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

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Strictly personal opinion, but I'd like to see creative energy going into . . . creating . . . rather than adding to a world full of copycats.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

It's a hobby, no more or less explicable than any other hobby. Some people spend years transferring the Mona Lisa to needlepoint; some collect every sports bobblehead; some write fanfiction.

[djonn]

Strictly personal opinion, but I'd like to see creative energy going into . . . creating . . . rather than adding to a world full of copycats.

Well, yes -- except that not all fanfic is inherently replicative. (See my long post below regarding individual vs. collective creation.) And on the flip side, at least a percentage of officially licensed tie-in fiction is replicative, sometimes deliberately so.