A good part of what I really love about the pieces of fanfic that I do love seems to be unrelated to what the vast majority of fandom is looking for and loves.
In going on almost ten years now, I have yet to meet a single fanfiction reader (online or in person) who defines what they like as "related to the majority of what fandom likes". In fact, I'd have to say that of the multitudes I've talked to, the ones who've said "what I like is the same as what most of my fandom likes" can be counted on one hand. They're that exceptional -- or perhaps it's that we all have different perceptions of "what fandom likes" -- not to mention how the hell we define "fandom" itself, to even define what fandom (any fandom) likes. I mean, when I say: "I like what my fandom generally likes", do I mean my fandom overall (Japanese anime/manga) or do I mean my corner of that fandom (Japanese anime/manga focused on mecha) or a subset of that corner (Japanese anime/manga focused on mecha with major homoerotic subtext)? If it's kept undefined just how someone is defining "fandom", then it renders the rest of the statement -- comparison between my-likes and everyone-likes -- almost useless. Doubly so in light of our tendency to say "my fandom" and mean not the overall fandom-around-canon but our own privately defined part of it, ie, "the fandom is Harry Potter but my fandom is the Harry/Dumbledore set".
So, all that said, I guess the question is: outside of setting a value judgment on whether you like/dislike in comparison with some internal or subset of a generalized fandom, does the existence of 'fandom' (as a generalized community of differing aesthetics that nonetheless is focused on and/or centered on some kind of shared/pre-existing narrative) have any influence at all in the creation of fanfiction? And if so, does the existence of (and interaction with) any fandom (in part or whole) thereby have importance in measuring something as fanfiction?
That is, if we say that 'derivative' means: a work based on a pre-existing work by another author/creator (independent of copyright/permission issues) -- then all adaptations, retellings, and fanfiction are derivative to some degree or another. This seems to be pretty much agreed-upon, that derivative includes fanfiction, and that the primary facet of 'derivative' is that there has to be something under it, a source, that existed prior -- whether this is a text, a presentation, a person's life, an animal, a still image/painting, etc -- and that this 'source' contained, or is related to, a narrative of some sort.
From that, then, the question is really: where do we draw the line between 'fanfiction' and other types of derivative works? And what I'm saying is that I think the line is most easily drawn along the general borders of 'inclusion in, relation to, and/or influence from, a larger fandom community', wherein 'fandom' is at its loosest definition of 'others whose work and/or interest also focuses on, or relates to, the same general source/base as one's own interest/work'.
Thus, getting back to the concrete example of bookshop's list, the titles there are 'adaptations' and 'retellings', and, like fanfiction, are 'derivative' -- but that fanfiction is the oddball for having a creative process that is influenced by and interacts with others with a similar interest in the source material.
no subject
Date: 1 Jun 2010 08:18 pm (UTC)In going on almost ten years now, I have yet to meet a single fanfiction reader (online or in person) who defines what they like as "related to the majority of what fandom likes". In fact, I'd have to say that of the multitudes I've talked to, the ones who've said "what I like is the same as what most of my fandom likes" can be counted on one hand. They're that exceptional -- or perhaps it's that we all have different perceptions of "what fandom likes" -- not to mention how the hell we define "fandom" itself, to even define what fandom (any fandom) likes. I mean, when I say: "I like what my fandom generally likes", do I mean my fandom overall (Japanese anime/manga) or do I mean my corner of that fandom (Japanese anime/manga focused on mecha) or a subset of that corner (Japanese anime/manga focused on mecha with major homoerotic subtext)? If it's kept undefined just how someone is defining "fandom", then it renders the rest of the statement -- comparison between my-likes and everyone-likes -- almost useless. Doubly so in light of our tendency to say "my fandom" and mean not the overall fandom-around-canon but our own privately defined part of it, ie, "the fandom is Harry Potter but my fandom is the Harry/Dumbledore set".
So, all that said, I guess the question is: outside of setting a value judgment on whether you like/dislike in comparison with some internal or subset of a generalized fandom, does the existence of 'fandom' (as a generalized community of differing aesthetics that nonetheless is focused on and/or centered on some kind of shared/pre-existing narrative) have any influence at all in the creation of fanfiction? And if so, does the existence of (and interaction with) any fandom (in part or whole) thereby have importance in measuring something as fanfiction?
That is, if we say that 'derivative' means: a work based on a pre-existing work by another author/creator (independent of copyright/permission issues) -- then all adaptations, retellings, and fanfiction are derivative to some degree or another. This seems to be pretty much agreed-upon, that derivative includes fanfiction, and that the primary facet of 'derivative' is that there has to be something under it, a source, that existed prior -- whether this is a text, a presentation, a person's life, an animal, a still image/painting, etc -- and that this 'source' contained, or is related to, a narrative of some sort.
From that, then, the question is really: where do we draw the line between 'fanfiction' and other types of derivative works? And what I'm saying is that I think the line is most easily drawn along the general borders of 'inclusion in, relation to, and/or influence from, a larger fandom community', wherein 'fandom' is at its loosest definition of 'others whose work and/or interest also focuses on, or relates to, the same general source/base as one's own interest/work'.
Thus, getting back to the concrete example of bookshop's list, the titles there are 'adaptations' and 'retellings', and, like fanfiction, are 'derivative' -- but that fanfiction is the oddball for having a creative process that is influenced by and interacts with others with a similar interest in the source material.