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Is Fanfiction really that bad?


The Crow

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Actually, me and my friend were one of these people that imitated it lol.

However, I'm still pretty confident that we were hilarious.

https://encyclopedia....se/Eddward4eva

I should be embarrassed, but nah.

No one who writes or reads fanfic has the basis to claim embarrassment about anything, ever again. It's like warging Hodor, or cannibalism.

I like DP's take on fanfic, but my one complaint is that it gave the world the term Mary Sue, and you can't un-ring that bell. When I used to post in the book forums regularly the term Mary Sue was thrown so much that you couldn't even have a discussion of any Stark that wasn't punctuated by ten posts like this: " U R WRONG AN DONT NO ANYTHING Y DONT U READ THE BOOKS ____ STARK* IS A MARY SUE!!!!!!"

*or most commonly, JON SNOW

That was my first introduction to the term, and its gross overuse in the book forums really bugged me.

Sadly, I do think that Tyrion is a moderate case of Mary Sue.

Edit: Oh, apparently there's a male term for that: Marty Stu.

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Oh I didn't write any of the fanfic, that was my friend and it was 100% not serious, although kinda alarming it has like 30 chapters, lol.

I know. ;-) And I'm a fanfic reader.

On the "cannot be unseen" note, some of the most disturbing stuff I've ever read was written by a friend of mine - without warning, my polite reading of her home-spun novella turned into OMG I'M BEING SLASH TROLLED. And it wasn't meant as trolling, it was a full novella; half-ironic, half-not (which is to say "tee hee hee, but seriously, what did you think") treatment on a character relationship as she imagined the subtext to be.

After which I could never look at her (or the characters!) the same way again.

Hodor had been warged.

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That's the problem with fan fiction and it some ways, the whole Internet. There's no regulation, so, for example, if someone wants to write a story where Batman rapes some characters from my little pony and then flies a plane into the world trade center, and put it on-line, well...

Thats a serious extreme wtf example, but I've seen things almost as bad. I think most of it stems from my anime club days though.

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That's the problem with fan fiction and it some ways, the whole Internet. There's no regulation, so, for example, if someone wants to write a story where Batman rapes some characters from my little pony and then flies a plane into the world trade center, and put it on-line, well...

Thats a serious extreme wtf example, but I've seen things almost as bad. I think most of it stems from my anime club days though.

It unnerves me when I hear of people writing fanfiction about their favourite band members, actual real people that might stumble across it.
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Fanfiction cannot be inherently bad. It depends on the content and the author. It's a fun way to fool around with writing as well, using already established characters and settings. Also, the ridiculousness of copyright laws aside, I don't consider it "copyright infringement" as some do.

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I actually don't see the problem with fan fiction. Yes the ratio of bad to good is a little disconcerting; and the ratio of utter crap to excellent is also pretty bad. Still there are quiet a few fan-works that I found myself reading more than once because they were just that good. It's an awesome genre to explore the classical what if's. It's also a great forum to explore minor characters that you just know are never, ever going to get the lime light. I have a big soft spot for minor characters. A lot of fandoms also have communities to filter out the crud and the decent (I remember the Harry Potter fandom actually forced me to grammar check when I was younger). I just wish I could remember what the sites name was.

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I like DP's take on fanfic, but my one complaint is that it gave the world the term Mary Sue, and you can't un-ring that bell.

"Mary Sue" originated in an early 1970s Star Trek fanfic, which poked fun at supremely talented original characters (often self-inserts) being inserted into worlds they didn't belong.

When I used to post in the book forums regularly the term Mary Sue was thrown so much that you couldn't even have a discussion of any Stark that wasn't punctuated by ten posts like this: " U R WRONG AN DONT NO ANYTHING Y DONT U READ THE BOOKS ____ STARK* IS A MARY SUE!!!!!!"

