Meta, an investigation.

Meta, an investigation.

Oh dear, this is something percolating in the background of geek culture and has been for sometime. Meta-fiction, literally meaning "beyond fiction". So far beyond that it's almost abstract.

But just what the hell does that all mean? Well not much is the short of it, but the long is a real twisted story. There are about three different levels to Meta-fiction, each one coming about through different means. So lets start in the shallow end:-

The first level is an in-joke. Something that the writer, or director, puts in for a gag. Like Alfred Hitchcock's cameo's, or Bruce Campbell's cameo's in the Spiderman films. They can often just be one liners, a character quipping that something like that would only happen in a bad TV show. Or even the cylon in the title sequence of The A-Team. In someways a gag like this pulls you out of the fiction, taking you out of the story. In others it flags up the point that it only a story after all, and because we're in on the joke it puts us at ease.
Meta in-jokes are fun and if pulled off just right add to the over all experience. We're put on the same level as the creator, we're interacting with whats happening and feel like we're being let in to the Writer / Directors confidence. Of course if they're pulled off wrong it's just a cheap sting.

The second level is what I like to think of as The Great Game. Bringing the fiction into reality. This sort of started with Sherlock Holmes, but it's also found in stuff like Bernard Cromwell's Sharp series. This "level" deliberately blurs the lines between fact and fiction. Taking historical events and weaving them into the story, bringing up something like September 11th is a good example. Not in metaphor, but directly and having it as a motivation for a characters actions as was done in Farscape at one point.
Blurring the lines like this really adds a sense of realism to a story. The Scream films used this sort of meta-fiction perfectly. By acknowledging the codes and conventions of horror films, making classic horror films fiction in story, we felt like we were on the same level as the characters. That they were real people and not the bland ignorant cyphers of the previous twenty years.
That's the point of this level, blur the lines and you make fiction more real. Throw in a few twists and you make the characters people we can relate to. This doesn't always work but it can be very interesting to see pulled off.

The third though, well let's jut say it's mindfu*k time! The third level is what happens when the fiction acknowledges that it is fiction. It's literally having a character going on a quest to find god and meeting his Writer / Creator. In this you all sorts of questions, with the Character asking fundamental questions about their own existence and why. This was done to great effect in Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man, which I highly rate. Another point with this level is it often pulls the other two in with it. Littering the story with real world references and history. Stargate's two hundredth episode featured a writer coming to the team looking for ideas for scripts! The episode was littered with so meny in jokes and stings that it was all one big gag.
Take look at another of the corner stones of this level, Yes Virginia, There Is A Hercules, from Hercules:- The Legendary Journeys. In fact, for god's sake do. It's one of the three episodes that makes that show worth while. While on the surface it's just a clip show the framing device is so meta (ironically a Greek word…) that it makes your head spin. We see the production team, played by the main cast in exaggerated roles, fighting amongst themselves and we have the Greek gods appear to them, in character and with all their powers. The sting of this episode is even more barmy. Kevin Sorbo arrives to defeat the Gods, saying that he really is the greek demi-god and Kevin Sorbo is a cover.
This level of meta-fiction doesn't just blur the lines between one fiction and another, but flat out crushes them all, even those between fiction and reality, completely. It's like taking a bulldozer to the actor's forth wall and then detonating it with a truck full of C4. Almost anything can happen when you wheel this out, from George Lucas meeting Darth Vader to the TARDIS landing in the middle of the Doctor Who set!
With this level you can either have fun, or ask some of the most difficult philosophical questions you'll ever see. Either way the audience will be equally confused and enthralled.

So, in summation, Meta-fiction is a way to blur the lines between fiction and reality, in storytelling, to enhance the experience for the audience. That was the short version if anyone asks!