14 Responses so far

1. 1. Steve Buchheit on Dec 13th, 2007 at 7:16 am

   Reading the whole “What We Believe” page I see what their getting at. If all I read was the above quote I would respond by saying, “Yeah, good luck with *that.*” But this looks like they’re not interested in slash or some of the other aspects of fan fiction, but focus more on being a fan, which is all right by me. I think they’re still going to have a tough ride of it, but there’s some good names behind it.

2. 2. Jim Hetley on Dec 13th, 2007 at 8:58 am

   I get really twitchy about other people playing around in my sandbox. Any kind of blanket endorsement of fanfic…

   My characters are real people. Seeing something that takes them and has them doing stuff they’d never do, in places they’d never be, offends me.

   Particularly if the derivative work shows the writer didn’t understand some really basic background.

3. 3. Julie on Dec 13th, 2007 at 12:32 pm

   Steve, they’re actually very interested in all areas of fan fiction, fanvids, and all other fanworks, which they include under the umbrella of transformative works. That’s not the sole aspect of the organization, but it is a significant one.

4. 4. Tobias Buckell on Dec 13th, 2007 at 2:27 pm

   Scalzi has some good thoughts over at http://www.scalzi.com/whatever about his reactions: that it provides a target for real legal tussles, where as before it was a don’t ask don’t tell sort of thing.

5. 5. Wyman Cooke on Dec 13th, 2007 at 7:18 pm

   I’ve never felt an attraction for either reading or writing fan fiction. Why spend time on a work which won’t get you payment or credit? I would rather work in a universe of my own creation. The one exception is a story I’ve worked on that’s for an anthology set in a friend’s universe; the anthology is on indefinite hiatus, and the story is unfinished.

   I admire the efforts of the OTW, but I think they’re living in a fool’s paradise.

6. 6. R on Dec 13th, 2007 at 11:10 pm

   Wyman Cooke - Lots of people value the satisfaction of creative endeavor over monetary compensation. Or are you saying that you’d never paint a picture if there’s no chance of selling it?

7. 7. Heidi on Dec 13th, 2007 at 11:25 pm

   @ Wyman:

   “Why spend time on a work which won’t get you payment or credit?”

   Because money isn’t the be-all end-all of rewards gained from hobbies.

8. 8. Steve Buchheit on Dec 14th, 2007 at 8:29 am

   Wyman, I’ve finished one Cthulhu story and have another one in pieces waiting for me to tie it all together. I wouldn’t say they are fan pieces so much as modern tales of the squidy C (one involved the War in Iraq and the other is about oil exploration), but they definately fall into the “someone elses universe” category. The one that was finished didn’t start out as a Cthulhu story, but the characters had other ideas than what I thought the story was about. So, does that make me a fanficcer? Probably, but it puts me in good company.

9. 9. Cocnerned One on Dec 14th, 2007 at 12:38 pm

   Jim Hetley and Wyman, the blanket endorsement of fanfiction is that fanfiction is not any attempt of trying to gain something for one’s own self, but rather fanfiction is a social activity - the end purpose is not fame or money, but participation in a community. Even if there shall be misunderstandings, it is that people who read a work have their own ideas on things, and people should be able to present their own ideas.

10. 10. Wyman Cooke on Dec 15th, 2007 at 9:32 pm

    Heidi, Steve, Concerned One, That’s just my point, I don’t consider it a _hobby_. An obsession, maybe. If fanfiction is considered a social activity, then call me antisocial. Which is not meant to slam anyone who likes reading and writing fanfic, but it’s just not my cup of tea.

    YMMV, but I think the experiment is going to blow up, and I’ll be glad to be out of range of the fragments.

11. 11. Concerned One on Dec 16th, 2007 at 8:51 pm

    Wyman, fanfiction is A social activity, not THE social activity. Also, people write because they want it to be read, in that they have thoughts they would want to share with others about how a fictional world relates to their thoughts.

12. 12. Heidi on Dec 16th, 2007 at 10:04 pm

    It’s not a hobby because…you don’t like it?

    I’m sorry, what?

13. 13. Wyman Cooke on Dec 17th, 2007 at 12:36 pm

    Heidi, an Obsession. I has it.

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