Spontaneous Musings

I'm losing track of television shows.

* Anyone out there seen the new sit-com "You, Me and The Apocalypse" ? It's apparently a Brit-American joint production which aired first in Britain. So I'm guessing a lot of people may have caught it? Worth checking out? Premiered tonight and I sort of forgot about it.

You need a rollerdex or a calendar to keep track. I had 62 hours of television shows recorded on DVR, I deleted five hours (Shades of Blue) considering deleting Shannara Chronicles and Shadowhunters. Which begs another question - were any of those worth watching? Haven't tried the new X-Files or Lucifier yet. I forgot about X-Files - so not taped. Lucifier is taped.

I'm tempted to do a poll.

Also, either my allergies are acting up due to the dry heat, mold, and dust build up, or I'm getting a cold. Been sneezing a lot lately. And can't breath. Have a humidifier, which is sort of helping. And I bought some Allegra, which you can apparently take with Zyrtec.

Better not be a cold. Although at least colds end. Allergies just hang around until the thing you are allergic to either dies or goes away.

Fanfic...was pondering this today. I've only read Buffy, Angel, Farscape, BSG, and Doctor Who fanfic. Trying to think...

Okay, there was a House fanfic that someone on my flist wrote, which I read, mainly because they wrote it.

I don't as a general rule tend to read fanfic based on novel series -- unless the writer is dead. I've read two - one in the Dragon-rider series (it didn't work for me) and one in the Kim Harrison Rachel Morgan series - (it also did not work for me). The difference between fanfic based on a television or movie universe and fanfic based on a novel universe - is if from television it's for different mediums. (The original is filmed/televised, while the fanfic is written). Or from a former copyright specialist perspective, they aren't really infringement, more an illegal derivative. If anything, they just help sell the original work. They don't compete with it in any way, not unless the original creators suddenly feel like writing novels - which doesn't quite work for television serials - too collaborative a process. (ie. There's about 150 original creators - the makeup artist, the sound editor, the writers, the actors, the musicians, the costume designer, the F/X specialist, the set designer, the lighting designer, the camera crew, the cinematographer, the director...it goes on.) While with a novel - you have just one creator, sometimes you might have a team, but usually it's just one person. And they are making their living selling books and stories based on the world and characters they created. If someone writes and publishes to the internet stories based on their world and characters for free or money, they are in direct competition with that creation and more or less piggy-backing or using the writers ideas to write their own stuff.

It's not the same thing as taking someone else's ideas and re-interpreting or adapting them to a new medium. Creating a derivative work - so to speak. That's more playful, and from my perspective permissible. But fanfic based on works like Harry Potter, Anne McCaffrey's series (although she's dead now, so maybe not), LoTR (also long dead), Chronicles of Narnia (ditto), Anne Rice's Vampire novels...feels a little skeevy. I can see why Ursula Le Quinn, McCaffrey (when alive), Anne Rice, and various other writers denounced it. It's not the same thing as writing a Doctor Who fanfic, or a Buffy fanfic. Nor is it the same as writing a Shakespeare fanfic. Again different medium.

Fanfic based on works of dead writers, long in the public domain, I have no difficulty with either. (Note LOTR and DragonRiders aren't in public domain. They are still owned by the families or estate.
Same is true I think with Gone with the Wind.)

But something about fanfic based on a novel, and to be clear, I mean written fanfic in the same medium, bugs the copyright attorney in me. Chaffs. (Although to be fair, I find the copyright law stance on the topic confusing and contradictory in the extreme. There's a reason, I ran away from copyright law. It's a quagmire. The rules change daily. Each country has its own. Some countries ignore it completely (*cough*China*cough*) while others only care about their own or close nieghbor's copyright laws (*cough*Germany*cough* -- although that may changed). )

Personally and for the most part, I tend to think fanfic is harmless. If anything, it just keeps your story alive. Hello, free advertising. I'd be flattered if people wrote fanfic using characters or a story that I wrote. But, then again, would I if it competed with my own work? If fans preferred it to my story? If it prevented me from continuing my own story in my own way? Or prevented me from getting paid for it?

Of course there is the view...that once your work is out there, you've no control over what happens to it. It is in essence no longer really yours. Sort of like having a kid graduate from college and get their first job. You see them occasionally, hear how they are doing, but that's it.

Regarding writing fanfic? Oh, I've dabbled. What writer whose ever been a die-hard fan, hasn't? (You may actually be able to find the dabbling in my livejournal -- if you look hard enough. If so, let me know, because I've lost track of the links.) But I'm not comfortable enough to do more than that...mainly because, it's someone else's sandbox that I'm playing in. And I feel like I'm this big hairy giant stomping about, Godzilla like, kicking up dirt and sand, trampling the natives. If I were to do their story justice, I'd have to be able to speak in their voice, see it from their perspective...or at the very least be able to see it from the majority of their fans perspective...and again, Godzilla trampling through town, stirring up a ruckus. OR worse, I lose myself, and my own distinctive voice in the process?

