It Was On Fire When I Laid It Down

by Sylvia Bond
Book Review: In the Hunt: Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural

I’ve always had a problem with books like these, pop culture books that pop up just when a show’s popularity has reached its zenith so as to cash in on that popularity before the opportunity has passed by. In particular, since this book is about the TV show Supernatural, I have to ask where was this book two years ago, when Show could really have used the extra exposure? Nope. The book is cashing in now, just as there’s a season and a half to go, high ratings, and potentially a large audience interested in its contents. I think there’s no helping this, pop culture books are a part of the deal, only the most popular shows get them, and who am I to question the power of Capitalism? Besides which, I’m kind of flattered that they picked Show to make money off of.

The second problem I have is that anyone who would be interested in the contents of this book already knows pretty much what it’s going to say. In the before time, before the internet, being about a fan’s favorite show would have guaranteed sales. However, in the face of Live Journal, Journal Fen, Slash City, Insane Journal, Word Press, et al, this book is not like a watering hole in a desert full of fans desperate for anything about their favorite show. Fans have been saying what this book has to say, to each other, for years. As good as, if not better, and certainly with more passion. And then fans give it away. For free. So why are fans going to buy this book? Just go here or here and you’ll see what I mean. These two sites represent just a small portion of what’s out there.

The third problem I have is that books like these are usually written by non fans, ghost writers, or professionals who are paid to churn these kinds of things out by the handful without ever having seen an episode. As if what fans have to say isn’t just insufficient but almost immaterial. Otherwise, why would a bunch of professors, head shrinkers, and critics suddenly feel the need to step in and contribute at this stage of the game? There’s effrontery in deigning to make comments about a culture or an idea that one has not participated in.

To this publisher’s credit, however, in addition to the tie-in writer and others who will be moving on once the next flavor of the month hits, this shiny, well-edited book included the essays of three actual fans. In the spring of 2008, Supernatural fans were asked to submit essays as part of a competition. Three winners would be chosen, and would each receive $100 and a copy of the book. Twelve others would get a copy of the book and an honorable mention. Personally I think the entire thing should have been made up of essays written by fans, because who would know more about a show than its fans, and I’m going to stick to that, even though I figure that among the other writers at least some of them are fans. Although it’s hard to tell who as more than half seem to be pro writers who’ve never seen an actual ep.

I read the little bios at the end of each essay and made a judgment call based on that as to whether or not the contributor was a fan. Then I went back and actually read the essays, and compared that with my initial impression of each contributor, and I’m thinking I was right 90% of the time. Maybe it’s terrible of me to judge a book by the fannish component, but there you go. And here we go.

Keith R.A. DeCandido. He’s not a fan. I doubt he’s ever even seen, let alone enjoyed, more than one or two episodes. Sure he’s written two novelizations about Show. But according to the few fans who shelled out and actually read them (I did neither), his books are not just pale imitations, but ghostly-pale, see-through, not-very-good imitations of the real thing. Namely fan fiction, any example of which by its very essence of pure passion and love could kick anything DeCandido could write all over the map. Yeah, his books have Sam and Dean and the Impala in them, but his characters are talking heads and rolling wheels only. Fans have complained long and loud about why this guy gets to write novelizations when True Fans are writing better, more true-to-character, more passionate stories every day (more than 50,000 at this point), and I for one echo their complaints. For this book, he wrote the Forward, whoopitdy do.

Tanya Huff is one of the few names that I recognize. Ms. Huff is a well-respected, well known sci-fi/fantasy writer, who is, in my book, right up there with Anne McCaffrey and Joan D. Vinge. The fact that her bio says that she would give a kidney to be able to write for Show (and I hope she gets her chance) tells me that she’s a True Fan. She also comes across as the one big name among the lot, acting rather like an anchor store at a strip mall; they’re lucky to have gotten her contribution. Her essay reads a little like a college research paper with all the in-text references and the somewhat stilted structure, but she’s got her ducks in a row talking about how John Winchester is, at the same time, a good dad and a bad dad who did the best he could.

Dodger Winslow is definitely a True Fan and a big John Winchester fan. She’s well known in fandom for her verbose (and very interesting) meta discussions, as well as for her in-depth and deliciously long stories. (She still hasn’t finished Skin Deep, what’s up with that?!) I’m glad they included her essay; she’s always got something interesting to say. Hers is a smooth and polished essay about the difference between self-perception and reality. Or, to put it in context, how we (as viewers ) relate to Sammy because he seems so much like us, but how there’s Dean in us too, that we don’t even realize. Or how we would much rather be Dean than Sammy. (Sometimes it takes a glass of wine to settle me down to get inside what she’s trying to tell me, but I love reading Dodger’s stuff.)

