Article:
Beyond the Coffee Shop: Fan Community, Critique, and Conversation through Good Omens Alternate Universe Fan Fiction

Author(s): Cremonese, Kara

Abstract

This article explores alternate universe (AU) fan fiction as a critique of plot, characterization, and the queer narrative through close reading and analysis of AU fan works in the Good Omens fandom. I argue that if we examine the trend of AU fan fiction within a specific fandom, we can see the kinds of conversations fans are having with each other, how they are connecting and communicating, and, perhaps most interestingly, how fans examine or critique the plot and characterization of canon works and create an ongoing conversation by changing the circumstances of the original texts. Writer Neil Gaiman and director Douglas Mackinnon’s 2019 television series, Good Omens—the first season of which is an adaptation of Gaiman’s 1990 novel with Terry Pratchett—is intentionally adapted as a love story between the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley, who must work together to find the missing antichrist and avert the Apocalypse. The main characters are canonically nonbinary but present as masculine and genderfluid, so their relationship is by its nature queer, and the storyline can be interpreted as a coming-out narrative. AU fan fiction often takes this a step further in making the characters human and emphasizing the lived experiences of queer men, closeted or otherwise. AU authors maintain this and other conversations with their readers by telling the same story in new ways. AU fan fiction may also create an avenue for the fan community to revisit beloved characters whose stories have concluded without rehashing known storylines, as was the case with Good Omens fans before a second season was announced. Collected via autoethnography, the fan works analyzed in this article demonstrate several ways fan authors communicate analysis of the plot and characterization of the Good Omens television series (and, by extension, the Good Omens novel) within the fan community.

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BibTex
Cremonese, Kara: Beyond the Coffee Shop: Fan Community, Critique, and Conversation through Good Omens Alternate Universe Fan Fiction. In: Fandom | Cultures | Research. Online Journal for Fan and Audience Studies, Jg. 1 (2024), Nr. 1, S. 26-38. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/23325.
@ARTICLE{Cremonese2024,
 author = {Cremonese, Kara},
 title = {Beyond the Coffee Shop: Fan Community, Critique, and Conversation through Good Omens Alternate Universe Fan Fiction},
 year = 2024,
 doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/23325}",
 volume = 1,
 address = {Marburg},
 journal = {Fandom | Cultures | Research. Online Journal for Fan and Audience Studies},
 number = 1,
 pages = {26--38},
}
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