I do not write fan fiction; nor do I read it. Years ago, I would - and then I read a Star Trek/Les Miserables crossover with Javert as the main character. In a Better Than It Sounds moment, the story was not only the best fan fiction I'd ever read, it was better than most short stories I'd read, too. I realized that was it - never again would I find another fan fiction as good as that one. So I stopped reading it.
I have also never been inspired to write fan fiction. Creating my own characters and world is vastly preferable than yanking someone else's. Though I realize other fans feel differently, writing fan fiction would make me feel a bit like I'd snuck into the house of a good friend while they were away and drank all their beer.
In a now-vanished post by Diana Gabaldon (who I have not yet read), she laid out her reasons for disliking fan fiction in general, and those who wrote in her setting as a result. Cue Internet hue and cry. Authors and fan fiction writers are obviously chatty bunches, so it seems like everyone has something to say about the topic.
I have to say, I can see both sides of the issue. For every Star Trek/Les Miserables crossover, there's a gigabyte of Kirk/Spock slashfic or Mary Sue self-inserts. I can understand authors being dismayed at their lovingly crafted characters being used for porn or wish fulfillment fantasies. But I also realize that the fans, by and large, write fan fiction out of love. Well, all and good, but I don't think 'love' is a sufficient excuse in all cases. Not when the author is averse (for whatever reason) to people playing around in their own hard-won IP.
One common concern from the anti-fan fiction authors appears to be copyright, in that some authors are concerned over losing their copyright if they don't defend it by quashing fan fiction. Now, it is entirely accurate that copyright and trademark holders must assiduously defend their intellectual property in court or risk having their work fall into the public domain. However, most of the copyright cases of which I am aware deal primarily with someone allegedly trying to make a profit from the infringement. No one is really trying to make a living publishing fan fiction. There hasn't been a test case yet to see if fan fiction is enough to cause an author to lose their copyright. Personally, I don't see free fan fiction as a copyright infringement. Jim Butcher has a very good system worked out for his fans - everyone who writes Butcher fan fiction has to do so under a Creative Commons license. Butcher's copyright is protected and fans are happy to scribble away. I don't think Creative Commons has been tested in court, either, but it certainly makes sense to me (and while I appear to be surrounded by attorneys, I am not a lawyer myself. This is just me rambling a bit, so feel free to correct me if my facts are wrong).
Some fan fiction writers I've encountered have been rabidly pro-fan fiction. Their argument is that art, once created, becomes universal. While copyright is to be respected, an author should not be expected to object to fan fiction done out of love. There are arguments as well for promotion of the work and developing a fan community. And I can certainly get some of those - to a point.
See, not every fan fiction is good. Some of it is terrible, thinly disguised excuses for porn. And not that I have a problem with porn. The issue I have with most slashfic is not it's pornographic nature, it's the author gleefully defies established character and canon. In my current project, I have written two characters: Roy and Teague. Roy is a middle-aged gay construction worker; Teague is a middle-aged straight combat vet. If someone wanted to write porn about Roy having hot, wet, dripping sex with another man... well it's certainly in character for him to do that. There's a scene where it's implied he does just that after a hunt. But Teague is straight, and I would be highly annoyed if someone ignored established character to write their own slash fiction in which Teague had sex with any of the other male characters (even Roy. Especially Roy).
Annoyed enough to ask people to stop, though? Probably not. As long as no one expects me to read it. But that's just my personal opinion, as an unpublished aspiring author.
If people want to spend their time reading and writing fan fiction - well, everyone needs a hobby and I'm sure there are less constructive things one can do. However, I do believe that if an author like Diana Gabaldon or George R. R. Martin or Anne Rice comes out and asks people to please not write fan fiction based on their work, the fans ought to respect that. After all, the fan fiction writers themselves are the first to claim their stories are products of love. And part of love is respect.
Early December Update
3 weeks ago
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Fan fiction has, at least in the context of myself writing it, been largely a writing exercise. The process of creating has been onerous as of late, and fan fiction has betimes given me an outlet to keep my skills sharp without having to concern myself with world building. That said, my main problem with fan fiction is that the vast majority of it is abysmal. Even barring the kind of Harry/Draco/Snape slashfic tripe that permeates the fan content of nearly every popular work, most fan fiction is simply poorly written. Yes, you do find gems every now and again, but for me it is by and large not worth the effort.
ReplyDeleteI can certainly understand that impulse, to write fan fiction as a way to hone one's skills. It's never a technique I've used, but that certainly doesn't render it invalid. Writing for that reason even has a historical context - such as the wide number of authors who wrote Lovecraft pastiches or homages that would nowadays be called fan fiction. Classical Greek authors would borrow (or steal) from each other all the time.
ReplyDeleteEven Shakespeare wrote very little original material - most of his work is in some way derivative.
I think one issue that a lot of people are ignoring is not necessarily the writing of fan fiction, but publishing it on the Internet. And not just on a private journal entry, but on a huge site like fanfiction.net, so it has a wide audience.