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rabid1stI wanted to address the Fanfiction Kerfuffle that I just saw on ONTD, but I didn't want to address it on ONTD. I do not believe it has ever crossed my mind to fanfic a book. I suppose it is common enough, but it makes me nervous. Ficcing a book puts the fanfic writer on to a direct field of conflict with the original author. And so I can see why an author would take exception to the practice. It is a presumptive challenge to the author to write stories about their characters while the author is still working on those characters.
This is the difference between a trademark character and a character under copyright, I suppose. Are people who are writing HP fic working from the books or the films? Film and television characters are trademarked, but loaned out to other writers all the time. And so they are not so much children of their original creator, but a collaboration. They are developing in the minds of others and the audience participates in their lives. This is not to say that I don't think original creators have the legal right to all material developed from their creations. We fanfic writers are lazy and are also parasites of a sort, because we feed our needs at the expense of someone else original inspiration. However, we are often just frustrated by the limited imagination of the original creator. In my opinion, fanfic writers simply long for more or greater development from a character. And often the direction of development is one that a creator will not be taking, like many slash pairings will never be served in real fiction. I assumed that I was taking Ten/Rose to a place that RTD could not go with them in most of my writings. Of course, Moff has shown us that RTD lacked balls as well as imagination, since the BBC has allowed River/Eleven sexual references in DVD or Webisode extras.
The JK Rowling idea that she doesn't want her characters to engage in R-rated interactions goes directly to this point of denial on the part of a writer. She might not want R-Rated stuff to happen, might not want to write it or see it, but other people might long for such material. This creates a market for something that the original author will not be offering up in a fandom. This is what opens the door to fanfiction writers, we write what character creators fail to envision or shy away from committing to paper or film. Are the creations of an author like that author's children? Does an author have the right to protect characters once they are introduced to a wider audience? Certainly, if a fanfiction author jeopardizes a creator's profits, I would say so. It is dicey to simply write further adventures for Harry Potter and company, something JK Rowling might write herself, because you are arguably decreasing her sales. It is even worse to claim that you own the story. And fanfiction writers do try to do this, claiming copyright protections they do not possess, for example. If you steal someone's characters and write a story, you can't then claim that a story idea was stolen from you.
But there is another common thing that happens today, AU-Fic authors who steal basic set ups and premises and then recast the characters from their favorite stories into other realms. For example, Buffy and Angel could become Bella and Edward when the story is moved to a wooded rural area and sold as original. Doctor #4 and Romana #2 could be recast as Thomas Pitt and Charlotte and given a murder to solve in Victorian England and voila, it is a new series. Many is the time I've read a book about a witch and clearly seen Willow in the description of the character. Then, Bella and Edward are recast in a smutty story and that sells lots of books and the author makes no excuses about lifting the characters from another source. Inspiration from a story is not quite the same as stealing. I believe Gaiman was inspired by Disheveled to write his tale about Idris. That's flattering, for me, because I flat-out pilfered Ten and Rose and many of the situations they found themselves in for that fic.
This is the difference between a trademark character and a character under copyright, I suppose. Are people who are writing HP fic working from the books or the films? Film and television characters are trademarked, but loaned out to other writers all the time. And so they are not so much children of their original creator, but a collaboration. They are developing in the minds of others and the audience participates in their lives. This is not to say that I don't think original creators have the legal right to all material developed from their creations. We fanfic writers are lazy and are also parasites of a sort, because we feed our needs at the expense of someone else original inspiration. However, we are often just frustrated by the limited imagination of the original creator. In my opinion, fanfic writers simply long for more or greater development from a character. And often the direction of development is one that a creator will not be taking, like many slash pairings will never be served in real fiction. I assumed that I was taking Ten/Rose to a place that RTD could not go with them in most of my writings. Of course, Moff has shown us that RTD lacked balls as well as imagination, since the BBC has allowed River/Eleven sexual references in DVD or Webisode extras.
The JK Rowling idea that she doesn't want her characters to engage in R-rated interactions goes directly to this point of denial on the part of a writer. She might not want R-Rated stuff to happen, might not want to write it or see it, but other people might long for such material. This creates a market for something that the original author will not be offering up in a fandom. This is what opens the door to fanfiction writers, we write what character creators fail to envision or shy away from committing to paper or film. Are the creations of an author like that author's children? Does an author have the right to protect characters once they are introduced to a wider audience? Certainly, if a fanfiction author jeopardizes a creator's profits, I would say so. It is dicey to simply write further adventures for Harry Potter and company, something JK Rowling might write herself, because you are arguably decreasing her sales. It is even worse to claim that you own the story. And fanfiction writers do try to do this, claiming copyright protections they do not possess, for example. If you steal someone's characters and write a story, you can't then claim that a story idea was stolen from you.
