Unfinished Business

I think Lunenfeld's discussion of how new media encourages "unfinished" is really interesting.

I know I encounter it a lot in fandom. Books like Harry Potter have an entire world beyond the actual written text. People continue the stories between books (There are a few hundred "Book Seven"s online). They also rewrite the books with a twist - I've read stories where the Sorting Hat doesn't listen to Harry's request not to be in Slytherin, and famously (well, internet-famously) some Harmonians, fans who think Harry and Hermione should have gotten together, rewrote book Six by taking the text of the book and just changing any scene where Hermione and Ron get closer to getting together into either Harry/Hermione scenes or Hermione encouraging Ron to stay with Lavender.

Some authors are fighting this trend - Anne Rice is fully against the idea of fanfic and her lawyers send cease and desist letters to any archive that has stories based on her characters. Others embrace this new way for fans to interact with the work - J. K. Rowling likes fan fiction and online communities about the stories (though she cannot officially allow it for copyright reasons).

The continuation of the fan base online can allow for new projects. Firefly, a series on Fox that was cancelled after half a season, got a big screen movie. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is now being continued in a comic series.

I just think it's really interesting that where series were only "unfinished" if it was a series, made up of "finished" books, except for a few fans who went to conventions or wrote stories for fanzines, but now the internet has allowed for an extended community of people who extend the stories beyond the official end.