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Invention and FanVids

In Photoshop for Democracy, Jenkins emphasizes that new software has enabled amateur users to create professional results from the safety of their very own homes. We can, of course, substitute "iMovie" for "Photoshop" throughout this chapter.
What a rhetorician might notice is that with the poached screen caps and scenes (and in fanfics, poached plots and characters), "invention" becomes less about the act of creation and seems more and more like "arrangement"--to make an argument for Harry/Snape or Kirk/Spock, fans borrow already present media, already present stories and backstories (and dialogue, scenery, music, etc), and rearrange them to make their arguments. Additionally, these new arguments are already troped: There are only so many ways to write a Harry/Snape fic or to present a Kirk/Spock vid. These seem to be acting like Aristotle's topoi; fans are aware of a range of possible options, and they recombine them in new ways.
This is further proven by some of the instructional fan sites I've found and listed on my bibliography. One such site has a "set of scenes" to download, pre-ripped from DVDs: "Make your own Lex/Lana vid from these clips!" They even list possible music to accompany particular clips. All the user has to do is arrange the clips in a pleasing way.
Whatever that may be.

Submitted by Amylea on Tue, 2007-03-20 09:53.
Amylea's blog

Convergence
nrivers's picture
Submitted by nrivers on Tue, 2007-03-20 09:59.

Amylea,

I like your convergence of the seemingly distinct acts of invention and arrangement. Fanfic seems to challenge the distinction between invention and arrangement quite explicitly. Fanfic, rather than being an exception, seems to be the rule. Most invention is indistinguishable from arrangement. In fact, some of the most inventive rhetoric, as your post suggests, is the rearranging of topoi, of playing with the already in play.


Canons, redefined
Morgan S.'s picture
Submitted by Morgan S. on Sun, 2007-03-25 13:40.

Amy, Nathaniel, your posts present some interesting implications for the qualifications of rhetoric. More interesting, though, are the new definitions that these new areas create. Here, you discuss the collapse of our traditional definitions of invention and arrangement, and we have also seen the revival of the canon of delivery with the digital medium. I’m wondering how these canons will continue to redefine themselves in different spaces. What interesting avenues for research.