Fan Fiction: Against

[rolanni]

Robin Hobb has posted a cogent rant here. Link from pegkerr

I know that some folks on my friends list write fan fic, and may thus not agree with Robin's points. If you feel compelled to disagree with them here, please be polite and rational. Posts deemed impolite, irrational, or both, by Eagles Over the Kennebec Management will be deleted.

In the service of Full Disclosure and Fair Warning, I do agree with Robin's points. Scott Lynch (link also from pegkerr) does not.

Comments

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

are we talking media fan fiction, or print? As noted upstream, I don't know enough about the culture and/or dynamics of media fan fiction to have a competent opinion.

There's a web page here (http://www.sff.net/people/thyme/main.htp) that might be of interest, in that case. It's a 2005 Bryn Mawr undergrad thesis that goes into the culture and dynamic of media fanfiction, as well as into the process by which the substance of a story can sometimes move from uncopyrighted source material to copyrighted fictional form to uncopyrighted fanfic to a different copyrighted fictional form.

[djonn]

I had taken brief note of this previously, but actually read through it tonight; it's a very thoughtful, interesting analysis, and makes a lot of sense from a folkloric perspective.

The author does omit mention of one particularly striking example of "Miami Universe" borrowing, the novel Mad Maudlin by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill, fusing the "Bloody Mary" story with Lackey's "urban elves" shared universe.