I really do think the biggest problem about show runners, authors, and suchlike responding to fandom—online or otherwise—is that they’re fundamentally misunderstood what fandom is.
They see a group of fans and they assume that they, the author, is like unto a god for these fans and that they can send decrees down to them from on high.
That’s not what fandom is at all.
No one is more critical of art than fandom. No one is more capable of investigating the nuances of expression than fandom—because it’s a vast multitude pooling resources and ideas. Fandom is about correcting the flaws and vices of the original. It’s about protest and rebellion, essentially. Fandom is the voice of a mob that can do better than the original, that often flies in the face of the original, that will accept nothing less than the best the medium (and the human at the helm) is capable of. Fandom is about putting debate and conversation back into an artistic process—-especially if the artist or author in question has become so vain that all criticism falls on deaf ears. (Moffat, I’m looking at you.) Fandom is about mutual creative expression—-there are no gods in fandom and every time someone thinks they’ve become a god of fandom, fandom corrects them again. (Cassandra Clare, I’m looking at you.) Fandom doesn’t need permission and it’s certainly not waiting for it. (Robin Hobb, I’m looking at you.) And fandom doesn’t actually want your attention; often, they’d rather you left them alone to get back to what they’re doing better than you anyway. (Supernatural, I’m looking at you.)
I would bet dollars to donuts that most of the people who run into this post could name five fics off the top of their head that could go head-to-head with canon any day of the week. I could name five fanvids with more biting commentary than a NYTimes review of the same film. I’ve definitely—and this is the easy one—seen hundreds of thousands of better fanart than the promotion materials for a lot of mainstream films and television shows.
Fandom is not worshipping at the alter of canon. Fandom is re-building it because they can do better.
This. I write fanfic because your show was almost good enough.
merindab replied to your post “On Sherlock”
That says write all the fanfic and AU you want. Write the story YOU want to tell. Read the stories that speak to you. Spin the magic you wish you saw.*feels massively empowered and swans off to work on apocalypselock fic*
I love you, Merinda
Kick some ass!
What is significant about fan fiction is that it often spins the kind of stories that showrunners wouldn’t think to tell, because fanficcers often come from a different demographic. The discomfort seems to be not that the shows are being reinterpreted by fans, but that they are being reinterpreted by the wrong sorts of fans – women, people of colour, queer kids, horny teenagers, people who are not professional writers, people who actually care about continuity (sorry). The proper way for cultural mythmaking to progress, it is implied, is for privileged men to recreate the works of privileged men from previous generations whilst everyone else listens quietly. That’s how it’s always been done. That’s how it should be done in the future, whatever Tumblr says.
But time can be rewritten. Myths can bend and change. Something new and exciting is happening in the world of storytelling, and fans are an important part of it.
Laurie Penny, Sherlock and the Adventure of the Overzealous Fanbase [x] (via wearethemakersofmanners)
I’ve seen so many ‘Don’t worry, we’ll fix it in fics!’ posts right now. And it’s just… we shouldn’t have to.
Fanfiction is great because you can watch your OTP confess their undying love to each other four hundred times in a row, and it’s different every time.
f you’ve been following my tumblr for a bit, you may have noticed my quoting “Fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World” by Anne Jamison. I bought it both because I wanted to support archiveofourown.org and because as an active fanfiction writer and reader, it’s a subject near and dear to my heart.
The book takes a long view at fanfiction, with contributing essays from many sources. It more or less follows the history of fanfiction from the 1800s (and not just Sherlock Holmes) through the way technology and the success of “Fifty Shades of Grey” are changing and shaping fanfiction today.
I don’t normally underline or write in books. I underlined in this one. In one instance I underlined, highlighted and dog-eared a page. If you know anyone that thinks fanfiction shouldn’t or can’t be taken seriously as a literature, I’d recommend tossing this book at them.
The book places fanfiction in the context of the society it finds itself, from early Sherlock pastiches, to mimeographed Star Trek fanzines of the 70s and 80s through Twin Peaks usenet boards, to early Buffy and X-files sites and on to Harry Potter and Internet fanfiction hubs. And yes, spends some time in the Twlight fandom and discussing the controversy of ‘pulling to print’ that mostly grew up out of that fandom.
The book is consistently engaging, and the essays give a first person perspective on various aspects of the fanfiction world. The fact that fanfiction is overwhelmingly produced by women and dismissed by men isn’t missed either. The book very successfully makes the case that fanfiction can be just as much literature as anything else, slash, omegaverse and all.
When someone tells a fanfiction writer that they’re “not a real writer,” I say to that person, “You don’t have the slightest idea of what it means to write a scene and a a character in the English language, with images and words chock full of received meaning.” I do think there’s an innocent bravery to saying, “I’m going to write another Sherlock Holmes story,” but of course it’s already a new Sherlock Holmes the moment you start writing it. It’s not Doyle’s. It’s yours.
Jonathan Lethem, An Interview with Jonathan Lethem
Fic:Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World by Anne Jamison
(via merindab)
When someone tells a fanfiction writer that they’re “not a real writer,” I say to that person, “You don’t have the slightest idea of what it means to write a scene and a a character in the English language, with images and words chock full of received meaning.” I do think there’s an innocent bravery to saying, “I’m going to write another Sherlock Holmes story,” but of course it’s already a new Sherlock Holmes the moment you start writing it. It’s not Doyle’s. It’s yours.
Jonathan Lethem, An Interview with Jonathan Lethem
Fic:Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World by Anne Jamison
Espenson goes on to say that fanfiction is “the best training you could have to be a working professional television writer”
Fic: Why Fanfiction is Taking Over the World by Anne Jamison
*punches air and internally flails*
HAH! So I’m not crazy for changing my major.
*Highlights in the book*
I had this conversation with a coworker that knows I write fanfic
Her: Hey can you send me that link to that one website with your stories?
Me: Yeah, here you go (texts link to AO3)
some time later…
Her: OMG this is fantastic!
Me: Are you reading my smut?
Her: No, I got tired of the m/m stuff, so I’m cheating on you with other fic.
Me: What are you reading?
Her: I started clicking around the tags and I found this Harry Potter fic I’m 10 chapters into now.
Me: Merry Christmas