Fanfic. Ack!

I for one would be kind of disappointed by the concept of Wolfe fan fiction. The fan fiction movement, while not without its merits (anything that encourages people to take up creative writing can't be a bad thing) has always struck me as one of the saddest parts about SF fandom as a whole since it seems to emphasize characters as abstract entities outside of an concept of authors. This isn't surprsing in the context of Star Trek where there was never any one original "author", but for the concept to be applied to the work of a novelist, it seems quite strange. Of course if you call it a "literary pastiche" then it's not mere fanfic and is thus limked to more established literary forms; indeed, Wolfe himself has written at least one Sherlock Holmes pastiche (most people have, it seems). The amount of fanfic on the net never ceases to amaze me. I do a lot of searching on the web for my job and it's not unusual for the most ordinary-seeming searches to turn up references to fanfic based on some TV show or other. Unbelievable! Why don't people want to write their own stories about their own characters? D

Too true, too true!

I would guess, as with most things, because it's easier for them to be unoriginal. Now my own little effort in this area, while it may seem similar on the surface, is quite a different kettle of fish. I am working on a screenplay for next summer's blockbuster film, The X Head of Cerberus, which will send Agents Mulder and Scully to St. Croix to investigate. It's a natural! Clones, shape shifters and aliens who may not be aliens. Complex government bureaucracies engaged in elaborate conspiracies and cover-ups. Absolutely X-Files territory. And the best thing is, just like Wolfe's books Mulder's and Scully's investigations never resolve anything! I be posting the first draft soon on my "Chris Carter-Gene Wolfe Worship Page". William Ansley [Need I say I'm only kidding?]