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Old 03-07-2011, 11:59 AM   #46
Worldwalker
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One significant difference is that it's legal, whereas most fan-fiction is not.
Yep.

The legality of fanfic varies -- some rights owners explicitly permit it, some seek to destroy it, and the majority choose to overlook it. I would guess that the latter realize that the writers of fanfic are their greatest fans, evangelists, and buyers, and any loss that may be attributed to their writing is a drop in the bucket compared to the corresponding gains from their evangelizing. But with the exception of those cases where the rights owners specify that they permit fanfic (and in those cases, in the circumstances they permit), fan fiction is technically illegal.

It's illegal, but allowed. That's a very interesting situation. There have been cases in which rights owners attempted to destroy fanfic communities and prohibit any reference to their works. That happened to Rat Patrol fandom a few years ago, for instance. Some writers went underground, others just changed their characters' names, and eventually the owners had a sudden rush of brains to the head and said "hey, why are we trying to keep people from popularizing an old TV show that nobody would even remember without them?" With a very few exceptions (does it surprise anyone that Anne Rice is one of them?), most rights owners now have something of a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude toward fan fiction, possibly because they are aware of its benefits, or possibly just because they won't want a court fight that could easily be spun into a bully versus a teenage girl, so even if they won (which would probably only force fanfic underground anyway) they would lose.

But we're really not talking about the legality of fan versus pro continuations of existing series here, but rather the quality. I don't see unmoderated collections of fan fiction as being any lower in quality than any other unmoderated fiction -- as I said, see Smashwords for examples -- and while much of it is in that 90% Sturgeon's Law speaks of, some of that remaining 10% is outstandingly good.
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Old 03-07-2011, 12:28 PM   #47
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Yes. I found the same in the past when I tried to read some official, published Star Wars-related novels I had bought in a batch from Ebay. In the few I attempted to read, the writing and the stories are so awful I gave up on them and eventually years later tossed the whole box. If you want a taste of the awful fan-fiction quality of the official "expanded universe" material, just browse the Wookipedia.

But I've also found over the years that many, many people have a much lower bar for what they consider good writing than I do.
I had the great misfortune of reading the Asmiov estate-approved Foundation prequels by Bear, Brin and Benford.
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Old 03-07-2011, 12:38 PM   #48
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Or ... beware, I'm going to say it ... I dread the thought, but I must ... The Phantom Menace. A series of commercials for toys tied together by Jar-Jar Binks. A disaster on film. I don't think there's anyone who considers it within an order of magnitude of the quality of the original, or even the original trilogy. As bad as many of the Star Wars novelizations have been (though Timothy Zahn has done some good ones), that official, Lucas-written, Lucas-directed, Lucas-produced disaster called The Phantom Menace went beyond awful and well into "OMG can we just forget it exists?"
Are you suggesting the original trilogy was not a commercial for toys? Much more fun to watch, granted.
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Old 03-07-2011, 12:39 PM   #49
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Most of the fanfic writers I know (At least in the fandom-centric circle for which I write) are also careful to post disclaimers with their fanfiction, that they are making no money off of the stories, and that the characters are the property of the respective creators. But I agree with Worldwalker that it isn't legality that is the issue here, but the quality of fanfiction. For me, my opinion is that you're going to find bad fiction anywhere, fan-related or not. I don't see that fanfiction is any different, and there are some truly fabulous stories out there that perhaps aren't getting the recognition they deserve because people are too turned off by the bad stuff to keep looking for the good.
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Old 03-07-2011, 12:53 PM   #50
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I agree with Worldwalker and Carriebear.

The real difficulty with fan fiction is the same difficulty one finds with any unmoderated fiction - finding the gems amid the dross.

It's there, we know it's there - but sometimes the signal gets lost in the noise.

On average, I would expect one's chances of finding good fan fiction to be slightly better than one's chances of finding a good read on Smashwords - neither may be moderated, but one's more likely to see more comments on fan forums.
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Old 03-07-2011, 04:15 PM   #51
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queentess, on that sidenote, I don't recall being disgusted with Star Wars toys before Ewoks were made available before that movie was released. And, um, death to Jar-Jar!
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Old 03-07-2011, 04:26 PM   #52
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queentess, on that sidenote, I don't recall being disgusted with Star Wars toys before Ewoks were made available before that movie was released. And, um, death to Jar-Jar!
I was born in nineteen-eighty-mumble, so all I remember about the original trilogy is the whoring of toys, because they were directed at me. Also, Ewoks are awesome, and everyone who disagrees with me is wrong.
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Old 03-07-2011, 05:00 PM   #53
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Star Wars (the original, before it was ever a trilogy) was on the cusp between toys to promote a movie and a movie to promote toys. Initially, it was just like any other movie ... then its marketing possibilities became obvious, and Star Wars "stuff" started to appear. To give you an idea of how little there was to begin with, at one point I owned almost all of it. When "all of it" is some comic books, a dozen action figures, some collectable cards (four sets to a box, no artificial scarcity there), and so on, that's not a very big deal. It was really with Empire that the whole marketing thing took off like a rocket, and of course in Jedi we got the Ewoks who were put in strictly for marketing purposes ... but even they didn't come close to Phantom Menace in terms of the movie being nothing but an extended commercial for the toys, computer games, and other random stuff.

