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herongale
2010-05-03 05:22 pm UTC (link)

The more and more authors I see lining up on the anti-fanfiction side of the equation, the more convinced I am that their dislike is founded in a basic level of insecurity about their own talents. Not necessarily lack of skill... I believe GRRM is anti-fanfic, too, and he's a pretty damn good writer. But insecurity needs no rationale... and no matter how good of a writer you are, there are always going to be writers who outshine you.

At the very least, there are always going to be writers you think outshine you.

And I suspect that for a lot of these writers who are anti-fanfic, the thing they hate the most is the idea that the existence of copious fanfic for their stories indicates very clearly that they themselves are genre writers. Again, nothing wrong with that, but you'll note that fanfic in regards to classic literature usually does not exist in nearly the same quantity as fanfic for sci-fi, fantasy, or romance titles. So for any writer who has pretensions of grandeur about her own fic, the fact that people are porning it can probably be pretty damn demoralizing. People are always going to want to write more porn about the Lestats and Jamie Frasers than they will for the Rabbit Angstroms and the Jay Gatsbys of classic lit.

These are just my speculations, but I've thought about this a lot. YMMV.

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quantumreality
2010-05-03 05:25 pm UTC (link)

You have a very good point. Whatever happened to just saying, "for legal reasons I cannot read or review fan fiction and I cannot protect you from the legal consequences of writing it"?

That's pretty much a good warning shot across the bow of anyone who starts trying to mix money and fanfic, IMV.

The pearl-clutching/vapors metaphor is an apt description for the caring way too much about fanfic contingent among authors.

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herongale
2010-05-03 05:54 pm UTC (link)

Yeah. It's so easy for pro writers to have some legal boilerplate language on their official websites. And I think that once a writer goes down the road of prosecuting fanfic writers, they need to keep doing so, because otherwise any fanfic that they overlook will be implicitly condoned.

Why would writers want to waste their life dealing with that nonsense? It's practically self-sabotage!

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	ealusaid 2010-05-04 01:31 am UTC (link)
	That's one of my favourite authors' lines, too. ~~Even though I brought a fanzine for hir fandom to a convention zie also attended and gave away copies for free, and I totally saw hir steal a copy.~~ (Reply to this)(Parent)

	lady_ganesh 2010-05-03 05:26 pm UTC (link)
	I kind of wonder that too. Especially since some of the most critically praised genre writers are pro-fanfic. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	marmaladecat 2010-05-03 08:10 pm UTC (link)
	May I ask which ones, because I see lists of those who are anti-, but can't find one for those that are pro-? (And I'm more than sure they're out there.) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

lady_ganesh
2010-05-03 08:19 pm UTC (link)

Pro- may not be the right word, but certainly not anti:

Jim Butcher's named in the wank as basically letting people run free with his stuff.
IIRC, Neil Gaiman is okay with it, though I can't remember any statements.
Naomi Novik is on the board of the Organization for Transformative Works, and IIRC there are a few other authors on the board.
Joss Whedon is not a novelist but is vocally pro-fanfic.

I suspect the vast majority of authors don't care that much, or don't feel strongly enough about it to voice a public opinion and risk alienating potential readers/colleagues on both sides.