Tiptree thoughts

[astolat]

rivkat says pretty much what I have to say about the Tiptree-longlisted fanfic issue here, and jury member matt-ruff makes a great post about the various objections over hereI see no reason that fanfic based on sources still under copyright shouldn't be considered for awards that don't have a pro-publication requirement, and in particular for an award for "the

Comments

[penknife]

I have no idea whether this particular story is any good; I haven't read it. I think, though, that it's going to be very hard for people outside of fandom to understand this kind of story and its context. Fanfiction is so dependent on the original for its meaning, to start with -- as you said, "World Turned Upside Down" would lose a lot if it weren't fanfic, and it would (I think) lose a lot if read by people who didn't know the characters and the original work. "The Wind Done Gone" makes little sense except as a response to "Gone With the Wind." I'm not sure everyone judging the story is going to be familiar enough with both fandoms to understand what fanfic about them is saying.

But on top of that, there's the fact that "crackfic" is a particular genre within fanfic, and if you don't understand the genre or the context in which the story was written, I think you're going to fixate on "this premise makes no sense," rather than understanding that it was written in a genre that's about exploring absurd premises and shameless kinks and cliches.

I think when people who don't normally read fanfic look at it, it's hard enough for them to see the ways fanfic responds to the original text; expecting them to also wrap their heads around how crackfic responds to other fanfic (by embracing cliches or story ideas that people have criticized as unrealistic) seems likely to result in people trying to judge a story they really don't understand.