Fan Fiction: A Revisionist History And Future
from the it's-crap-cause-I-said-so dept
For fans, the ability to expand upon and share their understanding of their favorite books is an important past time. People can spend days, months, years talking about their favorite books and eating up any new information that comes their way. Sometimes this new information comes from the original creator, but other times it comes from the fans themselves in the form of fan fiction. Fan fiction is a growing area of fan engagement that many authors and creators have learned to love and embrace.There are some people, though, who just absolutely hate it. Take Ewan Morrison as an example. In a recent essay on the subject of fan fiction, he doesn't hold back his feelings on the matter.
It may seem like a joke, but for many the rise of fanfic is "the end of the world". Fanfic is seen as the lowest point we've reached in the history of culture – it's crass, sycophantic, celebrity-obsessed, naive, badly written, derivative, consumerist, unoriginal – anti-original. From this perspective it's a disaster when a work of fanfic becomes the world's number one bestseller and kickstarts a global trend.This is absolutely amazing. While many writers try to hide their disapproval of a subject, Ewan decides to just lay it all out in the open so that you know right off what to expect from his little rant. But what exactly has his panties in a twist? Fifty Shades of Grey.
As we all know, Fifty Shades of Grey, originated as a piece of fanfic based on the Twilight series. Since it hit 31 million sales in 37 countries worried voices are asking: is this the beginning of an era in which fanfic overthrows original creation?Come on. How can fan fiction produce anything of worth? Am I right? Well, Ewan thinks he is right. He just can't believe that anyone could turn fan fiction into a profitable career. Fan fiction is some horrible blight on the entertainment industry, at least to him. Nothing good can come from it, right?
Ewan decides that now is the time to show off just how little he knows about fan fiction in general. He starts off with a nice bit of revisionist history.
If one sees fanfic as "the work of amateurs retelling existing stories", then one would have to conclude that the number one book in the middle ages – the Bible – was a work of fanfic, as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were non-professionals retelling the same story about the same character. However, such a definition of fanfic is skewed historically. There were no fans in the middle ages, and there were also no authors.Isn't this lovely. There were no authors in the middle ages. Since there were no authors, then that means there were no fans. All those works that we look back upon came out of ether for us to enjoy. Since there were no authors and no fans, there was no fan fiction. Fans, authorship, fan fiction, all of this is simply a modern construct.
If we see fanfic as "the reworking of another author's characters" then this form really only appears for the first time in history with the invention of legal authorship in the 18th century through copyright and intellectual property laws, after the invention of the printing press. After all, you can't have derivative works or copies if there are no regulations over what constitutes original works, or separates ownership from theft.Notice the nice equating of fan fiction with theft. But don't let that distract you from the main discussion points here. You see, authorship never existed until modern copyright law was written and passed in order to create such a role in society. Back then, no one was creative. Everyone just stole ideas from everyone else. It was just one big swirling miasma of derivative characters occupying the same roles. No one exercised any kind of real creativity because of this. It makes sense right? We honor Homer and Shakespeare because they were just thieves who stole the work of others to become famous.
From here, Ewan goes on to share a bunch more about what he thinks of fan fiction and the different types of it. One common theme running through this breakdown is a bitter distaste for pornographic fan fiction. He even lets this get in the way of describing slash fic correctly as one commenter to his rant explains.
The first point is a semantic quibble, but it really gets on my nerves. 'Slash' does not refer to all pornographic fanfiction. There may have been a time when it did. Having spent ten years in fandom, I have never heard it used to describe anything but stories about m/m relationships. (A story does not actually have to have sexual content to be considered slash. A story can be slash without so much as a kiss if it involves a male character who is attracted to another male character.)When you are revising history to fit your preconceived notions, accuracy can get in the way. So perhaps we can just let this one slide. Maybe not.
Another interesting point in his rant is when it comes to crossover fan fiction. He just can't understand why anyone would want to cross universes to create a story.
