So, let’s start off a new year of Fairy Tale Fandom with
something that’s a bit of a mirror image of this blog. We're a fandom take on fairy tales. So, how about a fairy tale take on fandom?
Geekerella is a Young
Adult novel written by Ashley Poston and published by Quirk Books (the same
people who publish stuff like Pride and
Prejudice and Zombies and William
Shakespeare’s Star Wars, naturally) is a “Cinderella” story infused with
the trappings of fandom.
The story follows two perspectives. The first is our Cinderella, a young woman
named Elle Wittimer. Elle is a girl who’s
put upon by her cruel step-mother and two wicked step-sisters. She’s also still recovering from the death of
her father and an attempted romance that ended in a particularly ugly fashion. Her escape and salvation from this is
immersing herself in the low-budget, cult favorite sci-fi show her father (who
was a bit of an uber-geek himself) introduced her to: Starfield.
The other perspective is that of would-be Prince Charming, young
actor Darien Freeman. All of 18 years
old, Darien made his name as a heartthrob on a CW-esque teen drama but has now
landed what would have been his dream role as Prince Carmindor in the
long-awaited Starfield movie. Darien’s
got his own problems though. Namely, his
controlling father/agent, a back-stabbing by a one time friend, his own
insecurities about taking up an iconic role and his own loss of freedom and
privacy that comes with being a celebrity.
Now, here’s where the real romantic comedy stuff kicks
in. It turns out, they don’t like each
other even before they’ve met each other.
Elle has written off Darien as a shallow heartthrob and has expressed
this on her Starfield fan blog in no uncertain terms. This blog post has of course been picked up
by online news sources and proceeded to go viral. Darien has seen the post and has in turn
written off Elle as an angry, reactionary, unflinching fan who will not give
his performance a chance. And yet,
through a case of mistaken identity, the two begin texting each other when each
of them desperately needs a confidante.
Yes, this is pretty much what everyone expects. There are only so many different ways you can
do a retelling of Charles Perrault’s “Cinderella”, especially a modernist
take. Here, it’s really the grace notes
that really make the difference and they’re not even necessarily aspects of the
Cinderella story. Most of them are
issues within the modern world of media fandom.
They touch on the idea of representation. One of the big issues with the casting of
Carmindor in the Starfield reboot is that he was played in the original TV
series by a noteworthy Indian actor.
Fans of the show were apparently wishing desperately for the role to not
end up whitewashed. It’s also why the
role is a big deal to Darien Freeman. Darien
is half-Indian and Carmindor is the first hero he ever saw on TV that looked
like him.
They touch on the negative aspects of fandom. Like fans who take advantage of others or try
to be gatekeepers and keep people out of the community. I’m not going to say much more because that’s
a big part of one of the characters’ arcs.
But probably the thing that I noticed most and which kind of
overlaps both the Cinderella thing and the fandom thing is how Elle acts. Elle isn’t your typical pleasant Cinderella
type. She’s closed off and quick to
judge. She routinely pushes people away
and feels like she can only count on herself.
Her immersion in Starfield is to a large degree a means of escape from
her regular life. Now, I’m not a
psychologist by any means, but a lot of this is what I’d expect someone who
experienced the kind of loss and abuse Cinderella did might react to it. While they don’t get too deep into it, Elle’s
just a little bit broken by her experiences.
But that’s okay because she can do better when she gets out of her own
way, and it doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve better.
Most of the typical Cinderella stuff is there in some
form. The Fairy Godmother is Elle’s
coworker who’s an aspiring fashion designer.
The coach is the food truck The Magic Pumpkin that she works in. The ball is a science fiction convention with
her entrance and her dance with the prince split between two events: a cosplay
contest and a cosplay dance. There’s a
bit of a twist with one of the step-sisters this time. It’s one that’s been done before in other
Cinderella projects but this time there’s a twist to the twist if you know what
I’m saying.
I’m not going to say this is any sort of groundbreaking take
on “Cinderella” because it’s not.
However, it is a lot of fun and moves at a nice brisk pace. I’m not going to say it’s for everyone. If you’re one of the types who gets annoyed
when books or TV shows reference pop culture just for the sake of it, well
there’s some of that in here. I do think
this would make for a nice vacation book or a palate cleanser after reading
something a bit heavier if that’s the kind of thing you’re looking for.
Until next time, live long and prosper, may the Force be
with you and never stop chasing that Happily Ever After. : )
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