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[Jul. 27th, 2003|11:20 pm] |
Time to use my journal as it was intended. Woo!
Over in ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/community.gif) fandom_wank right now, there's a post about someone's objections to RPF. She (the OP) is asking for people to tell her why they write RPF. I'm considering responding, but I don't know if I actually want to go over there. So I will be ranting about it for a little while.
Now, I'm not a big RPF writer. I used to read it a good deal, but I don't very much these days. I was into the good ol' LotR RPS, which is the first fandom where I ever could get over "but it's weird to write about real people." I think I've only ever written one RPS fic (Dom/Billy, mmmhobbits), but mainly because I never got inspired for anything else. I also wrote, many years ago, an unfortunate piece that I never considered RPF, because it was about some friends. It was written for a friend's birthday, mocking some relationships we had at the time. It was an amusing, but dumb and inaccurate fic, which still gives us laughs, but also prompts the "oh my god, please put it away!" response.
Thinking about that was what made me realize that RPF is one of the most natural things in the world to write. People say, "how would you like it if it were written about you?" I write it about myself. And my friends. Creative nonfiction. It's a genre--people writing about true events, but embellishing a little. That's RPF. All RPF is is real person fiction. Is it about real people? Check. It's about my friends and I. Is it fiction? Check. I've written many an essay where certain aspects were made up to help the story. That's a form of RPF you've written about your friends, possibly without their consent. Hell, having an idle fantasy about a conversation you could have is RPF without the consent of the person. That's not written or on the internet, but at base, it's the same thing. It's a fantasy (sexual or non) about a person, based on facts known about them, that is had without their knowledge or consent. Is this wrong? I don't think it is.
Does posting these fantasies onto the internet make it wrong? Maybe. Then anyone can see it. But if I post about a dream I had involving a friend of mine, is that wrong? I'm making no claims it's true, I'm disclaiming it as such (this is a dream I had), but it's about someone real without their consent or knowledge. Like RPF.
So let's take that same dream and make it about Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd having the Butt Sex. The dream is still 1. not true. 2. not advertized as true. 3. written about real people without consent or knowledge. It's a fucking dream, though. So who cares, right? But dreams and stories are somewhat similar--daydreams often take the form of a story (a start, a finish, characters, a distinct plot and purpose). So writing down a day dream about you and a friend is real person fiction. As is writing down a day dream about Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd. The second is stranger, yes, but does that make it wrong? I don't think so. No one's saying "this is actually what happens!" (okay, tinhats are. And that's a problem many at dl_anon have--they're saying "this is true" without any tangible evidence. But tinhats don't write RPS, so they aren't a part of this argument, are they? Gah). If someone was writing RPF about me, I'd be amused. I'd think, "huh, how about that" and move on. Because it's not saying anything about me. If this has details about me that are creepily correct and make me worry I am being stalked, I might become concerned, but unless that's happening, I don't fucking care. If they were saying "Chash really does sleep with horses! Everything in this is true. It's fan non-fiction!" then I might be concerned, because I don't even like horses. They're smelly. Then it becomes a sort of problem, if anyone believes it, but I think it probably takes more than that to create a horse-fucking scandal.
Do I write RPF because of this? No. What was the point of all that? I think RPF is perfectly reasonable. I think everyone, to some extent, has dealt with it and found it non-squicky. I understand that with celebrities, it can be weird, because they're real people whom the author probably doesn't know, but are they being hurt? Are their careers? As a celebrity, I assume that one accepts there is the possibility that hordes of people will fantasize about a public image. I mean, it fucking happens. People like celebrities. Carrying that same fantasy into a story? It's a bit odd, but not that different. I'm not saying celebrities ask for it, but I imagine they at least realize that fiction is the logical evolution of fantasy.
Where does FPF become RPF? Is WWF fanfiction RPF or FPF? How about "The Osbournes"? These days, it's getting harder to tell what's a character and what's a person.
Why do I read/write RPF? Because a public persona intrigues me. I enjoy what this person acts like when the cameras are on, much like I enjoy a character on a TV show. Yes, this is a person. It might be their real personality, it might not be. I read/write stories about them not because I'm thinking "this is true!" or even "I wish this was true!" but because it's a good story. Or a story I want to hear. If the story offends the person it's about, I am sorry. My intent is not to offend, but to simply write. Why not do it with an original character, one might ask, because then I surely could offend no one? Because this story is not about Bob Jones or whoever, it is about someone else, and thus would not work about Bob Jones.
I think I lost myself at some point in here. What was I trying to say? RPF is everywhere, strangely, and I write it because I accept that, and because I don't want to give up inspiration just because it is not about a ficitonal character. RPF does not claim to be true, nor is it intended as an offense to anyone (well, not due to who it's about--I'm not going to lie and say that I haven't written stories that aren't offensive for other reasons), I don't think. Certainly not when I write it. It is intended as a story, to interest or amuse. And that will be the end, because it was longwinded, disjointed, and god I need sleep. |
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