The Creativity and Community Behind Fanfiction | Cecilia Aragon | TED

翻译人员: Ying Du 校对人员: Ziyao Wang

So when I was 10 years old,

在我十岁大的时候，

I was a lonely, geeky girl;

我是一个孤独的，书呆子气的女孩；

a first-generation Latina growing up in a small Midwestern town

我是出生在美国的拉丁裔， 在一个中西部小镇长大，

where hardly anyone else had parents who spoke with thick accents.

那里几乎没有别的父母 讲话带着如此重的口音。

But then I came across Tolkien’s fantasy trilogy,

但后来我偶然读到 托尔金的魔幻三部曲：

“The Lord of the Rings,”

《魔戒》，

and I fell in love.

然后就爱上了它。

(Applause)

（掌声）

What a cool world of elves,

多么酷的世界：精灵、

orcs

半兽人、

and small but heroic hobbits fighting against impossible odds

和矮小但英勇的霍比特人 以几乎毫无胜算的机率去战斗，

to defeat a powerful enemy.

并打败强大的敌人，

Kind of like life.

就像生活一样。

（笑声）

But one thing bothered me.

但有一件事困扰着我：

There weren’t enough female characters in this book.

这部书里没有很多女性角色，

The adventurers accompanying the protagonists were all male.

陪同主人公一起冒险的 全都是男性角色。

It made me feel left out,

这让我感觉被遗忘了，

like I did in school when --

就像我在学校经历的——

you’re not going to believe this --

你可能不会相信——

when my 7th grade teacher told me,

我七年级的老师跟我说，

“Why are you working so hard in math?

“为什么你要那么努力学数学？

You should be getting a boyfriend!”

你应该去找个男朋友！”。

(Audience boos)

（嘘声）

But worse, it offended my sense of fairness.

但更糟糕的是， 它冒犯了我的公平感。

Surely girls could have adventures too.

女孩子也能去冒险。

So what could I do?

那我该怎么做呢？

I sat down with my spiral notebook

我坐下来打开我的螺旋笔记本，

and I rewrote the story.

重新改写了这个故事。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

(Applause)

（掌声）

I regendered a couple of the main characters,

我改变了一些主角的性别，

and I added new scenes,

并且加入了新的场景。

like one where a female hobbit devised a clever plan

比如一个女性霍比特人 提出了一个聪明的计划，

to foil the Balrog,

去打败炎魔巴洛格（Balrog），

a monster who caused the death of one of my favorite characters.

这个杀死了我最喜欢的 角色之一的怪物。

By reimagining Tolkien’s fantasy world,

通过重新塑造托尔金的幻想世界，

I was creating a place

我创造了一个

where someone like me could feel at home.

能让我感到自在的地方。

Writing my story gave me comfort.

写故事给我带来了安慰，

But it also taught me a lot about how to write.

同时它也教会了我 许多写作方面的东西。

I never shared that spiral notebook with anyone.

我从来没有跟任何人 分享过那本螺旋笔记本，

But what I didn’t realize then

那时我没有意识到的是，

was I was writing something called fanfiction --

我写的那个叫做同人小说。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

a story based on characters or settings from another’s work ...

一种基于另外一本小说里的 人物和设定进行再创作的故事，

and that I was not alone.

并且我不是唯一一个 在写同人小说的人。

It was an experience I never forgot.

那是我从未忘记过的体验。

And many years later,

很多年以后，

after I became a data science professor at the University of Washington

在我成为华盛顿大学 数据科学教授后，

in 2013,

在 2013 年，

I met another professor named Katie Davis,

我认识了一个叫做凯蒂·戴维斯 （ Katie Davis）的教授，

and we sat down over lunch

我们坐在一起吃午餐，

and discussed a recent news story

并且讨论一则最近的新闻报道。

that claimed “kids today can’t write,

该报道声称“现在的孩子无法写作，

all they produce is misspelled short texts.”

他们只能写一些 拼写错误的短文本”。

Katie and I didn’t believe it.

凯蒂和我都不相信该报道。

We both knew kids whose writing abilities defied these stereotypes.

我们都认识能挑战这些刻板印象、 有写作能力的孩子。

What’s more, the talented young people we happened to know

更重要的是， 我们认识的那些天才少年们

all had heavy involvement in fanfiction reading and writing.

都深入地参与 同人小说的阅读与写作。

So this apparent contradiction sparked our exploration

这个明显矛盾的结果 因此激发了我们

into one of my most enduring research projects:

开始我最持久的 研究项目之一：

a deep data dive

潜入广阔的同人文世界，

into the vast world of fanfiction

进行深入的数据分析，

to study the impact

来研究创作这些故事

that writing these stories could have on the writers themselves,

对作者本身带来的影响，

and whether writing fanfiction could actually teach kids

以及写同人小说 是否能教会孩子们

to become stronger writers.

