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Wow. Entering the Land of the Ten Dollar Words.
I think the main problem with this debate is that no one person seems to be talking about the same thing. In the beginning of the thread we had hardly touched on what Fanfic meant, and without even a fuzzy definition it seems likely that everyone will just continue shouting at one another until they're hoarse.
Why would someone create fanfic? As was noted previously, fanfic is generally derived from serial entertainment created by many different people. I believe it was Deva who mentioned that it is seen as somewhat immoral in fanfic circles to base a fanfic on a novel. Why? Perhaps it is because the novel is generally one single work, with a definite ending, created by usually one voice. With a longer work, created by many different creators, the fanfic writer is exposed to the good and the bad. She can see that she may be able to make a better segment than certain creators of the source material, while aspiring for the quality of the best. This isn't necessarily possible with a novel, in which the good and bad are not so easily separated. Also, by seeing that a group of people have crafted the material, the fanfic writer can tell herself that she is just the next person in a long line of artists.
Once a creator works with someone on a piece, they are no longer the sole creator. Even if they hold the reins tight, a part of the person working with them will be evident. If I was drawing something from someone else's comic script, every dab of ink would announce my presence. And like it has been stated many times already, even a reading unlike the author's intent is in a way a reworking of the source material.
Since that is the case then the best thing for any creator to do to avoid misrepresentation would be to never let the work see the light of day. Trying to keep complete control over your creation after it has left your hands is an exercise in futility.
But all this is taking the argument to the extreme. A transformation of the source material that will never leave the mind of the reader or the desk of the fanfic writer is nobody's business but their own. The trouble comes when the fanfic is made available to the public. Are we on the same page?
Another problem is the indifference to the idea that Legal matters and Moral matters are two diferent things. A strong stance has been made that no one should use a character other than one's own creation. With the exception of those characters that would be considered Mythological and Universal. I'm sorry, but what else are Buffy, Superman, etc. but modern myths. Even Blake's Seven, a show which I had never even heard of before entering this board, could be considered myths. I imagine there are no more than a dozen characters, modern or ancient, that are known to 90%+ of the population of the planet. A myth is a story which is used as a touchstone for a group of people, no matter the size. If you exclude B7 from being reinterpreted, then any and all myths from throughout history should likewise be shown in their original form, with the exception of those that are permitted by the original author. Goodbye Ulysses. So long The Dark Knight Returns. Legally, assigning an arbitrary number of years until a piece of art enters the public domain has nothing to do with any moral argument.
On a more practical level, there are a great number of completely approved fanfic possibilities, depending on your definition of fanfic. Take Role Playing Games for example. TSR may not allow you to publish novels based on their worlds, but they certainly encourage people to muddle with them on their kitchen tables. Comic companies still prefer that samples of work for review be of their characters. the recent contest for writing a Thor story is proof of that. And what are all those losing entries but sanctioned fanfic? A kid learning how to draw might copy Calvin and Hobbes. Star Trek, so far as I know, still has a completely open door policy for scripts, but they must have some pretty good lawyers to pull that off.
Again, why fanfic? Recently, I've been toying with the idea of writing a fanfic involving Godzilla. I'm currently drawing a comic about what the common man would see in a world where there are giant monsters (kind of like Marvels, Watchmen, etc. except so much worse), and I figured I could take a stab at writing one out in prose, something I haven't done in , oh, say, 6 years. Instead of using the creature I have created for the comics story, I was considering using the big G himself and posting it at a Godzilla fanfic site. The idea of using this icon excites me. The myth of Godzilla digs deep to the core of wht I want to get across better than any monster I could create. There is a history there, a presence that I feel has been underused by the companies that own it. The original creators are long dead, and no one but the fans seem to care any more. Is it morally wrong to pick up the torch, to breathe new life into a myth that I feel shouldn't die?
[ 10-08-2001: Message edited by: moriarty ] |
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