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Lee Goldberg's and The Fanfic-Haters...The Wank Just Keeps On Coming!

(Shy smile) This is my first post, and although I was heavily involved in this latest party over in Goldberg-ville, I figured it was broad and diverse enough to go here rather than i_wank.

So our good ol' buddy Lee, published author and fanfic-hater extraordinaire, was at a convention for mystery writers, in which they gabbed about much stuff including how fanfiction "freaks them out."

http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2005/04/hot_button_topi.html

Responses are made on a variety of subjects by a variety of posters--including me, and I just couldn't restrain myself from correcting a few misrepresentations Lee had made about the fanfic community.

(And just because I can't keep my mouth shut, I might venture to suggest that those published authors who are "creeped out" by fanfiction either don't know what it really is and haven't looked, or have only seen the "freaky fringe". And furthermore, I would venture to remind both them and the esteemed Mr. Goldberg that about half a percent of the millions of fanwriters in the world have EVER attempted/threatened to sue an original author over alleged "theft of the fanwriter's idea." There are crazies/creeps in every crowd--don't lump the majority with them.)

(Okay, I admit it, I hijacked the thread.) A few responses here, a few remarks there, and then...

Keith says: One of the drawbacks of the Internet is that no matter how screwed up your worldview, you can find six dozen other wack jobs to reassure you, on a regular basis, that you're all the innocent victims of an unjustified witch hunt.
I suspect I speak for more than a few of us who actually do the work to create our own characters and situations, at a level of quality sufficient to be published legitimately, when I say Get your own fucking stories, you self-entitled creeps.
As for fearing backlash from these thieves, integrity's always got a price. If it didn't, more people would practice it.

And all hell breaks loose.

Interestingly enough, Lee Goldberg himself stays out of the fray, but his supportive do more than enough wanking to make up for it.

Just as it looks like the party is winding down, Lee posts again, this time about a "link between Trekkies and pedophilia."

Yes, you read that right.

Mockery of Trekkies ensued, which in itself isn't that interesting, and this one might have come to nothing if the fanfiction opponents hadn't seized on it to support their claim.

David says, I'm more concerned with the link between pedophilia and fanfiction. I suspect they're strongly correlated.

You're not the first to mention the corollary, Mr. Montgomery. A month ago a group of parents tried hard to understand the fanfiction phenomenon. They took a lot of abuse from ficcers. A number of trolls had no issues with making posts that nobody had a right to post. The result is that the parents took what they learned very seriously. A original blog is gone, but some of it has been carried on here:
shakingheads.blogspot.com
Enjoy the essay, it's written by a mom who is or was, at least, very involved in fanfiction. Below it is a song that caused quite a stir. I'm hoping the Shaking Heads will put up the other two they wrote, but maybe not. I think the plan is that occasional essays will go up, but they are safest working in anonymity.

About that time, I once again attempt to make what I think is a reasonably logical point: Just because some pedophiles use the Internet doesn't mean we should ban the Internet. Just because some pedophiles read and/or write fanfiction doesn't mean we should ban all fanfiction.

NO, they say! Fanfiction is full of pedophiles and plagiarists and Eeeeeevil!

Other fanfic proponents weigh in throughout here.

I just find it fascinating that all these published authors have such unshakable faith in their claims, which seem to be:

I am an author and I don't like fanfiction, therefore fanfiction is WRONG because I SAY SO!
If you use logic or common sense, those are TRICKS!
If you try to interpret or cite law, you're using RED HERRINGS!

It's very interesting to click on the links to the various posters' homepages.

Quite a few on both sides of the argument linked to the debate, and I met lots of new people on my LJ who had popped over out of curiosity. I also paid a brief visit to Keith's, corrected one of his supporters' gender confusion (hey, if you're going to accuse me of conducting a colonic self-examination, at least get my sex right!), and flirted with Paul Guyot, writer fromJudging Amy. Who then decided Keith was possibly more attractive. (That exchange took place in the comments of Keith's blog, above.)