[ SECRET POST #1726 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1726 ⌋


Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 10 pages, 240 secrets from Secret Submission Post #247.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - hit/ship/spiration ], [ 0 - omgiknowthem ], [ 0 - take it to comments ], [ 1 - repeats ]
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments and concerns should go here.

Comments

[sandvich.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, these comments. I like to write fanfiction sometimes too. It's fun! It lets me indulge myself! It's a cool way to share my ideas with people who like the same things I do and to practice other writing skills that I can use when writing original fiction, school essays, or stories for my campus newspaper and magazine.

But it's still a fucking goofy-ass hobby, you guys. And I'm pretty sure that nobody's Watson/Sherlock slash is ever going to end up on the level of Hamlet, or even the level of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Just admit that you have kind of a silly hobby and move on.

[dazzledfirestar.livejournal.com]

May I ask what your opinion in on say... shared universes like Marvel and DC and how those writers were fans at one point before getting the job to write these characters professionally? Some of them started in fan fic. *shrug*

And no, not everyone is going to get to that level, but does that mean they can't learn and improve through this? Just because you do it one way, doesn't mean everyone has to do it just like you.

[sandvich.livejournal.com]

I don't have much of an opinion on it. Most creative people start with fanstuff of some kind, and the fact that comics thrive on the sweet, delicious status quo means that someone who gets into comic writing as an adult will probably be working with the same characters that other writers were working with thirty years ago. And, just like fanfiction, most comics are awful. People who write good ones bring something more than childhood fanboyism. People who're still stuck in fanfic mode end up rebooting entire continuities so their favorite version of [SUPERHERO X] can be [SUPERHERO X] again.

If you look at the first paragraph of my comment, I do say that writing fanfiction is a fun hobby that can be -- and actually has been for me personally! -- great practice for other sorts of writing. I just think that people who hold it up as an art form that ought to be considered alongside the work of Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri and the like have their heads lodged up their asses.

[dazzledfirestar.livejournal.com]

Wow, you're just dismissive to everything that isn't high literature, aren'tyou? That's amazing. As someone else pointed out, it's not necessarily about the quality. As you said yourself, everyone's got to start somewhere.

Does everything have to be high literature? Is there no market for fluff and smut and that sort of thing? Of course not, and I happen to think that anyone who is of the opinion that you have to be writing Hamlet to be legit is a pretentious ass.

Maybe it's not an art form, but it's a way for people to express themselves in ways they might not have otherwise. It's a way to explore thoughts and issues someone may be having in their own life. And calling it silly when it's that kind of outlet for people is really shallow and simple minded.

[(Anonymous)]

It makes me sad that you're using Britta and Annie's faces to be such a douche :(

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, Shakespeare isn't high art AT. ALL. He catered to the lowest common denominator of his day, and his objective was to pack seats at the theatre and make Elizabeth I happy. And, he stole almost everything he wrote. LOL

[(Anonymous)]

This essay does a much better job than I ever could at pointing out exactly on how many levels the idea of opposing fanfic and literature is stupid:

http://bookshop.livejournal.com/1044495.html

[queenoftea.livejournal.com]

I'm going to jump on a grenade here and say that I agree with you. Fanfiction is a LOT of fun. But it will never produce anything that makes me sit back and think about the choices I've made in my own life the way that, say, Vonnegut's classics do. Even boring ass high school assigned novels pull that little cord in my brain that says "This book is saying something about /me/" - I hated "Unbearable Lightness of Being", but the theme it covered was something I could relate to, the choice to accept responsibility at the loss of your own happiness or to shrug it off and live a happy selfish life. Shakespeare wrote for the common people, yes, BUT his stories were about internal conflict in powerful men - they fought demons that they did occasionally lose to, and their issues were understandable even if they weren't sympathetic.

I have never read a fanfic that makes me want to be a better person. I have read very few fanfics that actually challenge the characters. I think in general authors who write it are doing it for shits and giggles, so there's no drive there to actually tell a complete story beginning to end - you're just touching on a scene to create an emotional response (arousal, sadness, squee, shock etc.) because that's what's sought after. AND THAT IS ABSOLUTELY OKAY! Everything has a place! But I see fanfic as say, a Thomas Kinkade, versus a Dali - both are beautiful, both inspire a certain emotion, but one has layers of intention to it that the other one doesn't need to have.

