Art is amazing.

[momebie]

You know, it is a matter of personal opinion as to whether or not you like fan fiction. You are allowed to think it's loser-ish and creepy. That's fine. We don't have any control over that. I have real life friends who have let me know in no uncertain terms how they feel about what I do on the internet. Which is also fine. I'm not asking them to read or enjoy it. We as a fandom are not asking the authors to read and enjoy our efforts based on their works, either. There may be a few people who want that attention, but please treat them on a case by case basis. There is no group on the planet that can speak for every one of its individual members.

What it is not okay to do, is decide that fan fiction is tantamount to any kind of rape. Because it's not. Rape is about power and control and inflicting pain on another person. Fan fiction is about creativity and excitement and wanting to explore a text. What you are doing by suggesting that people who write fan fiction are raping your mind or creativity, is trying to beg sympathy for yourself on an issue where you feel shaky in your moral justification. It's the same tactic politicians use when they get people to focus on abortion or god instead of actual issues at hand.

And the thing about art. The very best thing about art. Is that it never stays the same. Once it leaves your pen or your brush or your digital audio file creator thingamajig, it becomes a part of the world. It is out there to be manipulated and analyzed. And good art will be. Art that makes people think something or feel something will be taken and turned over and studied and changed. It's why people enjoy parody novels and media tie in novels. It's why people enjoy songs that are remixed and covered. It's why people try to paint after the style of a certain painter. It happens. It's amazing. It is not harmful to you or your work. You have already said what you have to say. Let the art speak for itself now. Let the people speak for how they feel about the art.

Also. I make my living mucking about in copyright and determining when we can get around it. COPYRIGHT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY.

*ahem* *kicks away soap box*

This post is unlocked.

Comments

[liriaen.livejournal.com]

It is out there to be manipulated and analyzed. Whether it wants to or not.

--> Palimpsests (http://www.amazon.de/Palimpsests-Literature-Second-Degree-Stages/dp/0803270291)
--> The Anxiety of Influence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anxiety_of_Influence)

[momebie.livejournal.com]

Whether it wants to or not indeed. In my pretentious college days, one of my favorite things to get drunk in dive bars and talk about was the way art changes.

While admitting the influence of extraliterary experience on every poet, he argues that "the poet in a poet" is inspired to write by reading another poet's poetry and will tend to produce work that is derivative of existing poetry, and, therefore, weak.

Speaking directly to the problem at hand, a lot of fan fiction is weaker than the text it is imitating or parodying, but even we have those people who will break through with derivative works and go on to make complex and interesting works of their own that make it into print. This does not mean that it is more okay for those people than it is for others.

Criticism and reworking are not in and of themselves 'bad' things. It's what you take from it. And honestly, if you're going to be an artist, you need a thicker fucking skin than she is displaying.

Uh...but that's just my opinion. (And thanks for the links, those are definitely relevant to my interests.)

[(Anonymous)]

I don't necessarily thing that "derivative" is per se "weak", if you go back to the word, it just suggests that something derives from something. That can be a good pastiche... that can be a weak copy (or a good one!), or something budding towards the original. Like you say, "break through with derivative works and go on to make complex and interesting works of their own" - exactly.

I'm sure those texts are well old, swept to and fro in the tides of academic fashion, but they were once instrumental in shaping *my* view of literary studies. Glad you find something interesting there! :)

My view of all this is an archaeologic one. We build on what was built before. We stand on mountains of words, and art, and shards.

[liriaen.livejournal.com]

Aieee that was I.

[momebie.livejournal.com]

It's like that well worn piece of advice writers often give to aspiring writers. There is nothing new. Odds are, you are not going to have a thought that no one else has had. The trick is to spin it and make it your own. As far as I'm aware, the author in question does not write anything that is groundbreaking or new in terms of ideas. But people like them, and that's what's important to her.

We did a lot of analysis when I was in school, but I have never read a text that talked about why or how we analyze works. Those books would probably help put a lot of ideas I have anyway into words in a much more efficient manner than I could. Also, I just like books about ideas. Also also, I'm a pretentious douche. ;)

[liriaen.livejournal.com]

Mhhh, yeah, narrative theory and structuralism and whatnot - I love them, although I've been out of the acadmy race for quite a while now.

You, a pretentious douche? Lady, you gotta be kidding. <3