Two weeks ago, I went to a sold out X-Men 3 show in Brooklyn. When a trailer for Snakes on a Plane came on, the crowd went nuts. I'm hoping it will be one of those cheesy pictures that skinny boys with glasses love to immortalize--a Rocky Horror Picture Show for my kids to watch 20 years from now.
Today I stopped by media guru Henry Jenkins' new website. The MIT professor took the discussion into territory that we can appreciate, talking about Snakes on a Plane fans:
"[T]hey've created all kinds of bad art -- like this or this or this. Check out this site, Snakes on a Blog, which documents the wild world of fan appropriations surrounding this film. This also reflects the growing ability of media consumers to archive, appropriate, and recirculate media content."
James Joyce had the same kind of relationship (serious as we Joyce fans want to seem) with armies of readers that write books about his books, stage readings of his work, and follow his imaginary characters through Dublin.
Now, writers can build these projects on a whole new scale. The Publishing Spot is dedicated to figuring out how fledgling writers can build relationships with web readers.
Still, my interactive story didn't work out so well, and it's time to ask for your help with an open-ended question: How can writers harness this crazy interactivity with readers?
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