Wherefore Fan Fic?

[przed]

So, I'm taking in the local SF convention, Ad Astra, with sooguy, my partner's cousin and my sometime con-going buddy. I'm venting about the fact that the blurb for the panel on Fan Fiction ends with the line: "Is this phenomenon sad or enterprising?" Said con-going buddy admits that he finds the endeavour of fan fiction on the "sad" end of the spectrum, and further that he doesn't understand a) why anyone would write stories using characters that one does not own, and thus that you can't seek to publish professionally b) why people bother writing if they are not in fact seeking to publish professionally. And this from a person who knows that I have for years been involved in writing rather a lot of fan fiction.

Leaving aside the notion that, whether intentionally or accidentally, I had just been insulted, it has left me thinking, yet again, about just who gets to decide what constitutes valid writing.

It goes beyond what is "good writing," if one can even begin to define what that is. Some of the finest prose I've encountered has been in fandom, while I've run into atrocious writing between the covers of professionally published books. (The reverse is, of course also true; we've all run into our fair share of truly dire fanfic.) I can't help but think that at least part of it comes down to a matter of gender. The overwhelming number of fanfic writers are female, therefore it must be a trivial pursuit.

Interestingly, the friend whose comments sparked this also admitted that he found, for example, Holmes pastiches in professional books a perfectly acceptable form of expression and not at all sad. Interestingly, Holmes fandom (and it is a fandom) has always had a high percentage of men.

I think when it comes right down to it, I'm just depressed and irritated that I've had to defend a pursuit that I consider a rather important part of my life to someone who I consider a friend.

Comments

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

A friend does not devalue what you do. He can say: not something I find worth spending my time on. Not interested. But as long as you are not asking him to share the experience, he should have nothing more to say than: hey, enjoy.

"friends" who do engage in this type of behavior are often projecting their own worries ("what if *I* am a sad pathetic loser") or showing their self-centerdness ("I shall tell her she is lame and it shall be well done").

And in the end, it is only their seams they are showing, the cracks in their perfect mirrors they are revealing.

[przed.livejournal.com]

I think part of the reason it's bothered me is that I do think about why I write fanfic over original fiction, and it is a decision I've consciously made. Given that, it's hard to feel slapped down by someone whom you thought accepted what you do.

In the end, I think I'm just gong to have to realize that the lad and I have an occasionally fraught relationship, accept his apology and move on.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

Well I too have put my foot into it when freely discussing with my friends. What I think is a vigorous defense of my position -- next thing I know, I've insulted someone's great-Aunt and possibly even threw in something about a goat. Not intentionally of course....

Seriously, I used to have very certain opinions -- and maybe as I get older and more creaky in my thinking, I find pretty much everything people spend their time on -- worthy. Who am I to judge?

Except for those guys checking the chakras on their pet chickens.