This that and fanfiction redux
Jul. 15th, 2011 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatOff to watch more of The Wire shortly...my new favorite show/cultural obsession. If you are keeping track, I have very few of these...Buffy, Farscape, and now The Wire. Game of Thrones and The Good Wife sort of fall under the BSG, Veronica Mars, Firefly, and Angel category.
Difficult work day.
Did have a nice lunch at a portugese restaurant, the only good restaurant where I work. I work in the same neighborhood that Damages and The Good Wife are filmed. So you can see it on tv. Cool, eh?
Off and on, I've seen discussions on narrative tropes. Your favorite and/or least favorite narrative tropes in fiction. Been meaning to write up something on it - but I'm not sure how much people care? Is this something you'd read or skip over?
In other news? Momster read the article in Time about fanfiction.
Momster: Interesting thing - JK Rowlings has no problems with fanfiction and loves it, even encourages it. But George RR Martin despises it and has major problems with people doing it in regards to his books. He feels they are his characters and his story to tell and he doesn't like other people to play with them.
Me: Which actually that makes sense. Martin is incredibly detailed in his writing and tells you everything you ever wanted to know, including quite a few things you didn't about each of his characters. He wouldn't want fans to write about them. Plus it is a book - so unlike Buffy and other tv series, fans are writing fic in the same medium. Rowlings - while her's are also books, is also done with her story and/or characters and has left a lot of gaps in the story. She's not as detailed and obsessive about her characters. Although she did win a copyright case recently against some guy who wanted to publish a website encyclopedia on Harry Potter for money. And I can see why he'd feel protective of his characters and want to be the only one continuing their story.
On the other hand - Martin is an abysmally slow writer. He's as bad as Tolkien. Takes him 6 years to write a book. (Although I shouldn't talk - I'm hardly quick myself). By the time he finishes, people have forgotten the last one and have to re-read it. In fact I slowed down because I figured by the time I got through Storm of Swords, Dance of Dragons would come out. I was right. Figure by the time I finish Feast of Crows and Dance of Dragons, To Run With Wolves will get out. And I won't have forgotten as much. Although I have clearly forgotten all of Clash of Kings and most of Game of Thrones...not that big a problem, since I have a tv series to remind me of the major plot points.
Plus? It's not like he can do anything about it. Buck up and deal, dude. Lousia May Alcott, Dickens,
Emily Bronte, Jane Austen, and countless others have had to. It's part of the job. Fanfic has existed before he was born. It's timeless. Whining about it just makes you look like a doofus and pisses off fans. There's worse things...like having no one buy or want to read your book for starters.
Felt the need to say the same thing to Ursula Le Guine who got snooty about it, too. Seriously, if there can be published fanfic on Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Moby Dick and a sequel to Gone with the Wind, who are you to bemoan a few frustrated writers their fun? It's not like you are losing money over it or anything. Actually, you may get more readers - it tends to bring in more fans than discourage them.
Always annoys me when published writers and publishers whine about fanfic. Do they realize they sound like spoiled brats? I'd love to have people writing fanfiction about characters I created. I'd consider it compliment. JK Rowlings has the right idea.
Difficult work day.
Did have a nice lunch at a portugese restaurant, the only good restaurant where I work. I work in the same neighborhood that Damages and The Good Wife are filmed. So you can see it on tv. Cool, eh?
Off and on, I've seen discussions on narrative tropes. Your favorite and/or least favorite narrative tropes in fiction. Been meaning to write up something on it - but I'm not sure how much people care? Is this something you'd read or skip over?
In other news? Momster read the article in Time about fanfiction.
Momster: Interesting thing - JK Rowlings has no problems with fanfiction and loves it, even encourages it. But George RR Martin despises it and has major problems with people doing it in regards to his books. He feels they are his characters and his story to tell and he doesn't like other people to play with them.
Me: Which actually that makes sense. Martin is incredibly detailed in his writing and tells you everything you ever wanted to know, including quite a few things you didn't about each of his characters. He wouldn't want fans to write about them. Plus it is a book - so unlike Buffy and other tv series, fans are writing fic in the same medium. Rowlings - while her's are also books, is also done with her story and/or characters and has left a lot of gaps in the story. She's not as detailed and obsessive about her characters. Although she did win a copyright case recently against some guy who wanted to publish a website encyclopedia on Harry Potter for money. And I can see why he'd feel protective of his characters and want to be the only one continuing their story.