The most postmodern and aesthetically bankrupt of all fanfic, is when two well-known franchises from the same genre are "crossed over". So you get BattleStar Gallactica, crossed with Star Trek, which results in the story: Star Trek: Way of the Battlestar – author Carson Napier.That he even makes this complaint shows that he doesn't even realize that even original creators have a hard time justifying the crossover conflict. When was the last time an Avenger vs X-Men comic line actually made sense or just wasn't a shout out to fans of certain characters? What about anything DC vs Marvel. Shoot, the DC vs Mortal Kombat game was one big convoluted meaningless merging. And all of those were authorized mergings. If the original creators have such a hard time making a crossover meaningful, why hold fans up to a higher bar?
One of the problems with this sub-genre is that narratives and character motivations have to be warped to fit convoluted, meaningless mergings.
Then he jumps right back into his absolute hate of Fifty Shades of Grey. After all, that is what spawned this rant, so he can't let it off easy.
Fifty Shades is actually a very generic work of Twilight fanfic from amongst tens of thousands already created. It is, in fact, a piece of "AU het slash Twilight fic", and as we've seen, in all slash fic, sex and sexual violence are the predictable components of the genre.To be honest, I haven't read Fifty Shades nor do I have a desire to do so. However, to make the claim that no creativity went into creating the work is beyond ignorant. Despite what he claims, all reports, that I have read, make it pretty clear that it was not simply a location and name change of Twilight. It was massively successful because it was something unique that people wanted. Of course this massive success lets Ewan break into another rant against how it became successful.
We should not consider EL James an author in the conventional sense for the same reasons that we wouldn't call someone from before the invention of copyright an author. Rather, her books are like medieval lore – in a sense she doesn't own the content.
The only innovation is not in the story itself but in the delivery system that launched it – Amazon KDP. Without Kindle the book(s) would never have escaped the gravitational pull of fanfic sites and would not have been able to earn their author any money. KDP, has become the Enchanted Duplicator that has monetised fanfic and propelled it into the market. The historic difference, the point we have just crossed, is that now, through the mechanism of epub, fanfic is heading towards becoming the cultural dominant.Amazon, with its e-publishing service, is what made successful fan fiction possible. Without Amazon, such fan fiction would have been relegated to the various basements and dodgy parlors of the internet. According to Ewan, this outbreak of self publishing is only going to lead to one gigantic mess of fan fiction feeding off each other spawning new works. This is going to be the fall of modern culture.
It is possible that with the enchanted duplication systems of fan-based epub, we might have arrived at a point in history where we've accumulated enough cultural material from the past for fans to remix indefinitely, and as they can now sell this content to each other this becomes a boom industry where none existed before. However, the point where fans become the creators, and a derivative work becomes the new original is also the point at which the culture industries stop needing to create anything new. Fanfic begets fanfic, which then in turn becomes mainstream which then begets further fanfic and so on. When we reach that point our future will not be fifty, but fifty thousand, shades of grey.What is worth pointing out to Ewan is that we already have this within the established industries. As we have written about many times in the past, everything is a remix of something else. There is no 100% vacuum for created art these days. Someone is inspired by or copies aspects of another person's work. Shoot, some industries are blatant with their remixing of old works. Whether it is endless sequels and remakes of movies, or the dozens of first person shooter games released each year. But this is how culture is built. It is built on the work of those that came before.
Now, if I may add my own little bit of history to the mix, fan fiction, or more accurately derivative works, is an important part of what made our culture what it is today. I am going to bring in two examples of derivative works from the past that had massive impacts on the state of culture today.
The first is Nosferatu. We wrote about this film in the past. Bram Stoker's estate had refused to assign the rights to Albin Grau so that he could make his film. Instead, he went about creating the film anyway, making many changes to vampire lore in the process. Today, much of what we apply to vampire lore comes from Albin's movie not Bram's book. This is example one of the positive cultural impact derivative works can have.
My second example is that of Edison's Conquest of Mars by Garrett P. Serviss (thanks io9 for pointing this out). In this article, Cracked points out six major sci-fi tropes that exist today that have their roots in this unauthorized fan sequel. Of these we have the handheld ray gun, space battles, the space suit, and aliens building the pyramids. If we didn't know better, one would be excused for thinking this book was the result of a time traveling fan of H.G. Wells. Without this book, we may not have had much of what we consider sci-fi today.
