Fan fic? Fooey.

Kevin J. Maroney · 19 Jun 2001, 15:26 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "Kevin J. Maroney" <kmaroney at ungames.com>
Subject: RE: (whorl) Fan fic? Fooey.
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 15:26:28
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0857 at digest.urth.net>
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At 11:22 AM 6/19/01 -0700, you wrote:
>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,
>and...)

I'm not certain I'd agree with that. The point of fanfic is to create works=20
which fulfill a need that the original author's work doesn't fill, whether=20
that desire is to see Kirk and Spock doing it or seeing how Xena reacts to=20
meeting Patty Duke.

(Besides, the biologists I studied under in college said that the term=20
"parasite" was falling out of favor because it was impossible to define=20
clearly....)

>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
>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"
>creation (which is _never_ pure).

I would argue that William Shatner's _Star Trek_ novels are blatant fanfic.=20
Mary Sue fanfic, at that.

--=20
Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney at ungames.com
Kitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction
http://www.nyrsf.com

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