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Originally Posted by Harper Kingsley
Exactly. That's inspiration.
But that doesn't mean I should take Luke Skywalker and all the other Star Wars characters, write an AU fanfic with them, build it up super big in fandom, then change his name to Anthony Redthorn, change Vader to Derek Szabo and the Emperor to Granddaddy Payne, then publish that same story as my original work without making any other real changes to it. If someone can look at the story and still recognize Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Darth Vader... then obviously something's wrong.
I can write a story with similar characters and put it out as a parody: "Star Bores: Wall Street Edition." The characters are recognizably those same people, but they're used as caricatures. But once I've claimed a story as fanfiction, right there I've already tied my story to whatever fandom. Which means the creator of those characters can come down on me.
Just because Meyer hasn't done anything, doesn't mean she's going to be so nice to the next person, and other authors will be even more wary of fanfic than they've been before. Which could ruin fandom for all the rest of us; something I really don't want to see happen.
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Funny you should bring up Star Wars. You do realize that George Lucas himself admits it's just a mish-mash of myths and Errol Flynn movies? It's probably the most derivative popular entertainment ever. But because it made a ton of money, it's considered 'legit'. Heh, I 'recognized' Luke Skywalker and the rest of the gang the first time I saw the movie.
Keep in mind I'm not defending EL James - but my argument with her work is that it's flat out bad writing (but I have the same argument with JK Rowling, too), not that her work is derivative (same as Lucas and also Rowling).