Optional Reading of the Day

[caitri]

Famous Authors on Fan Fiction

Strangely they all asked authors who were opposed to it.

Discuss!

Comments

[canis-takahari.livejournal.com]

Orson Scott Card is such a twat.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Yep.

Also, I didn't realize until I started reading it, but he basically retells The Book of Mormon over and over. It's kinda hilarious.

[gadgetorious.livejournal.com]

Ah, you beat me to it, bb. <3

[aadarshinah.livejournal.com]

I can see where they're coming from, but, honestly, as long as the people involved aren't trying to make money off it and/or claim it as their own, who cares? I've read some really, really bad fanfic, and I've read some that I've liked better than the stuff it was based off of. Plus, it keeps the interest in the involved fandoms high, which can only be good for the original authors.

And Orson Scott Card so *is* a twat.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

IKR? Plus fanfic is like free advertising, essentially. (Kinda like fanvids and fanmixes--I'm basically to where most of the music I buy is because I heard a song on a fansite.) I think there actually are increasing numbers of authors who are cool with fanfic, which is why I found this piece...puzzling.

[sangueuk.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the linky, bb - I read every comment with interest. This subject exhausts the hell out of me. How can what we do, done with such love, be wrong? If anything we're encouraging throwing more money at the object of our fandom. The fanfiction stokes my love, I spend more money. Is our activity going to impact the box office for the new Trek movie? Surely a little?

Idk - this is all done out of love, and how dare they fucking say it isn't art because we borrow their characters. It makes absolutely no sense to me. Visual artists borrow from each other all the time. It's just how it works.

What about bands who perform cover versions of songs?

also, I'm glad someone mentioned how rubbish Laurell K Hamilton's writing is - I'm amazed by just how bad it is; I'm currently reading her first book. blimey

[caitri.livejournal.com]

*perches on soapbox*

I'm increasingly of the opinion that a not insignificant amount of prejudice due to fanfic is that it is an activity performed primarily by women. I actually suspect that the article author went out of their way to get anti-fanfic women for that very reason.

[tn-tiger.livejournal.com]

Yup.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

I suspect you are 100% correct.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Somewhere I saw a list of published authors that are pro-fanfic. It was actually surprisingly long. I genuinely think that most fanfic resistance is because of what happened to Marion Zimmer Bradley--I really can't think of too much anti-fanfic stuff (aside from Rice) prior to her run-in with a fan, which was in 1992.

[emluv.livejournal.com]

Publishers tell their authors that in any official statement they should come down firmly on the "fanfic is a copyright violation" side of things -- and also that they should never read any fanfic based on their work -- so I think the average author tries to balance between thanking fans for their interest and being flattered at the level of commitment, and asking them not to run around trying to make money off their creative product.

That said, some of these folks just have a great big stick up their rears.

I can't help but smile at J.K. Rowling's comments though. I can imagine how traumatized she is by some of the things fanfic authors get up to with her characters, especially given how young they are in the first books. Snarry fic would probably give her heart failure.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can understand her POV. On the other hand, you really do have to *look* for that stuff!

[tn-tiger.livejournal.com]

"Art isn't your pet — it's your kid. It grows up and talks back to you." - Joss Whedon

[caitri.livejournal.com]

I totes heard that in Dominic's voice. "And when your dog talks back to you, you freak the hell out!"

[tn-tiger.livejournal.com]

I think I might freak out of my art talked back to me too, actually. Or at least take away the car keys.

[lindmere.livejournal.com]

I'm amused that they included J.D. Salinger, who is both 1) dead and 2) the most famously reclusive author in the history of American literature. What was he going to say, "I totes browse AO3 looking for Holden/Sally ship fic"?

[caitri.livejournal.com]

Well, the best part is that selecting J.D. Salinger means that she is viewing all derivative work as equivalent to fanfic (which I've heard/read tons fo arguments both pro and con as to this reading). So for instance this viewpoint lumps Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea with my own James Eyre (which yeah I will totes enjyo for a second). But it's ALSO lumping the capitalist production model with the fan framework where we do what we do for love and not a paycheck, which is--something else again.

[gadgetorious.livejournal.com]

But that ISN'T fanfiction. I mean it is in the strictest sense of semantics I suppose, being arguably both fictional and written by a fan, but fanfiction is a specific thing and it is a fan-supported, NOT FOR PROFIT medium by nature. So... no, I don't think it qualifies in this case.

What I think it DOES do is exactly what the author of the article was aiming for and that's the vilify fanfic writers by making it seem like their work is a bigger threat to the original artists' work or livelihood than it really is. They mention money several time throughout and I find the idea that fanfiction reduces the amount of money an author can make on their work ridiculous, and quite possibly the opposite is more likely to be true considering how fandom unifies fans, spreads good word-of-mouth publicity, keeps fans excited during lulls and hiatuses...

[nikaratrenal.livejournal.com]

One of the most interesting transformations I've ever seen in an author's point of view on fanfiction is Jasper Fforde. While I've read all of his books, I haven't actually read much fanfic about his characters. Still, he had a Q&A on his website on the topic, where he was pretty negative-Felt that people should be more creative etc. Apparently after posting that, he had some conversations with fans that changed his mind. In his most recent book, one of his main characters actually goes to visit "fanfiction island" and is quite respectful of the rewrites of herself that she finds there. It is nice to see an author who is willing to let their views of the topic evolve.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

... Yeaaaaaah, considering all of his books involve his own characters interacting with other people's characters, you just have to call shenanigans on disapproving of fanfic. Which book do they go to Fanfic Island? I only read the first two...

[gadgetorious.livejournal.com]

Here's what I find interesting. It's not even so much that they only quote authors who are against it, though that's rather obvious since they even dug out some J.D. Salinger when I'd say the particulars there have little to do with fandom and everything to do with money. It's that they quote famous authors that the list might seem incomplete without (J.K. Rowling for instance) and even though if you read carefully she is NOT particularly opposed to it on the whole, only the single issue she raised of children coming across porn is actually addressed by the article. So beyond being biased in its participants, the article is rather grossly skewed in which views they air as well.

ANYWAY. Carry on.