Comments | author_by_night: Can Fanfic Be Better? (Public Post)

author_by_night

Can Fanfic Be Better? (Public Post)

Dec 17, 2018 13:28

I realized that I added a bunch of fandomy people... and I haven't talked about fandom all that much. (To be fair, I haven't posted much at all. It's
been a hectic last few weeks.) I do miss talking about fandom, so I'm going to get back to that. For now, here's a short post (for me) about a topic I've seen raised a few times...

Can fanfic be better ( Read more... )

fandom, fanfiction

Comments 6

belleweather December 17 2018, 18:38:10 UTC

Clearly, you were not a member of The Phantom Menace fandom, who lovingly referred to the source material as "The Bad AU".

author_by_night December 18 2018, 12:57:15 UTC

Heh. Well, definitely never been in the Star Wars fandom. I do prefer the original trilogy though. (Although I also haven't seen more than one movie in the most recent trilogy. I think Carrie Fisher passing away just... made me too sad to watch the new film. Maybe I'll watch The Last Jedi this weekend, I'm sure it's on Google Play.)

I think a work can be considered a bad AU. I just don't think that necessarily means fic is better. Necessarily.

spikesgirl58 December 17 2018, 20:18:24 UTC

Honestly, I think is some cases it is better, especially in the world of Man from UNCLE

xfirefly9x December 18 2018, 01:31:49 UTC

I agree it's subjective.

rogueslayer452 December 18 2018, 04:22:09 UTC

The way I see it, fanfic writers have a bit more freedom when it comes to the stories they want to tell. Sure, not all fanfiction is good quality but the same can be said about published books, too. Even some of the "classics" in literature aren't really that good, imho. Fanfiction, however, is mostly something by fans for fans of something and it's an extension of expressing the need of adding more to a particular fandom. Whether it's simply for shipping purposes, addendums to canon, fix-its within canon, exploring different ideas and places that canon never did, different varieties of the same trope, exploring sexuality and certain fantasies without fear or restrictions, etc. Fanfiction is the freedom of exploration for many people for different reasons, and it's part of the appeal that you can write something that you want to, share it with the fandom community that will appreciate the work you put out ( ... )

author_by_night December 18 2018, 13:08:29 UTC

. Even some of the "classics" in literature aren't really that good, imho.

Yeah, same. I think part of it is that writing itself has changed a lot. I was an English Major in college, and found a lot of older writing incredibly dry. (Although I think a lot of that is because of stylistic changes, as well as social differences.)

Fanfiction is the freedom of exploration for many people for different reasons, and it's part of the appeal that you can write something that you want to, share it with the fandom community that will appreciate the work you put out.

Oh, definitely. I suppose I just don't think that always makes it better, even if it's preferable to many fans.

I agree that fanfic is HUGELY important. I love being able to explore worlds, exactly for the reasons you listed.