Entry tags:

author entitlement, authors, creator wank, doesn't mean what you think it means, fanfic, suck it up and deal, writers are often pompous douches, your kink is not okay

Diana Gabaldon, author of the wildly popular Outlander series, has an opinion on fan fiction: I think it’s immoral, I _know_ it’s illegal, and it makes me want to barf whenever I’ve inadvertently encountered some of it involving my characters.

Highlights include:

Writing fanfic is just like breaking into someone's house.
Fanfic is WAY WAY WAY TOO PORNY omg ick people have sexual fantasies!*
What to do about an auction offering fanfic to raise money for a cancer patient? She doesn't want to "seem heartless"! So she seeks advice in the comments. Which are mostly full of "Fanfic? I have never heard of such a despicable load of garbage! Also, CRUSH THAT CANCER PATIENT!"

ETA: Unpublished author Eddie Louise (who cannot write the word "shit" and seems to fail spectacularly at reading comprehension) offers fanfic writers A CHALLENGE! Accept it if you dare, sniveling pedo thieves!

ETA 2: Previously, Ms Gabaldon has said fanfic is like selling your children into white slavery. Well. Now. I don't even know what to do with that.

ETA 3: Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has some discussion on the topic.

ETA 4: And bookshop on LJ/DW has a rebuttal.

ETA 5: See what happens when I leave the sweet embrace of the internet for a few hours? Ms. Gabaldon updates her blog!

ETA 6: Evidently Ms. Gabaldon deleted all evidence of her hissyfit, but some wankas have screencaps in this thread.

ETA 7:

kate_nepevu has screencaps and the text of Gabaldon's posts here. And via

alchemynerd, more screencaps available here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/tiz4vp
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ibidpj
http://www.sendspace.com/file/r6zik6
http://www.sendspace.com/file/hlknqo
http://www.sendspace.com/file/d9alsh

Thanks for all the links! :)

MOD REMINDER: Remember, my little wankas, we DO NOT troll the wank. Nor do we write fanfic after the author has specifically requested people not and post it in the comments here, no matter how tempting it may be. Carry on. oh god my inbox ow ow

*Just as a point of interest, I was a bookseller for 12 years, and had several customers tell me about the sex scenes in her books. Some were pro ("My friend told me to read these books for the sex scenes, and she was totally right, they are so hot, this is best thing to happen to my sex life in years!") and some were con ("What is up with all the sex all the time? Where's the story?"), but one thing you can't say about her books is that they're sexual-fantasy free. :D

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	phosfate 2010-05-03 05:55 pm UTC (link)
	Used to hear the same thing said about slash in the 80s. Because OMG THE ACTORS MIGHT SEE IT AND IT'S SOOOOOOOOOO CREEPY. I find the best way to deal with RPF is hit the back button. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	vitalitat 2010-05-03 05:59 pm UTC (link)
	I just whine about it in f_w posts every now and then >_> (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	mmanurere 2010-05-03 07:00 pm UTC (link)
	If you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of a thousand recipes being readied on alternate browser tabs. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	lady_ganesh 2010-05-03 08:20 pm UTC (link)
	I'm waiting for the first 'thoughts on yaoi' joke. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	dragonfangirl 2010-05-04 06:16 am UTC (link)
	(Reply to this)(Parent)

	ariadne484 2010-05-03 09:22 pm UTC (link)
	Maybe I'll dig out the Fandom Hierarchy flowchart... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	edana_ni_emer 2010-05-03 11:29 pm UTC (link)
	OMG THE ACTORS MIGHT SEE IT AND IT'S SOOOOOOOOOO CREEPY Except that I'm pretty sure there are probably some actors out there that'd fap to it. coughRDJcoughcough (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	trollprincess 2010-05-04 02:23 am UTC (link)
	coughMishaCollinscough (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	puipui 2010-05-04 05:32 am UTC (link)
	Misha Collins probably writes bad RPS about himself and various Supernatural co-stars under multiple pseudonyms, and then uses them in an attempt to incite shipwars. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hector_rashbaum 2010-05-04 06:16 am UTC (link)
	Replace "Misha Collins" with "Pete Wentz" and "Supernatural co-stars" with "labelmates" and this is my theory about Bandom. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	adverb 2010-05-04 06:37 pm UTC (link)
	There have been numerous fics written on that precise premise, and I believe 'em all. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	kumquat_of_doom 2010-05-05 11:45 am UTC (link)
	Two words for you: John. Barrowman. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sistercoyote 2010-05-04 09:13 pm UTC (link)
	Not actors, but band members: I know that at least one member of Duran Duran had a subscription to the fanfic 'zine "There" when it was still a print publication. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	esorlehcar 2010-05-04 07:01 pm UTC (link)
	At this point, I just take joy in watching virulently anti-RPS person after virulently anti-RPS person completely change their tune as soon as they discover they discover an RPS pairing that works for them. Not least because I did exactly the same thing, a very long time ago. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

kumquat_of_doom
2010-05-05 11:50 am UTC (link)

For me, it depends. I don't really mind 'normal' RPS any more, although I don't read it (as a rule...). But it's when people write RPF featuring the real family, SOs etcetera that I have to pause and leave the computer for some pearl-clutching because OH MY GOD, SO FUCKING CREEPY AND WRONG STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT.

For instance, if people want to write fanfic of John Barrowman/one of his Torchwood co-stars, fine, whatever, sometimes I'll even check it out. But one person on my flist writes porn of John Barrowman/Scott Gill (his RL partner, who has previously made it plain that he's very uncomfortable with the limelight), and DNW DNW DNW.

/my thoughts on yaoi

(Reply to this)(Parent)

janegraddell
2010-05-06 08:35 pm UTC (link)

I went pretty quick from Step 1: discovering RPF to Step 2: being (albeit privately) fairly virulently anti-RPF to Step 3: accepting that YKINMK but still being pretty squicked and creeped out.

But then, one day, during iteration 1,001 of the Great RPS Debate someone wrote an essay about why they write it and something just clicked in my head. "Oh," I realized. "It's not real. RPF is just making shit up. This is less real than a tabloid story." Which, yes, I knew in my head, but it hadn't ever clicked before for some reason.

Five years later I was looking for Dan Patrick/Keith Olbermann slash. (Of which there is not enough, and for which Sports Night slash is, while very satisfying in and of itself, an inadequate substitute.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	big_bad_wolf 2010-05-15 04:22 am UTC (link)
	I was massively anti-RPS and then I fell over and suddenly I have written NOVEL-LENGTH BANDOM AUs and I don't even know any more. ... I am taking solace in how many fuckers I've taken down with me in my graceless descent from my high fandom horse, though. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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