So despite what Ewan claims, fan fiction and derivative works can be an important part of the spread of culture. It is how communities are born and grow. Without the ability of fans to expand on the work of their favorite creators, many would become bored as the content would become stale. When they become bored, they stop buying the works of that creator. Why would we want that to happen to creators?
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Filed Under: culture, fan fiction, history
Reader Comments
The First Word
“Entitlement Generation...
Yet another author who borrowed from culture with a huge sense of entitlement. I don't have a problem with Mr. Morrison borrowing his ideas from culture. But then to have the balls to come up and say that others who borrow from culture are less creative if they base the premise on someone-elses' work, that is rich. There are highly creative fan fics out there, just like there is highly uncreative "original" fiction out there.Reading the summaries and reviews of his work, as I couldn't care less about reading his books, I can think of a couple authors he "borrowed" his ideas from. Luckily, borrowing ideas is not against the law or he might be explaining his books to the Huxley and Nolan estates. Too bad derivative works and fan fiction based works don't fall into the same realm, especially when they create an entirely new work even though they are based on a few concepts from the original.
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Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
Yes, some fan fiction is crappy, but some of it is fantastic -- just like pretty much all content. Those who crap on fan fiction seem similar to people who insist that YouTube itself is a waste because lots of people create dopey videos, ignoring all of the amazing content that is being produced.
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Re: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
I wonder where Ewan keeps the documents for his divorce from reality.
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No embarrassed cough. Mr. Morrison is a Mr. The picture is of the author who wrote 50 shades of grey.
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Re: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
People like this just irk me.
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Re: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
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Re: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
So wait, all that Disney stuff... is it a rip off or a classic?
Seriously though, you are taking the case of a book written about characters long since in the public domain, and trying to use that as a justification for people who use characters, settings, and often the "universe" defined by the original author.
Most fan fiction isn't based on 300-400 year old characters, is it? You are being somewhat misleading going there.
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Re: Re: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
Public domain does not mean it isn't fanfiction, though it can create derivative works of fiction inspired by, or perhaps taken by, the author in question.
Also, you seem to be lumping in everything as taking characters, settings, and universe for every section of fan fiction out there, when while it is often true, does not hold true for ALL cases.
For the most part, I'd say it is indeed fanfiction, yet still classic literature by its' own merits.
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Re: Re: Re: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
Sheesh!
"Also, you seem to be lumping in everything as taking characters, settings, and universe for every section of fan fiction out there, when while it is often true, does not hold true for ALL cases. "
Even if you take only characters, but not the universe, you are still relying on the fame and knowledge of those characters in their previous incarnation as a basis by which people can understand your writings. A fan fiction of Star Trek, example, would not require very much in the way of character development to get the show on the road, everyone knows who the characters are.
Doing that with Copyright characters really is just lazy.
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Re: Re: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
No, as ever you're the one who's being misleading.
What's the actual complaint you have about fan fiction? If the complaint is that it's "lazy" or that the creation of fan fiction inevitably leads to lower quality work as a result, then the age of the original is irrelevant. Even if Stoppard chose a work that's been in the public domain for hundreds of years, the actual process of creating it was the same as if he'd chosen to make a James Bond or Star Wars fanfic instead. There's legal differences in his ability to do this, but creatively there's no difference whatsoever.
So, why the nitpicking? If I've misread your comments, please feel free to explain them.
"So wait, all that Disney stuff... is it a rip off or a classic?"
That's sort of the point - it can be both.
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Re: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
It's more likely than you think.
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It's just I don't often see him commenting on here unless he's debating.
Was surprised is all
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
I need to proofread more often. :/
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
I need to proofread more often. :/"
Lol :)
Seriously though, fair enough. But, he actually does take part in conversation but he may miss some threads. I do too, I haven't been on here for nearly a week due to film festival attendance and a few other things I spend craploads of money on. Then I come back here to be accused of wanting everything for free, of course...
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Re: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead
And it was good. That same author has a few others dotted around the web and she was incredibly inventive with her derivative work.
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Overprotectionism
I'm actually very sympathetic to the emotions involved, although I think the authors are wrong. It takes a lot to write a novel, and your story, setting, and characters become family to you. The author is very heavily invested, emotionally speaking, in them. To have someone else come and use them in ways that the author finds distasteful causes an emotional reaction, much like a personal insult.
