derivative works in context

[seperis]

Via cofax7, Boing-Boing on Bookshop's Post

From boing-boing comment:
If fanfic wants to be something that expresses a love of / obsession with a particular cultural product and reinforces a shared, often subcultural, identity built around it - which is surely, what fanfic is - then it is unlikely to have much impact beyond that. But as soon as it starts

Comments

[reddwarfer]

There's a errant " on your link that borks it.

And I like what you have to say here.

[seperis]

Fixed!

And thank you! It ended up different than I expected when I started writing it; my original post was going to be about how context based out of fanfic communities is awesome when I realized that was the entire point. It doesn't matter how awesome or interesting or complicated or artistic we are; the community itself is what is considered unacceptable.

It was a very depressing thought.

[risti]

Yeah, and then there's things like how I became a fan of Adam Lambert & Kris Allen after reading fanfic about them (and I've heard similar stories of people who access the "original" via the derivative over the years as well).

(Seriously, I wrote my first fic when I had only half a dozen songs on my hard drive between the two of them.)

[romyra]

It's clear to me that some of these people need to read Henry Jenkins, an MIT professor who actively studies fanfiction and its impact. My reasons are my own but I got into fanfic because what I read in and for school and what I saw on TV wasn't fulfilling my needs. Fanfiction gave me fleshed out homosexual characters living in their own space. It gave me powerful women. It gave me words that moved me to tears. It's part and parcel that it used characters that I was aware of thanks to the wider media, but beyond that fanfic authors made these characters mean more for me.

I can't have coherent arguments about this to people who won't listen. Fanfiction is art and has just as much right to be called literary fiction as anything else. It has form and substance, shape and plot. Anyone who denies it, is just not well informed.

[wemblee]

"That thing you do is gross and meaningless. Unless it accidentally is meaningful and stuff, in which case that thing you're doing is no longer the thing you're doing! Silly girls, you have no idea what you're doing. Y'all are so crazy, writing stories while having vaginas."

[serrico]

Ha! It's funny 'cause it's true.

And because it's true, it's actually...not...funny.

...oh my goodness, do I ever wish this weren't true. :(

[nianeyna]

Sweet zombie Jesus. I don't think I can read any more of the comments on that post, they're making me want to claw my eyes out. D<

The gist of their argument seems to be, "well, that stuff isn't really fanfiction." Which - O HAI, I SEE THE POINT HAS WHIZZED RIGHT OVER YOUR HEAD. *facepalm*

I think you've put your finger on what's been bothering me about this whole fanfic debate, actually. When people in the mainstream do exactly what we are doing, it's totally fine! But when we do it, it's disgusting and contemptible. Of course when you point this out to people - well, see above. Apparently it's only fanfiction if I don't like you.

...of course I will now go back to reading the comments and hating myself. And the internet. Cheerio.