This could have just been a GIP. Sorry.
Babbly non-spoilery thoughts about The Social Network and RPF that have probably been said a million times before, but I'm still processing:
So, as a person who's interested in RPF, I find The Social Network really interesting in an recursive, strange loop kind of way. Sorkin basically did what we do: he took the public personae of some people and fiddled with them until they did what he wanted them to. The only difference is that some of these people are only barely public figures, and Sorkin probably won't get sued (if someone ever sues me, I'm planning to copypaste their disclaimer and cite the movie.)
I mean, what is this strange animal that they created? If I wrote Winklevoss twincest now, could I be sued? Between being Olympians and the movie, they're basically public figures now. Would I be more likely to be sued if I said it was fanfic of the movie or fanfic of the real life people?
Also baffling to me is that last year there were three big movies (that I can remember) based on real events -- TSN, 127 Hours, and The King's Speech -- and TSN is the only one that feels RPF-y to me. Maybe it's because it's pre-slash about Mark and Eduardo, but without the resolution we would give. I don't know. Something about the way in which the characters are drawn, and the focus on the relationship between dudes makes it feel more like something we would write. (I kind of want Sentinel-style smarm about Mark and Eduardo now, like, an epic AU where they reconcile and give manly, heterosexual, naked hugs.) There are plenty of movies about real events that inspire the same legal issues, but it's interesting that there's so much TSN fic and comparatively little (for example) Pirates of Silicon Valley fic. There needs to be more Pirates of Silicon Valley fic, by the way.
And then there's the whole RPF fandom of the movie and how interesting that is. You basically have three fandom options here: movie!verse (with possible inclusion of real life canon), the real people, or the people playing the real people. And two of those options are still creating canon. Someone must have written a fic by now about Mark and Eduardo's reaction to seeing Jesse and Andrew act out a highly fictionalized version of their lives.
It's just all so weird to me, from a legal and fandom point of view. Probably because I'm still getting used to this new thing where we basically acknowledge that any given text can have two fic fandoms, the FPF fandom and the RPF fandom, and now suddenly we have new permutations of that. And I'm not even going to watch the episode of The Good Wife that dealt with some of the legal shit, because that would make my head hurt.
So, as a person who's interested in RPF, I find The Social Network really interesting in an recursive, strange loop kind of way. Sorkin basically did what we do: he took the public personae of some people and fiddled with them until they did what he wanted them to. The only difference is that some of these people are only barely public figures, and Sorkin probably won't get sued (if someone ever sues me, I'm planning to copypaste their disclaimer and cite the movie.)
I mean, what is this strange animal that they created? If I wrote Winklevoss twincest now, could I be sued? Between being Olympians and the movie, they're basically public figures now. Would I be more likely to be sued if I said it was fanfic of the movie or fanfic of the real life people?
Also baffling to me is that last year there were three big movies (that I can remember) based on real events -- TSN, 127 Hours, and The King's Speech -- and TSN is the only one that feels RPF-y to me. Maybe it's because it's pre-slash about Mark and Eduardo, but without the resolution we would give. I don't know. Something about the way in which the characters are drawn, and the focus on the relationship between dudes makes it feel more like something we would write. (I kind of want Sentinel-style smarm about Mark and Eduardo now, like, an epic AU where they reconcile and give manly, heterosexual, naked hugs.) There are plenty of movies about real events that inspire the same legal issues, but it's interesting that there's so much TSN fic and comparatively little (for example) Pirates of Silicon Valley fic. There needs to be more Pirates of Silicon Valley fic, by the way.
And then there's the whole RPF fandom of the movie and how interesting that is. You basically have three fandom options here: movie!verse (with possible inclusion of real life canon), the real people, or the people playing the real people. And two of those options are still creating canon. Someone must have written a fic by now about Mark and Eduardo's reaction to seeing Jesse and Andrew act out a highly fictionalized version of their lives.
It's just all so weird to me, from a legal and fandom point of view. Probably because I'm still getting used to this new thing where we basically acknowledge that any given text can have two fic fandoms, the FPF fandom and the RPF fandom, and now suddenly we have new permutations of that. And I'm not even going to watch the episode of The Good Wife that dealt with some of the legal shit, because that would make my head hurt.