Today, I followed the gay porn standard

[cereta]

Note to self:

If the thought of what will almost certainly follow a comment makes your stomach hurt, don't make the commentAlso, trying to explain to people who think fandom is stupid why saying that any fiction that involves characters/stories someone else created is inherently bad writing is, in fact, laughably dumb is doomed to fail. DOOMED, I

Comments

[mamadeb]

Yep. You can't argue with a closed mind.

And the person who made that post has a mind clenched tight.

[cereta]

Pretty much, yeah. And honestly, I'm not all that interested in persuading him, but the literature teacher in my has to SIT on my HANDS to let that kind of ignorance go uncorrected. But it never goes well, ever, because as soon as you bring up, you know, HALF THE WESTERN CANON, you get a lot of "LOL comparing yourself to Shakespeare."

[taraljc]

I had to stop msyelf from posting a rant against people selling their fanfic on Amazon and eBay. Cos creating and distributing fanfic on the internets is one thing, and selling an unlicensed tie-in is another. And people are seriously STUPID if they think they won't get bitch-slapped by both their peers AND the copyright holders for the latter.

But also, trying to explain to the masses why fandom views the former one way and the latter another (or for that matter how IP lawyers view them) would take time I simply do not have.

*sigh*

Why are people stupid? WHY WHY WHY?

[cereta]

It leads to some sticky wickets, that's for sure. But the notion that everything written with existing characters is crap is just so blindingly stupid. I blame the Romantics.

[taraljc]

I'm sure Shakespeare got seriously heckled for rewriting Hamlet that one time. And King Lear. He was obviously such a hack, with no future in the business. And I bet Virgil never overcame the public humiliation and shame of The Aeneid being a totally unlicensed sequel to Homer's Illiad.

[anonymous]

[cereta]

No, you're right. Editing ;).

[trobadora]

Not that I could think of any way anyone was likely to complete that statement that wouldn't be laughably dumb. *g*

[cereta]

Well, clearly "following" is marginal, as it seems to include "tell you all," but still ;).

[mirandir]

But... all writers do that. ALL.

Fiction doesn't spring fully-formed from your forehead. Fiction is built brick-by-brick from the things around you. There isn't a single story ever written that didn't borrow an idea from something else. Fan-fiction is just a little more open about the borrowing, and sometimes does it in larger, more recognizable chunks.

[cereta]

See, the problem here, is that you are thinking in layers and complexities and, well, thought instead of just "lol fandom."

[mirandir]

Honestly? The whole "lol fandom" thing? I genuinely did not get this until recently. Like, did not understand that it actually exists. The communities I've kept since I was born, including my family, have all been fan-friendly. Only some of the conversations I've gotten into through you have finally gotten through my fluffy optimism on the subject.

Now I understand that this prejudice exists. I still don't really grok why, but I suspect there isn't an argument for it that would really make sense to me.