Textual Poachers

First I'll start by saying that I chose to write my blog on Harry Potter because I am a HUGE fan and I even go to midnight premieres! I know everything about HP and I've been obsessed since I first picked up the book yeeeears ago... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNl6IJekiHA&feature=related

This is a link from Youtube that a fan of Harry Potter (HP) made of Rupert Grint and Emma Watson who play Ron and Hermione (Harry's two best friends). In the books/movies, Ron and Hermione are thought to have a love interest in one another but nothing is ever discussed openly about it (however, it is very obvious to readers and it is the way J.K. Rowling wrote it). They are really good friends (in the books/movies) and they try and date other people but the other one always ends up getting jealous. In the fourth book/movie, they go to a dance and Hermione gets asked by another guy and when Ron sees her with makeup on and in a dress his heart practically melts. He then sees that she is with this other guy and makes a rude comment about it to her. Hermione gets upset and tells him that maybe he shouldn't have been a wuss and should have asked her himself- proving that she actually wanted to go with him! I won't spoil the last book and tell you whether or not they actually do end up getting together or not, but most fans believe they will/do. However, this link above shows a devoted fan who cut pictures from the previous movies, award shows, interviews, and on-the-set to edit them all together. Adding a "love song" playing in the background of these pictures portrays the idea that they actually have a love connection in real life, not just in the books/movies. This type of fan editing is just like the example Henry Jenkins used in his article "Get a life!": Fans, Poachers, Nomads and the Youtube video about the Star Trek characters Spock and Kirk.

My example of HP explains Jenkins' idea of textual poaching, or stealing text (any form of text= books, videos, picture, art, etc.) and editing it together to create a new text. In the example with Ron and Hermione/ Rupert and Emma, editing pictures taken of them together to make it look like they really have feelings for each other is a perfect example of poaching the original text to create an illusion that may or may not really be there. No one besides those two know for sure if they really have feelings for one another but the fans want to believe it and create a new text to make it look like it. For example, showing pictures of them holding hands [on set] may actually be a scene from a movie in which they are holding hands (because that does happen a few times, by accident of course!). But edited the way the [fan wants it to look] creates a new text in which those two are holding hands in their regular clothes and, taken out of context, looks like they are holding hands in real life! According to Jenkins, this type of fan editing (or textual poaching) becomes a problem with "the relationship between the reader and writers as an ongoing struggle for possession of the text and for control over its meanings" (pg 24). This form of grassroots editing takes the meaning from the text and twists it to create a new meaning according to the fans. Even though Ron and Hermione have a love interest in the books/movies it doesn't mean they do in their personal life. Fans who want to believe that they do can create videos like this one to "prove" that it is real. The only difference in this example is that they are taking a text and creating a new text outside of that original text. By this I simply mean that they aren't cutting and editing parts of the movie to make it look like they love each other [in the movie] because it is already there. Instead they are editing it to look like that love connection reaches out to their personal lives. This example shows how fans take possession of the original text and create a new meaning for the [characters] in their personal lives.