(no subject)
Jul. 10th, 2001 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonwiseHad a chat with Fire Ceremony yesterday wherein we discussed (briefly) the question of fanfic and why authors especially get their noses out of joint. I've been mulling that question over, just because it is a point of view that most authors seem to share. Fan fiction seems very harmless, really - it's not like Napster, where one can argue that artists are losing money (though have you ever noticed that the artists who make the biggest stink are the richest ones? unknown bands are happy for the publicity) or that fanfiction authors are trying to pass their work off as the artist's own. As long as money doesn't matter, why get upset?
The only viewpoint I can find online from an author comes from Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, and her essay about stealing identities is so rambling and full of self-importance that it's very hard to extract usable information about why published authors feel fanfic is wrong. In addition, one of her points is "why don't you guys go make up your own characters instead of stealing mine?" There is a valid point in there, but one also has to consider that there is an awful lot of fanfiction going on even in the bookstore! Consider the staggering amounts of Star Trek, Star Wars, Wing Commander, Buffy, etc. etc. that you can find by various authors.
I've pondered and pondered, and the only thing I can come up with is the question of sanctioning and consent. All that "fanfic" you see in the bookstore about Star Trek etc. has been approved by The Powers that Be as something that is OK and can be published. Since the Creator of the series has given the go-ahead, the author can write a story using the Creator's characters as long as the Creator likes the finished product. For example, all those Star Wars books are supposedly approved by Lucas. I don't know for sure.
Why might this red tape be important? Well, I think it might be offensive to an author if another author takes his/her charas and replaces that chara's personality, i.e. making them act out of character, out of place, you get the point. The author spent a lot of time developing their character's personality, traits, mannerisms, situation, etc. and when someone takes the idea and throws the rest out, they must get quite steamed. It's like standing on the shoulders of giants, so to speak. There are certainly many partnerships in writing where authors collaborate on a world together, but there you have the "approval" thing again. These authors seem to be okay with someone else expanding on their world as long as they have the final approval.
I can understand this to some degree; if someone took "my" characters from my fic and started axing their personalities to use for themselves without my consent, I'd probably be bugged. My story hardly smacks of originality, but I have thought about how to write the characters, and I'm quite fond of them. On the flip side, you have someone like Lumen, who showed me her art and found out whether I liked it before showing it off to the world. (thank you Lumen! That was very considerate of you.) She made a great effort to line up her visions with mine, and it worked out beautifully. I don't mind that Yahriel was "borrowed" one little bit.
It is a perplexing question, because one must ask why an author gets so upset and yet video game companies and TV shows don't give a rat's ass. Is it because the primary means of transmission for video games and TV is A/V rather than written? I imagine that if someone animated their own "Daria" cartoon and broadcast it (for example), MTV would be all over that for copyright infringement. But fanfic is so tiny and insignificant, it's still hard to see why authors get their feathers so ruffled. It's like a little fly biting a hippopotamus - sure, it's annoying, but is it really worth the effort to smack it?
As for myself, I plan to keep on writing fanfic, but I find myself very reluctant to ever consider writing fics based on a written series. Not sure why; perhaps because I, personally, feel that I'd be stealing. Other ppl don't think so, and that's what's right for them. I've got no moral ground to point fingers, since I have had a lot of fun writing fanfic.
End pondering.
The only viewpoint I can find online from an author comes from Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, and her essay about stealing identities is so rambling and full of self-importance that it's very hard to extract usable information about why published authors feel fanfic is wrong. In addition, one of her points is "why don't you guys go make up your own characters instead of stealing mine?" There is a valid point in there, but one also has to consider that there is an awful lot of fanfiction going on even in the bookstore! Consider the staggering amounts of Star Trek, Star Wars, Wing Commander, Buffy, etc. etc. that you can find by various authors.
