Anti-Fanfic Bingo, Round 2, part 1
These don't easily cohese in my mind the way the first set did. I think I'm going to take them on in reverse order.
otw_news link http://community.livejournal.com/otw_news/16720.html
Original link http://ithiliana.livejournal.com/802676.html
THINK of the CHILDREN!
Yes. *taps fingers on tabletop* Let's think of the children.
Let's start with my children. My daughters are, at this writing, nine and twelve years old. That's the age being mentioned here, is it not? Old enough to go searching online for "interesting stuff;" young enough to need parental guidance in both their social interactions (so they don't get scammed by creeps, online and off) and their information input (so they don't believe hateful propaganda or get led into decisions that will severely damage them later).
I want to encourage them to be creative, to think about the stories they enjoy, whether those are books, tv shows, movies, or video games. I want them to realize that every person they meet, face-to-face or through text, has aspects of personality that they'll never directly see. I want them to know that, however familiar they are with a place, there's always something more to learn about it. I want them to learn that an unexpected event-windfall or disaster-can apparently change people drastically, that in crisis, a person's hidden aspects can come forward, for good or ill.
I want them to know you can't judge a book by its cover. I want them to know this in their bones, deep below the conscious thoughts they put into their schoolwork. Fanfic can help them make that realization: it's one of the few tools I, as a parent, have available to show them "here are three dozen possible explanations for this action in this story."
But I gather that's not what's meant by "think of the children!" What's really meant is "how can you allow innocent children to be exposed to all that perverse SMUT?"
To which I answer…
How can you allow innocent children to be exposed to Jerry Falwell's hate speech, blaming the 9-11 attack on liberals and lesbians? How can you allow them to be exposed to Britney Spears' two-day marriage, teaching them that if they're famous enough, they can make and rescind life-long promises at will? How can you allow them to believe that "terrorism" is located in Iraq, and we will defeat it if we shoot enough people there?
I have to help them sort out all that propaganda and hate, and you're worried that they might be exposed to a bit of peen action? Good gods--who cares if they know what naked bodies act like? I'm trying to raise them to be decent, well-informed, sensible adults, and you're panicking because they might find out that sex exists?
Or are you panicking because they might find out that really kinky bizarre sex exists? That someone they care about (be that a real living person, or a beloved fictional character) might like whacked sex?
Ummm… so what? Am I honestly supposed to be fretting that my kid might discover that some people like to be tied up and whipped to get their jollies?
IM IN UR BOOK, STEALIN UR CAR
That sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?
Two hundred years ago, intellectual "property" could be considered mostly like physical property… because almost all expression of it were physical. Because paper was an expensive commodity (not like gemstones, but still, a substantial cost for the average person), because widespread dissemination of specific information was expensive and time-consuming, because copying took both serious effort and depletable resources, IP could be treated like any other property: you "own" it; you have the right to share it or not; you can modify it as you will; you can sell it.
But IP is not property. It lacks an essential quality that physical property contains: it is not depleted by use.
If I look at your car, design plans from it, and build an identical car… you don't have less car. If I build a modified version with a convertible top, monster-truck wheels, and a ski rack… you still don't have less car.
I understand the violation people feel when someone grabs their idea and does something squicky with it. I don't mean to disregard that feeling, or say that it's irrelevant. It's why Europe has "moral rights" of authors; it's why we have slander & libel laws: because you can hurt people with words, because shared ideas have power.
But they don't have substance. "Stealing" your idea doesn't have the same kind of effect on you as "stealing" your car. I haven't taken away your use of it; I haven't taken your ability to make money from it. (Not with fanfic-not if I followed the conventions of most fanfic archives.) I haven't "taken" from you at all.
Find another metaphor; this one's broken.
Fic me! Fic me! Fic me!
That's what we all say, isn't it? I'd love it if someone liked my story enough to write about my characters. I'd be thrilled if I inspired them that much. But is it true?
I know that what few original characters I've come up with (mostly pertaining to tabletop RPGs), I consider available to anyone to tell stories about. But I'm aware that I'm fanatically pluralistic, polystorious to a ridiculous degree. I can honestly say that RPF involving me wouldn't squick me.(That is not, however, a suggestion. There are plenty more interesting characters to write about than me.)
It's a reasonable question, though… not just "would you like it if people wrote about your characters?" but the hidden question, "would you accept it if people wrote about your characters doing things you'd never imagined them doing; would you be okay with them being forced into situations you think are implausible or wrong for them?"
