Real Life Fanfic?

[sartorias]

People have been writing about famous figures for a loooong time, but of late there seems to be a rash of historical figures teaming up to Solve Crime, or rampage about the fictiverse in ways that lie wayyyy outside their reported experience in history.

In Northanger Abbey sseventeen-year-old Catherine has this to say about history:

I read it [

Comments

[newsboyhat]

The thrill of good fanfiction is that you believe this story--it fits seamlessly, or nearly so, into your understanding of the story. Or history. Adds to it, and of course there is the glee of (here's a timely image) discovering Easter Eggs hidden in the text, overlooked by those not deeply familiar with the material, adding an extra flavor burst for those who are.

I agree with this completely. My main hesitation toward fanfiction is that I haven't read too many good ones.

The idea of this type of "fanfiction" kind of unsettles me, though. After reading the NYT article, I agree with the writer that this:

I would love to see more novels that unite historical figures whose paths would almost certainly never cross in real life, not because they lived in different eras but because they traveled in completely different social circles. This way the story can go in all sorts of exciting new directions, and not merely from West Point to Crabcake Corners.

has the potential to be a great story... but it would also just be a great story if the writer managed to come up with their own characters. I acknowledge that stuff like this would be a great exercise for many young writers, but I'm not sure if I could call it a "genre" in itself... it doesn't seem credible to me.

Guess my point is, I would much rather read an original novel about a headstrong girl's (or a Prince's headstrong overidealistic second son's *cough*) adventure on the high seas than Jane Austen, as much as I love her. Hmm.

[sartorias]

I suspect that much of the attraction is that when it works, it brings all the reader engagement of the other story (or history) with it, which isn't possible with original fic. Not that brilliant writers don't bring the reader to that pitch of investment, but each new novel does begin at ground zero, while fanfic or historical fic of this type can hitch a ride on the comet, so to speak.

[dancingwriter]

"but it would also just be a great story if the writer managed to come up with their own characters"

That's what I wish Greg Keyes had done with his Age of Unreason novels, instead of throwing together Ben Franklin, Voltaire, Isaac Newton, Louis XIV, etc. By the end of the first book I was so irritated with the whole premise that I've never read anything else of his. (Unfair of me, probably, but after all one can't read everything--and if I got a good rec for something else of his, I would give it a try.)