Filk

[Caius Marcius]

No: HPFGUIDX 13604

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Amanda Lewanski <editor at t...> wrote:
> pbnesbit at m... wrote:
> 
> > > Carole Estes wrote:
> > > >
> > > > By the way, what does filk stand for?  I write a
> > > > lot of silly songs, but I didn't know there was a name for it.
> > >
> > > Apparently it started life as a typo for "folk" on the program 
of >
> > a science fiction convention, and went on from there to mean >
> > "parody-type songs written to the tune of existing songs" up to > 
and
> > including "fannish music in general."

I never heard the term "filk" until I had posted several specimens of 
same to HP4GU: the term I've hitherto used was "Burlesque," which 
Dwight MacDonald defines as "[differing] from parody in that the 
writer is concerned with the original not in itself but merely as a 
device for topical humor....[as opposed to] parody [which] 
concentrates on the style and the thought of the original.  If 
burlesque is pouring old wine into new bottles, parody is making a 
new wine that tastes like the old but has a slightly lethal effect." 


    - CMC