And I know that most ficcers will say an enthusiastic "Oh yes baby!" without thinking about it. It means… would you accept people writing RPF about you and your characters? Would you be happy with stories about your characters being killed? Being shown as hideously OOC caricatures of themselves? Of them submitting blindly to the will of some insipid Mary Sue who keeps saving them from problems they could defeat without thinking? Being crossovered into universes you hate, or think they don't fit well at all with? (Hey, Hitchhiker's Guide mixes with anything, right? Where'd I put the link to that Marvin/Snape story?) Are you content with pointless slash about your characters, who announce their previously hidden undying passion for each other in the first paragraph, and are boinking madly (and without lube) by the third? How about SPAG… do you embrace tacky songfic with spelling errors and erratic capitalization and a belief that the comma is an obsolete 17th century affectation?
Remember, embracing fanfic includes the bad stuff. Which, we must admit, is most of it.
Put some thought into it, folks. Don't just blithely say "yeah, I'd love it if someone ficced my work." Let them know you've considered what that means, and you're still in favor of free expression… even tacky expression. Even warped and perverse expression. Be aware that promoting art means promoting bad art as well; we need to say that we know that "I support fanfic" means "I support the right of teenage girls to write atrocious stories where they've turned all the Harry Potter characters into furries, and have MSued themselves into the Queen Furry and made all the other characters her sex-slave, plus she kills Voldemort and brings him back to life as a sweet and loving person, because her powers of love are just that strong."
If you think RPF shouldn't be outlawed (and RPF is on an entirely different legal plane; it's not a copyright issue, but a defamation one: and as long as it's made clear that it's fiction, it's entirely legal), then being pro-fic means saying "it's okay if people write nasty stories about me and my loved ones."
Think about that one a bit before you jump out in favor of fanfic. Think of how you'd feel, finding your name-or your kids' names-used in the midst of some bizarre drug-induced backstage orgy sequence.
M'self? I'm pro-fic. All the way. I'm pro-art. I'm pro-multiplicity. Those are both serious religious convictions with me. But I'm also very aware that not all art is pretty, not all possibilities are nice ones. And that supporting creativity and fanworks doesn't just mean supporting the stuff I like. It means supporting the stuff I hate, the stuff I think is garbage, the stuff that makes me reach for mental floss.I think that's all for tonight; I'm not up to writing about dead authors and what makes a Real Writer.
otw_news link http://community.livejournal.com/otw_news/16720.html
Original link http://ithiliana.livejournal.com/802676.html
THINK of the CHILDREN!
Yes. *taps fingers on tabletop* Let's think of the children.
Let's start with my children. My daughters are, at this writing, nine and twelve years old. That's the age being mentioned here, is it not? Old enough to go searching online for "interesting stuff;" young enough to need parental guidance in both their social interactions (so they don't get scammed by creeps, online and off) and their information input (so they don't believe hateful propaganda or get led into decisions that will severely damage them later).
I want to encourage them to be creative, to think about the stories they enjoy, whether those are books, tv shows, movies, or video games. I want them to realize that every person they meet, face-to-face or through text, has aspects of personality that they'll never directly see. I want them to know that, however familiar they are with a place, there's always something more to learn about it. I want them to learn that an unexpected event-windfall or disaster-can apparently change people drastically, that in crisis, a person's hidden aspects can come forward, for good or ill.
I want them to know you can't judge a book by its cover. I want them to know this in their bones, deep below the conscious thoughts they put into their schoolwork. Fanfic can help them make that realization: it's one of the few tools I, as a parent, have available to show them "here are three dozen possible explanations for this action in this story."
But I gather that's not what's meant by "think of the children!" What's really meant is "how can you allow innocent children to be exposed to all that perverse SMUT?"
To which I answer…
How can you allow innocent children to be exposed to Jerry Falwell's hate speech, blaming the 9-11 attack on liberals and lesbians? How can you allow them to be exposed to Britney Spears' two-day marriage, teaching them that if they're famous enough, they can make and rescind life-long promises at will? How can you allow them to believe that "terrorism" is located in Iraq, and we will defeat it if we shoot enough people there?
I have to help them sort out all that propaganda and hate, and you're worried that they might be exposed to a bit of peen action? Good gods--who cares if they know what naked bodies act like? I'm trying to raise them to be decent, well-informed, sensible adults, and you're panicking because they might find out that sex exists?
Or are you panicking because they might find out that really kinky bizarre sex exists? That someone they care about (be that a real living person, or a beloved fictional character) might like whacked sex?
