Subject: (urth) Fanfic. Ack!

From: Dan Parmenter <dan at lec.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 11:34:29 +0000

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

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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From: William H. Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 23:13:07 +0000

>The fan fiction movement, while not without its merits
>entities outside of an concept of authors.

Too true, too true!

>their own stories about their own characters?

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?]