RPS/Histfic/Banksian Fantasy Plotbunny

[browngirl]

So my boyfriend and I were discussing fanfic, specifically authors who [eta ludicrously] view it as desecrating their children. I mentioned that I always want to ask those authors about, for instance, the people writing Batman's current adventures (none of whom are the current creators) or varied takes on stories such as the Arthurian Legend, and most of all about the works of dead authors.

He then spun a hilarious scene of Tolkien and Conan Doyle chatting in the afterlife about fanfic, with much eyebrow raising and waggling over the explicit stuff, and I giggled till I nearly fell out of my seat. So I pass the idea on to you, of two or more dead authors discussing fanfic of their works.

Comments

[ron_newman]

I just read a murder mystery using the setting and characters from Pride and Prejudice. The very first page is an author's note:

I owe an apology to the shade of Jane Austen for involving her beloved Elizabeth in the trauma of a murder investigation, especially as in the final chapter of Mansfield Park Miss Austen made her views plain: "Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, impatient to restore everybody not greatly in fault themselves to tolerable comfort, and to have done with all the rest." No doubt she would have replied to my apology by saying that, had she wished to dwell on such odious subjects, she would have written this story herself, and done it better.

[dreamflower]

I no longer use the word "original" to describe fiction-- of any sort.

If it is published by an official publisher who pays the author money in order to publish it, whether in book or electronic form, I call it "conventionally published fiction".

All else, including fanfic is "self-published".

Then the word "originality" can be used to describe concepts and ideas and forms, instead of whether a work uses any part of someone else's work.

And when you talk about concepts, ideas and forms-- much of fanfic displays a good deal more originality than much of conventionally published genre fiction.

Also, I think JRRT and his buddies may be having a good laugh over most of the fanfiction. I've thought for a long time that he'd get far more incensed at the misuse of Sindarin in some fics than he would over the porn...he might turn up his nose at the latter, but I think the former would upset him more...

[l0stmyrel1g10n.livejournal.com]

I rather like Neil Gaiman's views on fic, though not so much the pairing he chooses to demonstrate said views with. That's just weird.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of authors (Shakespeare and Homer spring to mind) wouldn't understand the distinction between pro-fic and fan-fic, though Shakespeare might be a bit appalled that we do all that writing and don't get paid!

[hsavinien.livejournal.com]

Canon! Tolkien directly said it was okay to expand and play in Arda. Though all the writers who think that rape=love need to do their homework about Arda before applying it to elves, because NO.

It always strikes me as bizarre when people do that. They're basically saying, "You like weird shit so you're not allowed to give me free advertising all over the internet."