Fanfic

[Jen Faulkner]

On Fri, 20 Apr 2001, Rosmerta wrote:

> Might they also be offended that fanfic is, as we used to say in
> Junior High, "ripping off" their creations? 

Might they be offended?  Yes.

But in another sense, does it really matter?  I don't think it does, all
that much.  Let's take Star Wars as an example, here.  Of all the
movies, books, etc., with a large fan base, I think this one is the one
that comes closest to having been appropriated into the culture at large
as mythology.  Luke, Leia, Han, and Darth Vader *are* cultural
icons.  No amount of (egotistical...) protest on George Lucas' part is
going to change that.  Do I think other people should be able to make
money off his creations (rip them off in a legal sense, then)? No.  But
neither are they just his anymore.

Every person who played at light saber duels with broomsticks, or held
buns up to their head for Leia-hair, *has* made those movies partly
theirs.  The characters and plots are much larger and more culturally
significant than just parts of a series of popular movies.  And
fanfiction, as a form of folk literature, *is* an expression of that
change from personal creation by an author to larger cultural
possession.

Appropriation by the culture at large of certain personal creations
happens all the time, not just in the case of fanfic.  How about
Rudolph?  He and his attendant mythology were created by a single
individual (not that I remember by whom, at the moment), but I don't see
how anyone could help but see that reindeer as a common cultural
possession.  Think about the additions to the song (e.g., "Rudolph the
Red-Nosed Reindeer"--"Reindeer"--"had a very shiny nose"--"like a
lightbulb"); they can be seen as a group consciousness and authorship
impinging on what was originally the creation of an individual.

(I led a carolling group last Christmas singing in the pediatric ward of
Robert Wood Johnson hospital; *every* child who was given the option
requested "Rudolph."  And *every* child who could joined in on those
inserted responses.)

> But at that moment when you, as the would-be fanfic author, sit down
> at the PC and begin to type, what are you feeling? If you aren't
> stealing the creation of the very author that you profess to admire
> the most, then what is it (or borrowing, or appropriating, or
> whatever term you want to use)?

Trust me, it does *not* feel like stealing when you write fanfic.  If it
were a case of appropriating another author's characters and settings,
without giving them credit, but pretending that you were their original
creator, that would be one thing, but 99% of fanfiction gives credit to
the canon's creator(s) where it's due (the disclaimer really has no
legal function; it's a conscience-soother).  Plagiarism is *definitely*
frowned upon, and an accusation of plagiarism can turn even the most
placid fandom into a nasty, flame-filled place.

But writing fanfiction is *not* plagiarism of canon.  It gives proper
credit, and there is *no* intent to defraud, cheat, or steal ideas from
canon.  Is an art student who sketches the Mona Lisa a forger?  Not
unless they're trying to convince someone that their sketch was done by
da Vinci.

> When your author is conveniently dead or no longer writing, it's easy
> to ignore those questions. But what if the author is not only still
> writing, but still writing *the thing you're deriving from*, a la
> JKR? At best, it seems like this might be interpreted as a kind of
> literary drumming-your-fingers-on-the-table-while-you-wait, which is
> not the best manners, but it could just as easily be seen as
> finishing the sentences before they're out of her mouth. What is it
> that makes some people want to finish off those ps and qs, with
> various levels of success, while other people simply discuss rabidly
> or chat intermittently or patiently read other things in the interim?

Most fanfic starts while the original is being produced, since most
fanfic derives from tv series.  But it continues to be produced long
after the series is off the air (ST:TOS, for example, which has been
off the air for more than 30 years!), and it involves *much* more
than writing an ending more quickly than canon can produce one.  It's an
opportunity to play with canon, to subvert or challenge it, to expand
it, and yes, to appropriate it.  The AU (Alternate Universe) story is a
perfect example of this type of ludic function of fanfic.  For HP, I
don't know if there's yet been many AU fics (I don't read gen or het,
but there haven't been any slash ones that jump to mind), but an AU
story could be something like "The Dursleys prevented Harry from going
to Hogwarts, and now he's at the school they wanted to send him to,
where he meets Ron Weasley, a poor local Muggle, and they become best
friends with Hermione Granger, the daughter of the town dentists."  

I don't think it's a fair judgement to call such stories mere
time-fillers.  And I'd also point out that I, and many others, often
find myself preferring fanon to canon.  I quite like Pros slash, yet
I've never seen the show.  I'd get a billion times more excited about a
new X-Files fic by torch than I would about a new episode of the
show; her fic is much more entertaining to me.  (Unfortunately, I think
she's moved on away from XF, so there's as likely to be a new XF fic by
her as it's likely that Mulder'll stay dead.)

> If she [Brenda Antrim]'s so wonderful (and again, please remember I
> am playing the devil's advocate here.....) why isn't she writing her
> own original material? I'm just wondering what fanfic authors *feel*
> when they pour what is obviously some heartfelt effort into
> something that is ultimately not purely their own work?

Brenda Antrim is wonderful.  And unless I'm mistaken, she's also a
published author.

Speaking as a fanfic author, though not one in anything like Brenda's
class, I feel damn proud and happy when I finish a fic.  I've written
original things, which honestly never have that same 'rush' to them --
because a *huge* part of fanfic is the community generated around it.  
Reading and writing fanfic is a collective expression of love for a
canon that now in some very real emotional and psychological sense
belongs to the entire fandom.  Feedback isn't just about the quality of
your writing, but is rather an expression of that group spirit.  
Sharing plot bunnies, co-authoring stories, beta-reading, chatting --
it's not so much like a writing workshop as it is like an orgiastic
celebration of canon and fanon and fandom.

> Which leads to my very last question: why is fanfic limited by and
> large to genre? I'm not seeing the JM Coetzees of the world being
> rewritten or The English Patient being fanfictionalized. Why is that?
> Is that because the Pulitzer/Booker/Nobel caliber stuff isn't
> derivable (is that a word? You know what I mean, I hope) in the sense
> that those works are utterly complete and unrevisably themselves,
> whether you liked them or not?  Someone posted something a long time
> ago on the main list that suggested fanfic was around to fill in the
> holes in the primary work......is HP fanfic around mostly because
> it's still a work in progress?

Most fanfic, in my experience, tends to be produced in sf/fantasy
fandoms (with lots of exceptions, especially now with the influence of
the internet).  And most fanfic is not based on books, but on tv shows.  
It's probably got more to do with the cultures of the various fandoms
than with anything inherent in the canons themselves.

And filling in holes is one reason for the existence of fanfic, but I
don't think it's the primary one.  Or at least not in the sense of
'filling in holes in the plot'/'writing the next three books before JKR
can'.  As I already said, I think the ludic aspects are more important,
as is the creation of fanfic as a celebration of canon.

--jen :)

* * * * * * 
Jen's HP fics:
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~jfaulkne/hp.html
Snapeslash listmom: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/snapeslash
Yes, I *am* the Deictrix.