Fan fic? Fooey.

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 19 Jun 2001, 11:22 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: RE: (whorl) Fan fic? Fooey.
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 11:22:27
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Responding to my use of the term "parasitic," his=20
Wombattitude wrote:

> Not that we're loading up with judgmental terms here, no, no.

No, no. I meant the word in a strictly technical sense;
the existence of fanfic is completely dependent on, and
draws its energy from, the primary creator of the fictional
world. (Or would that be "secondary creator," since the
fictional world is, by definition, a secondary creation?
In which case the fanfic writer is a tertiary creator,=20
and...)

> >MaryJane.
> "Mary Sue".

Right. Mary Janes are those shoes. Guess who doesn't read
much fanfic? (Though I wrote some, and even got paid for
it, a very long time ago. It was very bad indeed.)

In my defense, I was careful to say "usually (but not=20
always) quite _bad_." I know that good fanfic exists;
I'm just not intrepid enough to wade through the jungles
of sludge and dig out the good stuff.

An interesting side note: Are franchise novels fanfic?
Ever? Is "fanfic" a boolean or a fuzzy term?  One can
see a kind of spectrum running from purest fanfic; to=20
things like the "Best of Trek" anthologies; to the more
blatantly fannish Trek novels (i.e., "Spock, Messiah");
to the professionally franchised books; to "authorized
continuations" like the Anderson/B.Herbert DUNE books
and the "New Foundation Trilogy"; to hommage and parody;
to "heavily influenced," and finally ending with "pure"=20
creation (which is _never_ pure).

--Blattid

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