Subject: Re: [FFML] What Kind of Fanfic Should an Author Create?
From: "Kevin 'Genryu' Eav" <ukyou@maison-otaku.net>
Date: 3/17/1998, 11:16 PM
To: Fanfic ML


As this is an open letter to the FFML, I will respond in kind, and
politely say:
Why are your two views the only ones?

Or rather... why should I, as a writer, accept your two extremes as the
only ones?  Having read through the article but once, I cannot say I am
fully familiar with Mr. Palmer's point of view--but it seems to be that he
believes that a fanfiction should contain and represent the same cloth
that the characters are cut from.  Mr. Lawson's polar view, I am more
familiar with--that the fanfiction, though it uses the same cloth, is a
different and unique design from the original pattern and should be
treated as such.

I'd like to present a different view--and that is that in order for a
fanfic writer to be a -fanfic- writer, he or she must be able to -both-
express their view -and- conform to the laws, rules, and sundry set forth
by the original creator.  

I suppose it sounds like I am straddling a fence here.  And, in a way, I
am.  I'll put it this way.  A shirt is a shirt, yes?  Neckhole, two
armholes, optionally a pocket.  It's still a shirt if I change the fabric,
or add another pocket.  It's still a shirt even if I put zippers on all
the seams.  But is it a shirt once I start putting more sleeves and more
neckholes on it?  Or, to put it another way, a paperclip is only a
paperclip until it's bent so far out of shape that it cannot be
recognized.  A fanfic is only a fanfic insofar as the characters, no
matter how masked or twisted, can -still- be recognized.  There is a point
where the characters are simply facsimilies, with the same name and the
same look, but not the same character.

Not that that is bad--several 'alterniverse' stories are very well done.
And good reading.  

And so the eternal question is--but are they 'fanfic'?  And what -makes- a
fanfic a 'fanfic'?  Is it the names used?  The setting?  Or is it all
these and more?  I believe it is all those.. and -more-.

To write a fanfic is to walk a delicate line.  It is to upset the balance
without tipping the contents of the pot.  And, as we've seen, it's hard to
do -well-.  A good fanfic writer can take a character--a series--through
the depths of hell, or the heights of heaven, and the character--and their
reactions--will be recognizable ones.  Things will flow--they will seem
-natural-.

I would also like to address a point not made in either post--and that is
what canonicity is.   I've seen quite a few fanfics claim canonicity on
the basis of a single story--or even a single panel--and arrogantly and
smugly claim that it was a canon story.  Folks, this just isn't true.  (Of
course, this is my opinion).  When you consdier canonicity, you must
consider -all- the available source material--all the 'official' source
material--and use that as a basis.  Not one moment in time.  

Anyways, enough ranting from me. :)

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