Ummm… so what? Am I honestly supposed to be fretting that my kid might discover that some people like to be tied up and whipped to get their jollies?
IM IN UR BOOK, STEALIN UR CAR
That sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?
Two hundred years ago, intellectual "property" could be considered mostly like physical property… because almost all expression of it were physical. Because paper was an expensive commodity (not like gemstones, but still, a substantial cost for the average person), because widespread dissemination of specific information was expensive and time-consuming, because copying took both serious effort and depletable resources, IP could be treated like any other property: you "own" it; you have the right to share it or not; you can modify it as you will; you can sell it.
But IP is not property. It lacks an essential quality that physical property contains: it is not depleted by use.
If I look at your car, design plans from it, and build an identical car… you don't have less car. If I build a modified version with a convertible top, monster-truck wheels, and a ski rack… you still don't have less car.
I understand the violation people feel when someone grabs their idea and does something squicky with it. I don't mean to disregard that feeling, or say that it's irrelevant. It's why Europe has "moral rights" of authors; it's why we have slander & libel laws: because you can hurt people with words, because shared ideas have power.
But they don't have substance. "Stealing" your idea doesn't have the same kind of effect on you as "stealing" your car. I haven't taken away your use of it; I haven't taken your ability to make money from it. (Not with fanfic-not if I followed the conventions of most fanfic archives.) I haven't "taken" from you at all.
Find another metaphor; this one's broken.
Fic me! Fic me! Fic me!
That's what we all say, isn't it? I'd love it if someone liked my story enough to write about my characters. I'd be thrilled if I inspired them that much. But is it true?
I know that what few original characters I've come up with (mostly pertaining to tabletop RPGs), I consider available to anyone to tell stories about. But I'm aware that I'm fanatically pluralistic, polystorious to a ridiculous degree. I can honestly say that RPF involving me wouldn't squick me.(That is not, however, a suggestion. There are plenty more interesting characters to write about than me.)
It's a reasonable question, though… not just "would you like it if people wrote about your characters?" but the hidden question, "would you accept it if people wrote about your characters doing things you'd never imagined them doing; would you be okay with them being forced into situations you think are implausible or wrong for them?"
And I know that most ficcers will say an enthusiastic "Oh yes baby!" without thinking about it. It means… would you accept people writing RPF about you and your characters? Would you be happy with stories about your characters being killed? Being shown as hideously OOC caricatures of themselves? Of them submitting blindly to the will of some insipid Mary Sue who keeps saving them from problems they could defeat without thinking? Being crossovered into universes you hate, or think they don't fit well at all with? (Hey, Hitchhiker's Guide mixes with anything, right? Where'd I put the link to that Marvin/Snape story?) Are you content with pointless slash about your characters, who announce their previously hidden undying passion for each other in the first paragraph, and are boinking madly (and without lube) by the third? How about SPAG… do you embrace tacky songfic with spelling errors and erratic capitalization and a belief that the comma is an obsolete 17th century affectation?
Remember, embracing fanfic includes the bad stuff. Which, we must admit, is most of it.
Put some thought into it, folks. Don't just blithely say "yeah, I'd love it if someone ficced my work." Let them know you've considered what that means, and you're still in favor of free expression… even tacky expression. Even warped and perverse expression. Be aware that promoting art means promoting bad art as well; we need to say that we know that "I support fanfic" means "I support the right of teenage girls to write atrocious stories where they've turned all the Harry Potter characters into furries, and have MSued themselves into the Queen Furry and made all the other characters her sex-slave, plus she kills Voldemort and brings him back to life as a sweet and loving person, because her powers of love are just that strong."
If you think RPF shouldn't be outlawed (and RPF is on an entirely different legal plane; it's not a copyright issue, but a defamation one: and as long as it's made clear that it's fiction, it's entirely legal), then being pro-fic means saying "it's okay if people write nasty stories about me and my loved ones."
Think about that one a bit before you jump out in favor of fanfic. Think of how you'd feel, finding your name-or your kids' names-used in the midst of some bizarre drug-induced backstage orgy sequence.
M'self? I'm pro-fic. All the way. I'm pro-art. I'm pro-multiplicity. Those are both serious religious convictions with me. But I'm also very aware that not all art is pretty, not all possibilities are nice ones. And that supporting creativity and fanworks doesn't just mean supporting the stuff I like. It means supporting the stuff I hate, the stuff I think is garbage, the stuff that makes me reach for mental floss.I think that's all for tonight; I'm not up to writing about dead authors and what makes a Real Writer.