/creative products’. The two circuits connect at ‘reader’. End I.D.
Hard copies of fic appeal for numerous reasons, including beauty, a sense of accomplishment, and the challenge of book-making. One binder wrote, ‘it’s quite fun to hold something both beautiful and entertaining’. Another concurred that ‘the appeal lies mainly in the process of making the book, honestly’. A third added, ‘It’s about the Fwoomp when you put it down. No, in all seriousness: I like my hard copies because I like making them, more than I like having them. I like the challenge, I like learning about formatting and design while I do it’ [1]. The satisfaction of making a book is as appealing as having the object itself, and practicing a self-taught craft in leisure time aligns with the non-professional precedent of fandom.
Binding fic is also a form of reader response. Most of the binders read the fic before they bind it; only two bind fic based on recommendations from trusted friends or before they finish reading it themselves, trusting their friends’ intuition. All the binders select fic to bind based on what works they keep returning to. Some choose based on criteria such as certain themes, like queer kink or transgender identity or struggles, or established tropes, such as ‘enemies-to-lovers’. The binders also consider the fic’s length to see if it is an appropriate size for a book, sometimes combining shorter stories into an anthology to give the book a proper heft.
In preparing the text, binders spend considerable time typesetting, cleaning up the remnants of HTML, and selecting typefaces and ornaments to complement the story. Each binder prefer different elements of the process: one noted that the covers and endpapers are most important to her in communicating the book’s aesthetics. Another echoed that the binding can reflect the contents of the book: ‘I’m ordering bookcloth in red/yellow/green/blue for a series of Hogwarts fic in which the founders have their own story’ to match the color themes of the four school Houses. A third described this design process as ‘incorporat(ing) some elements of the visual identity of the universe in which the fic takes place’ in the book’s construction and presentation, like matching the binding to characters’ signature colors. One binder painstakingly chooses ornaments and typefaces ‘based on the time period, for historical fiction, or to compliment themes in the book’. Another attends to the aesthetic of published works in the genre; for his Lord of the Rings fic, he cross-referenced four different publishers and learned the ‘rules of Tolkein’s legendarium’ to match the book with its the fictional universe. The incorporation of story elements into the visual expression of the fic demonstrate that the binders are not simply creating a product but thinking critically about the work as a reader.
‘Fwoomp’ is the sound a book makes when placed on a surface