Randall M. Jensen. He’s a Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, and because he’s a professor, he writes about various subjects, but only those that are going to contribute to his gaining tenure. Sorry, but it’s true. He’s not a fan. His essay turned out to be in keeping with that, dense and dry and scholarly, and not a whole lot of fun to read. He seemed to focus on how his ivory tower theories of the horror genre (with many quotes and scholarly references) related to Show, and the whole thing felt distant and left me cold.

Gregory Stevenson says he’s a Professor of Religion and Greek at Rochester College in Michigan. See earlier snarky comment about professors. It just takes a lot of hubris to come marching in with that official badge of professorship to a community that’s been growing strong for years without any validation at all. Thusly, he’s not a fan. His essay turned out to be scholarly as well, like a dull, re-worked college paper about “Why We Love Being Scared,” with the words Supernatural, Sam, and Dean thrown in for good measure.

Rev. Dr. Avril Hannah-Jones. Wow. Talk about a title. She’s ordained, fer crying out loud. But based on the fact that she’s an essay contest winner as well as her stated love for Dean Winchester, I’d say she’s a True Fan. While I liked the idea of her essay, that the “line between good and evil lies within the human heart,” I found essay itself a little on the choppy side. It was like she was trying to go in too many different directions in an attempt to explain how Judeo-Christian mythology fits inside of Show in time for the commercial break.

Robert T. Jeschonek wrote some stories for the classic anthology entitled Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. That he’s written for other pop culture anthologies tells me he’s not a fan and that when this well has run dry, he’ll have moved on to the next flavor of the month. However, even though he’s probably not a True Fan, I enjoyed his essay that posited that Sam and Dean are the two main monsters on Supernatural, and then how he went on to explore that at more depth. He stuck to one idea, and worked it through. At the same time, I kept wondering why he kept using all those ellipses. I’d not seen that many since I read Marilyn Ross’s Dark Shadows series. (Barbara Cartland used to use them, too, in her romance books. She was Princess Diana’s step-grandmother, don’t you know.)

Tanya Michaels writes about Dean Winchester like she knows him (and with deep affection), so I’d say she’s a True Fan. Which is proven true by her essay, a funny and insightful exploration of a Dean who is as much, if not more of a caregiver than he is an ass kicker. She’s got the inside scoop on what makes Dean tick, and she referenced episodes without being all dusty and ivory tower about it.

Amy Garvey. The very fact that she wants to buy an Impala (and who doesn’t?) tells me she’s a True Fan. Which shows through every sparkling word of her essay, a fun-to-read and fan-affirming piece that demonstrates not only her understanding of the characters and Show, but her talent in writing down what’s in her head in an engaging and interesting way.

Sheryl A Rakowski is an essay contest winner so thusly a True Fan as well as self-titled Supernaturalphile. I love that about her and I don’t even know her. Her essay is a rather deep and dense piece about Dean’s role as the sacrificial care-giver, and how the fact that the boys need each other is both a strength and a weakness, but it’s done so well, that I got far inside of it before I knew what was happening. Her yen for written expression should be encouraged. (And I’m not just saying that just because we both came to love Show in 2007, which is very late by fannish standards.)

Mary Borsellino says she’s a writer who likes to stay up past her own bedtime. Has also done interviews with the cast and crew of Show, so I’d say she’s a True Fan. At the same time, her essay was a little bit all over the map, incessantly trying to connect elements of Buffy to characters in Supernatural, claiming that any horror show that is post-Buffy, must, as a matter of consequence, be riding on the shoulders of a giant. Hate to put out your candle there, but I’ve never actually watched Buffy, only heard tell of it, so the comparison was lost on me, as well as coming across as rather forced and pushy. Plus, the subtitle of this essay was “Supernatural’s Excluded Heroines,” yet the essay also talked about Gordon, and John, and Caleb, and never seemed to come to any real conclusion about anything.

Jacob Clifton is an Austin novelist who also writes for Television Without Pity (TWOP), a wesbsite that typically rips Show apart without mercy, so I’d say not a fan. His essay also included many Buffy references, and hey, Joss Whedon RULES, right, but enough is enough. Yet. At the same time, this essay got to the heart of the matter about how Show takes masculine tropes of action and drama and puts them inside of a dreamy, feminized landscape, which was a new idea for me. Nicely done.

Carol Poole is a psychotherapist who got her MA from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria, California. Her bio indicates that she’s one of those writers who seems to pick up on the next best thing and write about just to makes sure she gets enough published articles for tenure, so, not a fan. However, her essay, which was an in-depth exploration of the elements of the Pilot ep and how the fact that Mary Winchester, mother extraordinaire, burned to death on the ceiling 22 years before set into motion the never-ending journey of saving people, hunting things, was pretty good

Emily Turner works with the Order for Transformative Works (OTW), which, if you didn’t know, is the first large-scale, all inclusive project that aims to collect and protect the works of all fans everywhere. This woman is a TRUE FAN. Just check out their website. I thought her essay was the grittiest of the lot, taking on important fannish subjects that you only get glimpses of around corners when no one is looking, namely slash, wincest, homoeroticism, and the idea that Sam and Dean’s transgressions of living off the grid allow fans to do likewise when creating fanworks.

