/ARTS WEEKLY/CHILE:
Talented Young Writer Catapulted by Fanfic on Harry Potter
Gustavo González
SANTIAGO, Jan 15 (IPS) - A 21-year-old journalism student Francisca
Solar, from Chile, published her own version of the sixth part of the
Harry Potter saga on-line in Spanish, and more than 11,000 visits to the
web site and the interest of a major publishing house have shown
that "fanfics" can help catapult a young and talented writer's career.
Solar's "Harry Potter y el ocaso de los altos elfos" (Harry Potter and
the Decline of the High Elves) is fanfic, short for "fan-fiction", a term
used for novels, short stories, scripts or poetry that are based on
popular TV shows, movies or books.
Fanfic is not written for profit, but merely for the enjoyment of other
fans, and copyright on the characters and the settings that are borrowed
is owned by the originator (the author of the book or the production
company or studio that produces the TV programme or movie).
Like other popular books or movies, the five books on Harry Potter,
the boy wizard, written since 1998 by Scottish writer Joanne K. Rowling
(the sixth is scheduled to come out in July 2005), have generated
enormous amounts of fan-fiction.
But the 756-page book published on-line by Solar, a redhead in her
second-to-last year of journalism studies at the University of Chile, has
stood out within the world of fan-fiction, because according to many of
her readers, her writing is actually of higher literary quality than
Rowling's books.
Solar, the second of five siblings, was educated in private English
language religious schools in Chile. She is a member of Hogwarts-Chile,
the biggest Harry Potter fan club in this South American country of 16
million. Through the club, she linked up with fans all over the world,
via e-mails and chat rooms.
"In 2003, relatives who live in the United States sent me the fifth
Harry Potter book in English. It arrived here four days after its
release. I read it in 19 hours. I didn't eat, I didn't sleep - and I
didn't like it," the young woman told IPS.
"The disappointment was so great that I assembled in my mind all of the
gaps, everything that I found was badly handled, that was not explained
well, and somehow I put together in my mind the way it should have been
and how it could be fixed in the next book," Solar recalled.
The result of this undertaking was the 33-chapter "Harry Potter and the
Decline of the High Elves", which was put on-line in instalments through
June 2004, drawing a wave of praise and enthusiastic e-mails from Chile,
Spain, Mexico and other countries.
"I am delighted that my book is of such quality that it has been
compared to the original. I started to write it as just another story in
the fan-fiction category, which are writings not aimed at making profits,
and which start out with a clear recognition of the original author's
copyright, in a statement that says 'these characters are not mine, I am
not earning any money from this, blah, blah, blah'," said Solar.
"I wrote it because I like writing and I find it relaxing. I didn't
have any ambition or ideas for the future. The story just began to take
off and word started to get around that it was a good story, and it began
to grow. It was completely accidental, I would have never thought, never
planned that it could have taken on such dimensions," added the
journalism student.
A big publishing house based in Spain told its representatives in
Chile to contact Solar with the initial intention of publishing the book.
But around Christmas they gave up on that plan, when their lawyers
informed them about the strict copyright that protects Rowling's books.
The only way to publish the book would have been to change the names
of the characters, places and all references that identify it with the
Harry Potter books - a proposition that the young Chilean writer turned
down flat, as "The Decline of the High Elves" would not make any sense if
it were not set in the world of Harry Potter.
Nevertheless, the publishing house is holding onto Solar's manuscript
as a treasure, and has expressed an interest in reading other work
written by her.
In March, she may sign a contract to publish a detective novel she is
writing, which could give rise to two more books, as part of a trilogy
based on the same characters.
Solar's main inspiration has been Agatha Christie, the legendary
British mystery writer (1890-1976). She is also a fan of crime writers
like Thomas Harris ("The Silence of the Lambs") or John Grisham ("The
Jury", "The Client").
"Agatha Christie is one of the writers from whom I have taken examples,
techniques to follow. In some ways, she reflects what I want to do, the
continuous sense of suspense and surprise. One of the reasons that I write
is because I read a lot and while I am reading I anticipate what is
coming. I don't like that because I see literature becoming more and more
predictable," she said.
A compulsive reader, Francisca has not stopped reading since she
learned how at the age of three. As a student at the Compañía de María
primary school, she was sent to frequent sessions with a psychologist, as
she was seen as a withdrawn girl, always taking refuge in her books and
not interacting with her classmates.
"I have been writing all my life. In high school I once wrote a kind of
Corín Tellado (popular Spanish-language romance writer) style serial, on
notebook paper. I wrote one chapter and it was passed throughout my entire
class, and my classmates commented on it and asked me for the next
chapter, and the various chapters were handed from class to class. Those
were my first 'publications', when I was 14 years old," she recalled.
During her last year of primary school, she won a writing contest about
stories related to science with a paper on Galileo Galilei, and in the
Sagrado Corazón de las Monjas Inglesas secondary school, she won first
prize in another contest, with a story about a drug addict.
Her fanfic on Harry Potter was her only incursion into the world of
fantasy,but she believes that her fondness for the unpredictable also has
to do with magic, "because all of the detective or mystery novels I write
have to do with the paranormal, the parascientific, that which cannot be
clearly explained."
That was the reason Rowling's books appealed to her, because they
involved a "frightened wizard boy of the 20th century, who sees the news
but at the same time escapes from time to time to a reality that we
cannot understand, and I believe that that is like the essence of life.
It has to do with the feeling that God is present everywhere," said the
young writer.
Solar said her love for the unpredictable prevented her from enjoying
reading "The Lord of the Rings", despite finding the film versions of the
famous book by J.R.R. Tolkien entertaining.
"I haven't been able to read Tolkien because I can't stand the way he
writes. He writes in a roundabout manner, taking many detours and beating
around the bush. He provides overly extensive descriptions of action
scenes, characters and places, which ruin the pace in my opinion," she
said.
With the same rejection of the predictable and stereotypes, she does
not like the Chilean best-selling authors Isabel Allende or Marcela
Serrano. Nor does she enjoy the work of Chilean detective writers Roberto
Ampuero or Ramón Díaz Eterovic.
Solar appreciates Colombian Nobel Literature Prize-winner Gabriel
García Márquez more for his journalistic work than his fiction.
Among Chilean writers, she prefers Hernán Rivera Letelier, the author
of books like "Queen Isabel Sang Rancheras" and "Trains Go to Purgatory".
She also greatly admires Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño, creator of "The
Savage Detectives", who died suddenly in Spain last year.
(END/2005)
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