Fanfic

Not My Words

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I was procrastinating this morning, reading through the comments on my blog, and decided to do what an anonymous commenter in the "Hypocrisy 101" discussion did — run my name through Blogpulse.  What I found astonished me.

Naturally, there were a lot of folks (mostly on LiveJournal) trashing me for my views on fanfiction, which is fine and to be expected. But what surprised me is that on far too many occasions, I was being crucified for things I never said (and, in many cases, never would).  People were attributing to me comments that other people posted on my blog and trashing me for them.  There’s nothing I can do about it now, but the irresponsibility, laziness and stupidity of attaching my name to someone else’s opinions is infuriating and frustrating.

I was tempted to defend myself at each of those blogs or discussions, to say I never said those things they said I said, but it’s futile and time consuming and ultimately pointless. The damage is done.

I’m not sure what I can do to stop it.. I mean, I take responsibility for my views and deserve to be held accountable for them. That’s why I put my name on everything I write.

How hard is it to make the distinction between my views and those of complete strangers  –and a few of my friends, colleagues, and family — who post comments on my blog? Here’s a hint. My opinions are the ones with my name on them.  Trash me for those, not someone else’s.

UPDATE – Here’s an example:

"The number of people worldwide into a particular segment of fanfic would
probably have trouble filling a bar for a Thursday night set by your average
garage band. Those who read it are even fewer."

~ Lee Goldberg,
winner of the WTF?!YouLoseAtTehIntarweb award, 2005 ~

I don’t know which of hundreds of commenters here over the last few months actually posted that, but it wasn’t me…nor is it something I would say.

Hypocrisy 101

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Robin Reid writes Real People Slash fanfic — fictional stories about real people having homosexual  sex (like, say Ashton Kutcher and Leonardo DiCaprio) and posts it on the Internet.  She doesn’t think it might be offensive or embarrassing to the real people involved or to their  spouses, children, family and friends.  Nor does she care. 

On the other hand, Robin thinks that quoting her biography, the one she posted publicly on the JACK website, is an invasion of her privacy and harassment. Honest to God. I’m not making this stuff up:

Luckily I’m a great big girl with tenure and academic freedom and publication
credit of my own, and I do not think anything that they are putting on the
internet about me is going to cause me problems. I’m pretty much "out" in major
ways on my campus mostly through the medium of my academic writing. My
department hired me, tenured me, and supports Academic Freedom, bless their
collective hearts.

However, I want to state that in principle what Lee and Paul Ziggy and Co.
are doing is invasion of privacy and harassment, simple and clear.

Let me see if I have this straight. Writing a story about two real people having sex and distributing it on the Internet isn’t an invasion of privacy or harassment… but quoting a publicly posted biography is.  Can someone please explain her "principles" to me? Because I don’t get it.

(Thanks to "Anonymous" for the heads-up).

Is this Fanfic…or Sickfic?

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Corbin_bernsen2_1 Just when I thought "mpreg fanfic" (a fictional TV or movie character impregnating another fictional male TV or movie character) couldn’t be topped, along comes "Real People Slash"…fanfic in which two real people have fictional sex with one another like, say, Mr. T and Corbin Bernson.  What kind of person writes this "Real People Slash?" Look no further than Robin Reid. Here’s how she describes herself in her bio at JACK, an e-zine dedicated to homoerotic fiction by fanfic writers:

Robin Anne Reid was born in Idaho and left as soon as she could. She became a science fiction fan as soon as she learned to read, a J.R.R. Tolkien fan at age ten, a Star Trek fan at age thirteen, and a Harlan Ellison, Joanna Russ and New Wave SF fan at age fourteen. She is currently active in LotR LiveJournal fandom, writing both Real People Slash and Fictional People Slash. She has been addicted to writing sestinas for some years and always assigns them in her poetry classes. She teaches creative writing, contemporary women writers, and critical theory as well as Tolkien and Popular Culture classes. The internet provides her main social life since she currently lives and works in rural northeast Texas, living with twelve cats, three dogs, all more or less happily co-existing with cows, coyotes, skunks, and oppossums.

Somehow, I’m not surprised that a person who writes "Real People Slash" lives with twelve cats and considers the Internet "her main social life," are you? Now imagine what the people who read Real People Slash must be like. Horrifying, isn’t it?

It’s only a matter of time now before we get "Real People M-Preg Slash Fanfic." I, for one, can’t wait to read about Justin Timberlake carrying Brad Pitt’s love child.

UPDATE: The folks at "I Speak My Mind" blog discovered this hilarious piece posted anonymously at Fandom Jam… Check it out on the jump:

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You Don’t Know Jack

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Cynthia Potts discovered Jack:

Jack is a magazine by fanfic writers, designed to showcase homoerotic fiction.
And even they don’t want any fanfiction! But the kicker: To submit, you have to
have been a fanfic writer at some point.

Translation: We only want lazy
thieves to contribute to our magazine. People who don’t see a problem with
stealing other writer’s work and perverting the intent of the story. It helps if
they’re so clueless that they don’t know the stealing is wrong, but are actually
proud of the theft.

This seemed just too bizarre to be true. But it’s for real.

Welcome to JACK, an ezine of original homoerotic fiction written by Fanfiction
Writers. The staff of JACK firmly believes in the artistic validity of textual
erotica. Our goal is to create a zine that reflects our enthusiasm and love for
homoerotic (both male/male and female/female) literature while also showcasing a
wide range of talented authors…

…The only requirement for our authors (beyond writing good fiction and being of
legal age) is that you must have written fanfiction at some time. Links would be
appreciated. Submit all stories in plain text format in the body of an email to:
keystrokepress@gmail.com with
JACK Submission in the subject header. Because of virus concerns, all
attached files will be deleted unread.

