riddle me this

[kaigou]

Define fanfiction.

note: that's fanfiction, so it's okay if you can't think of the ninety-nine other categories of fan____.

Comments

[hl]

Any? So much so that is pretty much customary to post to fandom and then try to get it published. Name almost any sequel-ish/alternate universe series focussed on romance, and there's a really good chance that it was posted to fandom previous to publication, at least in part (i.e. was taken down when it was still a WIP). (I clarify just in case: not the recent monster stuff, and not some high profile stuff like the dreadful Mary story, though.)

[hl]

Sort of funny addendum: the fandom is so heteronormative that the only published slash story I can think of (genderswapped Emma) was not written inside of the fandom.

[kaigou]

the fandom is so heteronormative...

I am so NOT surprised -- was just commenting on this in another reply on this post. Although in that case it's the policing of being transgressive enough, it's the same basic drive (I think) that causes some fandoms to police any that are too transgressive in the first place. Like, you can go this far, but no farther (with "far" to be defined by the TPTB of the fandom).

[hl]

I'm not sure they police it as such, except by just not having any interest in it. The fact that there's regularly someone saying casually homophobic stuff may play a part in driving queer or queer sympathetic fans off (using 'queer' in a general way to simplify the phrase, though of curse not all fans that could write slash would identify along that spectrum, etc), though.

The only boundaries actively policed are: chan and bestiality, and... alternative pairings to the Darcy/Elizabeth one. I kid you not. (This last surely works a bit to police slash too, but there's always alternative universes where they both male/female, etc, and that's not happening too much, compared to other popular alternative universes.)

[kaigou]

Name almost any sequel-ish/alternate universe series focussed on romance

Eh, that's why I asked -- i can't name any! I don't actually know the genre/fandom/source very well, so I was curious. Most fandoms, if not all, that I've ever been involved with have been under copyright, so there's always been a significant pressure to properly do the serial-number filing dance. I'd guess that when we get into public-domain works, the need for such filing is reduced (and if the original work is prestigious enough, such filing might even be counter-productive when it comes to publication, because you're reducing the borrowed glory)... and I suppose in some ways, I've been so trained by the 'omg! copyright!' tensions of 20th-cen-based fandoms, I'm not sure I can even comprehend how awesome it must be to know you can take a fanfic and with enough polish and little filing, publish it.

Although I wonder what kind of affect that may have upon the fandom, in general, to have that "shhh, technically we're illlegal" aspect no longer in play.

[hl]

Well, I can't name any either, but throw something at variations of 'Pride and Prejudice' or similarly structured names (say, 'Duty and Desire' or something) and you will probably hit ten thousand. ;) Or go to Amazon, and search for 'Darcy'.

It's not so much borrowed glory, in the case of Jane Austen, as the stuff published is not high brow at all, but rather a powerful marketing tool for romance fiction. Because it's a marketing tool, and the market is exploding right now (oh, how I wish it would die already), not much polishing is needed at all, which results in a fandom-like mix of quality: there's good stuff, but there's also hilariously bad stuff.

It's... I mean, it's one of my fandoms, and I'm reluctant to badmouth it to someone who doesn't know it, but the general population is so ignorant about copyright it's a like scary. Like the rest of fandom, more or less, except they are contemptuous of the rest of fandom for doing something immoral (not all, but, you know).

[kaigou]

Dude, I'll help you get the derived-from-Austen market to die if you'll help me KILL THE FREAKING CHICKS-WITH-GUNS urban fantasy market already. Seriously. That "chick with gun who sleeps with vampires!" concept needs to die in a freaking fire, like yesterday.

the general population is so ignorant about copyright it's a like scary

You mean, above and beyond how terrifying it is to see the level of ignorance required to a) argue freedom of speech is something other than, well, what it really is, and b) to completely ignore that it only covers you if you're American? That kind of level of ignorance in the general population?

Although frankly, I can sort of forgive general ignorance, since copyright law is incredibly complex. It's when I run across authors -- published authors! -- busy parroting the very edges of Really Freaking Ignorant that I start doing the gnashing of the teeth.