I'm sympathetic. But this is truly a case of "suck it up, buttercup". If you've written a work that is used as the basis for some fanfic that you find horrifying, then your option is the same as the rest of us when faced with horrible art: ignore that it exists.
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Re: Overprotectionism
This "hands off, professionals only" concept certainly began to rise as Ewan suggests with the advent of copyright, however it bastardizes the original intent from "You can earn" to "Only those who earn". Take a look a the evolution of IP laws over the last 600 years, they're mostly a battle of privileged "owners" of culture battling technology that would enable the engagement and contribution of "unsanctioned" public masses.
But that isn't the way culture works, it is not a commodity held by the few, packaged up and doled out as a finished product. It is a collaboration and interaction of every individual expression of freedom and identity... Which surely must be disappointing to "culture industries".
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Entitlement Generation...
Reading the summaries and reviews of his work, as I couldn't care less about reading his books, I can think of a couple authors he "borrowed" his ideas from. Luckily, borrowing ideas is not against the law or he might be explaining his books to the Huxley and Nolan estates. Too bad derivative works and fan fiction based works don't fall into the same realm, especially when they create an entirely new work even though they are based on a few concepts from the original.
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Fanfiction Problems
The other problem is a more personal one. I have no idea how to find good fan fics. I've read some pretty good ones, and some terrible ones, and some I've liked better than the stories they are based off of (so much for Ewan Morrison's opinions). But I need to find a more reliable way to get to the good stuff.
Those two problems aside, fan fiction is just another example of the explosion of creativity and culture that is happening now in spite of copyright.
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Re: Fanfiction Problems
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Why, it's almost as though being classified as "fanfic" or "original" doesn't make all that much difference...
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Re: Re: Re: Fanfiction Problems
As far as quality goes, you're absolutely right. Finding reviews of the authorized/established stuff is easier, though.
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You noticed! :)
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Re: Fanfiction Problems
Oh, I can help!
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FanficRecommendations
There you go, enjoy yourself
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Re: Fanfiction Problems
I find it interesting that nobody is mentioning that fanfiction is a mostly-written-by-women-for-women activity. I sometimes wonder if there isn't a dollop of misogyny mixed into some of the hatred of fanfiction I've seen.
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Re: Re: Fanfiction Problems
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
DAMN IT YOU RUINED IT FOR ME! PREPARE TO DIE! *starts swinging combat umbrella at other ac*
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Any Parallels to Patents Here?
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Tee shirt
GET OFF MY LAWN!!!
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Re: Tee shirt
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Re: Tee shirt
GET OFF MY IMAGINARY LAWN!!!
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Surely Ewan Morrision wouldn't call the Grandfather of Modern Fantasy a hack?
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dictionary
is pathetic, methinks.
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Re: dictionary
Which confirms that "professional" is not a measure of talent, as I think Ewan believes, only that their primary motivation is money. (Wasn't sell-out a derisive term indicating compromised artistic integrity for money?) Surely there are many talented "authors" and even more untalented "professional authors".
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Arrr
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Re: Arrr
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Re: Arrr
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http://www.grantvillegazette.com/
That is a 43 volume anthology that has been in production for a decade now. The majority of it is fan fiction.
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Re:
If fanfic is derivative, Flint, in his role as overall series editor, does know how to integrate. :)
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And, since there are non-fanfic writing that is still bad, all writing must therefor be bad.
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Meaning Evan himself is a bad according to his own logic.
Maybe just he's bad and leave fanfiction out of it?
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around a truck-full if that crack is THAT good. XD
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With the term "so bad it's good" being a thing it's amazing that people think only quality works provide value
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Today, pop culture has largely replaced classical culture. We're more likely to refer to Darth Vader and Batman than Oedipus and Achilles, but the concept is the same. The only difference is the last hundred years of pop culture is locked down by copyright law.
