Genre is a big problem in literary theory. It's as big a problem in literary theory as it is in music. There's a level of constraint in how readers and critics approach a work when terms of designation are introduced. By introducing these terms, there's an element of expectation and the potential for complaints when a work doesn't form itself using all the expected elements. Playing the "what if" game is a staple of science fiction. If SF is "what if," then maybe fantasy is "only if." Stories in the world of Literature come about from asking "what if" and then thinking, "now only if," but present the finding in different ways, modes that reflect the same world as the reader. This is the contingency that keeps literature from becoming sci-fi or fantasy. That notion confuses genre when a reader isn't foreign to or othered by the worlds of the book. But it's possible to read a science fiction book that seems so plausible in its futurist notions that there's no need for suspension of disbelief.
This suggests that genre can be as much a temporal construct as it is a form to build upon. An example would be a point in humanity's future where the problems presented in a work such as Philip K. Dick's, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," manifest themselves from a natural progression in humanity: If, in the next 100 years, humanity creates artificial intelligence while letting the environment continue to degrade to the point where acid rain gets caustic, plant life struggles to maintain and animal life follows to the point of extinction, the world of Androids would not be so fantastic but realistic. This is to say, if the predictions in a Science Fiction work of the past manifest, the work becomes a reflection of the present in the same way a work of contemporary literature does. A scientific analog would be when a theory turns into a law of physics after being proven correct. While a theory at the time of inception, it develops into something else, a law, without a single change occurring to its makeup.
Asking "what if" does not always create science fiction. It may be the cornerstone in the genre, but it's also the cornerstone of Fan Fiction, a genre that can't help but open a can of worms that each have their own tinier can. It is a genre that exists as an extension of previously published works, characters that someone else fleshed out and created. While it may not be considered Fan Fiction, Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea won several literary awards even though it exists as a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen takes several characters from the annals of genre fiction, such as Captain Nemo, the Invisible Man and many others, and puts them in a Victorian setting where technology grew faster than it historically did. Is League now a steampunk book because of these elements or is it a work of fan fiction because it's the product of a person building something with other people's characters? Or, is League something else entirely because it takes existing characters and puts them together in a new world, an alternate England? But Moore is a creator with a very distinct tone, present when he writes Watchman or WildC.A.T.S. This begs the question of whether or not Moore has the right to be called an auteur, the word that seems to be the answer a lot of people (academics) use when trying to solve the problem of genre. While auteur is properly designated to filmmakers and cinematic criticism, it has been applied to all forms of artists that create a body of work that suggest the creation of an entirely new genre.
Before we go on, let's take a look at an entry for Fan Fiction provided by Dictionary.com:
noun
a fictional account written by a fan of a show, movie, book, or video game to explore themes and ideas that will not or cannot be explored via the originating medium[...]
According to the definition, both Wide Sargasso Sea and League are fan fiction. Both books take previously created characters out of the (cold dead) hands of the original creators and puts them into the hands of fans to tell different stories. With League, the use of Dr . Jekyll/Mr. Hyde could even be seen as bringing a character back to life since the original work suggested the character was dead... though by the words of an untrustworthy narrator, the town drunk. According to the definition, most super hero comics are also fan fiction, as are all Star Trek and X-Files novels. By the definition, every issue of Spider-Man and X-Men not written by Stan Lee is also fan fiction, as are all non Bob Kane Batman stories. This shows franchise as something that has a life blood of fan fiction.
But fan fiction can't be seen as a genre. While a science fiction novel can, in time, no longer appear to represent an alternative once the theories are proofs, thus seem more like literature, fan fiction seems more like an original story only after the original text is lost to the people reading it. How many readers know that Family Matters, (the actual name of the Urkle show), is a spin-off (thus a fan fiction) of Perfect Strangers? Never hear of Perfect Strangers? That's the point. This shows fan fiction to be something as fluid and personal as language (colloquialisms), a way to recreate things to make them relevant, keep them alive. When looking at fan fiction this way, it's easy to view it as a force of literary memetics. As long as the ideas behind the characters, what they stand for, is relevant, more fan fiction will come of it. But, the second it becomes old hat, it turns into cultural fodder or gets stored in the memory of the readers and their computers.
Fan Fiction is truly the reincarnation of the imagination. While the proliferation of fan fiction may owe a lot to the internet, it does so poetically. If the internet does become some sort of common ground, where everyone shares ideas and creations for free (like I'm doing right now --screw you academia!), our forms of entertainment may become quality works that do more than blur the line between the entertainer and the fan, they may erase the line altogether.
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