I've pondered and pondered, and the only thing I can come up with is the question of sanctioning and consent. All that "fanfic" you see in the bookstore about Star Trek etc. has been approved by The Powers that Be as something that is OK and can be published. Since the Creator of the series has given the go-ahead, the author can write a story using the Creator's characters as long as the Creator likes the finished product. For example, all those Star Wars books are supposedly approved by Lucas. I don't know for sure.
Why might this red tape be important? Well, I think it might be offensive to an author if another author takes his/her charas and replaces that chara's personality, i.e. making them act out of character, out of place, you get the point. The author spent a lot of time developing their character's personality, traits, mannerisms, situation, etc. and when someone takes the idea and throws the rest out, they must get quite steamed. It's like standing on the shoulders of giants, so to speak. There are certainly many partnerships in writing where authors collaborate on a world together, but there you have the "approval" thing again. These authors seem to be okay with someone else expanding on their world as long as they have the final approval.
I can understand this to some degree; if someone took "my" characters from my fic and started axing their personalities to use for themselves without my consent, I'd probably be bugged. My story hardly smacks of originality, but I have thought about how to write the characters, and I'm quite fond of them. On the flip side, you have someone like Lumen, who showed me her art and found out whether I liked it before showing it off to the world. (thank you Lumen! That was very considerate of you.) She made a great effort to line up her visions with mine, and it worked out beautifully. I don't mind that Yahriel was "borrowed" one little bit.
It is a perplexing question, because one must ask why an author gets so upset and yet video game companies and TV shows don't give a rat's ass. Is it because the primary means of transmission for video games and TV is A/V rather than written? I imagine that if someone animated their own "Daria" cartoon and broadcast it (for example), MTV would be all over that for copyright infringement. But fanfic is so tiny and insignificant, it's still hard to see why authors get their feathers so ruffled. It's like a little fly biting a hippopotamus - sure, it's annoying, but is it really worth the effort to smack it?
As for myself, I plan to keep on writing fanfic, but I find myself very reluctant to ever consider writing fics based on a written series. Not sure why; perhaps because I, personally, feel that I'd be stealing. Other ppl don't think so, and that's what's right for them. I've got no moral ground to point fingers, since I have had a lot of fun writing fanfic.
End pondering.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2001-07-10 11:18 am (UTC)Good points.
The comment about the type of media I find to be very relevant, simply to the way ppl think when they write fan fics and why they do it.
I find there is something about written series that just doesn't allow themselves use for fan fics, usually the characters are so clear and the stories have such a definite ending, there is little to speculate about what happens after the book or what happened before etc which a lot of fan fic'ers ponder and express in fan fics. Let's say that I think most written series do not accodomate another writer's ideas, there is no /space/ left for another person's additional imagination there. But then again, I have problems co writing stuff. :)
Also, as I see it it would almost impossible to copy the atmosphere in a book written by a professional author, his or her language, style, sense of timing etc, so anything I'd produce even as a tribute, would be at best second class compared with the original. I could not imagine even trying to write a fan fic based on the works of say Ursula Le Guin for example, it'd be pointless. I'd rather read her works one more time than waste time trying to emulate her style and worlds.
Or imagine trying to write a fan fic based on the stories of someone like Edgar Allan Poe. You could do a written homage like emulating the style and themes, but that would have to be done with an original story. It would be impossible to try and expound on an already existing story with characters written by him.
Whereas with movies, tv series and especially games, the world is usually there but the characters are often very sketchy. We don't get to know more about them than a few lines in the game CD folder and the lines they have in the game, which may not amount to a lot of information either. That way I find that games lend themselves very well to reinterpretation and imagination, there is room, conceptually, for another writer's ideas and input and prequel and sequel ponderings, whereas in most fiction for my tastes does not.
no subject
Date: 2001-07-10 11:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2001-07-10 11:54 am (UTC)Nope, wouldn't do that. :)
I have ranted about that and I'm done with it.
Also after some consideration I don't see myself writing fan fics based on an already written story, because I know I could never do it as well the writer did in the first place. It'd be much more constructive to try and write an original story.