New at Reason

January 30, 2007

Cathy Young dons her Xena gear , and comes galloping to the rescue of fan fiction writers everywhere.

Comments

|1.30.07 @ 11:28AM|#

FYI, the link at the bottom of the piece to Cathy Young's personal site is broken.

|1.30.07 @ 12:12PM|#

I also write fanfic. The problem, in my mind, is the conflation of fanfic with relationship smut, slash, etc.

In fact, in fanfic terminology fics are often classified by the pairing they put together (often with no sense of how this would actually happen in light of canon), and fics that -don't- do this get their own appelation, "gen."

So when Robin Hobb or Lee Goldberg rants about fanfic, they're probably thinking of the teenagers-writing-smut end, and lumping the good stuff in with it.

ed|1.30.07 @ 12:37PM|#

I like to dress Ken up in Barbie's clothes.
Is that kinda the same thing?

Xmas|1.30.07 @ 1:02PM|#

What the hell?!?

Slashfic is not smut. Not at all.

Sure, I get a little tickle from the Snape/Potter stories I read, but that doesn't make them smut.

|1.30.07 @ 1:10PM|#

The only fanfic I've read much of is some Battlestar Galactica (New Series) stuff, and while a lot of it is silly, a couple of ongoing stories I'm following are startlingly well-written. You kinda wish that those authors had chosen non-copyrighted subjects so that they could officially publish it.

BTW, the "slash" stuff is how the entire genre started, and some of those stories are hilariously entertaining, if not exactly highbrow.

thoreau|1.30.07 @ 1:42PM|#

Cathy Young dons her Xena gear

DON'T EVER TYPE THAT SENTENCE AGAIN!

And you know I'm serious because I wrote it in ALL CAPS.

|1.30.07 @ 5:10PM|#

I've never understood this idiocy about plot "originality".

Authors have been swiping other's stories since Homer first stood up to recite.

There is a whole sub-industry of Shakespeare criticism devoted to finding the stories the Bard swiped to create his plays.

Larry A|1.30.07 @ 5:37PM|#

I've never understood this idiocy about plot "originality".

Amen. When I do author workshops I often get the "But if there are only (X) plots, don't you run out of stories?" question.

I always remember the 1992 Oscars. Disney's remake of a very old and well-used plot, Beauty and the Beast was, I think, the first animated feature nominated for Best Picture, but it didn't win.

Anyone remember the film that did?

Silence of the Lambs was 1992 Best Picture. Which was itself another version of the "Beauty and the Beast" plot.

Cathy, write on!

JustSayNoToNutbread|1.31.07 @ 2:27AM|#

Cathy Young wears a Xena costume when she writes? I want pictures!

|2.11.07 @ 7:41PM|#

The reason that fanficcers are so vehement about defending their rights is that, in the end, they are deeply jealous about the fact that they can't plot, can't characterise and sure as hell can't write! So they grab attention by writing stupidity and porn about characters that are dearly beloved of professional authors.

We can only hope that more authors follow the example of Robin Hobb and Anne McCafferty and start legal proceedings against these people. Stand up for your rights, authors! Stamp out fanfiction!