I'd rather be inspired by their work - I think. Blend it into my own. Which to a degree was what I did with Doing Time on Planet Earth - I was inspired by various television shows and books that I'd been watching at the time, and blended them into my work, creating something new. Felt a bit less like Godzilla that way.

That's not to say, however it may sound, that I don't appreciate what others do with fanfic. There some very good fanfic writers on my flist -- and I've enjoyed their fic. They've managed to play in the sandbox.

I think...it has a lot to do with well, how you personally think? It's like visiting someone else's house. Some people are comfortable going into a friend or acquaintance's kitchen, pulling out a bottle of beer/soda/water from the fridge, making a sandwich, and plopping in front of the telly. I'm not. Consider it to be a bit rude to be honest. I wait for the invitation. It's their house, after all. I'm a guest in it. I ask if I can help. I'm careful of the boundaries. If someone visits - I ask if they want anything and treat them as a honored guest (which may explain why I prefer not to have guests, too nerve-wracking and too much bloody work).

What can I say? I'm like a cat when it comes to territory, protective of my own and cautious in someone else's. (Well, except for the peeing part, have no desire to mark it, thank you very much.)

[I love posting on weekends, no one appears to be reading or if they are, they rarely comment...LOL! You can get away with all sorts of things. Like posting personal pics to your live journal for the first time in your life. We'll see if I do it again. Probably, now that I have to deal with advertisments b/c I'm too cheap to pay the privilege. (Hey those two bucks a month are going towards my Cable).]

The warmth has finally hit NYC. It hit 78 degrees today and is rumored to be near 85 tomorrow.
I'm sitting in a t-shirt and shorts in my apartment which is 76 degrees - whoo-whee! Considering it was 65 degrees this time last week...only draw-back is with the warmth, comes the allergies. Feel stuffed up with scratchy throat and stuffy head - and yes, they are allergies. Because they come and go. This is how I know.

Wrote a TV slut post earlier - but did not post. Thought it was a tad too snide for my taste.
What one thinks is humorous snark in one's head, can come across as snide and rude on lj. (Just read fandomrant or fandomcriticrant? if you want examples). I darted over there, briefly because apparently someone was ranting about the BTVS fandom again. Granted the BTVS fandom, like well all fandoms, and come to think of it people in general, can be somewhat irritating in how they love, like, dislike, and whine about something - but whining, ranting, analyzing, and making fun of them doesn't get you anywhere - well except for a ton of people yelling at you for being a rude mean beastie. And who needs that? (Been there, done that. Ashamed to say. Personally, I think fans are wonky. Myself included. We seem to love nothing better than to needle one another endlessly about what we liked and hated and disagree on regarding whatever we are currently obsessed with. Heck, it's safer than arguing over religion, politics or family - then again, maybe not.)

Re-watched another Buffy S3 episode today. It was Enemies - the episode where Buffy more or less realizes that maybe Angelus and Angel aren't really two distinct personalities after all. Either that, or Angel is just a little too good an actor for his own good? Re-watching it - particularly after watching Lover's Walk and Becoming not to mention all the other episodes of both series, makes certain sequences particularly creepy. For instance these two lines at the very end of the episode take on a whole new meaning:

Buffy to Angel: I think I need a break is all. (From him.)
Angel: Are you still my girl?
Buffy (turns slightly. Pause.): Always.

Creepy gothic music. Fades on Angel looking somewhat mysterious and stalkery.

Yes, they were definitely writing a horror series. What I love about the series and the reason, I find it rewatchable over most other series and why it is the only one I ever got obsessed with - is well, you can watch the same episode and see something else time. Another angle. A different take. One way? Tragic romance. Another way? Creepy horror tale. Another way? A little of both. Fascinating.

How do I know this? Ah, the first time I saw that scene, way back in 1999, I thought, ohhh, so sweet. Sooo romantic. Now, over four years later, I'm thinking, creeepy. Particularly the timing - it comes very close upon the heels of Angel pretending to be Angelus to trap Faith, to the point in which he convinces just about everyone and reminds Buffy just a bit too much of his alter-ego, the guy she fought to a standstill and had almost sent them all to hell, literally. The guy, that it is beginning to dawn on her, is Angel, just Angel without a soul.

But, you can watch that scene and not interpret it that way. It's possible. That's why the series was sooo popular. It could be interpreted in multiple ways. It's also why the fandom is sooo obsessive and wonky. They've all physically seen the same series. But mentally/emotionally they saw different series entirely. It is not like Friday Night Lights or Dexter or Bones - where there is really only one way to watch the thing - people aren't going to fight about it that much. No one disagrees on what *actually* happened. There aren't really that many gaps. Pretty straightforward. Relationships? Equally straightforward. But Buffy? Sigh. The writers liked subtext. They suggested things. They pulled back a lot. Left things unsaid. We didn't know sometimes what happened. They left if up to their audience to imagine it. To fill in the blanks. To interpret the metaphors. Buffy was a show the audience spent a lot of time writing in their heads - it begged to be analyzed, played with, and written about. It wasn't tight. It wasn't linear. It demanded suspension of disbelief and imagination.

Am debating watching another episode tonight, even though have a shitload of other things to watch and work on that are screaming for my attention right now. ;-)