Anthony Fantano's Adventures Within The Fanfiction Community (Contest Entry)

It looked like a normal apartment, with a slightly nerd-like decor. The kitchen was small, with empty packets of Ramen littering the counter tops. Standing in the living room was a massive red shelf containing several dozen vinyls for all genres and decades. Next to it a vinyl disc player. The computer in the living room was a piece of work too. A 35" LCD high definition monitor which boasted a blazing fast speed and wireless keyboard and mouse. Sitting in front of this computer, furiously hammering on his keyboard keys, was Anthony Fantano.

Anthony found himself in this particular day engrossed in a favorite past time of his quite recently...reading Fanfiction. Most of the time he wouldn't read anything of the sorts, finding them to be quite 'strange' and the majority of them 'perverted'. On this occasion, he was more in the mood to read some under the 'music' section. This was one of those days.

He started off reading some 'Kanye West', the majority of which were poking fun at his massive ego. He couldn't argue with them. There was a time when Anthony saw great potential for Kanye with his albums The Collage Dropout, Late Registration and Graduation. Ever since 808 and Heartbreak thought, he's lost faith, and now considers him nothing more than an egotistic maniac with nothing left to rap about now that he's married but the fact that he's black.

He scrolled up to the top of the website, but this time was shocked to discover a new category right above the original 'AC-DC' spot he was so used to seeing. It was a new section, one that seeming sprung up and yet it filled Anthony with wonder.

Anthony Fantano (theneedledrop)

He was confused at first, mainly due to why he; a music REVIEWER was in an artist section. But then another came to mind. "What could people possibly write about me?" he scoffed, "It's ridiculous!" And to see just how ridiculous it in fact was, he clicked the category anyway to see what stories there were to read. The description of the very first story filled him with an indignant puzzlement.

"BATTLE OF AGES - The Needle Drop do battle with their greatest foe ever - Pewdiepie!"

"Felix?!" He sneered with confusion "Why would I fight him he's great, I don't hate him in any way, and he's a gamer!" he added "Let's see what else this place has to offer..."

"FORBIDDEN PASSION - What happens when Anthony spends Valentines Day with the love of his life? Rated M for graphic love scene!"

"Hmm...might have to save that one for later..."

After an hour more of these, Anthony payed back in his chair, taking in everything he just read.

Why do people do this? Many of these people were VERY talented with brilliant grammar. Why would they waste it on creating fiction like this?

"Why do you spend your life listening to music?" A voice in his head said

"Because it expands my mind. It paints a picture with sounds on people's idealistic POVs about pop culture, society etc" he replied

"We'll so do these." The voice said "They paint pictures with WORDS instead of sounds."

"But it's not their views, it's about other people!" Anthony argued

"Ahhh but they are" it replied "That's the point of fanfiction; to take existing content or events and ADDING your own views. Honestly, you should be honoured that people choose to include you"

Anthony thought about it for awhile. And the voice was right. Like Death Grips, or Swans, they were just expressing themselves in a fashion that only few people understood. He did understand though, he was thankful for these people, taking time out of their precious time on Earth to dedicate something to him. He was greatfull, because in its own way, fanfiction is its own art. It's own song.

The end