[Research] How to write a good, informed article on fanfic for a mainstream news source
This one has been linked all over the place already, but Time published an article on fan fiction called "The Boy Who Lived Forever". Most of it is truly very good, and a lot of that is undoubtedly due to the journalist (Lev Grossman) talking about the content with fic writers in an lj comm beforehand. I'm not always too fond of Time, but I'm very glad to finally have a readable article on fic that I can wave at people who wonder what it's all about, and the way this article was researched is nothing but commendable. Kudos to Grossman, everyone who participated, and the OTW for organizing things. (I'm also slightly miffed that the interviewing took place while I was away from the internets and couldn't participate. Talking about Why We Fic is so much fun.)
My favorite part of the article is the ending. Long quote:
(...) Today the way we think of creativity is dominated by Romantic notions of individual genius and originality, and late-capitalist concepts of intellectual property, under which artists are businesspeople whose creations are the commodities they have for sale. But the pendulum is swinging back the other way. The particular feature, or bug, of our millennial moment is a double vision that allows us to look at stories both ways at once. (...) If authorship is no longer the exclusive domain of the gods, it's no longer the exclusive domain of authors either.
There may be hurt in that, but there's a great deal of comfort as well. A writer's characters are his or her children, but even children have to grow up eventually and do things their parents wouldn't approve of. "We don't own nonfictional people," Maltese says, "and at the end of the day, I don't think we can own fictional ones either."
This is such an important point, and I'm very glad that it got included. Personally, I really do sympathize with authors who feel squicked by fic writers using their worlds/characters. Some will just not find that amusing or flattering, ever, and they have a right to feel that way. But I don't believe they have the right to say that people cannot write fic about their characters. They don't have the right to make fic writers feel like they're doing something wrong. In my view, semiotic democracy trumps the moral rights of authors. No author is ever forced to read fic about their works, and fic harms nothing and no one. The value and joy that a fandom can provide to thousands, tens of thousands, sometimes millions of people is more important than the hurt feelings of one person.
Edit:
elf has collected a ton of fannish reactions to the article here.
This entry was originally posted at http://fanficforensics.dreamwidth.org/30637.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
My favorite part of the article is the ending. Long quote:
(...) Today the way we think of creativity is dominated by Romantic notions of individual genius and originality, and late-capitalist concepts of intellectual property, under which artists are businesspeople whose creations are the commodities they have for sale. But the pendulum is swinging back the other way. The particular feature, or bug, of our millennial moment is a double vision that allows us to look at stories both ways at once. (...) If authorship is no longer the exclusive domain of the gods, it's no longer the exclusive domain of authors either.
There may be hurt in that, but there's a great deal of comfort as well. A writer's characters are his or her children, but even children have to grow up eventually and do things their parents wouldn't approve of. "We don't own nonfictional people," Maltese says, "and at the end of the day, I don't think we can own fictional ones either."
This is such an important point, and I'm very glad that it got included. Personally, I really do sympathize with authors who feel squicked by fic writers using their worlds/characters. Some will just not find that amusing or flattering, ever, and they have a right to feel that way. But I don't believe they have the right to say that people cannot write fic about their characters. They don't have the right to make fic writers feel like they're doing something wrong. In my view, semiotic democracy trumps the moral rights of authors. No author is ever forced to read fic about their works, and fic harms nothing and no one. The value and joy that a fandom can provide to thousands, tens of thousands, sometimes millions of people is more important than the hurt feelings of one person.
Edit:
elf has collected a ton of fannish reactions to the article here.
This entry was originally posted at http://fanficforensics.dreamwidth.org/30637.html. Please comment there using OpenID.