Skins (Haefner)

## Introduction

This semester in HUM211 we explored the definition of literature. We challenged the traditional viewpoint of literature as an acclaimed and respected novel. Plato was concerned with the shift from oral literature to written literature. He was concerned that words could not argue or clarify themselves. When things are printed, they are trapped in that static location, unmoving, according to Ong. With every change of the way literature is shown and expressed there is a resistance. It started with Plato in *Phaedus*. Currently, there is a shift from tangible text to electronic text. This is exemplified currently, in this interchange we are having in this writing. Further it is exemplified in the use of e-readers and other forms of electronic literature. Throughout this course we explored and challenged the definition of literature. We explored electronic literature and electronic poetry juxtaposed against traditional literature and poetry. In this project we are going to explore the stories of teenagers traversing through live juxtaposed with the story of the HUM211 course traversing the semester.

We began our journey concerned with literature and the use of online resources. Organizations like the NEA are concerned with the decline of Americans that are reading literature. However, they have a very strict definition of literature, including novels almost exclusively. The NEA is ignoring the increase in the use of technology to view literature. People are now trading in books for e-readers or other forms of electronic books. Electronic literature, like *My Body* does not have a way to read through it. It does not have a beginning and an end. The reader experiences the literature in a new and interesting way. The way the reader traverses through the parts of the work directly influences the way that the reader interprets the text.

We spent a lot of time exploring the way readers can interpret texts. While reading Dracula we explored the use of media in the interpretation of literature. The medium is the message. When reading Dracula, the reader feels as though they are reading the personal thoughts of the characters and they are being invasive. This is a neat use of different ways of media delivery. Further, we explored other media forms. One of which is the use of film and images to portray the message. This broadened our definition of literature to film. Through film a viewer can get intimate details of characters that they cannot get from simply reading. This is a unique experience to film. Film allows the viewer to see body language and other information that a novel cannot display without bias. The bias of personal experience is a very important thing to take into account when viewing information from a singular source. While reading Dracula, the only information about Dracula we had was provided by Johnathan, this causes lots of bias and disbelief in the reader. Why should the reader believe that Dracula is bad? Why does one opinion and story carry so much weight?

From film we extended into electronic media. We talked about Electronic Literature and Electronic Poetry.Electronic poetry combines sound, images, and text to form an experience, similar to film. This experience evokes an emotional response, and is then considered poetry. Works like *White-Faced Bromeliads on 20 Hectares* challenges the reader to experience the text as text. *White-Faced Bromeliads on 20 Hectares* has a block of text that changes a line every so often. It is almost impossible for the reader to access all of the lines of the story and so they are trapped in a loop rereading line after line. This work was particularly difficult to deal with. This course challenged the definition of literature and this work was hard to accept as literature.

The main concepts we dealt with in class were remediation, reader opinions, and communities. Remediation has many definitions through the development of technology. The development of new technologies make users nostalgic of older technologies. This nostalgia can be examplified by people who still use vinyl records, though the mp3 exists. We explored reader opinions when we discussed Dracula. Since, as a class, we all had different opinions about the validity of each narrator opinions. Online communities have united readers. With the advances in internet technologies, fans now have an easy and simple way to connect across the globe and share their ideas.

We will discuss these main class points in reference to the British television show Skins. "Skins is a British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England through the two years of sixth

form. The show is known for its controversial plotlines, exploring issues such as dysfunctional families, personality disorders, eating disorders, mental illness, homosexuality, and death." Due to the controversial nature of the show it has a large following online. The online community of Skins discusses plot points and character development. They also argue about things that happened that they believe are not fair to the characters. Further, most fan communities, they create art and fan fiction. The nature of this project is going to lead to spoilers, apologies. These fan communities have brought the show to life. If left as flashes on the screen, like words on a page the characters would be trapped and static. The viewership has brought life into the characters, continued their stories, and cherished their memory.

## Knowledge Communities

We discussed knowledge communities in class as a way that reader communities assimilate information about their collective subjects. This phenomena was displayed in *Spoiling Survivor*. In *Spoiling Survivor* the author discusses the extreme measures that fans of the show Survivor went to to try and figure out who was going to get "voted off the island". The community would look at satellite photographs of the camps, hotel records, and would speculate. The community would assimilate this information and as a result, the group was smarter than any individual at figuring out who was about to be kicked off. The group assimilation of data is a very useful one. With the use of online technologies, online communities can document and collect all of their information across the globe. Conversations that used to be with friends, are now shared across the world with strangers.

