At least a few pro fantasy writers -- not going to name names here, aside from saying that the names listed here doesn't include the ones I know of -- are said to be anti-fanfic for a reason that will never be honestly admitted: it's altogether too likely that some amateur writers, doing fanfic for this author's works, will produce work of higher quality than the originals.
Heh - that has long been suggested as one reason for pros with anti-fic feelings, and I admit that it has a ring of truth, to me. Certainly I found the best SGA fic to be substantially better written than the show itself. And I was reading Anne Rice fanfic after I'd quit reading the Vampire Chronicles, because the fanfic still gave me what the canon no longer did.
And certainly not-for-profit, freely web-posted fanfic can be and often is (in the case of most tie-in novels I know of!) as good or better than for-pay derivative works. Some of this I think is the power of fannishness - a fan, writing purely for love of a series/characters, may be truer to it than someone who's doing it at least in part to make a buck. It doesn't surprise me that some Holmes fans will extensively research the era, for no other reason than because they want to be true to what they love. I've done the same.
(Conan Doyle wrote Holmes pastiches?? That I did not know! I'd love to see those. OF course in Japanese fandoms it's fairly common for mangaka to write parody dj of their own series, but I don't know of many Western authors who've done so...)
I have heard of the Raffles books...I might have read a crossover with them? Hmm....not sure, but yes, have heard of them. Haven't read them, though, and didn't know about the character inspiration - that's an interesting tidbit..
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winterfish
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Date: 2010-06-10 07:12 am (UTC)Heh - that has long been suggested as one reason for pros with anti-fic feelings, and I admit that it has a ring of truth, to me. Certainly I found the best SGA fic to be substantially better written than the show itself. And I was reading Anne Rice fanfic after I'd quit reading the Vampire Chronicles, because the fanfic still gave me what the canon no longer did.
And certainly not-for-profit, freely web-posted fanfic can be and often is (in the case of most tie-in novels I know of!) as good or better than for-pay derivative works. Some of this I think is the power of fannishness - a fan, writing purely for love of a series/characters, may be truer to it than someone who's doing it at least in part to make a buck. It doesn't surprise me that some Holmes fans will extensively research the era, for no other reason than because they want to be true to what they love. I've done the same.
(Conan Doyle wrote Holmes pastiches?? That I did not know! I'd love to see those. OF course in Japanese fandoms it's fairly common for mangaka to write parody dj of their own series, but I don't know of many Western authors who've done so...)
I have heard of the Raffles books...I might have read a crossover with them? Hmm....not sure, but yes, have heard of them. Haven't read them, though, and didn't know about the character inspiration - that's an interesting tidbit..