"fan-fiction"

[rivendellrose]

I'm apparently a link-whore today. Anything's better than pecking away at my (increasingly random and disorganized) midterm paper for Anthro, I guess. So if you have any interest in fandom as a concept, go read a well-thought-out, highly intelligent, and knowledeable commentary on fanfiction by one of the editors at Tor publishing house.

Anything I say after that would be extremely superfluous, except to add that a LOT of well-regarded (and less-well-regarded) books are based on prior fiction. Not to mention the usual parade of often craptastic novelizations of movies, etc, which... well... honestly, most of the time I'd rather read fanfiction than what they spew. Seems to me that the fans sometimes have a better grasp on the characters than the people actually hired to write this stuff.

Only sometimes, though. ;)

Comments

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

Ah. I particularly liked this tidbit:
I’ve got a joke to back up this particular point:

There was once a conjurer who boasted that he had become god-like. One god happened to overhear, and challenged him to a contest.

“Can you do this?” the god asked, scooping up a handful of dirt and making it into a bird. They watched the bird fly away.

“Sure,” said the conjure-man, and reached down for a handful of raw material.

“Hey,” said god. “Use your own dirt.”

Props to any writer who can make a story fly. None of us use our own dirt.

I couldn't have said it better myself. None of us use our own dirt.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I figure as long as I'm polite and respectful about my playing in other people's sandboxes, there's no trouble. ;)

[reve-lucide.livejournal.com]

Yeah, as long as you're doing it to entertain yourself and/or your flist, I don't see how that could be a problem. If anything, fandom in general and fanfic in particular probably make more money for the original show/book/whatever by creating more rabid fans who rush to buy up one of everything they can get their hands on.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Very true. I mean, I have the Serenity Visual Companion on my bookshelf in large part because I wanted to pore over every darned detail of the script looking for details and things to embroider on, as well as reading the interviews and all.

And the beautiful thing about this fandom is that, honestly, I'm fairly sure that Joss would/does understand that impulse in all of us. He's a clever enough fellow to know that we're helping him out more than damaging his copyright. ;)

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

Reading the comments alone can suck up a few hours ;) Every time I hit refresh, another dozen have popped up.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I skipped the comments for exactly that reason - with as much attention as this is likely to garner, I'd rather just avoid the brain-sucking.

Thanks so much for linking to this, btw!

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

TNH is a pretty big name in the publishing blog rings. Most of her posts get this kind of attention. I believe this particular post was started in response to her post about the Another Hope debacle.

And you're welcome. I've found most people who spit up all over about fanfic don't really know what it's about. I'm not much into it myself as you know, but I think knowing you and the rest of the crew makes me more open to it than most others I know in the "original fiction" rings. I often find myself having to speak up and correct people, or just grit my teeth and sigh. Like many debates, few people are willing to change their minds no matter how much their point of view is challenged.

In fact, in the comments, I had to correct someone that his scene was not "published" fanfic (it involves his characters in his world going across mountains and finally going under the mountain through a tunnel, ala Tolkien) was not fanfic at all, but derivative plotting, because it is most certainly not the same thing as taking Zoe and Wash and imagining their wedding in the Firefly universe.

Fun times, if you have a few hours to kill ;) *goes and hits refresh again*

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Oh, gods, if we're counting derivative plotting as fanfiction then the whole world is that. There's no new story in the world, once you get that far into things - the old "only 12 (or 6, or 3, or whatever number you choose, really) plots in the world" thing comes to mind. Anybody in lit. analysis ought to know that much. *g*

The way I see it, I've learned a lot about writing from this process, it makes me happy, it amuses people, and I think that fandom in general benefits the copyright owner, as well, by increasing interest in the original subject and associated products. And from an intellectual standpoint, I think it's a lot more interesting than taking whatever happens in a show, book, or what-have-you at face value and never questioning what else is implied, what's going on behind the scenes, what happened before and after... It's hardly the Great American Novel, but I think it's a good thing.

And, as the original poster pointed out, entirely natural and integral to human nature. We tell stories. Sometimes we write them down. Without that impulse, I'm convinced humankind would never have gotten far.

[zinjadu.livejournal.com]

Well, didn't it come with a little read_me text file? That'll tell you how to get it all set up. I followed the directions exactly and it worked fine for me.

[zinjadu.livejournal.com]

And I responded to the wrong post, but eh.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I... see no 'read-me.' Only a bunch of .jpgs.

Eh, don't worry about it. I'm pretty sure I can figure it out if I go through the FAQs and all. I don't have time to be futzing with it tonight, anyway, so it's probably for the best that I don't have directions on my hands this very instant.

[bluerose16.livejournal.com]

So, fanfic, in some of its better forms, is derivative literature? SWEET! XD

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Exactly! From someone in the business of publishing, I think that's quite an enlightened and optimistic statement. XD

[hoperomantic.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thanks for posting this link!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

No problem! I figured a lot of people on my friends-list would enjoy that. ;)