Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A study of the worldwide community of fans of Star Trek and other genre television series who create and distribute fiction and art based on their favorite series. This community includes people from all walks of life--housewives, librarians, secretaries, and professors of medieval literature. Ninety percent of its members are women.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Part I Who Are These People and What Are They Doing? (p. 1)
• Chapter 1 Introduction: Studying Fandom (p. 3)
• Chapter 2 The Media Fanzine Community (p. 7)
• Chapter 3 Fan Fiction and Material Art (p. 44)
• Part II A Closer Look at the Community and Its Art (p. 79)
• Chapter 4 Training New Members (p. 81)
• Chapter 5 Second Stage Initiation: Learning about Videotape (p. 115)
• Chapter 6 Reading Fan Fiction (p. 141)
• Chapter 7 Visual Meaning (p. 175)
• Part III Transgression and Identity (p. 201)
• Chapter 8 Identity and Risk (p. 203)
• Chapter 9 Homoerotic Romance (p. 228)
• Chapter 10 Suffering and Solace: The Genre of Pain (p. 255)
• Chapter 11 Looking Backward: Play, Creativity, and Narrative (p. 282)
• Appendix A Methodology (p. 299)
• Appendix B An Introduction to the Language of the Fan Community: Glossary (p. 306)
• Appendix C Who Are Fanziners?: Demographics (p. 319)
• Appendix D (p. 324)
• Index (p. 335)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

A scholarly contribution to understanding the alternative popular culture produced by women fans of Star Trek and other science fiction television programs. Fans focus not on celebrity stars but on the characters they portray. Fandom refers to the fiction, art work, newsletters, conventions, and other works produced by fan writers using some characters from Star Trek and other programs. There are several genres of this fiction, which is shared informally, always on a nonprofit basis, among other interested members of the fan community, locally, nationally, and internationally. The sharing of fan fiction and other art constitutes a major basis for the social organization networks among fans. For half these fans, this constitutes a hobby; for others, it approaches their principal social community and worldview. Bacon-Smith's many years of skillful ethnographic research and lucid prose help nonfans understand the cultural and the theoretical significance of the fan-produced fiction, artwork, and social relations that make fandom so cohesive and critically essential to its members. Excellent bibliography, poor subject index. Both males and females in communications, sociology, ethnography, psychology and women's studies benefit from this fine book. All levels. S. H. Hildahl Wells College