But there is another common thing that happens today, AU-Fic authors who steal basic set ups and premises and then recast the characters from their favorite stories into other realms. For example, Buffy and Angel could become Bella and Edward when the story is moved to a wooded rural area and sold as original. Doctor #4 and Romana #2 could be recast as Thomas Pitt and Charlotte and given a murder to solve in Victorian England and voila, it is a new series. Many is the time I've read a book about a witch and clearly seen Willow in the description of the character. Then, Bella and Edward are recast in a smutty story and that sells lots of books and the author makes no excuses about lifting the characters from another source. Inspiration from a story is not quite the same as stealing. I believe Gaiman was inspired by Disheveled to write his tale about Idris. That's flattering, for me, because I flat-out pilfered Ten and Rose and many of the situations they found themselves in for that fic.
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(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-20 02:58 pm (UTC)I think DW is particularly embroiled in this intertextual stuff. It struk me when I was watching the latest Aardman movie (the Pirates one) that the humour was very similar - for example there's a pub scene set in the 1840s where everyone's making a big fuss of the characters and the Elephant Man is sitting weeping in a corner, no longer in fashion. And later, the Pirate Captain sees Darwin sitting next to a monkey and says, "Are you two related...No, don't be ridiculous." How DW is that?
The Doctor is a cultural magpie, picking up shiny trifles and scattering them through time and space. And his creative fans have always emulated him, regarding the whole canon and beyond as their playground. I think that's why I've never felt comfortable writing any other fanfic. I feel that DW has more or less been set up for me to add to the creative universe. Other ones feel much more closed to me. But of course YMMV.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-20 05:12 pm (UTC)To your point about TV writers having anything approaching creative integrity, I do think that they don't have time for it. It must be very difficult to crank out a story a week, rewrite it, argue about it and then produce it. I can see why it is unrealistic for viewers to expect even moderate continuity under such conditions. Kripke is, so far, the only head writer/creator who has been able to follow through on a five-year plan. Farscape and Babylon Five came close, though the former waffled from year to year. And I think the reason Kripke could complete his plan had a lot to do with his show having less of a following than a major network show. He was under less pressure than say RTD or Chris Carter or Joss Whedon.
Joss was always in touch with his audience, though he didn't listen to them and was often combative when they alerted him to their displeasure. He makes a lot of his own genius, in those situations. But his true problem was he is very formulaic. I think he may have had the same leeway that Kripke had, but simply was unable to capitalize on it. Joss is quick witted, brilliant in his delivery of shocking twists and a master of captivating dialogue. However, I don't think he planned things out in advance. Neither did RTD, of course. I do feel that RTD did the best he could in the limited time he had to work out his solutions. His brain was worn to a frazzle by the end, I think. And to be fair, he was loyal to Rose, to the end, giving her something much nicer than a sonic lipstick as a souvenir and allowing that she was still unhappy with the arrangement and so was Ten. He doesn't go as far with Rose as he goes with Sarah Jane, claiming it was all for the best and he has no idea what she means. Instead, he gives her a palliative for her pain and admits that the Doctor does need her.
But that does not really explain why, given the opportunity to change an ending he knew was wrong, he opted instead for an operatic hand-wave. Unless, of course, he felt that he couldn't make last minute changes before turning things over to Moff. Though, if you ask me, Moff's story seems completely prepared for a Ten goes to Rose ending from S4. Season 5 would have been seamless with the explosion and the pocket alternative universe for Ten to have been returning from Rose's World.
OMG! DID YOU SEE THIS?
Date: 2012-04-20 05:28 pm (UTC)http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/73998/Doctor-Whos-Steven-Moffat-The-Companion-Is-The-Main-Character
Re: OMG! DID YOU SEE THIS?
Date: 2012-04-20 06:04 pm (UTC)And the comment that it's unhealthy for the Doctor to travel alone says it all, really.
Re: OMG! DID YOU SEE THIS?
Date: 2012-04-20 06:58 pm (UTC)This more than anything is what has put me off Doctor Who. I don't like this idea that he's fundamentally bad for people and using them for his own ego. It diminishes his heroic qualities too much. I initially didn't like the idea of Rose because I felt that it might diminish the character in other ways. But, ultimately, it was the convoluted nature of the personality RTD implied the Doctor had that put me off of him.
I have often tried to consider the Matt/Moff era as if it was divorced from RTD's implications about the Doctor, but, I find I cannot view him as a separate character.
As I said after the S5 finale, I do feel that Moff did his best to give us an opening for a better JE ending if we wanted one. He definitely allowed for a book canon that reunited Rose and Ten or that had Ten die in some other fashion and so set up the return to a proper reality.