So fanfiction really is practice for writing…if you want to write for an online magazine featuring homoerotic stories. 

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro says NO to fanfic

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Holly Lisle is hardly alone. Celebrated author Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is no fan of fanfic, either.  From her "official" Yahoo discussion group:

Please note:
CHELSEA QUINN YARBRO does NOT ENDORSE FAN FICTION

Any attempt to violate her copyright will result in criminal prosecution by her legal services.
Since becoming the official Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Group we will no longer be able to post personal poetry or other works by members anywhere within the group pages or posts. This is due to recent developments that aren’t with this group, but for other legal reasons.

In Globe and Mail article, Yarbro describes some of her run-ins with fanficcers.

"I have absolutely no sense of humour
        about copyright infringement," she writes. Yarbro has dealt with four
        instances of infringement during her career, including one where a fan
        story was printed in a magazine against her express wishes and the writer
        even mentioned as much in an introduction. Although Yarbro has managed
        to settle these issues out of court, she points out that in the U.S.,
        "willful infringement, meaning you know the writer has said no and
        you do it anyway, carries with it a maximum federal fine of $250,000 and
        a maximum of five years in a federal penitentiary."

When asked whether non-profit on-line fan fiction constitutes
        at least a grey area, she responds: "I think it is nonsense — and
        that is a mild word for the one I would prefer to use — and that fans
        who do it show a profound disrespect for the writer and the work they
        misappropriate in such cases. If fans want to write, they should make
        up their own stories with their own characters. That’s what fiction is
        all about."

      

Megan Lindholm says NO to Fanfic

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Fantasy author Megan Lindholm/Robin Hobb comes out strongly against fanfic on her site. She tackles all the usual "pro-fanfic"  arguments one by one and in great detail.  Among her comments:

“I should be flattered that readers like my stories enough to want to
continue them.”
        That’s not flattering. That’s insulting. Every
fan fiction I’ve read to date, based on my world or any other writer’s world,
had focused on changing the writer’s careful work to suit the foible of the fan
writer. Romances are invented, gender identities changed, fetishes indulged and
endings are altered. It’s not flattery. To me, it is the fan fiction writer
saying, “Look, the original author really screwed up the story, so I’m going to
fix it. Here is how it should have gone.” At the extreme low end of the
spectrum, fan fiction becomes personal masturbation fantasy in which the fan
reader is interacting with the writer’s character. That isn’t healthy for
anyone.

On the notion that fanfiction is good "practice" for becoming a writer, she says, in part:

      
  No. It isn’t. If this is true, then karaoke is the path to become a singer,
coloring books produce great artists, and all great chefs have a shelf of cake
mixes. Fan fiction is a good way to avoid learning how to be a writer.
Fan fiction allows the writer to pretend to be creating a story, while using
someone else’s world, characters, and plot. Coloring Barbie’s hair green in a
coloring book is not a great act of creativity. Neither is putting lipstick on
Ken. Fan fiction does exactly those kinds of things.

Her long, self-described "rant" is worth a look.

Sandra Brown says No to Fanfic

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I posted this back in January, but since Holly Lisle has been taking some flack from fanficcers for her stance against fanfiction, it’s worth posting again…

Bestselling author Sandra Brown  doesn’t like fanfic based on her work and wants her fans to help her find it.  She posts this note on her site.

A Word About "Fan Fiction"

We post excerpts from some of Sandra’s more recent books so that you, the
reader, can make more informed purchasing decisions.  We now ask that you
  help us in return.  Fan Fiction is illegal.  Taking characters from an
  author’s work and adapting stories
around them constitutes copyright infringement. 

If you discover "Fan Fiction" of Mrs. Brown’s work, please don’t
hesitate to email us.

How Hated Am I?

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I got this email today:

Do you realize that EVERYBODY in fandom hates your fucking guts you asshole?

I think it was from my Mom, but I’m going to answer it anyway. No, I had no idea. So, for fun, I thought I’d take a look at what some people are saying. Here’s a sampling:

From Jocelyn’s Other Desk:

Thy lips rot off, Lee Goldberg!  Thou jarring, fat-kidneyed scullian!  You speak an infinite deal of nothing!  […] Goldbergs one and all, thine sole name blisters our tongues.  Thou hath more hair than wit, and more faults than hairs.

From Nobody Knows Anything Blog:

I understand the impulse to write and read fanfic—you want to live in
this wonderful world as much as you can, and twenty-four hours a year
or one book every two years or whatever just isn’t cutting it for you.
There are several novel series that I am forever hoping will just happen to have a new installment at the bookstore every time I check. But
fanfic is like a steak dinner made out of meringue—might look the real
thing, but it’s not really going to fill you up.

From Dawn Rivers Baker’s Blog:

You know, it’s all very well to nitpick about the legal shimmies and shakes of fanfic,
but the legal stuff doesn’t cover what it must be like for the author
who feels violated by other people dipping their fingers into the
author’s creation. All you really have to do to "get" the author’s perspective is to ask a victim how it feels to have just been raped.

From Nick Mamatas:

Mystery writer and TV producer Lee Goldberg picks up a stick and whacks a hornet’s nest by taking on fanfic.
I have no dog in the fight; after all, what can I say? NOBODY had
better RIP-OFF my ORiGINAL CHARACTERS like … uh … Jack Kerouac and uhm Cthulhu and William S. Burroughs and and and…
However, I do like a good brawl, especially when everyone is so
obviously speaking past one another. "It’s illegal!" "It’s a hobby!"
"It’s illegal!" "It’s a hobby!" Haven’t these people ever heard of an
illegal hobby before? They sure seem to be acting like they run their
neighborhood meth labs.

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