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Some of the good stuff:
"Most of the history of Western literature (and probably much of non-Western literature, but I can�t speak to that) is adapted or appropriated from something else. Homer wrote historyfic and Virgil wrote Homerfic and Dante wrote Virgilfic (where he makes himself a character and writes himself hanging out with Homer and Virgil and they�re like �OMG Dante you�re so cool.� He was the original Gary Stu). Milton wrote Bible fanfic, and everyone and their mom spent the Middle Ages writing King Arthur fanfic. In the sixteenth century you and another dude could translate the same Petrarchan sonnet and somehow have it count as two separate poems, and no one gave a fuck. Shakespeare doesn�t have a single original plot�although much of it would be more rightly termed RPF�and then John Fletcher and Mary Cowden Clarke and Gloria Naylor and Jane Smiley and Stephen Sondheim wrote Shakespeare fanfic. Guys like Pope and Dryden took old narratives and rewrote them to make fun of people they didn�t like, because the eighteenth century was basically high school. And Spenser! Don�t even get me started on Spenser."
But the rest is worth reading as well, of course. I'm not a fan of "Fifty Shades," but I am a fan of the community that exists around fanfic and fan creations and the creativity and devotion inherent in those communities.
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Re:
And Juvenal did the same with his satires in the first century AD.
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Re:
http://onlyalittlelion.tumblr.com/post/29097051054/tywinning-asked-you-2012-08-09-03-37-as- a
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Gah!
And this quote from the original article:tells exactly what Morrison is: a card-carrying copyright maximalist who wants to lock everything down.
But I'll tell you something, Morrison: keep your fucking "culture industry"; I find all the culture I enjoy, all the stories I love best, just by listening to and watching the people passing by my doorstoop.
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Re: Gah!
Ditto!! While you're at it Ewan, take that stick out of your ass, I've read BDSM Care Bears fics better written than 90% of the 'original' content produced by official sources. That in itself is sad. Maybe one shouldn't criticize their reflection?
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Re: Gah!
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They have no originality but they have enough to make up stories? Uh, what?
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Yes, of course it's basically theft. I mean, it in no way is free advertising for fandoms that you've never heard about and never knew were any good.
It's not like I've ever read a fanfic, then got interested in a series because I liked the author of said fic, then looked up said series and found that I liked it...
Nope. Never happened. *
*Except for Ranma 1/2, Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, Fate/Stay Night among others.
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Glad to know that I'm not the only one.
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It's not that fanfic writers have no ideas of their own, they just love a series so much that they devote time to writing stories with their favorite characters.
Plus you contridicted yourself there. You can't make up stories if you have no original abilities :P
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Chew Lookin' At?
Wal, Au het pipple wif rechional accints.
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Wow
This describes a lot of modern pop music.
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Re:
It doesn't matter what you think the Bible is. Milton took characters, settings, events, etc. from the Bible and made up his own stories about them. That's why Paradise Lost is "fan fiction".
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By the measure of any genre, subculture or other criteria you want to apply... It's bad.
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Re:
Might I suggest a different idea: different people have different ideas as to what is 'bad' and what is 'good' when it comes to entertainment, and they are all correct.
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On the other hand...
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I know of one successful author who dabbled anonymously in Kirk/Spock love stories, and I strongly suspect that a decent number of successful science fiction and fantasy writers got their authorial feet wet in the fanfic world. (I've never followed fanfic closely myself, but I have had friends involved in the scene for many years.)
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http://fanlore.org/wiki/Della_Van_Hise
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Fanfiction and it's derivatives is a way how we, the Fan, enjoy, understand and appreciate the original works.
Enjoy-because there's so many random element in our life, you'll be surprised to see what will the character will do or react if a situation, different from the canon/original work, was introduced to the story. Or seeing a badass poses that the official artworks that was never made. Or even a Hell lot better version of a music made from remix. And some might even invoke rule 34 somewhere, just to appease certain people...
Understand-It gives nearly anyone who don't know the series some what an outline of what just happened in the original works, especially if the fanfic follows the station of the canon/the original plotline. Even with certain discrepancies like Original Characters joining the cast, crossovers and/or different choices/actions was made was thrown into the mix but the true essence of the story is remained untouched.
Appreciate-If we, the Fans, like something, it's gonna be spread first to everyone we know who'll like the story. Without us Fans, Your story will rot in whatever storage you place them. No matter how good is that original works if there's no one appreciate it, other than the creators/publisher, then the expecting fame and fortune will be nothing more than just a dream that you can't reach.
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Is he for real?