成为更好的作者。

And what we found surpassed anything I could have imagined.

而我们研究发现的 已经超过了我的想像。

So let me set the stage.

让我做一下铺垫。

For those of you who haven’t heard the term before,

对于那些还没有 以前听过这个词的听众，

fanfiction,

同人小说，

sometimes known as transformative literature,

有时候也被称为变革文学，

is said by some to go back centuries.

据说已经有几百年的历史了。

After all, in the 1600s,

毕竟，在 17 世纪，

John Milton wrote “Paradise Lost” using characters from the Bible.

约翰·弥尔顿就用《圣经》 里面的人物写了《失乐园》。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

But today, scholars generally feel

但是今天学者们普遍认为

that modern fanfiction traces its origins to typewritten zines

现代同人小说 可以追溯到上世纪60和70年代

written by “Star Trek” fans in the ‘60s and’ 70s.

《星际迷航》的粉丝们 创作的打字杂志。

And with the growth of the internet,

随着互联网的发展，

barriers to sharing have been lowered further.

分享它们的门槛变得更低了。

Millions of people are writing and sharing fan fiction

现在数百万计的人们 正在各种各样的网站上

on a variety of websites

写作和分享同人小说，

around existing plots like “Harry Potter,”

他们围绕现有的像《哈里波特》、

“Twilight,”

《暮光之城》、

“Naruto,”

《火影忍者》、

“My Little Pony” --

《彩虹小马》、

(Laughter)

（笑声）

and “Pokémon”

《神奇宝贝》、

and many others.

以及其它许多小说里的情节进行创作。

You probably have a teenage relative or neighbor

你可能正好有一个 青春期的亲戚或邻居

who reads or writes fanfiction.

阅读或创作同人小说。

These stories are wildly diverse

这些故事都风格迥异，

and may be creative, thoughtful or hilarious.

并且可能非常有创意， 经过深思熟虑或者很好笑。

You might find titles like,

你可能会发现这样的标题：

“When Harry Potter Accidentally Started a Cult.”

《当哈里·波特意外地 创立了一个异教团体》。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Or, “Five Times Hermione Snogged Harry --

或者《赫敏拥吻了哈里五次——

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And One Time She Didn’t.”

但有一次她没有》。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

The sheer quantity of fanfiction that’s been produced is astonishing.

这些被创作出来的同人文 在数量上是惊人的，

In the past 20 years alone,

仅仅在过去的 20 年里，

over 60 billion words of fanfiction have been written

就有超过 600 亿字的 同人小说被写作出来，

and posted on a single online site:

并且上传到同一个网站上：

fanfiction.net,

fanfiction.net，

which is only one of many fanfiction hubs.

而它只是众多 同人小说中心的一个。

Now compare that with the amount of fiction written in the English language

与之对比的是人类历史上

that’s been traditionally published

用传统方式出版的

in all of human history ...

英文小说的总数量：

80 billion.

800 亿字。

So this is an incredible outpouring of creativity.

所以这是一个惊人的 创造力的迸发。

And on this site, it's written primarily by young people.

而且这个网站上的作品 基本上都是年轻人写的。

This site’s 15 million members write in 44 different languages,

这个网站的 1500 万成员 用 44 种不同的语言进行写作，

and their median age is 15 and a half.

他们的中位数年龄是十五岁半。

Most of the authors are between 13 and 21,

大多数作者年龄 在 13 到 21 岁之间，

and most are teenage girls.

并且大多数是青春期的女孩子。

73 percent identify as female,

73% 的作者将性别标为女性，

and interestingly,

并且有趣的是，

more fanfiction authors identify as gender nonconforming than male.

将自己标为性别不明的 作者要多于标为男性的。

Authors we interviewed told us they wrote fan fiction

我们采访过的作者们说， 他们写同人小说

because they love the characters and worlds.

是因为喜欢 原版小说中的人物和世界，

And over and over again,

并且他们反复地告诉我们，

they told us how much they learned about writing

在创作这些小说的过程中，

from participating in these communities.

他们学到了很多关于写作的知识。

Here’s an example.

举个例子，

One author told us she started writing fanfiction at age 13

有一个作者告诉我们 她13岁起就写同人小说，

when she had this intense crush on a fictional character.

那时她强烈地迷恋上了 一个小说中的人物。

(Sighs)

（叹息声）

It led her to write fanfiction with phrases like

这让她开始 以这样的措词写作同人小说：

“gorgeous cerulean orbs”, or

“华丽的天蓝色球体”，或

(Laughter)

（笑声）

“manly hunks of muscle.”

