- Fanfic Bingo!

[mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com]

Inspired by the discussion of OTW at John Scalzi's blog, Ithiliana, Half Elf Lost, Kitsune13, and Cofax7 created the Anti-Fanfic Bingo card.

They have kindly permitted the OTW to use the card, and we'd like to ask all of you to come up with responses for the objections to fan fiction. Serious responses, funny responses, rude responses, heart-felt responses. Prose, poetry, icons, banners, art, vids -- any response at all! We ask that you stay on topic, but our hope is to create something fun and, well, educational.

You can see the entire Anti-Fanfic Bingo card here, but right now, let's focus on the top row:



How would you respond? Tell ComRel!

Graphic by the wonderful Ciderpress.

-- femmequixotic, bethbethbeth, ciderpress, bethbethbeth, mirabile_dictu, shrift, svmadelyn
Community Relations Committee

Comments

[sahiya.livejournal.com]

I have a theory, actually, that part of what attracts fan writers to a particular canon is flaws in that canon (I'm thinking here of Buffy and HP in particular) or some sort of unfinished quality. Canons that are more complete or have less flaws to be fixed attract fewer writers - "there is a crack in everything/that's how the light gets in." (Thank you, Leonard Cohen.)

It strikes me that the only writers who make these arguments are, well, bad writers (not to insult anyone's personal faves, but I'm thinking of McCaffrey, Rice, and Feist, in particular). Good writers tend to be secure in themselves and their creations, and don't feel the need to suppress creativity based on them out of some (probably unarticulated) fear that fan creations will be better than the originals.

And finally, to address 3-5 in particular: Those arguments assign particular importance to authorial intent, which, frankly, matters not at all once the work has been released into the wild, so to speak. Authors are creators and have rights as such; I have no intention or desire to make money off their creations. But to assume that my creation is a violation of the Author's creation assumes that I am violating their all-mighty intention. And while that may be true, it is also true that there is nothing wrong with that. :-)

[triggerhappy.livejournal.com]

Laurel K. Hamilton can be added to that list of authors, IMO.
'Course, she'd be right about many fan creations being better...

[sahiya.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yeah, I was thinking of her as well, but I wasn't sure that she'd actually forbidden fan works.

[triggerhappy.livejournal.com]

It's been years, but I'm pretty sure she wanted fan sites with fan fic shut down.
Plus, it seems that her 'flunkies' on some major sites kick out those who have anything other than high praise to give and say those that dislike anything in a book are not true fans.

I really haven't followed for years, but heard a bit about this stuff from my sister who tried to keep reading the books looooong after I gave up.

The first few books were interesting and with a fascinating world, but I personally feel she is a writer who quit trying to improve and has back slid as a result.
When I was still trying to read the books, the last book or two after Blue Moon, quite a bit of the fan fic I read seemed to be better written than her stuff.
Forget the character stuff even, just gramatically and plot and all that stuff that is the backbone of a book.

[sahiya.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the world was fascinating, but pretty much once Anita started having sex, it was all down hill from there. Narcissus in Chains didn't even have a plot to speak of.

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

The flaw theory is interesting, but I have a different view. I don't think it's flaws per se that attract fans, but gaps in the story. Aspects of plot or character or milieu or ideas that aren't completely fleshed out.

Most fanfic by far (in my experience) is written about media properties; there's considerably less fanfic for written works. No matter how good the writing, 42-44 minutes of story per episode requires that they cut away anything that doesn't directly add to the story they're telling; so a lot of good material never gets aired even if it was written or even filmed. That leaves a lot of room for fans to explore themes and ideas that were barely touched upon or only implied--though that ties in with the "unfinished quality" you mention.

Also, fanfic affords an opportunity to do things with the characters that will never, ever* happen in canon. Character deaths, disasters, post-apocalyptic situations, variant milieus, and--my personal favorite, I should confess, and what I got into fanfic for--crossover tales with other fandoms.

*yes, yes, there are many exceptions. but as a rule, the producers aren't going to kill off their heroes or even make major changes to their lives for at least most of the run of a show. No so fanfic.

[sahiya.livejournal.com]

Flaws and gaps can be similar, I think. HP is full of gaps (aka, JKR started things and then didn't finish them) that people can fill with fanfic. I'll agree with you that media canons allow for more of such "gap-filler" type stuff (and also that there are more rules about what can go media canons and what will "never ever happen" to the characters) - but I've been involved in quite a few book fandoms as well, so I don't know that I agree that "most fanfic by far is written about media properties."