Fanfiction
I was cruising through the net, following the cold trail of one of the periodic "Is or is not Fanfiction the Ultimate Literary Evil?" arguments that crop up regularly, and I'm now bursting to make a point that I never see made my fic defenders.
We're all familiar with the normal defenses of fic. It's done out of love, it's training, it's for fun. Those are all good and valid defenses.
But they miss something. They damn with the faint praise. Because the thing is, when you commit to this particular Ultimate Literary Evil you've now told a story. And stories are powerful. The fact that it wasn't in an original world or with original characters doesn't necessarily make it less powerful to any given reader.
I wouldn't have made this argument a few years ago. A few years ago I hadn't received messages from people who were deeply touched by something I wrote in fanfic. So what if it's only two or three or four people, and I used someone else's world and characters? For those two or three or four people, I wrote something fucking important. I won't be told that isn't a valid use of my time and expect me to feel chastened. I don't buy it. I won't feel ashamed. I will laugh when I hear someone calls something that touches other people "Literary Masturbation". Apparently they're not up on their sex terminology.
Someone could argue that if I'd managed the same thing with original characters in an original world, it could've touched more people. They might be right! On the other hand, it might never have been accepted for publication, or found a market if self published, and more importantly I would never have written it because I didn't realise I could write. The story wouldn't have happened. Instead, thanks to fanfic being a thing, it did. And for those two or three or four people it matters. When we talk about defending fanfic, it'd be good if more defenders talked about that.
I get regular followers and reviews on my own fanfic and it's such an awesome feeling to know that someone - for ANY reason - enjoys what I have written, and it's touching them on some level. It's humbling. Fanfiction has the power to help people through long nights, through grief, through hard times. It is a solace to people who need solace. And because it was a fanfic, it was easier to reach the people who needed it. They knew these characters already. That world was dear to them.
Stories are fractal by nature. Even when there's just one version in print, you have it multiplied by every readers experience of it in light of who they are, what they like, what they want. And then many people will put themselves in the place of the protagonist, or another character, and spend a lot of time thinking about what they'd do in that characters place. Or adjusting happenings so they like the results better.
That is not fic, yet, but it is a story.
But the best stories grow. This can happen in the language of capitalism - a remake of a classic movie, a series of books focusing on what happened afterwards or before - or it can happen in the language of humanity. Children playing with sticks as lightsabers, Jedi Princess Leia saving Alderaan by dueling Vader; a father reading his kids The Hobbit as a bedtime story as an interactive, "what would you like to happen next?" way so that the dwarves win the wargs over with doggie biscuits that they had in their pockets and ride to Erebor on giant wolves, people writing and sharing their ideas for deleted outtake scenes from Star Trek and slow-build fierce and tender romance with startling bursts of hot sex between Hawkeye and Agent Coulson.
A story at it's most successful is a fully developed fractal, retold a million times and in a million ways, with stories based on stories based on stories. Fanfic of fanfic of fanfic. Stories based on headcanons, stories based in prompts, stories that put the Guardians of the Galaxy in a coffee shop AU and stories where the Transformers are planet-wandering nomads and stories where characters from one story are places into a world from another. Stories that could be canon, stories that are plausible, stories that would never happen, stories that give depth to are character or explore the consequences of one different plot event or rewrite the whole thing from scratch.
That is what stories are supposed to be.
That is what stories are.
We're all familiar with the normal defenses of fic. It's done out of love, it's training, it's for fun. Those are all good and valid defenses.
But they miss something. They damn with the faint praise. Because the thing is, when you commit to this particular Ultimate Literary Evil you've now told a story. And stories are powerful. The fact that it wasn't in an original world or with original characters doesn't necessarily make it less powerful to any given reader.
I wouldn't have made this argument a few years ago. A few years ago I hadn't received messages from people who were deeply touched by something I wrote in fanfic. So what if it's only two or three or four people, and I used someone else's world and characters? For those two or three or four people, I wrote something fucking important. I won't be told that isn't a valid use of my time and expect me to feel chastened. I don't buy it. I won't feel ashamed. I will laugh when I hear someone calls something that touches other people "Literary Masturbation". Apparently they're not up on their sex terminology.
Someone could argue that if I'd managed the same thing with original characters in an original world, it could've touched more people. They might be right! On the other hand, it might never have been accepted for publication, or found a market if self published, and more importantly I would never have written it because I didn't realise I could write. The story wouldn't have happened. Instead, thanks to fanfic being a thing, it did. And for those two or three or four people it matters. When we talk about defending fanfic, it'd be good if more defenders talked about that.
I get regular followers and reviews on my own fanfic and it's such an awesome feeling to know that someone - for ANY reason - enjoys what I have written, and it's touching them on some level. It's humbling. Fanfiction has the power to help people through long nights, through grief, through hard times. It is a solace to people who need solace. And because it was a fanfic, it was easier to reach the people who needed it. They knew these characters already. That world was dear to them.
Stories are fractal by nature. Even when there's just one version in print, you have it multiplied by every readers experience of it in light of who they are, what they like, what they want. And then many people will put themselves in the place of the protagonist, or another character, and spend a lot of time thinking about what they'd do in that characters place. Or adjusting happenings so they like the results better.
That is not fic, yet, but it is a story.
But the best stories grow. This can happen in the language of capitalism - a remake of a classic movie, a series of books focusing on what happened afterwards or before - or it can happen in the language of humanity. Children playing with sticks as lightsabers, Jedi Princess Leia saving Alderaan by dueling Vader; a father reading his kids The Hobbit as a bedtime story as an interactive, "what would you like to happen next?" way so that the dwarves win the wargs over with doggie biscuits that they had in their pockets and ride to Erebor on giant wolves, people writing and sharing their ideas for deleted outtake scenes from Star Trek and slow-build fierce and tender romance with startling bursts of hot sex between Hawkeye and Agent Coulson.
A story at it's most successful is a fully developed fractal, retold a million times and in a million ways, with stories based on stories based on stories. Fanfic of fanfic of fanfic. Stories based on headcanons, stories based in prompts, stories that put the Guardians of the Galaxy in a coffee shop AU and stories where the Transformers are planet-wandering nomads and stories where characters from one story are places into a world from another. Stories that could be canon, stories that are plausible, stories that would never happen, stories that give depth to are character or explore the consequences of one different plot event or rewrite the whole thing from scratch.
That is what stories are supposed to be.
That is what stories are.
Replies
...and your stories are particularly poignant, real, fantasy and straight from your soul.
...you\'re absolutely correct: \"that IS what stories are.\"
Thanks and Take Care.