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xparrotSo as you might have heard, various pro fantasy authors (Diana Gabaldon, GRR Martin, and Katherine Kerr among them) have been speaking out about how fanfic is disrespectful to actual money-making authors (because you're not a real artist unless you're making a buck with your art), is illegal (because apparently copyright law is what they say it is, as opposed to what's actually on the books), immoral (and akin to rape and/or white slavery, because one's original characters are like one's children, and for someone else to dare write their names feels just like having your kids abducted and sexually abused), gross, and inherently inferior to original fiction.
Obviously I have a few mild opinions on the matter. But it's the last point that I keep getting stuck on. Putting aside![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bookshop's straightforward rebuttal that there is an enormous amount of derivative/transformative literature out there by distinguished professional authors (Bill Shakespeare was such an immoral hack, you know), the fact is, fanfic is not the same as original fiction. A lot - the majority, perhaps - of fanfiction would not work as original fiction.
And it's not because fanfic is inherently bad fiction, or that fanfic writers are talentless wannabe authors who lack the creativity to write their own original characters/worlds. There are a lot of stories that, by their very nature, require that the reader already be familiar with the characters or the world.
Take the entire genre of Alternate Universe fics, which will put a cast of chars in a completely new setting - Kirk & Spock as high school students, Draco Malfoy as a private eye. Some of the pleasure of reading an AU is simply reading a story in which you can clearly picture the characters. But a lot of the enjoyment comes from seeing how these familiar characters fit into these new surroundings, seeing how their skills or traits translate to the different situation. For an AU to make sense, the readers need to know the chars well in their own setting. Therefore the only way you can write an actual original AU is to write a novel to establish the chars in their native universe, and then write AUs based on that (which some authors do - some of my favorite mangaka are very partial to it!). But you can't just write an AU cold. And if you're not a full-time author, if story-writing is your hobby and you don't have the time/energy to write an entire novel, then if you want to write an AU, it has to be based on someone else's characters. Or else a key component of the story will be lost to your readers.
It's not just AUs; there are many kinds of stories that depend on readers being familiar with the characters. Any story with a plot point that hinges on challenging the reader's expectations, needs to be certain that a reader has those expectations. If you're writing a novel, you can set up characters and situations such that readers will start making assumptions. That's a lot harder to do in a short story, and often isn't possible at all when it comes to complex emotional situations. It's show vs tell - "telling" doesn't really inspire feelings in a reader, "showing" is crucial for emotional engagement. But it takes a lot of words to, say, convincingly show a friendship developing. If you want to write a story featuring a change in an already existing friendship (say, the pathos of two friends parting ways), then you need a friendship that the readers are going to care about. Sure, you can write a short story beginning with "X & Y were best friends," and then tell about how they separate - but it's unlikely to move readers much, when they don't know or care about the chars or their friendship. Or, if you have the time and energy, you can write a novel about two people becoming friends, and then write your story. Or you can write a story about two people who you already know your readers will accept as friends.
This is just as true on the reader's side. If I want to read a story about two friends, yes, sometimes I want to read a whole novel on the development of a friendship. But sometimes I'm in the mood for something shorter. Derivative works allow a reader to have their cake and eat it, too.
(And yes, I suspect this is why so much of fanfic is erotic, because a lot of people will get in the mood for something short and satisfying - and women especially tend to enjoy reading about sex more when it has an emotional component. The vast majority of erotic fanfic simply would not be as successful fiction as original stories, because part of the pleasure the reader takes is in seeing the consummation of an already-existing relationship, but at the same time when someone wants to read good porn they don't necessarily want to have to read hundred of pages of non-porn in order to be satisfied. If you want to argue that erotic fiction is fundamentally inferior to other kinds of fiction, that's a whole other argument I can't speak to, but to dismiss erotic fanfic as inferior to original erotic fiction is to dismiss an aspect of sexuality for many.)
A lot of these scenarios hinge on accepting that reading and writing primarily for entertainment is a valid activity. I'd think that most fantasy writers wouldn't argue this case, considering that none of the writers I've seen speaking out are known for writing meaningful, life-changing literature. But even if you believe that the only Good literature is that which is thematically important and significant, then derivative works can be as Good fiction as any other type. There are still some themes which are easier to explore in a derivative work, or even impossible to explore otherwise - a transformative novel like Wide Sargasso Sea critiques Jane Eyre and its themes and cannot function apart from its original; so, too, does some fanfic critique and illuminate problematic themes in its inspiration.
Not all fanfic is so meaningful - but then, neither are all published novels. But professional authors who write transformative works do so for the same reasons fanfic writers do: because there are stories which work better, or only work, as derivatives of other fiction. That certain types of stories can only be told as derivative works - as fanfic - means that you must accept fanfic as a legitimate form of fiction (whether or not you like it personally, or have any interest in writing or reading it), and fanfic writers as legitimate authors - or else you must deny an entire aspect of literary tradition.