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The Enchanted Duplicator
I find it rather amazing that Ewan Morrison knows of "The Enchanted Duplicator," and yet he completely misunderstands it. (By Walt Willis and Bob Shaw, both of whom published professionally.) "The Enchanted Duplicator" was originally published (mimeographed and mailed) in the 1950s, and prior to the Internet era one was extremely unlikely to know about it outside of science fiction fandom.
It is not "fan fiction," as that term is commonly used.
It is a parable of the journey of a science fiction fan within the community, on the quest to publish the perfect fanzine. It has iconic status in certain portions of science fiction fandom because it so accurately captures the agony and ecstasy of amateur publishing in the pre-Internet era.
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Maybe Morrison is just bitter no one wants to write fanfics of his work.
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A Funny Thing...
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Re: A Funny Thing...
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Re: A Funny Thing...
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Take a look at dragon's lair for nes or plumber's don't wear ties on 3do.
Meanwhile some fan fics manage to be better than the canon of the series it's a fanfic of.
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Elitism
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Now, I'm not one to put too much stock in the bible...
Not that that's a big thing or anything... but if you're going to spurt nonsense, try spurting nonsense that's at least semi-correct.
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Isn't that what we do still?
We always "steal" ideas.. I think the real issue is that if people just copied and copied but never used it to make new results.. Wait, unless you mean that.
But anyway, culture in the dark ages did that (Copy from somewhere) and made a future of patterns all based on the past.. And we still do this. It's just now we have Intellectual "Property" laws trying to stop the nature of that.
I also think it's creative to make up a new story for someone in a book or so. Because it can help you make new ideas.. If that isn't creative, then nothing is. Since there really is no originality. And in a way, we always "Used something from somewhere else".
By the way, I sometimes love "Fan-Fiction" even though everything might be that. I hope a lot of stories, characters, etc goes into the Public Domain someday. :P
Although there is one thing, I heard you can't Copyright characters (Names), but you could sometimes trademark there name...
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Inspiration
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Fanfiction is asinine
To kill Cicero, or not to kill Cicero? That is the question: Whether 'tis saner in the mind to suffer the pains and trials of outrageous wisecracks, or to take arms against a sea of riddles, and by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep no more. For during sleep, would I not be confronted by the Wrath of Sithis, that most faithful and insidious of all the Night Mother's agents? Would I not face the condemnation of Sithis himself after my death? Yet how am I to keep hearing the same tired nonsense from that jester and not become insane myself? How can I laugh when he sings about burning bards and still retain my fragile grasp on reality? Is he truly a servant of the Night Mother, or a lackey of Sheogorath's? It is because of him that I sometimes do not know the difference between a hobby and a handsaw, no matter the direction from which the wind is blowing. Alas, poor Cicero. I knew him, Veezara; a killer of infinite jest, and a fellow of most putrescent fancy. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
Copyright � 2012 Romersa's Prot�g�. Individuals and groups are free to copy and share this work for non-commercial purposes. All other rights reserved.
(Adapted from 'Hamlet's Soliloquy'; Public Domain. Produced under licence from Bethesda Softworks.)
OMG, I totally ripped off both Shakespeare AND BethSoft! I am SUCH a crappy writer I might as well give up and shoot myself in the head! *Shuffles to the corner and stands facing it, whimpering like a whipped puppy.*
For anyone who doesn't think the above piece was crap, you can find the rest of my works on FFN, all featuring highly original writing, by searching for Walks-in-Shadows as the author name.
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Re: Fanfiction is asinine
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The Last Word
“The Enchanted Duplicator
Regarding the underlying original article:I find it rather amazing that Ewan Morrison knows of "The Enchanted Duplicator," and yet he completely misunderstands it. (By Walt Willis and Bob Shaw, both of whom published professionally.) "The Enchanted Duplicator" was originally published (mimeographed and mailed) in the 1950s, and prior to the Internet era one was extremely unlikely to know about it outside of science fiction fandom.
It is not "fan fiction," as that term is commonly used.
It is a parable of the journey of a science fiction fan within the community, on the quest to publish the perfect fanzine. It has iconic status in certain portions of science fiction fandom because it so accurately captures the agony and ecstasy of amateur publishing in the pre-Internet era.