“有男子气概的肌肉”。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Kind of embarrassing.

有点尴尬。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And she told us,

她还告诉我们，

“But reviewers were kind enough

“但评论者很友善，

to be positive about my amateurish fangirl postings,

对我这个业余女爱好者的帖文 持有积极的态度，

mostly because they also like this character.

而且多半是因为 他们也喜欢这个人物。

But they also pointed out my uses of clichés and overwriting.

但是他们也指出了 我的陈词滥调和重复写作，

As a result, I learned to be sensitive to these types of bad writing.

结果，我学会对这种 不好的写法变得敏感。

Today, I publish original fiction,

现在，我发表原创小说，

and no one has ever called me out on a florid writing style.”

从没有人批评我的写作风格很浮夸。”

She concluded with,

她总结道：

“I think if a teacher had simply red-pencilied my childish scribbles,

“我想当时如果只是一个老师 用红笔批改我幼稚的字迹，

I might have been so discouraged as to never write again.”

我可能会失去勇气 不再写下去。”

Another author,

另一个作者，

who later became our student,

后来成为了我们的学生，

told us that she learned about spelling and grammar while writing fan fiction.

她告诉我们通过创作同人小说 她学会了拼写和语法，

But she also told us,

但她也告诉我们：

“When I started writing fanfiction at age 13,

“当我在13岁开始写同人小说时，

I was a queer, autistic middle-schooler

我还是一个古怪的、自闭的中学生，

who hadn’t yet realized I was either of these things.

当时还没有意识到自己的问题。

I had difficulty with social situations.

我在社交场合感到困难，

Fanfiction communities were a vital social and learning outlet.”

同人小说群体是我一个 重要的社交和学习出处。”

Today she’s done something that few undergraduates ever have.

现在她做了一些 很少有本科生能够做到的事，

She’s published a first author academic paper in a top-rated venue.

她已经以第一作者的身份 在顶级期刊上发表了一篇学术论文。

(Applause)

（掌声）

After studying many individual writers’ stories over time,

经过一段时间 对许多作者的故事的研究，

we came to see that these personal stories were consistent with the data,

我们可以看到这些个人故事 与数据是一致的。

The young writers’ use of words grew more diverse

年轻作者们对词语的运用 随着他们收到更多的评论

as they received more reviews.

而变得更加多样化。

So how did these kids learn

那么这些孩子是如何学习，

and from whom?

以及从谁的身上学习的呢？

To find out,

为了找到答案，

we did a deeper dive into mentoring in fanfiction communities.

我们深入地研究了 同人小说群体中的指导制度。

Now, we expected to find traditional mentor-mentee pairs,

我们期待能找出传统的 导师跟学员的组合，

older or more experienced authors mentoring younger

即由年长或者更有经验的作者 来指导

年轻的或者经验更少的作者。

or less experienced ones.

But what we found was completely different.

但我们的发现却完全不同。

We found millions of authors and readers communicating

我们发现数百万的作者 和读者通过多种渠道

via multiple channels

进行交流，

and reviewing each other’s work

并且互相评论作品，

regardless of experience level.

不管经验水平如何，

People of all ages listening to and reviewing each other’s stories.

所有年龄阶段的人都相互 倾听和评论各自的故事。

This was so cool we had to give it a name,

这简直太酷了， 所以我们要给它一个名称。

so we call it “distributed mentoring”.

我们称它为“分布式指导”。

You can also think of it as nanomentoring.

你也可以把它想做微指导，

Each piece of mentoring is tiny on its own,

每一次指导的本身是微小的，

but the combination of all of it is much greater than the sum of its parts.

但是它们组合在一起 产生的效果要大于它们的和。

A key attribute of distributed mentoring is its abundance.

分布式指导的关键属性 是它的丰富性，

One author we interviewed,

我们采访过的一个作者

who wrote both traditionally published fiction and fan fiction,

既写作传统出版的小说 也创作同人小说，

told us that she received more feedback in a single week

她告诉我们， 她的同人小说一周内收到的反馈

on her fanfiction

than she did in two years on her published novel.

比传统出版的小说 两年收到的还要多。

It’s a difference not only of degree

它们的不同不仅体现在程度上，

but also of kind.

还体现在种类上。

By itself, a single comment on a story such as, “loved it,”

一条单独的诸如“爱它” 这样的评论，

is relatively meaningless,

相对来说是没有意义的。

but hundreds or thousands provide valuable feedback.

但是成百上千条的评论一起 就会提供有价值的反馈。

Like ...