[(Anonymous)]

Writing - of any sort, of any nature, is not a goofy-ass hobby. Anyone who believes otherwise is not a writer.

We're not talking the quality of the writing. There are shitty-ass writers and there are people who pen masterpieces. We're talking that the notion itself of writing, of expressing creativity, is something to be demeaned and ridiculed under the umbrella of "a goofy-ass hobby."

Is someone's random bit of Erik/Charles slash great literature? Probably not. But to stand there and say that the action of writing, that the thought of creativity even outside the bounds of the original creator's vision is stupid and silly slanders all writers; fanfic or otherwise.

[sandvich.livejournal.com]

Nope, I'm pretty sure some writing really is a goofy-ass hobby, just like some drawing is just goofy-ass doodles. And that's okay. Not everything needs to be deep and artistic and significant! Just don't try to dress it up as more than it is.

[(Anonymous)]

I was thinking people were overreacting in this thread, but wow you are pretty rude.

[(Anonymous)]

You . . . really can't decide for people what is important to them. I find coin collections silly, but I would not think someone who has devoted their time and energy to collecting them that they're 'dressing it up' when they frame it, display it, are proud of it, etc.

[(Anonymous)]

LOL'ing at everyone in this thread (and I haven't yet looked beyond it) who are proving your point exactly. JFC, lighten up, people. Your self-important "I AM DOING ART" attitude about fanfic only makes you look even goofier.

[frozenish.livejournal.com]

Um other people might be calling you a douche but I am stepping in to say that I think you are totally right what is wrong with having a goofy hobby anyway.

[(Anonymous)]

Chiming in to show support, because dude. I don't even know that people should get that invested in defending most published fiction as serious business to always be taken seriously.

[(Anonymous)]

OMFG, this. This so very, very hard, times a million, squared, with a cherry on top. You can love fanfic and credit it with teaching you how to write and list all kinds of writers who got their start in it and stretch literary definitions so that all kinds of things could count as such- it is still, in and of itself, kind of a silly thing to do. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying a silly thing, nor is there anything wrong with admitting that that's what it is.

I, too, would take fanfic writers much more seriously if they would stop taking themselves so seriously. Plenty of serious, professional writers got their start in fanfic or even continue to dabble in it, but writing fanfic does NOT automatically make you one of those writers. (/wishes I didn't know people IRL who think it does)

[(Anonymous)]

Why is everyone in this thread acting like 'silly' is not subjective. Nothing is 'in and of itself' silly.

[(Anonymous)]

And I'm pretty sure that nobody's Watson/Sherlock slash is ever going to end up on the level of Hamlet, or even the level of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Uh. I've read some Holmes/Watson slash that I consider to be way above the level of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. (Nothing approaches Shakespeare, but he's Shakespeare.) So... /shrug

[(Anonymous)]

even the level of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

I'm going to assume that you've never read this book or something because it is shit and wouldn't even get attention in the average fandom's Big Bang.

[dragonimp.livejournal.com]

I really don't care about the high literature vs "goofy-ass hobby" debate here, but how is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies anything more or less than fanfiction?

[(Anonymous)]

Yep, this.

[(Anonymous)]

All I can think is that it's fanfiction that got published and got famous and made money. Other than that there's no difference that I can see.

(Also I heard it was really lousy, but I didn't read it.)

[writerserenyty.livejournal.com]

It's fanfiction. What's also fanfiction is the published "what happened next with Lizzy and Darcy?" books that are also out there. Fanfic CAN be published, it just has to be about the right thing.

[helenadax.livejournal.com]

Tons of fics are better than "Pride and prejudice and zombis". And you know, "The private life of Sherlock Holmes" is pure fanfic and it gave us an awesome movie about that character.

My point is fan fiction has always been a part of the literature. Sometimes it's very, very good, sometimes it's a nice reading and sometimes it's crap. The only difference between now and then is that now, thousands of people write it for free.

Now, is it silly? Maybe it is, but then I think the same word should be applied to every hobby. I don't think collecting stamps, watching people playing with a ball or listening to music is less silly than writing.

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

Actually, the best-selling, John W. Campbell award-winning series Temeraire? It started its life as slash fanfic.

And, oh, look who that is appearing in the latest anthology of published Sherlock Holmes fanfiction written by professional authors! Temeraire author Naomi Novik!