There are several viewer communities for Skins. There is a wikia, countless tumblr fan accounts and dozens of fan forums. These are each locations for fans to join together and share their love, opinions, and thoughts. None of these outlets would be available without the internet.

   With the show Skins, the viewer community focuses almost solely on opinions. Since Skins is controversial, the community spends most of its efforts sorting through the drama that happens in each episode. There is a forum for each season, where viewers discuss their opinions. The community has also extended to outlets like yahoo answers. Each episode in a season focuses on the story of a singular character, and the finale focuses on everybody's story. With this form, Skins leaves a lot of story lines open. Viewers come together to try and figure out what happens with characters. Subsequent episodes sometimes include hints and allusions towards character's stories. The community has pieced this information together. They use fan fiction to fill, where there are gaps.

## Remediation

We discussed remediation in class as a way that the readers deal with the text that is presented. The medium is the message. Therefore the way the story is shown in Skins is the story. The filming of the series is a very raw an natural way to film. It uses natural angles, which make the viewer feel like they are a fly on the wall in the situations. Which is similar to how the use of journals in Dracula make the reader feel like they are a part of the story. This is a unique aspect of the series.

There are many fan communities surrounding Skins. Fans create art, fan fiction and theorize about unfinished story lines. The fan art is generally bad. However, it is fan created and there is something noteworthy there. It is impressive that a show can inspire so much art and conversations.

The story of Skins is crude and unforgiving at times, these fan outlets play on those events. There are fan fiction stories that continue the love stories of characters, and fan art that crudely plays along. There is also fan made works that undo events that continue stories as if tragedies didn't happen.

### Emily and Naomi

The most notable relationship within Skins is between Emily and Naomi. The relationship on screen between Emily and Naomi, in Skins fashion, is very dramatic and hectic. They are plagued by the Romeo and Juliet conflict, the stigma against homosexual relationships, and their strong personalities. Their story is stunted due to a medical tragedy, to avoid spoilers. They are known by fans as Naomily.

Fans have taken their story and continued it with their own imaginations. There is a community on fanfiction.net on which users post their fanfictions about this story. Most of the stories are crude. This is a common theme in fanfiction. A collection of fanfiction about the Twilight stories developed into 50 Shades of Grey, a very crude novel.

## Interpretative Disputes

In reader communities there are interpretative disputes. Since the medium is the message, the way that each view views the show, leads to a different interpretation of it. These differing opinions lead to arguments and debates. Thanks to the technological advances of the internet, reader communities can use online forums to discuss their opinions and thoughts. This is a double edged sword. There are going to be "trolls" that encourage a fight or spam threads with unrelated material.

Within the Skins viewer communities there are disputes about the continued story lines of characters. Skins cycles characters every few seasons, to new characters. They have revisited or alluded to different story lines in a final season, meant to wrap up loose ends.

Viewers were enraged when a beloved character, Freddie McClair was suddenly killed off at the end of a season. The viewers created forum posts trying to justify the killing. The only reason the community could arrive at is that the writers killed him off for an increase of viewership during the next season. Viewers raised such a stink about the unjust character ending, that the writers issued a formal apology.

### Unfinished Story Lines

Viewers are upset about several of the unfinished story lines. One of which the viewers are particularly upset about is the story line of Tony Stonem. Tony is a beloved character from the first season. He has a tragic accident at the end of the second season, and looses brain function. There are several viewer theories about his recovery. One of the main theories is that he never recovered.

An odd thing about Tony's story is that his sister Effy is a main character in the following seasons. She she does not mention her brother, except in a recall of the accident to a psychologist. This and other evidence has been assimilated and debated by the viewer communities. A full collection of evidence supporting the theory has been posted on Fan Forum. The user who posted this information has sorted through seasons of thoughts. It is an impressive theory. As a fan of the show, I do hope that Tony made a full recovery. But, the evidence here supports, almost conclusively that he did not.

## References

1. ↑ Course Readings: Phaedus
2. ↑ HUM211 Course Readings
3. ↑ Course Packet: Reading at Risk
4. ↑ *My Body*
5. ↑ White-faced Bromeliads On 20 Hectares
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Course Presentation: Remediation
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 https://www.fanfiction.net/tv/Skins/
8. ↑ Course Readings:Spoiling Survivor
9. ↑ http://skins.wikia.com/wiki/Main\_Page
10. ↑ https://answers.yahoo.com
11. ↑ Class Presentation:Mediation
12. ↑ http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/skins/answers
13. ↑ http://fanlore.org/wiki/Skins
14. ↑ http://www.fanforum.com