While I’m working away on my dissertation, I thought I’d post some of my old presentations. Partly I want to put them somewhere since I didn’t go any further with those only tangentially related to my research, but I also feel this need to remind myself that I have written some interesting things before and so I will make it through this process! So, I’m going to start with this piece that I presented at ICFA in 2015 on the show, Sleepy Hollow (2013-2017), which is no longer in production. I fell deeply in love with this show and then very quickly dropped it — as did many fans — when they dropped Abbie as the main character. What drew me to the show was the urban fantasy element — the supernatural in the everyday world, but I think this was put to the test a bit when they did a crossover episode with the show Bones (2005-2017), which was fully set in the everyday world and, in fact, built on a complete rejection of the supernatural.

I would like to mention a few other things before digging in to this old presentation. First, as mentioned, I presented this in 2015 so the show had not completed its run. Second, I haven’t changed a lot of the writing here and I tend to write my presentations the way I speak so it may read a little weird. Finally, I am Canadian, so when I discuss American history, I’m really speaking to a popular conception of that history that comes from my understanding through experiencing American cultural objects (mostly popular!), but still being in the position of other. Oh, and I’ve uploaded the slideshow at the end because I had difficulty embedding the video clips and images in with the text. It’s not necessary to view it, but there are a few videos that may be interesting to remind you of the show and characters if it’s been awhile since your last rewatch (or if you’ve never seen the show!).

While the television show Sleepy Hollow is an adaptation of the short story by Washington Irving, it is also an adaptation of American history itself (increasingly with season two) with Sleepy Hollow as its setting. This version of the short story includes those recognizable elements of the original such as the headless horseman, the town itself, and the character of Ichabod Crane, though his characterization is considerably different here, and places them in the present. For those who haven’t seen the show, Ichabod is transplanted 250 years from the middle of the Civil war to our present along with the headless horseman. He then pairs up with Lieutenant Abbie Mills as the Witnesses of the Book of Revelations in order to stop Moloch the demon. This “man out of time” narrative allows the show to comment (often comedically) on present day peculiarities such as the proliferation of Starbucks coffee shops, or skinny jeans.

As the show progresses, however, it comments more explicitly on American history — both comedically and not. This commentary works for this show for a number of reasons, from the supernatural genre to the pacing, but it is most successful because of the character of Ichabod Crane.

In Sleepy Hollow Ichabod acts as a Mary Sue (or Marty Stu if you prefer to match genders) and this allows him to comment critically on the state of America and its iconic figures. A Mary Sue character is a trope in fanfiction (though there are a number of representative characters in popular media — most commonly cited is Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation). Mary Sues are essentially perfect. They are better than everyone else in every way: knowledge, skills, innate ability, looks, etc. The original character of Ichabod Crane certainly felt himself superior to all others and was more intelligent in that he was the local teacher. Likewise, other adaptations (namely Tim Burton’s 1999 film) have shown how unusual Crane appears to the inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow for his — what we consider intelligence in that he uses the scientific method — but they consider useless denial of the supernatural. Tom Mison’s portrayal of Crane, however, is so much more than earlier versions of the character. Not only is he intelligent (an Oxford scholar), he also has an eidetic memory (which is extremely useful considering maps and books keep getting destroyed around him, not to mention the multiple century gap between his past and present). He is not exactly adored by all, but he does have an uncanny knack for making people like him — even while continuing to dress as a revolutionary officer in 2015. Most Mary Sue characters are also super beautiful and … well … many fans feel the same way about Tom Mison. Finally though, the character element that makes me see Ichabod Crane as a Mary Sue is his connection to major iconic figures that obviously prove to be most relevant in terms of plot. He has been close personal friends with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin (who he did not like), Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox (of Fort Knox fame), Betsy Ross (there was a brief affair there), and he was involved in the signing of the Declaration of Independence — among other important historical events. While some of this name-dropping happens in the first season, Crane’s connection to such characters intensifies with season 2 — to the point where each episode appears to be focused on Crane’s relationship with one particular character.

Obviously there are relevant reasons the writers may choose to endow Crane with such gifts — his eidetic memory means it isn’t unusual that he can remember exactly what something looked like from 250 years ago, for example, and I have already shown how writers have used Mary Sue-like characters in profic. Given the form of adaptation here though, I’d like to consider this element in terms of its fanfiction construction. Essentially, I want to — for the moment anyway — consider Sleepy Hollow as fanfic (granted, still officially sanctioned fic). Pat Pflieger compares Mary Sues to placeholders in Romance novels: “Despite appearances … readers of romance fiction aren’t identifying with the heroine of the work; their real focus is on the hero, with the heroine holding open a spot in the novel into which the (usually female) reader can slip mentally” (2). Meanwhile, Sheenagh Pugh suggests a link to “chick lit” in that “Criticism of the genre has focused not only on its fluffiness but on the fact that it acts as a mirror rather than a window, reflecting the lives of its readers and writers rather than showing them other lives” (85). (Interesting to note that both make use of traditionally female-dominated literary genres — I would suggest that the claims about the use of first-person in urban fantasy and paranormal romance also fit here as newer Mary Sues often follow that style). While viewers of Sleepy Hollow — female anyway — are not likely to be imagining themselves directly in Ichabod Crane’s place in the same way as they may with a female placeholder in romance, I think both of these quotations highlight something that does happen with the character of Ichabod Crane. Viewers are given the opportunity to put themselves in the position of someone who has literally (within the story world) lived through history. By relaying his (mostly comedic versions of) historical figures and moments — usually through flashbacks, Crane invites viewers to join him in the moment. Likewise, because these moments and people are shown realistically (that is, with flaws), viewers can appreciate them as they would any other filmic moment. In this way, the Mary Sue character allows viewers to reflect on themselves and their own history (assuming a mostly North American audience — though I would argue that it allows for self-reflection for viewers of other nations as well). This self-reflection makes itself obviously clear in-text when Abbie and Captain Frank Irving school Crane on Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Heming.