例如：

“I like the ambiguity of your ending --

“我喜欢你小说中的不确定的结局，

it leaves me feeling hopeful,”

它让我感到充满希望。”

and others like these.

以及其它诸如此类的。

Reviewers build on and reference each other’s comments.

评论者互相依赖 和参考彼此的评论，

This enables authors to piece together

这让作者能够拼凑出

an overall view of their writing that’s supportive as well as constructive.

一幅对他们的作品有帮助的、 有建设性的全景图。

We found only one percent of comments constituted bullying.

我们发现只有1%的评论 包含欺凌的内容，

And these are anonymous.

而且它们是匿名的。

This is a surprisingly low number,

这个数值低得令人吃惊，

as anybody who has read comments on an internet platform knows.

任何看过网络平台评论 的人都会这么认为。

What’s more,

更重要的是，

we found the supportive nature of most of these comments was critical

我们发现大多数评论 本质上对写作技巧的提高

in writing development.

至关重要。

One author, who was Black,

有一位黑人作者，

made all the characters from a popular TV show Black.

她作品中的人物 都来自电视剧《黑色的风采》。

She got comments filled with readers’ sense of freedom

她得到的评论满是 读者通过阅读她的故事

and delight from reading her story.

所感受到的自由和快乐。

It not only encouraged her to keep writing,

这不仅鼓励了她继续写作，

it gave her the conviction that what she was doing was worthwhile.

还让她确信 她所做的都是值得的。

And so through this research,

因此通过这项研究，

Katie and I found ourselves

凯蒂和我发现我们自己

not only believing that, yes, kids can be good writers,

不仅相信孩子们能成为好的作者，

but also that fanfiction

而且还相信同人小说

and distributed mentoring could be used in formal education.

和分布式指导制度 可以被应用于正规教育中。

A report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress

一份全国教育进展评估的报告

found that a whopping 73 percent of US students

发现高达 73 %的 八到十二年级美国学生

in grades eight and 12 lack proficiency in writing.

缺乏熟练的写作技巧。

Research has shown that adolescence is a wonderful time

研究表明， 青少年时代是提高写作技巧的

to improve your writing skills,

黄金时期。

and the popularity of fanfiction in this age group shows

而同人小说在这个年龄层的流行表明，

what an opportunity there is to use it as a learning tool.

这是一个很好的 将它当作学习工具的机会。

So here's how I'm imagining it.

因此我的设想是这样的：

Students with similar interests from school districts across the country

来自全国各个学区的 有着相同兴趣的学生，

could be connected with one another to get and give anonymous feedback

可以互相连接在一起 匿名给予和获取

on their writing.

对彼此作品的反馈。

It must be anonymous.

这必须是匿名的。

I know this from personal experience.

这来自我的个人经历。

Teachers could moderate the channels to make sure feedback was constructive,

老师们可以调节这个通道 以确保这些反馈是建设性的，

as well as helping students learn from it.

同时能帮助学生从中学到东西。

If this work grew burdensome for teachers,

如果这项工作增加了老师的负担，

hierarchical moderation could help,

那么分层调节系统可以帮忙。

which is a system where members themselves can report negative

这个系统可以让成员们 自己报告负面

or abusive comments,

或者辱骂的评论，

and volunteer moderators from among the students could decide

并且学生志愿者版主可以决定

which ones to delete,

删除哪些评论，

with teachers weighing in only when necessary.

老师只在必要的时候介入。

This technique is used in many large, online communities,

这项技术已经被用于 许多大型的网络社区中，

and lots of adolescents are familiar with it.

很多青少年都熟悉它。

Fanfiction is a private universe that’s become a welcoming community,

同人小说从一个私人宇宙 变成了一个热情的社区，

particularly for those from marginalized groups.

特别是对于那些 来自边缘化群体的人来说。

This vast and vibrant resource

它为那些有话想要说的孩子们

for kids who have something to say

所提供的庞大而充满活力的资源，

is especially meaningful to me

对我来说特别有意义。

when I contrast it with the isolation I encountered

尤其是当我将它与 作为一个在美国长大的拉丁裔的我

growing up Latina in the US.

所遭遇到的孤立进行对比时。

And sometimes

有时，

I wonder what would have been different in my own life,

我很好奇如果我 以及其他很多的人，

and maybe in many other people’s lives,

在孩童时代也能接触到

if only we could have access to this supportive community

这种由数百万青少年 所组成的互助型的社群，

of millions of young people

以及他们的分布式指导制度，

and their distributing mentoring

我们的生活

as kids.

会有什么不同。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause and cheers)

（掌声和欢呼声）