You have to wonder, though, what's going through the minds of parents who agree to buy licensed everything for their kids instead of asking them "Why do you want to give money to George Lucas, who's already rich, when you could get bed sheets that are just as good, and keep the money for yourself?"

P.S. Don't worry, Tess, youth is cured by time.
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Old 03-07-2011, 05:08 PM   #54
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To give you an idea of how little there was to begin with, at one point I owned almost all of it. When "all of it" is some comic books, a dozen action figures, some collectable cards (four sets to a box, no artificial scarcity there), and so on, that's not a very big deal. It was really with Empire that the whole marketing thing took off like a rocket, and of course in Jedi we got the Ewoks who were put in strictly for marketing purposes ... but even they didn't come close to Phantom Menace in terms of the movie being nothing but an extended commercial for the toys, computer games, and other random stuff.
I'm reminded of a bit in Wil Wheaton's Just a Geek book where he talks about The Wall of Star Wars inside a K-Mart...
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Old 03-07-2011, 07:15 PM   #55
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Look at the "Pern" books that Anne McCaffrey's son Tod has turned out. While his mother might think her son's stories are awesome, her fans shake their heads in disbelief and wonder what on Earth he's trying to do there. The stories give a bare nod to Pern canon and retcon things that have been part of it since the days of Weyr Search. Approval by the original author does not, apparently, guarantee quality. I've read better Pern fanfic. A lot better Pern fanfic.
LOL! I think Anne McCaffery started the trend herself, by writing (bad) fanfic about her own characters. I mean really, the first half dozen books contain about 95% of the meat of the series, and Dragonsdawn contains all the rest. Everything else she wrote about Pern, is just fanfic tied into random spots in the first six books. And if someone else were writing it (besides her or Tod) hopefully they'd at least get assigned an editor who would force them to make an effort instead of phoning it in.
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Old 03-08-2011, 02:24 AM   #56
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I read Harry Potter Fanfiction on a regular basis.

There are a couple reasons why I love them:

1) I grew up anticipating the next release of the Harry Potter series, and these filled the void between releases. Authors would hypothesize and extend the story lines with their own imaginations. Fanfiction was actually really good back then! In fact, so good that when the real book 6 came out, I was dissappointed by the plots because I had already seen them in fanfiction before.

2)What if: I'm a firm believer that Hermione is blind and stupid for choosing Ron. The big wide world of fanfiction lets me live in denial forever.

3)FUN!
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Old 03-08-2011, 02:33 AM   #57
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[...]2)What if: I'm a firm believer that Hermione is blind and stupid for choosing Ron. The big wide world of fanfiction lets me live in denial forever. [...]
I never would have thought of that for a reason.

Thanks for the chuckle.
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Old 03-08-2011, 02:37 AM   #58
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Over the years I have found that originally I liked fan fiction, but tired of it as I got older. When I go back and re-read the original, I now find that I love more than the storyline and characters. I love how it was written. I fall in love with the era it was created in.

A slightly off example but still along the same line, James Bond. Ian Fleming had a certain style of writing. He swept you along the adventure with his stylistic writing. A couple decades later John Gardner was comissioned to write the continuing adventures of James Bond. Though I read every one and looked forward to the new one in the 80's and 90's. I alway felt that his Bond was fast food Bond. It had adventure but it had no protein in its style. I have re-read the Fleming titles again in the last couple of years and find I get sucked into Fleming the moment I read the first page.

John Gardner, a great writer was comissioned to write in a style that was not his own. He explored a new side of his writing. I am grateful for his adventures but have not had the desire to re-read them. His contract to write more adventures was based on a market of James Bond fans desiring more stories. In this case, fun they were but Fleming they were not.
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Old 03-08-2011, 02:37 AM   #59
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OT: I believe George Lucas did a deal for the rights for the merchandise from Star Wars A New Hope and from this funded all his other projects. IMHO Star Wars was teh film that created movie merchandise.
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Old 03-08-2011, 07:44 AM   #60
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When Farscape was taken off the air I read a lot of Fan Fiction to help me overcome my weekly fix. I have a huge collection of Fan Fiction on my computer for a few shows. The best are for, in my opinion, Farscape and Serenity. I just started reading some using the Anita Blake universe and found some good stories. As with everything, you have both good and bad. You can spot them both with little effort.

http://www.farscapeworld.com/fanfic/
http://www.fanfiction.net/
http://www.pommedesang.com/efiction/index.php

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