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Transformation
Jun. 4th, 2010 01:55 pmOver on his LJ, Jim C. Hines wonders if bookshop's post linking in all Pulitzer Award-nominated fiction even tangentially derived from other sources and defining them as "transformative" isn't stretching the definition of fanfiction a bit far. michaeldthomas comments:
I think the commercial and copyright aspects muddy the waters. Like you, I believe that all fanfiction incorporates another author’s characters and/or world. When we get into the areas of tie-in products or successful commercial products based on out-of-copyright works (Wicked, JJA's recent Sherlock Holmes anthology, Datlow's recent Lovecraft anthology, or Pride and Prejudice with Zombies), I worry that the distinction we're making is based on the quality of the work rather than if it's derived from a previous work or not.
To which I reply (reposting it here, because I'm getting no responses there ;)):
I've written fanfiction, and I was also one of the writers who contributed to Lovecraft Unbound. Even just going strictly by my own contribution, I would distinguish the two forms of writing very stringently from each other, specifically because there was nothing in my story ("Marya Nox") which directly references or elaborates upon a story Lovecraft wrote, characters he created or the mythos usually associated with his works. The impression I got from Ellen Datlow was that she wanted us to riff off of the "feeling" Lovecraft produces, and all of us did that in very, very different ways.
My belief is that you could read my story never having heard of Lovecraft, and hopefully still get something out of it; remove fanfiction entirely from its source-material, and no matter the quality of the work involved, it can't help but suffer. Much as I enjoyed writing it, all my fanfiction is dependent on some sort of knowledge of the original, mainly because I never took the necessary time to move it further away and change it enough so that it could stand on its own.
Now: Is it necessary to take those final steps? Depends on what you want. If what you want is to be part of a fanfiction community, I would say no--that in fact, the further you get from your original source-material, the harder it becomes for fans of that material to engage with. I'm not saying it can't work, because I've read some incredible AUs so stretched from their original template that they'd work even if you'd never encountered the original at all. But even, say, a Regency version of J2 RPS still relies on its readers at least knowing what Regency fiction "sounds" like. Essentially, you've merged two fandoms, and switched one template for another.
Anybody want to add anything? Bueller?
I think the commercial and copyright aspects muddy the waters. Like you, I believe that all fanfiction incorporates another author’s characters and/or world. When we get into the areas of tie-in products or successful commercial products based on out-of-copyright works (Wicked, JJA's recent Sherlock Holmes anthology, Datlow's recent Lovecraft anthology, or Pride and Prejudice with Zombies), I worry that the distinction we're making is based on the quality of the work rather than if it's derived from a previous work or not.
To which I reply (reposting it here, because I'm getting no responses there ;)):
I've written fanfiction, and I was also one of the writers who contributed to Lovecraft Unbound. Even just going strictly by my own contribution, I would distinguish the two forms of writing very stringently from each other, specifically because there was nothing in my story ("Marya Nox") which directly references or elaborates upon a story Lovecraft wrote, characters he created or the mythos usually associated with his works. The impression I got from Ellen Datlow was that she wanted us to riff off of the "feeling" Lovecraft produces, and all of us did that in very, very different ways.
My belief is that you could read my story never having heard of Lovecraft, and hopefully still get something out of it; remove fanfiction entirely from its source-material, and no matter the quality of the work involved, it can't help but suffer. Much as I enjoyed writing it, all my fanfiction is dependent on some sort of knowledge of the original, mainly because I never took the necessary time to move it further away and change it enough so that it could stand on its own.
Now: Is it necessary to take those final steps? Depends on what you want. If what you want is to be part of a fanfiction community, I would say no--that in fact, the further you get from your original source-material, the harder it becomes for fans of that material to engage with. I'm not saying it can't work, because I've read some incredible AUs so stretched from their original template that they'd work even if you'd never encountered the original at all. But even, say, a Regency version of J2 RPS still relies on its readers at least knowing what Regency fiction "sounds" like. Essentially, you've merged two fandoms, and switched one template for another.
Anybody want to add anything? Bueller?
