...I'm not sure how I fit into the metaphor as a reader of fanfic.

[drakyndra]

As I know some of you have already seen: Diana Gabaldon on why fanfiction is a terrible horrible evil thing and like selling your children into slavery!

I find this particularly entertaining, since the only thing I know about Diana Gabaldon is that she based one of her characters on Jamie from Doctor Who.

Of all the links floating round on Fandom Wank this here is one of the better rebuttals.

And now I shall leave the intelligent arguments to people who are I am sure far more eloquent than me. I'll just stick with pointing and laughing at the stupid and reading fanfic.

Comments

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

You may have a point there; I just don't have the motivation to reread everything just to check who specifically said what.

Though really, what it comes down to is that I don't think any writer has the right to criticise fanfiction that isn't of their own work. It's entirely valid for Gabaldon to dislike fanfic of her books; it's when she starts generalizing with "All who people who write fanfic are..." that it's iffy.

And guess who is supposed to finish this question about the generalizability of data for an assignment. Sigh.

[saikogrrl.livejournal.com]

Yeah I think she has every right to dislike and even ask politely for no fanfic of her own works (though honestly from what I've heard they're just racy historical bodice-rippers so who would want to read them let alone write fanfiction). But given that many other authors explicitly approve of fanfic, yeah she can't really condemn it across the board.