Obviously I have a few mild opinions on the matter. But it's the last point that I keep getting stuck on. Putting aside
bookshop's straightforward rebuttal that there is an enormous amount of derivative/transformative literature out there by distinguished professional authors (Bill Shakespeare was such an immoral hack, you know), the fact is, fanfic is not the same as original fiction. A lot - the majority, perhaps - of fanfiction would not work as original fiction.And it's not because fanfic is inherently bad fiction, or that fanfic writers are talentless wannabe authors who lack the creativity to write their own original characters/worlds. There are a lot of stories that, by their very nature, require that the reader already be familiar with the characters or the world.
Take the entire genre of Alternate Universe fics, which will put a cast of chars in a completely new setting - Kirk & Spock as high school students, Draco Malfoy as a private eye. Some of the pleasure of reading an AU is simply reading a story in which you can clearly picture the characters. But a lot of the enjoyment comes from seeing how these familiar characters fit into these new surroundings, seeing how their skills or traits translate to the different situation. For an AU to make sense, the readers need to know the chars well in their own setting. Therefore the only way you can write an actual original AU is to write a novel to establish the chars in their native universe, and then write AUs based on that (which some authors do - some of my favorite mangaka are very partial to it!). But you can't just write an AU cold. And if you're not a full-time author, if story-writing is your hobby and you don't have the time/energy to write an entire novel, then if you want to write an AU, it has to be based on someone else's characters. Or else a key component of the story will be lost to your readers.
It's not just AUs; there are many kinds of stories that depend on readers being familiar with the characters. Any story with a plot point that hinges on challenging the reader's expectations, needs to be certain that a reader has those expectations. If you're writing a novel, you can set up characters and situations such that readers will start making assumptions. That's a lot harder to do in a short story, and often isn't possible at all when it comes to complex emotional situations. It's show vs tell - "telling" doesn't really inspire feelings in a reader, "showing" is crucial for emotional engagement. But it takes a lot of words to, say, convincingly show a friendship developing. If you want to write a story featuring a change in an already existing friendship (say, the pathos of two friends parting ways), then you need a friendship that the readers are going to care about. Sure, you can write a short story beginning with "X & Y were best friends," and then tell about how they separate - but it's unlikely to move readers much, when they don't know or care about the chars or their friendship. Or, if you have the time and energy, you can write a novel about two people becoming friends, and then write your story. Or you can write a story about two people who you already know your readers will accept as friends.
This is just as true on the reader's side. If I want to read a story about two friends, yes, sometimes I want to read a whole novel on the development of a friendship. But sometimes I'm in the mood for something shorter. Derivative works allow a reader to have their cake and eat it, too.
(And yes, I suspect this is why so much of fanfic is erotic, because a lot of people will get in the mood for something short and satisfying - and women especially tend to enjoy reading about sex more when it has an emotional component. The vast majority of erotic fanfic simply would not be as successful fiction as original stories, because part of the pleasure the reader takes is in seeing the consummation of an already-existing relationship, but at the same time when someone wants to read good porn they don't necessarily want to have to read hundred of pages of non-porn in order to be satisfied. If you want to argue that erotic fiction is fundamentally inferior to other kinds of fiction, that's a whole other argument I can't speak to, but to dismiss erotic fanfic as inferior to original erotic fiction is to dismiss an aspect of sexuality for many.)
A lot of these scenarios hinge on accepting that reading and writing primarily for entertainment is a valid activity. I'd think that most fantasy writers wouldn't argue this case, considering that none of the writers I've seen speaking out are known for writing meaningful, life-changing literature. But even if you believe that the only Good literature is that which is thematically important and significant, then derivative works can be as Good fiction as any other type. There are still some themes which are easier to explore in a derivative work, or even impossible to explore otherwise - a transformative novel like Wide Sargasso Sea critiques Jane Eyre and its themes and cannot function apart from its original; so, too, does some fanfic critique and illuminate problematic themes in its inspiration.
Not all fanfic is so meaningful - but then, neither are all published novels. But professional authors who write transformative works do so for the same reasons fanfic writers do: because there are stories which work better, or only work, as derivatives of other fiction. That certain types of stories can only be told as derivative works - as fanfic - means that you must accept fanfic as a legitimate form of fiction (whether or not you like it personally, or have any interest in writing or reading it), and fanfic writers as legitimate authors - or else you must deny an entire aspect of literary tradition.
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-14 08:34 pm (UTC)there's really NO reason for me to write original fic instead (unless I just want to) except to make money ... which is a pretty shaky proposition with original writing these days anyhow.
