We Are Having All Kinds of Fun: Fluidity in Shoebox Project

Abstract

Made public on LiveJournal between 2004 and 2008, Shoebox Project (SBP) is a multimedia fanfic written by ladyjaida and dorkorific. The plot takes place before that of the Harry Potter novels, detailing the last two years of Hogwarts for the Marauders – Remus, Sirius, James, and Peter – conveying its narrative through prose, dialogue, handwritten letters, handwritten notes, pictures, and hand drawn sketches. SBP represents evidence of its authors negotiating of Remus Lupin. Specifically, through the layered processes of reading and writing, dorkorific and ladyjaida interpret and construct their understanding of authorship and their perception of the Potterverse. In so doing, they make clear the inherent fluidity of these concepts. However, despite the fluidity so central to SBP and to its fannish context, ladyjaida and dorkorific also work to actively reiterate binaries around gender, sex, and desire in their construction of Remus and Sirius’s sexuality. The specific content of SBP reflects this: the phrasing, references, and fanart among a myriad of other particularities shape this fluidity or lack thereof. The ways in which dorkorific and ladyjaida engage with the HPfandom through SBP’s content also reflect this. Moreover, their playful engagement with the concepts of reading and writing, authorship, the Potterverse, and desire signal ladyjaida and dorkorific’s masterful engagement with fannish traditions in such a way so as to reaffirm those very same fannish traditions.