Harnessing the Dragon: A Middle Ground for Fanfiction

[zhai]

With Naomi Novik's recent announcement about the Organization for Transformative Works there's been a renewed energy in discussion of fanfiction and its impact on the specluative fiction community. I'm not really going to comment on the OTW -- I tend to concur with John Scalzi on its feasibility and potential danger to the fanfiction community

Comments

[brennye]

You know, for someone who doesn't write or read fandom, you have one hella firm grip on the whole subject. Am going to sleep on this and let it percolate.

but mostly sleep cause yeah.. ;)

[zhai]

Sleep is good. :) And good to have your endorsement, since I know you've been deep into it and I haven't.

[brennye]

We've been talking about this all night long.. but some thoughts that came up that we didn't cover there

[zhai]

My beautiful threads! You COLLAPSED THEM!! ;)

Good points, all. And we've spent a lot of time talking about the other dimensions of fandom. I think your points about Lackey are apt as well. It's like any collection of individuals that develop their own self-interests beyond the thing that brings them together -- like a trade union, almost. It comes together for a reason but then develops effects and needs and reasons beyond what brought it together.

I think all of this does just emphasize the importance of being involved with one's fandom and ensuring it stays healthy and happy. A lot of these things grow up when it is left to fend for itself.

[eamclaren]

You know I heart Star Wars. I read many of the comics and the books and have more on my Amazon Wish List (it's frickin' hard to keep up with!) but the other day I was talking with Jacob about the Dark Empire storyline. To me it's just what happened, partly because it came out at the very beginning of the recent series of story additions. Jacob hadn't read it, and he asked "is it canon?"

The licensing folks for Star Wars are pretty generous when it comes to what they allow. It keeps the money coming in, it keeps the fans entertained. But at the end of the day Lucas has said, "the only thing canon is the movies". It's a little weird to know that all of it could be voided.

[zhai]

Yeah. Lucas is nicely free about letting fans play in the universe. It's weird about only the movies being canon, though, considering the number of branded books on the shelves. What you're talking about kind of touches on one of the pitfalls I mentioned, though -- if Lucas were to pull the rug out of a lot of that accepted and now beloved material, there would be an uprising, if only a small one. He would damage the fan community. So he is now at least somewhat beholden to those other creations.

Star Wars is an interesting case, though -- thanks for bringing it up. And also I suck for taking so long to answer your email! Holidays, blah.

[lumi21]

As I was reading the beginning of this post, I was thinking I should mention Anne, but clearly you have that covered =)

[zhai]

I frequently wonder why Pern fandom isn't discussed more in this context, which was some of the genesis for the post. :)

[spaceoperadiva]

I actively avoid fan fiction, but I like watching the fan fic communities from afar. I do think that some fan fiction is transformative-- mostly slash fic, which I avoid while holding various holy medals in front of me ala Benny in "The Mummy". Despite my personal loathing for slash fan fic, I do see where it can very much be about subverting dominant cultural paradigms, upending patriarchal power exchange relationships and all that

[zhai]

No worries about comment length here. I appreciate the discussion

[dhw]

I should first say that I have little if any sympathy for Fanfiction. I find the apologetics to be at best mistaken, and at worst pernicious. I think they overly deprecate the potential economic damages especially as the Internet allows for wide and easy publishing of unauthorized works, and they completely discount creator's moral rights over their creations.

That being said, even if you assume that the OTW folks are morally right, they are, I think, setting themselves up for disaster.

Assume, for the sake of argument, that OTW succeeds in carving out a caselaw niche for fanfiction.

The first thing that happens is that everything gets Trademarked. And unlike copyright violations, which a copyright owner can choose to ignore, Trademark violations must be responded to, or the mark is lost. The end result of this is that any policy of quiet sufferance must be ended

[zhai]

Absolutely true. You should check out Scalzi's post -- he goes over all this in detail. I agree completely that the OTW seems to be unaware that fanfiction exists at the mercy of a sleeping giant, and what they're doing in a large way is poking it in the eye with a stick.