In Defense Of Fanfiction

People write fanfiction for a lot of reasons, but even my novelist-friend admits that it’s because something in the original story touched them. Fans write to work through issues in their own lives or their own characters that resonated with the characters or plot in a book, movie, or television show. It can be a healing process.

Let’s be honest: often, very often, fans write for the purpose of titillation. If you ask me, this is a far better place to fill that need than mainstream pornography, which all too frequently leaves very real actors diseased or addicted and abandoned by the industry that got them there.

My friend did mention “slash,” in which characters of the same sex are paired who may or may not be together in the original work. He expressed concern that such stories may permanently alter the public perception of a character. Again, I understand his concern, but the two sources I am most familiar with (Fanfiction.net and LiveJournal), label everything clearly as far as which characters will be depicted together and how graphic it will be. If a writer is truly that concerned about how their characters will be used, Fanfiction.net, at least, will ban fics based on their work.

It is important to remember that “fanfiction” does not automatically imply “pairing,” and that “pairing” does not automatically imply “graphic.” However, I believe that where fic writers make their characters gay, bisexual, or into alternative relationship structures or different kinds of sexual expression, fans are not just looking to see their fantasies worked out; they are looking to see the diversity of their own lives depicted in ways that mainstream stories often don’t.

Above all, though, fanfic writers are just trying to have fun. When I was a child, my best friend and I had imaginary playmates of our own creation, but we also imagined adventures with our favorite characters. I imagine my novelist friend at the same age, and wonder if he scrupulously avoided playing with copyrighted characters. He has blogged about growing up enjoying western TV shows and movies, so I suspect that the Lone Ranger and the like probably sneaked in there somewhere. Can he guarantee that the creators of whatever characters he dreamed with would consider his versions “in-character,” or approve of everything he did with them?

As I told him in my response to his post, I agree that the profits of a story belong to its creators and those to whom they license, but once a story is part of the culture, the story itself does not. Anything else leads to a much more commodified and corporate-controlled culture than I want.

There is also a sense of community in fandom. One of my fanfic-writer friends went to a convention last year, and had a great time making friends with some of her favorite fic writers. Last year, I heard from friends how people in the Harry Potter fandom pulled together over the tragic death of a young woman who was one of their own. After the Earthquake in Haiti, fans from all over LiveJournal auctioned off original and derivative works to raise money for the relief effort.

The fact is that fans today are craving a deeper level of participation in the art that they love. The results are not only fanfic, but also fanart, fanvids, and other derivative works. This has probably been going on since mass distribution of creative work first began, but the development of technology has made it easier both to create and to distribute. There is no turning back, and I would argue that as long as the profit only goes to those who hold the rights, there’s nothing wrong with that.

As my friend who went to the convention pointed out, it would be a cold and lonely life without such shared experiences.

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