Dragaera

Artificial release dates and online publishing

Tue Dec 17 04:19:50 PST 2002


pddb at demesne.com wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 16, 2002 at 10:43:46PM -0600, David Dyer-Bennet wrote:
> 
>>Fides <fides at kludgeco.com> writes:
>>
>>
>>>David Dyer-Bennet wrote:
>>
> [snip]
> 
>>>>Parody is protected fair use, so that's not at issue.  Most fanfic
>>>>*is* a tragedy.  The better fanfic is a tragedy *twice* (they should
>>>>have been writing something original).
>>>
>>>Why? I have read some very good fan fic that wouldn't have been half
>>>as effective if had been totally original and some that would have
>>>been impossible if they had been original. If fan fic writers wanted
>>>to write something totally original they would (and some do that as
>>>well) but that isn't what they are trying to do when they write fic.
>>
>>Rehashing somebody else's universe just isn't very interesting for me
>>to read.  For somebody with actual talent to get trapped into it is
>>doubly tragic.
> 
> 
> Um.  Oh dear.  I love you anyway.  8-)  However:
> 
> In the first place, from one viewpoint, several of my novels are
> fan fiction set in the universe of the Child Ballads.  I think fan
> fiction is a natural human activity, and the line between it and
> original fiction is very blurry.
> 
> In addition, what some people have an actual talent FOR is that
> kind of writing, so that's not a tragedy for them to be doing it.
> 
> And finally, good fan fiction doesn't rehash.  It transforms,
> it sheds light in dark corners, it subverts, it brings out
> or invents subtext and nuance; it can be alternate history or
> revisionist history or both.

What he said.

   I've also thought recently that
> one reason I like fan fiction is that I find TV and movies
> compelling and even addictive, but ultimately lacking in what
> I like most about fiction.  Fan fiction, by turning their universes
> into prose, translates those universes into a language I can
> appreciate.  

For me I think it is the fact that most TV shows are much more 
constrained and 'bitty' that books. Because of the way TV shows (series 
anyway) work they tend to have many writers not all of whom write the 
characters exactly the same, they have a time limit so they must 
necessarily leave bits out and unless they are totally planned in 
advance (like B5) they have to limit the amount of carryover from 
previous episodes. Now admittedly some are a lot worse about this than 
others but it means that there tends to be a lot more cracks in TV shows 
(especially) compared to books. The books are much more one persons 
vision and so tend to more more cohesive and don't leave loose ends 
lieing around so much.

This would also explain why I really do not care at
> ALL for fan fiction based on original prose fiction.  That's
> already in the right language for me and very few writers, whatever
> their basic caliber, can successfully (by my standards) write
> in the universe of a writer I love.

I don't have anything against fic based on books, but I agree it is a 
lot harder to find any good ones (Grand total of 5ish in three fandoms 
and, incidently, all from the same fandom). Or possibly just that, on 
the whole books, are a lot better than cheesey TV shows so the 
difference in quality between the original and the fanfic is less 
noticable ;-)

> The difficulties are very real, and I'm sure there could be
> fan fiction written based on my work that I would want to burn
> three times, just to be sure.  But I think it can be just
> as creative as historical fiction, mainstream fiction, or any
> kind of imaginative fiction that is not set in wholly invented
> worlds.

And at least you know they are doing it for the love of your universe 
(however misguided) rather than to make money out of it. Fanficcers 
aren't doing it to make money out someone elses work. Zines are like 
academic publishing - the writer doesn't get any money for it just the 
kick of doing it. But I agree you are going to many that are so aweful 
they need to be staked and buried at the cross-roads or have just 
totally missed the point or hideously mangled the characters. And 
probably just to rub salt into the wound those will turn out to be the 
ones at are really popular ;-)

Fides