ALIEN AdApted (AgAin And AgAin)
163
significantly characterizes almost all fictional universes. As Mark Wolf
points out, aesthetics, infrastructures, and logic also “must be carried
over.” 11 In order to avoid confusion, however, I will not call these elements
“storyworlds,” but “storyworld constituents.”
Nonetheless, it is arguable whether some merchandise is even that. The
Superman-icon on a t-shirt, the Duff beer bottle in the real world, or the
PEZ dispenser with an Alien head definitely point to the respective fictional
universe (that is their customer appeal); but their signification – i.e. function
and meaning – is much more a part of the real world than of the fictional
universe. For Parody, such merchandise is still part of franchise storytelling,
since it is “give[n] identity” by the transmedial world (see above). However,
they are at the most secondary or “weak” constituents and not of primary
importance for my argument.
Parody further differentiates between two main variants of franchises: a
“co-ordinated act of transmedia storytelling” that is systematic and controlled;
and a “palimpsest of a storyworld and its inhabitants [that is] built-up over
time.” 12 The Alien franchise predominantly shows the characteristics of the
second variant – which is unsurprising, considering when and how it started,
namely as a single film long before the advent of multimedia conglomerates,
computer consoles, Web 2.0, and media convergence – although it appears
to have become more systematic and controlled during the past decade
with increasing media convergence. It is worth noting that computer games
(arcade and PC), novelizations, and comics were surprisingly quick to appear.
11 Wolf, Building Imaginary Worlds, 246.
12 Parody, “Franchising/Adaptation,” 211. In an interesting essay on Doctor Who, Matt Hills points
out that many fictional universes, among them prominently the Doctor Who franchise (which
has been going on and off for more than fifty years), are actually “rickety” and survive almost by
accident, in large part due to die-hard fans. Matt Hills, “Traversing the ‘Whoniverse’: Doctor Who’s
Hyperdiegesis and Transmedia Discontinuity/Diachrony.” In World Building. Transmedia, Fans,
Industries, edited Marta Boni (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017), 343. In the introduction to the collection in which Hills’ essay is found, Marta Boni, like Parody, distinguishes two
basic types of transmedial universes: “first, mixing business and design stresses the predictability
of a world’s development; the other highlights semiotic processes that evolve for years after the
apparition of a matrix text. The former is inclusive, centripetal, and marked by the need to balance
unity and order, typical of storytelling, with users’ accessibility. The latter is centrifugal, and open
to unpredictable results that exceed and dilate the borders of a system.” Marta Boni, “Introduction.”
In World Building. Transmedia, Fans, Industries, 18. In an earlier monograph on fan cultures and
cult texts, Hills suggests the concept of “hyperdiegesis” for sprawling fictional universes: “a vast
and detailed narrative space, only a fraction of which is ever directly seen or encountered within
the text, but which nevertheless appears to operate according to principles of internal logic and
extension.” Matt Hills, Fan Cultures (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), 137.
163
significantly characterizes almost all fictional universes. As Mark Wolf
points out, aesthetics, infrastructures, and logic also “must be carried
over.” 11 In order to avoid confusion, however, I will not call these elements
“storyworlds,” but “storyworld constituents.”
Nonetheless, it is arguable whether some merchandise is even that. The
Superman-icon on a t-shirt, the Duff beer bottle in the real world, or the
PEZ dispenser with an Alien head definitely point to the respective fictional
universe (that is their customer appeal); but their signification – i.e. function
and meaning – is much more a part of the real world than of the fictional
universe. For Parody, such merchandise is still part of franchise storytelling,
since it is “give[n] identity” by the transmedial world (see above). However,
they are at the most secondary or “weak” constituents and not of primary
importance for my argument.
Parody further differentiates between two main variants of franchises: a
“co-ordinated act of transmedia storytelling” that is systematic and controlled;
and a “palimpsest of a storyworld and its inhabitants [that is] built-up over
time.” 12 The Alien franchise predominantly shows the characteristics of the
second variant – which is unsurprising, considering when and how it started,
namely as a single film long before the advent of multimedia conglomerates,
computer consoles, Web 2.0, and media convergence – although it appears
to have become more systematic and controlled during the past decade
with increasing media convergence. It is worth noting that computer games
(arcade and PC), novelizations, and comics were surprisingly quick to appear.
11 Wolf, Building Imaginary Worlds, 246.
12 Parody, “Franchising/Adaptation,” 211. In an interesting essay on Doctor Who, Matt Hills points
out that many fictional universes, among them prominently the Doctor Who franchise (which
has been going on and off for more than fifty years), are actually “rickety” and survive almost by
accident, in large part due to die-hard fans. Matt Hills, “Traversing the ‘Whoniverse’: Doctor Who’s
Hyperdiegesis and Transmedia Discontinuity/Diachrony.” In World Building. Transmedia, Fans,
Industries, edited Marta Boni (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017), 343. In the introduction to the collection in which Hills’ essay is found, Marta Boni, like Parody, distinguishes two
basic types of transmedial universes: “first, mixing business and design stresses the predictability
of a world’s development; the other highlights semiotic processes that evolve for years after the
apparition of a matrix text. The former is inclusive, centripetal, and marked by the need to balance
unity and order, typical of storytelling, with users’ accessibility. The latter is centrifugal, and open
to unpredictable results that exceed and dilate the borders of a system.” Marta Boni, “Introduction.”
In World Building. Transmedia, Fans, Industries, 18. In an earlier monograph on fan cultures and
cult texts, Hills suggests the concept of “hyperdiegesis” for sprawling fictional universes: “a vast
and detailed narrative space, only a fraction of which is ever directly seen or encountered within
the text, but which nevertheless appears to operate according to principles of internal logic and
extension.” Matt Hills, Fan Cultures (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), 137.