A Moment from Grad School Orientation

[caitri]

Got chatting with a guy in the creative writing program who will be in the same writing class as I. Turns out he wants to write a novel about Injun Jo, a character from Twain's Tom Sawyer. The following commences:

ME: Do you know what fanfic is?
HE: Sure.
ME: Question for you: Would you or would you not say that this novel idea, as it were, of yours is fanfic?
HE: Uhhhh. No. It's a parallel novel. It's part of a literary tradition!
ME: And that's different....how?
HE: Uhhh. Because this is art? And fanfic is for entertainment?

Fascinating, Captain.

Comments

[avictoriangirl]

ROFLMAO!

[caitri.livejournal.com]

If the both of us are in this writing class, it will be either spectacularly awesome or spectacularly bad.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

1) I totally agree.
2) YOUR ICON.

[avictoriangirl]

:DDD Have you seen the vid of the deleted scene? OH. MY. GOD. Why did they have to cut it? IT IS PERFECTION.

Also, that link takes you to the 3 icons I made from it. Not that I'm pimping them or anything. XD

[treksnoopy.livejournal.com]

Rationalization on his part. Of course, we'd never survive without a few rationalizations. 8D

Next question. How long does something have to exist before it's considered a tradition? Fanfic (Trek specifically) is almost if not already 50 years old. It may be the the bastard step-child of literature, but it's still part of the family.

[karraparis.livejournal.com]

Is it too late to smack him up side the head? Where does he think half of comics and other Scifi comes from it's paid fan fiction half the time.

[joirerson.livejournal.com]

*squints dubiously*

Fanfic is a proud tradition! Of getting Kirk to take off his pants, not that he needs encouragement

Parallel novel, schmarallel novel. Maybe he already wrote a PWP and is trying to justify it by squeezing in a plot.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

<3

[syredronning.livejournal.com]

*bangs head*

[amine-eyes.livejournal.com]

So basically, you're just going to cheerfully and verbally rip him apart for three months.



I believe this gif is appropriate:

[caitri.livejournal.com]

I can neither confirm nor deny.

[morfin.livejournal.com]

Leaving aside his obvious taste for crappy writing (I detest Twain with all my soul), it all boils down to grammar. First person: my writing is a parallel novel. Second or third person: You're writing fanfic.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

*gigglesnort* Okay, that's kind of brilliant. I'm actually talking with some colleagues about doing a panel on fanfic for PCA next year and now I'm trying to figure out how to make that into a snappy title. *contemplates*

[morfin.livejournal.com]

Full disclosure: I was paraphrasing a line by Ben Franklin in the musical 1776. "Why Mr. Dickenson, surely you understand that revolution is legal in the first person, "our revolution." It's only in the 3rd person "their revolution" that it becomes illegal.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Never seen that, awesome. That kinda makes it better.

ETA: The idea of Ben Franklin saying something like that makes it better, I should say, because it seems like something he would. /ramble

[dramapunk.livejournal.com]

laugh politely and show him a copy of Mr. Darcy's Daughters....