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

[djonn]

Before Harry Potter, most fanfiction was media-based; I don't know what the distribution looks like now.

This depends on whether one is using "most" in its narrow sense of "a plurality", or the broad colloquial sense of "the preponderance".

There was a significant strata of print-driven fanfic prior to the Harry Potter phenomenon, and it was notable for being strongly associated with what have sometimes been called "mimetic" fandoms, wherein readers of a particular series expend considerable time and effort in reproducing elements of the fictional setting in real life -- producing craftwork and costumes, forming organized fan clubs, putting on exhibitions or convention parties, establishing organizations that mirror those found in the source novels. And for a good while, authors whose works spawned mimetic fandoms actively encouraged (and supervised, to varying degrees) the writing of fanfic based in those settings.

Specific examples: MZB's Darkover, McCaffrey's Pern, Lackey's Valdemar, Katherine Kurtz's "Deryni" series. There are likely others, but these were dominant. Mercedes Lackey no longer sanctions fanfic (though I believe that some of the stories in the first Valdemar shared-world anthology from DAW originated via fanfic channels); I believe Kurtz still does (and persuaded one of her publishers to issue a book consisting in part of some of that "authorized" fanfic), and I'm not sure about McCaffrey.

The mimetic fandoms seem, for the most part, to have sharply diminished with the advent of the Internet, though greater concern with legal liability issues is also clearly a factor; the reasons for that are probably worth discussing, but not necessarily in this thread.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

...and I'm not sure about McCaffrey.

There was for a time a (moderated) section for Pern fanfic on Anne's official website. She has also in the past vigorously acted to protect the Dragonriders of Pern trademark and her copyright. My sense was that the fanfic section was something on the order of a controlled experiment.