Hello! I'm doing a presentation on fanfiction and I was told you were a very good source for fandom history resources!! I was wondering if you might take a moment to impart what knowledge you have? It's ok if you don't want to, btw!
Thank you for your time!!
-Waffles
.....okay. At the risk of sounding bitchy because I can do that unintentionally when talking about academia...this ask is well-meant but kind of useless, hon.
What kind of presentation on fanfiction? Are we talking a research paper or a five-minute powerpoint? "Impart what knowledge you have" strongly suggests you aren't aware of the massive length and breadth of fandom history, which, I mean, that's why I got into the field to begin with, but that request is so insanely broad I couldn't even begin to hope to begin to provide you with useful information. What is it you want? Information on the earliest-known fic? (1730s, Gulliver's Travels smut. Because of course it is.) Sources on how zines were distributed? An explanation of webrings and email lists? History of the AO3? Insight into how the word "fanfiction" came about in the first place? Something else? (There's a lot else.)
"The history of fanfiction" could literally fill an academic book to dwarf War and Peace. Probably more than one. I'd be happy to help, but you've gotta give me more to go on. This is the kind of broad, open-ended request I used to dread seeing on tests in college ("last question, worth half the exam points, tell me everything you know about X"--and yes, I did have that happen, more than once). Please give me some specifics.
