Fanfic controversy: loads of interesting misunderstandings...

[hmpf]

as several pro writers encounter fan fiction:

here, and here, and here.

Read, disagree, discuss. Preferably here, so I can see your reactions. *g* I posted my own reactions in someone else's journal, but I don't want to flood his journal with even more pro fanfic propaganda than I already spammed it with, so I'm not posting a link. If you ask me nicely, I may cut and paste my various manifestos here.

Edited to add: all right, coalescent has given his consent to link, so here's his original post and here's the fanfic discussion hidden in the avalanche of replies to that post. :-)

Aaaand... (I guess it is okay to include this link here, since you posted it in this thread, anyway, Scapekid?) - Scapekid says it all, only better than I ever could:

http://zippysatellite4.blogspot.com/2003_09_28_zippysatellite4_archive.html

*is a Scapekid fangirl*

Comments

From Scapekid.

[(Anonymous)]

All right, I'll bite.

1. My arrogant confession is that I think a lot of fanfic is utter trash. This means it's easy to ridicule. I also, personally, think that writing about real people is weird. My reason is that no one can be hurt if I write something bizare about a character. Actors are humans and all humans deserve respect and privacy. Then again, this is my opinion without really researching the subject.

2. Despite their condescension, Mr. Todd spent a whole evening surfing up fiction, seemingly extensively and with purpose. Mr. Lee admitted that it's not solely the province of the science fiction fan. And if it's not limited to one sub-category of people, is it weird at all? What if it's just a lot like the obsession with celebrities and their glossy magazines which are socially accepted?

3. I have never experienced the possessive nature described by all three of the articles. People who hate writers because they won't play ball with the fanfic 'canon' do need to get over it. But again, I say, I've never experienced this. Ever. People will always get their own ideas about a show regardless of fanfic. If they become invested in it, then yes, they will care. But while I acknowledge this posessiveness must be an issue for some people it's either a minority or somewhere I've never been so I can't comment in any more detail.

4. People *do* write fanfiction about books. It happens less because, honestly? I think people read less. But look at Harry Potter, or Ann Rice, or Anne McCaffrey. People are less resentful of authors because the author is in control of the whole production. It is assumed that the author writes with integrity, exactly what s/he wants to write. The author loves and cares for the characters s/he created. We all know this is rarely the case in television. Actors play parts created by one person, written by a dozen others, interfered with by the networks and directed and produced by god knows who. People who love television characters are never quite sure how much the people in control of them care about them. This is probably why they sometimes start to feel resentful.

5. For ideas about why people want to play in the sandbox instead of creating their own sandbox, here's something I wrote a while ago on the subject:

http://zippysatellite4.blogspot.com/2003_09_28_zippysatellite4_archive.html

Re: From Scapekid.

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Hey. Would you believe I lost that scrap of paper with your blog URL again? So, I'm glad I finally have a link. It's in my bookmarks now, so I can go on worshipping you, mwahahahaaaaa! On a regular basis, that is. ;-)

Comment on your latest column: I don't think you missed the SF boat. News of the death of the genre have been hugely exaggerated. You're probably just part of the next wave. And I, for one, can't wait to see what that wave will come up with.

Re: From Scapekid.

[aprivatefox.livejournal.com]

Hey there. I'm firmly embroiled in thesis-land, but (as I'm thesising on the topic of storytelling, and a lot of what you say interests me) I wanted to reply with a bit of what's going through my head. Please take the mention of thesis in the spirit in which it's intended, as a disclaimer for this being shorter and more addled than I'd like:

The bits connecting storytelling and the media landscape in which fanfic emerges are particularly telling, to me. As I read it, storytelling is changing (here comes the thesisy-bit) from a conceptual medium to a lexical one. I'll unpack my terms: what I mean to say is that the underlying conceptual framework of the story - what used to be the "whole story" - is becoming entangled with the original author's presentation of it.

Look at the story of Cinderella. If I were to write a "fanfic" in the Cinderella universe, and if my fic were to be really, really good, it might eventually become a part of the story - in the same way that the story we have now is effectively amalgamated from past stories. I'd be adding to the conceptual space of the story. Since each teller creates their own presentation (the lexical element) from the concepts of the story, each telling is different. Some might include my element. Others wouldn't.

Now, if there were a canonical presentation of Cinderella - for example, a book that is the telling that all others are simply retellings of - then you'd be able to say if I'm doing it right or wrong; the accuracy of my telling could be judged by my adherence to the lexical narrative in that book. A lot of (good) fanfic strikes me as attempting to tear down the lexical presentation, get at the underlying conceptual narrative, and tell parts of it that aren't presented.

Of course, this means that what I'd like to see is alternative presentations of the original lexical space. In the same way that bands can cover one another's songs, why can't authors cover one another's stories? Why can't a fanficcer pay an author royalties for use of their characters, much like a musician pays a composer for use of a tune? There's an established structure for it in music; why is it anathema to writing? For that matter, why do writers say "tell your own stories" all the time, when it's accepted practice in music to learn by first playing other peoples' songs? From my reading of the modern oral tradition's books, it seems that modern storytellers also tell one anothers' stories. Why is the divide between the printed word and the spoken so much deeper than that between the sung and the recorded?