Now, we know that period pieces regularly reflect the culture in which they were made, rather than presenting a realistic version of the period in question and, though Sleepy Hollow is set in the present (for the most part), it is no exception. Pflieger also suggests that Mary Sue is “a gauge of the times in which [the authors write]” (2) and Crane is a gauge. The commentary that I mentioned earlier regarding Starbucks and skinny jeans is common throughout the show. Most of it is more humorous than anything, but some becomes a clear commentary on present times: he discusses the issue of bottled and contaminated drinking water and overwhelming credit card debt, for example. Finally, the Mary Sue character, in her perfection, is often able to help the main characters with all of their problems because the author — and so the character — have an often omnipotent view of them in the show and she can then explain them to themselves. Ichabod Crane works in this way as well, but not with the other characters. Crane explains a particular position on American history to the audience from the position of someone outside of time (yet, still within it as he is more modern than he likes to think and the show itself, of course, can only comment from within its own time period). In this way, Crane offers us a perspective on the world that we may not be able to see (as characters in this canon of society as it exists).

Building on that idea of society itself as a “character” in the canon upon which Crane is commenting,  I want to move into a short discussion of how the entire series works as an AU fic. Again, I am suspending belief for the moment and considering Sleepy Hollow as fanfic. An AU fic or Alternate Universe story is exactly as it sounds: the canon is transplanted into an alternate universe. Sometimes this means considering an alternate outcome for the characters within the canon world, other times it  means moving the characters to a completely new world. In this case, the characters of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” have been moved to a new world entirely. Not only is this the Sleepy Hollow of the future, but it is also a Sleepy Hollow where the supernatural DOES exist, whereas Washington Irving’s narrator suggests that Crane allowed himself to be influenced by old wives’ tales. Pugh suggests that “An AU may also be a chance to make the reader think again about some aspect of the canon” (62) and that “AUs, like crossovers, can also be a means of getting away from the original author’s voice and showing ‘his characters’ from an angle he did not” (64). This version of the Sleepy Hollow story does allow us to reconsider a number of canonical elements. The show reconsiders the supernatural in the modern world and, most notably, reconsiders the role of women and people of colour. Lt Abbie Mills is the first person willing to listen to Crane’s story of time travel and he is not quite ready to find an African-American woman in a position of power. Of course, this ties back into Crane’s position as Mary Sue since he quickly takes her position in stride and has no problem following her lead, something unlikely to happen in reality. Beyond this though, we can consider Sleepy Hollow as an AU fic of American history itself. It is important to note here that Washington Irving is regularly considered to be one of the first authors to write American fiction. And, as Michael A. Arnzen suggests, “When horror tales explore and speculate about the unknown, they often also teach us about what we do know, even if only to point out the limits of cultural knowledge” (1.4). Beyond the horror and supernatural genre conventions though, Sleepy Hollow as AU fanfiction with the popular conception of American history as canon gives us the opportunity to reconsider “the canon” itself. As I’ve mentioned throughout this presentation, the show takes characters and historical moments from the 18th century in America as canon. Not just the characters and moments, but the popular construction of them — that is, often the fiction of American history — and plays with it in a way that forces the viewer to reconsider popular opinion. While Crane’s character occasionally “teaches” the audience about its own history, he also plays with reality — most notably in the creation of a conspiracy between figures such as Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson to fight against the supernatural forces of evil. This rewriting of the past offers a reframing of the past in a way that makes it present. 

So the question now is why would I want to consider a TV show as if it were fanfiction? The first answer is pretty simple: while watching this season I couldn’t help but see Ichabod as a Mary Sue character — he is just too good at everything and a number of episode plots required his knowledge of personal “BFFs” who also happened to be famous. Beyond that though, Examining popular culture — particularly those examples that are already adaptations themselves — as though it is fanfiction or a fan product can provide insight into the product, its creators, and its audience. While we tend in fan studies, to focus on the ways in which the fan product or activity give us insight into the fans themselves, and outside of fan studies we ignore the “author” completely (unless, of course, we subscribe to auteur theory), a combination of the two insights may be necessary going forward as so many popular culture works ARE both “official” and fan-made. Beyond the more indie products such as The Lizzie Bennet Diaries or Space Janitors, this also applies to mass produced works such as Fifty Shades of Grey (and its film adaptation) among other Twilight fanfic turned profic works, and television shows such as Doctor Who, for example. The nature of products are changing and it is important to consider both industrial, creative, and fannish decisions to give us a more diverse understanding of media products. Likewise, some of my previous work has commented on the way that fanfiction conventions are blurring the lines between official and fan productions. Sleepy Hollow is another official product that is blurring those lines and, in this case, it offers us another insight into how the show is commenting on the popular conception of American history.