We Can Be Heroes

We Can Be How A Generation Harry Potter– Loving, Tv-debating, Fanfic- Writing

- Laurie Penny

PAY ATTENTION TO THE STRUCTURE. That’s one of the first things they teach you when you start writing for television. If you want to tell a decent story, you have to be sure of its shape. You have to be deft and dexterous enough to thread together all the “beats” of the narrative, weaving character development through plot, building the tension toward an ending that feels earned. It’s harder than you might think. It’s also infinitely easier than trying to impose a meaningful structure on the frantic tangle of real life.

This is a story about stories—and the way technology is changing the scope and structure of the stories we tell. Right now, in untelevised reality, we are in the middle of an epic, multiseason struggle over the territory of the human imagination, over whose stories matter and why. For me, it started with fandom. And if I had to tell you how fan culture and technology and politics have threaded together the strands of my small, stained corner of the 21st-century tapestry, if I had to pick an opening scene, it would be this:

BEAT ONE y SPRING 1999

A small, dark room at the back of a big, old house. A door swings shut on the sound of adults shouting, and an ancient modem wheezes to life. A blue screen illuminates the face of a 13-year-old nerd swaddled in self-important self-loathing and a giant black hoodie. She looks back to check that nobody’s coming before she loads up the page she’s looking for. Something private, and sweet, and just a little bit filthy.