Summer 2007 Read Free Page A

regard to the inherent moral contradictions
rather than brushing them under the fantasy wish-fulfillment.
    You know, so it’s perfectly possible to do that, to take
a thematic argument and show a fresh angle in a work that’s on some level
derivative, but has had the serial numbers filed off enough for legal purposes.
    So let’s be honest here. That’s all we’re doing in those
cases. We’re filing off the serial numbers so we can go, “Hey! That’s wrong!”
    And then somewhere the work takes on a life of its own
and becomes about more than “Hey! That’s wrong!”
    But that’s not fanfiction. So why would anybody write
fanfiction?
    I can offer a dirty secret. Or a series of dirty
secrets.
    Fanfiction is fun. It’s fun whether or not you’re
writing publishable fanfic–by which I mean, fanfic that’s either about
properties that are out of copyright (Hey, Blood & Iron is Tam Lin fanfic!
Check it out! Ink & Pen is Christopher Marlowe slash!) or fanfic in
which the serial numbers have been filed off far enough not to get your sorry
rump sued–or you’re writing fanfic that’s identifiable and has an
audience among other fans of the show.
    It allows somebody who either isn’t yet skilled enough
or who doesn’t want to be a pro writer to have an audience and express
creativity. It’s the moral equivalent of sitting around a campfire with a bunch
of friends noodling out “Eleanor Rigby” on the guitar–and maybe posting
the video on Youtube. You are unlikely to be mistaken for Paul McCartney, even
if you play guitar left-handed.
    It’s easy. One of the most fun things about writing
fanfic, for me, was that it brought back the joy of writing, the ease and
fluidity that I used to have before I knew what I was doing. And that’s,
honestly, because somebody else has already done the heavy lifting for me.
Somebody has set up the backstory, laid out the characters, and placed their
issues and trauma in a harsh light. The warp and weft are there: you’re not
starting from scratch.
    It’s what we do . From a very young age, we take
existing symbols and turn them into stories. Cops and robbers, cowboys and
Indians, Batman and Robin.
    Four hundred years ago, professional writers were
ripping off Ovid, and so were schoolboys.
    Is a lot of it bad? Well yeah, you betcha. A lot of
original fiction is just as bad. You should see my slush pile.
    Heck, you should see what I was writing for original
fiction when I was eighteen. Trust me, there’s probably Sentinel/Enterprise
crackfic out there that looks like award-winning literature next to my juvenile
stuff.
    The thing is, fanfiction is written for the writer, and
other fans. It’s not written for the market. It’s written to service a kink,
whatever that kink might be, and it’s totally unapologetic about that. On that
level, it’s some of the most honest writing around, and one can learn an
amazing amount about what fans want and how they read and view by studying it.
    And frankly, it serves the property owners. It allows
the fans to stay interested and engaged with the property during hiatus or in
between books, to build community. It’s another avenue for discussion,
connection, and celebration. It can bring in new viewers or readers.
    Simply put, it increases demand.
    I have sympathy for the writers who feel that something
of theirs is cheapened when they are ficced. I understand that possessiveness
of one’s own work, and it seems to me that a respectful fan (as opposed to a
crazy stalker) will in those cases attempt to respect the wishes of the author.
    Certainly, in the hands of some fan writers, fanfic
becomes an arrogation–”Mine is better than theirs!”–and that can
certainly chafe. But that’s not a social faux pas limited to fanfiction. A
certain group of fans are possessive. They have always been, and they always
will be possessive, and nothing is going to change that.
    It doesn’t matter. They don’t own the property: the
copyright holder