AS Byatt - clueless

[abigailnus]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "junediamanti" <june.diamanti at b...> 
wrote:
 
> A mainstream writer several years ago wrote a sequel to P&P 
> called "Pemberley" and no one shrieked fanfic then (probably because 
> the phenomenon that is fanfic barely existed then).  

Fanfic has existed, in one form or another, for several decades.  People 
have probably been making up stories with their favorite book/movie/TV 
characters for as long as there have been books, movies and TV.  Written 
fanfic that got passed around from fan to fan had its beginnings in Star
 Trek fandom back in the 60s and 70s.  Fans used to prints up fanzines, 
containing their own stories.  By the way, it's in these magazines that the 
self-inserted-author character, Mary Sue, got her name.  A fanfic writer 
named Mary Sue wrote a story about a half-human, half-Vulcan princess 
who had Kirk, Spock and McCoy chasing after her.

30 years later, and that's the plot of most episodes of Enterprise.  Not that 
I'm bitter at the bastardization of a beloved genre or the fact that they 
might as well retitle the show Star Trek: Soft-Core Porn or anything.

But, back to the matter at hand, it *is* odd that this particular Austen fanfic 
has suddenly got Byatt riled up.  Apart from Pemberley, there's also a book 
called The Bar Sinister which deals with Lizzy and Darcy's married life, and 
I'm sure there are others.  Surely Byatt can't be new to the phenomenon.  
Plus, who is it that she thinks is the target audience for this book?  Clearly 
the only people who will be at all interested will be those who have already 
read the original.

> 
> Sequalling or prequelling the books of others is not entirely 
> dishonourable, regardless of what Byatt thinks.  The best known 
> example of high class fanfic that I can recall is "Wide Sargasso 
> Sea" by Jean Rhys which is a prequel of Jane Eyre - and excellent 
> too.  It deals with the youth and life of the first Mrs Rochester - 
> the madwoman in the attic, as she grows up in the West Indies.  
> Technically fan fic you might say - but decidedly uber fanfic.

For that matter, Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca is generally considered to be 
a riff on JAne Eyre.  And then, of course, there's Bridget Jones' Diary, if you 
want to talk about the bastardization of a classic.  Of course, I adored both 
Bridget Jones books, and I think that having read the Austens they were 
based on first really heightened my enjoyment of them.

Abigail
Who loves Byatt's Possession with a fiery passion, just for the record.