If Frodo loved Bilbo...

If Frodo loved Bilbo... is an article by John Allemang about fanfiction. 
It appeared in Globe and Mail in November 2002. 
The author interviewed Thamiris who talked about pseudonymity, writing, community, slash, and fanfiction as literature.
The article name-checks Henry Jenkins and the author's research must have included the Foresmutters Project because he refers to numbers that could only have come from that site: "Fan-fiction archivist Mary Ellen Curtin, writing two years ago, offered a very conservative estimate of half-a-million 'fanfic' stories in on-line circulation. The number is far greater now. 'It's a huge literary movement that the official publishing and academic world is largely unaware of,' says Sharon Cumberland of Seattle University." Cumberland is identified as the author of a study about five women who wrote collaborative fiction revolving around characters played by Antonio Banderas.
The article has a strong focus on the legitimacy of the genre and is fairly positive, even if it gets some things wrong. For example, it mentions that "the genre's leading Web site, fanfiction.net, has recently banned the more salacious forms of sexual storytelling known as slash (after the oblique line that separates the two partners in a coupling)." This probably refers to Fanfiction.net banning NC-17 fanfic which shows that the author conflates explicit fanfic with homoerotic fanfic, a common mistake that outsiders reporting on fandom make. 
However, the article gets many things right as well, such as this good insight into some of the controversial fannish topics at the time: "There are many Web-log discussions about the need for moral boundaries within the on-line free-for-all -- though granted, these tend to be less about avoiding sex than advising against couplings that involve real-life boy-band members or underage screen characters."
==Update to the Article==
The special article was reposted to the Globe and Mail with an update on April 17, 2018. A comparison of the text shows that the only update was the removal of the header/teaser in the original article:
==Fandoms, Fans, and Fanfic==
Fandoms mentioned include Hercules, Smallville, Buffy, AtS, Star Trek, Starsky and Hutch, General Hospital, and Queer as Folk. Strangely enough, given the title of the article, Lord of the Rings isn't mentioned at all. Fanwriter Tara O'Shea is mentioned in connection with the medium's value. 
The article quotes from Thamiris's Sexed-Up Grammar Guide, her Bible slash story In Principio, and several stories by other authors who were not aware that their stories would be excerpted in the article. Some authors were caught off guard by this and there was discussion about it on LiveJournal.merryish comment at: Mary Ellen Curtin called it "something of a journalist landmark, because it's the first story on fanfic/slash I've seen in which stories were quoted wholesale without the authors' permission. Welcome to the Internet, please secure all tray tables and seat backs in the upright and locked position, enjoy your flight." Although the general reception of the article was positive, some fans pointed out that it focuses too much on sex and femslash isn't mentioned at all.Fan Fiction - sizzling and predominately female, posted to the Willow/Tara Kittenboard, 02 December 2002. (Accessed 07 December 2009 and archived in July 21, 2013.)
See many of these comments at Thamiris' LiveJournal (November 30, 2002): Slash in the Candian News, or in the archived comments page number one; number two and number three.
==Fic Excerpts in the Article==
The excerpts in the article are introduced as "a selection of fan fiction, from the steamier end of the spectrum" and were taken from the following stories:
* In Principio by Thamiris (inspired by The Bible)
*Fancy's Hot Fire by Jungle Kitty (inspired by Star Trek)
*The Road Home by Merryish (inspired by Smallville)
*Rite of Passage by Rushlight (inspired by Harry Potter)
*Supple by LaT (inspired by Due South)
*Elizabeth and Darcy by Cassandra (inspired by Pride and Prejudice)
==Excerpts from the Article==
==Reactions and Reviews==
==References==
Category:2002 News Media
Category:Slash News Media 
Category:Lord of the Rings News Media
Category:Fanfiction News Media