...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

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

Perhaps from this will come a challenge where we write fic and change the names and see if people can guess who they are.

Now I have to get back to writing about Dave, the alien with a time machine, and his girlfriend Lake who is an archaologist from the future with a spoilery diary. Because no one will know who they really are!

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Well, apparently the character she based on Jamie in her books is named... Jamie.

Can't even follow her own advice, can she?

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

Right, my characters just happen to have the same names as characters owned by the BBC, and any similarity is just chance?

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

It's only fanfic when other people do it. And then it's evil.

[rhipowered.livejournal.com]

It's 'cos she is a speshul case and everyone else is wrong.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

WHat about when Two does it to save the world?

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

I enjoy being wrong!

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Anyone who has a problem with that is a Dalek.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

Or a thing exactly like a Dalek but with a different name.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

[biichan.livejournal.com]

Well, she did give him another last name. Just because it so happened to be almost the same as the actor's first name...

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Coincidence! That was in no way connected!

[khallandra.livejournal.com]

You know, maybe I'd read that last book in the series if she had put some Dalek's in it ;)
I can see that she'd be annoyed with people writing fanfic about her stuff but honestly it only seems authors get uppity about it, Janny Wurts I think has a 'do not do fan related works'.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I could understand "I don't want fanfic written about my work." It's the bizarre metaphors and how ~evul~ fanfic writers are that are making me WTF.

[naive-wanderer.livejournal.com]

Ugh, some of the comments to her second blog post are making my blood boil, haha. The people calling fanfic writers "lazy" or saying "why don't you write your own stuff"? They really don't understand the appeal of writing fic at all... and because they don't understand the appeal, they think it's a worthless or malicious pursuit, which is just... bzuh.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

This is mostly yoinked from some post I'ce read on the debate, but what it comes down to seems to be that they don't seem to understand that some people write for fun. That's why they see it as lazy - because for them, writing is always work, usually with an aim (...such as selling books).

Whereas no-one seems to have a problem with the idea that you can, say, play a sport without intending to make a career of it.

[naive-wanderer.livejournal.com]

Haha, yeah, I had a similar discussion about it on F_W! It's kind of sad, I think.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Maybe I read something you said, then!

[saikogrrl.livejournal.com]

I second this challenge!

[saikogrrl.livejournal.com]

I agree with the sentiment of that post but I wonder if the OP even read Gabaldon's first post all the way through. They claim she "automatically condemns" this long list of works, most of which are out of copyright. Gabaldon actually explicitly stated that she was okay with derivative works based on out of copyright works, and even referenced the many Austen sequels out there.

(Although why an arbitrary date should make some published drivel more legitimate than the most wonderful fanfic is another discussion entirely...)

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Well, as far as I've seen the big issues with Gabaldon are 1. The whole comparison of fanfic writers = white slavery, and 2. The fact that the series that made her famous is very nearly Doctor Who fanfic.

I think it comes back to a fundamental disagreement on what fanfiction is. People who don't like fanfic and who aren't involved in fandom seem to attribute all sorts of malevolent intentions to fanfic writers.

[saikogrrl.livejournal.com]

I don't remember her comparing it to slavery in her first post, just theft and porn.

I understand the issues with Gabaldon.

My point was that the rebuttal was not as effective as it could be, since most of the post was spent listing famous derivative works, and claiming she had condemned them, which she did not. She had said she was okay with works based on out of copyright work.

[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.