This is the conclusion I've come to, except that I have another reason for wanting to be pro-published - I want a fandom of my own, dangit! Even a little one...but to see my fiction in the Yuletide requests, to see someone wanting wacky rare pairing smut with my chars - that's one of my ambitions. ...which obviously puts me at direct odds with most of the pros in this debate!
no subject
Date: 2010-05-14 09:06 pm (UTC)Though it does leave the difficulty of how to interact with the creative side of one's own fandom. Do you openly acknowledge your own fanfic, squee about it and link to it? Or squee in private, babble cheerfully at friends via email, and officially pretend it doesn't exist? Especially with an ongoing series - what if someone actually *does* anticipate your plot points in advance and write about it? I certainly don't have a moral problem with it and I'm not actually afraid of being sued, but I've noticed that there's something a little disheartening about working hard on a fanfic and then running across one that uses the exact same idea. If nothing else, it's hard to avoid being influenced by it!
Actually, that is one of the things I really love about writing fanfic for someone else's creations - you don't have to make that choice! You can openly acknowledge in your headers "this is a lot like Jane Doe's current WIP, but I was working on this one first and it's not related" or "The idea of Mary and Flo having a genius baby is borrowed with gratitude from Jane Doe's epic Curtainfic XII". You can babble happily about how awesome someone else's version of John Sheppard is. I worry about the difficulty of trying to navigate fandom with a non-fannish Seekrit Identity. I know that growing numbers of people do it (I'm actually amazed at just how many of the new, up-and-coming generation of spec-fic writers are also maintaining an active fanfic-writing presence - I know of about a dozen of them, and those are just the ones I know about!). But it seems like it would be very hard, especially if you happen to hit the fannish zeitgeist and spawn a decent-sized fandom of your own (like the Temeraire books seem to have).
Incidentally, I forgot to say this in my earlier comment, but I do think this is a very insightful post, and the aspect that you point out about fanfic is really one of the best arguments on the pro-fanfic side, IMHO. It's not less than original fic, but it's not exactly the same either. Trying to choose between them is like choosing between science fiction and mystery -- they're not the same, but one of them isn't less.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-14 09:19 pm (UTC)I'm also thinking somewhat of anime fandoms, where pro mangakas coming up through doujinshi is established and quite a few of them keep making doujinshi even once they're pro - and sometimes dj of their own series, even - and I know of mangaka who have outright requested that fans send them dj (I remember the author of Fushigi Yuugi had a note in one volume wondering something like why there wasn't more Tama/Tasuki yaoi and could she see it if there was!) Japanese fandom works very differently from Western fandom, but if they can negotiate it, there's gotta be a way for us to!
Trying to choose between them is like choosing between science fiction and mystery -- they're not the same, but one of them isn't less.
Yes, exactly - fanfic is akin to being a genre of fiction, and while it's perfectly understandable if you prefer some genres over others, but if you try to argue that one genre is innately objectively superior to another...you're probably wrong. :P
no subject
Date: 2010-05-14 10:35 pm (UTC)That's a neat thing about anime/manga fandoms ... it's going to be really interesting to see what happens in the next twenty years, as more and more writers come into the American publishing market through fandom, and fanfic becomes ever more "out". I remember in the late '90s worrying that fandom and fanfic was going to become steadily more marginalized, as the publishers became aware of it -- remember all the C&Ds and paranoia? And look at it now ... it's more mainstream than ever, far more visible and accepted than I would have dreamed a decade ago.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 12:17 am (UTC)Hmm, I can see this, but at the same time - in any large fandom I tend to stay on the fringes anyway, because fans can be, er, kind of nutso about their opinions, and I prefer to not argue mine (unless I'm in the mood or start feeling 'threatened' ^^;) And if it were my own work, it would be like that x100, because while I think the whole "it's like seeing my children getting raped!!" thing is crazy, I do get attached to my own chars, in a somewhat different way than I'm attached to the chars I fan on, and I would be more sensitive to criticisms of them. And then, I wouldn't want to risk stifling my own fans by making proclamations like, "I like this pairing and don't like that one!" (actually I'm secretly hoping that I'll inspire crazy non-canonical ships, it'll feel like I was doing something right. When I was doing my webcomic at least one person mentioned shipping two chars who I knew were never going to get together, and that just tickled me, that the chars were gaining that kind of life on their own, apart from what my story was doing with them...)
...I gotta admit, participating under a pseudonym sounds kind of tempting, even at the same time I'm going SOCKPUPPET NO WRONG! (On fandomsecrets recently I saw a secret in which someone wanted to have a fandom based on their original work, just so they could post ridiculous noncanonical smut under a pseudonym and then laugh at the people who cried OOC and said it was against the author's vision! And there's a wicked part of me that totally wants the same ^^;)