Jamie Chambers is the guy who’s writing the RPG for Supernatural. I hate to say this, but anything he’s going to come up with for the role playing game is not going to match what’s in fans’ heads when they read and write fan fiction. I don’t think he’s a fan, but, surprisingly, I did like his essay about the romance of poverty that is rife in Supernatural.

Heather Swan is a writer of lots of things, but not a fan, I think. And I thoroughly did not like her essay built of overly-constructed, meant-to-be clever faux letters and memos. It was messy and contrived, to boot.

Jules Wilkinson does a lot including working on the fan site supernaturalwiki.com, which is where I go to get the info I need, I can’t tell you how many times. You don’t work on something this comprehensive unless you’re a True Fan. Plus, she talked about the Impala incessantly (which I adored), waxing poetic about black metal and the history of the car and how it connects with the Winchester’s history; her essay is more than an essay, it’s a paean to Metallicar.

Mary Fechter admits to being currently obsessed with Supernatural, but not in the next-flavor-of-the-month kind of way. I’d say she’s a serial monogamist and True Fan. Her essay proves this out. It’s about the Impala and Dean and Sam and everything cool as she relates them all together.

Tracy S. Morris’ bio makes her come across as a writer who seems to be more interested in being clever than being a fan. However, admittedly, I enjoyed her essay about the Colt as a magic object and metaphor for John Winchester’s journey very much, and laughed out loud more than once.

Amy Brener wrote about Gordon Walker, vampire hunter, and for that alone, I can tell she’s a True Fan, because Gordon only appeared in four eps in three seasons, so, you have to be a True Fan to even know he existed. He’s dead now, sadly. Her essay was a grand exploration of Gordon Walker and how he creates a spotlight by which we can better understand Sam and Dean. (But damn those ellipses anyhow.)

Maria Lima writes a lot, has a soft spot for The Trickster (who only appeared in two eps – THUS FAR!), and appears to adore both Sam and Dean equally, so she’s a True Fan. I like how her essay focused on The Trickster, and then explored both eps he was in in depth, and then summarized that Sam and Dean are stronger together than apart, in spite of what The Trickster thinks. This lady knows her stuff, I’d say.

Shanna Swendson writes both contemporary fantasy and contributes to pop culture when the opportunity arises. Probably not a fan. And definitely her essay was on the dry side, slogging its way through a discussion of the legends present in a thick chunk of the episodes from Season 1. Problem is, the legends in Supernatural have already been discussed at length, and much more amusingly, elsewhere.

London E. Brickley is one of three essay contest winners and therefore a True Fan.  I envy her time spent in the Arctic with nothing to do but watch Show and measure penguin poop. Her essay was an interesting discussion about what is truth, and how it might, just might, be found on the internet.

The runners up who got an honorable mention on page 275 are all True Fans, simply by the very fact that they spent time and energy preparing the essays for rejection by a pro publication like this one: Mary F. Dominiak (Bardicvoice), Amanda R. Hauck, Lee. C. Hallman (Gwendolyn Grace), Laura Kilmartin, Samara Jensen, K. Hanna Korossy, Onuma (Anna) Lakamchua, Dawn Nyberg, B.J. Peterson (bjxmas), Michelle Shavlik, Diana Taleski, Shannon Zufer.

The only name I recognize here is K. Hanna Korossy, who not only writes marvelously warm gen fic, but who also writes meta that shoots from the hip in a sharp, smart, concise manner that is entirely readable. The fact that she wasn’t included in the final work means that the essays in the book (especially by non fans) were picked on the basis of being catchy or clever rather than real. Plus, if she’s not in the book, then I question the criteria by which the fan contest essays were judged.

I’m really honored to have been asked to write this review. As a True Fan, I think I was selected to give visibility to this collection of essays about the Show, and perhaps because I am known for being somewhat of a softie when it comes to Show, giving the benefit of the doubt, and preferring to rave rather than criticize. Sadly the publishers didn’t know of my eccentric squick about books like this one.

Sylvia Bond is a ten-year technical writing veteran with too many degrees under her belt to count. She lives in Colorado, but does not ski, preferring instead to spend her money and time at the annual Great American Beer Festival, taking road trips across the United States, and reading historical fiction from the comfort of her fluffy green arm chair. She has been involved in fandom since 1993 and been writing fanfic since approximately 1993. What she finds most amazing about fandom (besides the open heartedness of fans and the sheer amount of creativity) is how visible fandom has become. “In my day,” she says, “we had to hide behind P.O. boxes to get fanfic. But nowadays, people wear t-shirts that shout their affiliation and share their shiny toys on the internet.” It’s a wonderful world.

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