*or most commonly, JON SNOW

Of course Jon Snow is a Mary Sue. I created the infamous thread on it. ;)

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Most fanfiction is appalingly bad. Many people don't realise just how hard it is to be an author, even a bad one, in terms of actual writing and conveying ones fantastic ideas (and we all have those ideas). Therefore most fanfic is written by people who want to revisit or reinhabit a world, or tell a story they think is interesting or deserved to be told from the original, with no realisation that they have no skill or talent for writing and it just ends up being shit.

And then theres the fanfiction which involves Professor Snape having steamy sex with the Teletubbies, or when Elrond and Captain Picard begin getting it on. Thats just a whole new level. Or when Bella from Twilight (which is already arguably worse then most fanfiction) goes and has kinky sex with a rich, young, and attractive multi-billionaire, and then the names get changed and it gets published...

Of course, fanfiction doesn't have to be bad, because it can be used really well; as a way to revisit an interesting world and try new ideas, concepts, or situations within it. As some people have mentioned, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is bloody amazing, and as far as I'm concerned trumps the original in every possible way. The quality of the writing is surprisingly brilliant, and everything else in it works. Of course, it wouldn't be as good as it is without the originals there for the comparison (most of its most interesting ideas are things which were totally neglected in the originals, for example), but it's a great example of how fanfiction can make a significant contribution to literature.

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Fanfiction has also given us the oh so wonderful Cassanda Claire, who makes me want to tear my eyes out.

It unnerves me when I hear of people writing fanfiction about their favourite band members, actual real people that might stumble across it.

Oh Lord, I forgot about all the jpop stuff. *head explodes*

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Or the 14th century poem? Or is there another Dante's Inferno? In that case I haven't read it, but the afore mentioned are hardly fan fiction so I assume you must mean something else.

The poem is self insertion Bible/Greek myth crossover fanfic featuring the author meeting the historical poet Virgil. It could only be more stereotypically fanficcy if Dante and Virgil were shagging.

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It also depends on what you consider to be fan fiction and how you define it. Me, PERSONALLY, as in don't take this as me defining it or saying how it should be defined for others, I consider fan fiction to be something someone has written that could not be legally published under current rational copyright laws.

So, the previous mentioned Harry Potter fanfic, but not, say, some book which uses the term space marine but can't get published because Games Workshop is run by fuckwits.

With shared world stuff, the line starts to blur. Not sure what I would call it.

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As in Dan Brown's Inferno? Or the 14th century poem? Or is there another Dante's Inferno? In that case I haven't read it, but the afore mentioned are hardly fan fiction so I assume you must mean something else.

I mean the fourteenth century poem, which as felice described above, is certainly fanfiction by any serious definition.

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Fanfiction has also given us the oh so wonderful Cassanda Claire, who makes me want to tear my eyes out.

Hehe, I read some of her fanfic stuff before she was published but only read a few chapters since I found it utterly dull (it was a full on Draco Malfoy wank if I remember correctly). However, Cassandra Claire did a similar thing to "Fifty Shades of Grey", she found a niche that she could exploit. Basically lots of people read Harry Potter, a subset read Cassanda Claire's fanfic and it was enough that she gained some traction and eventually got published. However, I remember at the time she was reviled by the spork sites like Deleterius and there was Proper Fan Drama all around.

I brought the popcorn, watched a bit from the sidelines but never really got into it. Besides, I doubt Ms Claire is as offensive as "50 Shades...", if I remember correctly, it was more rather dull and pretty stereotypical and reductive. I mean, it's what? 10 years ago? Time flies, water under the bridge, etc.

Besides, with Dan Brown, Eragon and 50 Shades, I feel Cassandra Claire is definitely a Minor Offence. :lol:

EDIT: I do blame her for making the Draco in leather pants trope popular though.

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I consider fan fiction to be something someone has written that could not be legally published under current rational copyright laws.

That's a pretty arbitrary definition, in that it has nothing to do with the content of the story or its relationship to the source material. Why should Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality be classed as fanfic, but not Wicked, just because Baum's books are a few decades older than Rowling's? Does HPMoR suddenly cease to be fanfic in however many decades when Rowling's copyright expires and it becomes legal to publish it?

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