On the other hand - Martin is an abysmally slow writer. He's as bad as Tolkien. Takes him 6 years to write a book. (Although I shouldn't talk - I'm hardly quick myself). By the time he finishes, people have forgotten the last one and have to re-read it. In fact I slowed down because I figured by the time I got through Storm of Swords, Dance of Dragons would come out. I was right. Figure by the time I finish Feast of Crows and Dance of Dragons, To Run With Wolves will get out. And I won't have forgotten as much. Although I have clearly forgotten all of Clash of Kings and most of Game of Thrones...not that big a problem, since I have a tv series to remind me of the major plot points.
Plus? It's not like he can do anything about it. Buck up and deal, dude. Lousia May Alcott, Dickens,
Emily Bronte, Jane Austen, and countless others have had to. It's part of the job. Fanfic has existed before he was born. It's timeless. Whining about it just makes you look like a doofus and pisses off fans. There's worse things...like having no one buy or want to read your book for starters.
Felt the need to say the same thing to Ursula Le Guine who got snooty about it, too. Seriously, if there can be published fanfic on Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Moby Dick and a sequel to Gone with the Wind, who are you to bemoan a few frustrated writers their fun? It's not like you are losing money over it or anything. Actually, you may get more readers - it tends to bring in more fans than discourage them.
Always annoys me when published writers and publishers whine about fanfic. Do they realize they sound like spoiled brats? I'd love to have people writing fanfiction about characters I created. I'd consider it compliment. JK Rowlings has the right idea.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-07-16 03:39 pm (UTC)Even people who are cool with it, suddenly become less cool when they feel someone is giving the fanfic writer a big enough forum, like Whedon.
For some of these writers their work is more than just a story, it's their "baby". Something they leave behind, their mark in the world.
And other people are mucking about in it, changing stuff, messing with the "vision"...
Of course, there's no way to stop it. But the chances of GRRM ever having to listen to "Yeah, the series is so much better than the books!" is virtually null, while I'm sure Charlaine Harris has already had people tell her that.
Because True Blood is fanfic. And GoT is an adaptation.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-16 04:18 pm (UTC)I can totally see why a writer would struggle with it. Martin refused to sell the rights to GoT unless he was involved and had some control. He would never have permitted what Harris did. But Martin's relationship with Song of Ice and Fire is very different than Harris' with Sookie Stackhouse mysteries. Just reading the two authors - you can tell the difference. One author clearly lives and breathes his characters, his writing is from his heart, it's part of him. Harris is basically doing it for money. She has various mysteries out there. And her characters don't really evolve that much. She doesn't write in the same way or I suspect for the same reasons Martin does. I don't think Harris has anything to say, while George RR Martin definitely does.
Because True Blood is fanfic. And GoT is an adaptation.
No. They are both adaptations. Or derivative works based on a work that was created in another medium. One is just a looser adaptation than the other.
It's confusing, I know. Because wouldn't written fanfic based on tv shows be the same thing more or less? No. See, the difference is
fanfic is created by fans, without the permission of the writer.
OR the original writer and owner of the rights did not grant permission.
Wide Sagrasso Sea - is in a way a published fanfic. Charlotte Bronte is long dead, the rights are in the public domain, and it is in the same medium.
The Spike comics are not a published fanfic of the Buffy verse, they are a derivative work loosely based on the series, by another writer granted permission by the original creators/copy-right holder to do so.
True Blood - same deal. Charlain Harris is making a lot of money off of True Blood. She sold the rights to the tv producers/writers to do what they wanted with her characters and book in a television show only - this is called "film/tv" rights or subsidiary rights - there's a contract and everything spelling out exactly how much they have to pay her, what they can't or can do, etc. Just as Joss Whedon sold the Kuzies the rights to Buffy to do whatever they wanted to do with his story. That's very different than writing fanfic. Heck in Whedon's case? The rights to Buffy have been sold three ways - one (film rights), two (tv rights), three (comic book rights). The Film Rights are separate than the TV rights. Which is why the film isn't really canonical to the tv series.
Fanfic - is when you are writing something without the express permission of the original copyright holder and more to the point, not paying them. When you are? It's a derivative work or an adaptation.