I was tipped about this mb on a fanfic list and enjoyed the discussion tremendously. The reason I'm putting this as a thread of its own is because I'm not arguing the rights and wrongs of fanfiction, that is done better by others than me. My POV is the one of an addict. I can't not write fanfiction, and so I do, whatever the moral or legal objections may be. Before I ever saw a computer or heard the word "fanfic", I wrote it, and on the occasions when I expected someone to read it, I had a hell of a trouble changing names and places.
The point is, when a story comes up in my head, I only have limited control over it. I can't write the same story about someone else, living somewhere else, and still feel like I'm telling the story the way it should be told. Themes tend to come back -- step families of one sort or another is one of those themes -- but if a specific story is about the people in f.ex. Buffy, I can't just change the names and personalities enough for anyone not to notice, not without feeling like a liar. So far I have had only one case when my fanfic idea could exist without the references to the original. That one I do intend to turn into an original piece. But I can't do that with the others.
It is entirely possible to enjoy fanfic from shows you have never seen (I have), just like you can jump into a soap on episode 314 and enjoy that. The dependency on the text isn't from the reader's side as much as from the writer's. I can understand that the original creators get nuts about it, and Lord knows that even though I'd see fanfic based on my work as a compliment I wouldn't really want to *read* it. But this isn't "Scarlett". This isn't a choice. The only choice I have is to post or not post, and since I love reading it as much as writing it, I post.
But as a means of justifying myself: I'd find it a lot more annoying if writers *did* change names and places and then showed it as original works, the way half the fantasy world parasites on Tolkien. Especially since in cases like those it's harder to see the original. Diana Wynne Jones, who has already been mentioned, said that she was fine with the fact that JK Rowlings was obviously inspired by her works (she's one of those who thinks when it's out there it's shared goods) but less fine with the fact that journalists called her and asked why she had imitated Rowlings... |
