[ SECRET POST #2578 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2578 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 020 secrets from Secret Submission Post #368.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

10. http://i.imgur.com/AjffMUm.png

[(Anonymous)]

Congratulations on holding a massively common opinion.

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe in some fan circles, but let me tell you, in the fandom circle I was in that would not have been a popular opinion, even though a lot of the fandom itself tended to agree with the OP. We "accepted" that we were amateurs who could not possibly emulate the author. And if OP studies literature in school or works in a related field, I can't imagine it would be popular there either. OP might have submitted this as a RL-to-fandom secret, not a fandom exclusive secret.

[silverr]

Point taken, but I thought the secret said "better than official pastiche" not "better than the original author's work."

[(Anonymous)]

Um, okay? I thought a lot of people did.

[(Anonymous)]

It can be, yeah. Most of the official fanfiction for stuff just seems a little... I dunno. Underwhelming. Probably because they're under certain limitations as to what they can write and what they can't write, etc.

(I just wanted to leave a comment that wasn't passive-aggressively snippy.)

[sporkly]

Not gonna lie, I switched tabs for a bit and came back thinking I was on the wiki article.

And yeah, I though that was a pretty common sentiment.

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's all incredibly relative, personally.

[(Anonymous)]

HDU. Some of the official Star Trek novels are awesome.

[(Anonymous)]

+1 the Pocket Books ruled all.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes! The Entropy Effect is a fantastic book--check it out! TOS, Kirk gets killed, awesome OC, I love it.

[intrigueing]

IA, but I wonder why that is, though. Even official novels written by really enthusiastic, prolific novelists are meh by the standards of unpublished fanfic.

[(Anonymous)]

Sometimes I think it's more what gets hyped/advertised as being such. I wonder if people who think like this have tried venturing outside the classics/Top Ten Lists? I've read some pretty amazing books you never hear anyone mention. So yeah, if you can't get into Catcher and the Rye, a depressing fanfic is going to seem much better.

[(Anonymous)]

SA

... Catcher in the Rye. I type faster than I think sometimes.

[intrigueing]

Uh...the OP is talking about published pastiches, which I assume to be fanfic-like published novels like the expanded universe novels in Star Trek and Star Wars.

I...uh...really hope you don't mean people think fanfic is better than actual real original literature like Catcher in the Rye O.O

[(Anonymous)]

Even if you already liked the source material, if you're writing an official novel it's because someone else approached you and said, "We want a thing, will you write it? Great! Here are the rules." Whereas if you're writing a fanfic, it's usually because you said, "I want to write a thing, and I shall make the rules!" I have rarely made anything on request that was as good as the stuff I do independently.

[(Anonymous)]

Well of course because usually fanfiction focuses on the characters/pairings you like more than canon and implements a lot of fandom headcanon so it's funner to read.

[(Anonymous)]

Mah, it really depends. I wouldn't say all of it.

[riddian]

Is this about Sherlock Holmes? There's some anon around here that keeps talking angrily about Sherlock Holmes pastiches and this secret sounds like more of the same.

...And talking about pastiche is still making me want some crackers and spread. I better go to the grocery store soon.

[(Anonymous)]

ngl, whenever I hear "this fanfiction is soooo much better than the official stuff" I translate it as "this fanfiction caters to my personal taste better".

Which is not to say that there aren't some amazing fan fiction writers out there...

[inevitableentresol]

Yes, this.

That's what fanfiction does so well, hits niche tastes, and which would never be commercial for published fiction to even try.

A lot of tie-in novels are... not great.

[(Anonymous)]

Although I will say that I've really enjoyed some movie novelizations (partly because they usually have the author working from the screenplay and this means that scenes that get cut from the movie are in the books - Ferris Bueller's younger sister and brother, the octopus in The Goonies (which wasn't in any released cuts for a long time), and such).

Oh, and I really liked The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn, which was set in the expanded universe of the Star Wars galaxy.

But for the most part, yes, there are fic writers who have written better stories than "official" tie-ins. Of course, fic writers don't have the same restraints placed upon them (some of which I'm sure had an actual formula they had to follow rather strictly).

Re: A lot of tie-in novels are... not great.

[inevitableentresol]

Yeah, I was about to mention the Star Wars novels by Zahn too, they were fun.

(I kept my Star Wars spin-off copies on the same bookcase shelf as my Dostoyevsky, I remember a non-fandom friend coming into my place and wrinkling up her mouth in disapproval at that, which amused me so much.)

But mostly tie-ins are very poor. And let's not even mention the tie-in games - which sink down to abominable. But both are moneyspinners, which is why they exist.

Wasn't there some sci-fi TV series a few years ago where it was leaked that the budget for the series was 30%, with 70% of the money earmarked for tie-in games, novelisations and assorted other merchandise?

[msilverstar]

kinda cool seeing some of my text still in that article

[(Anonymous)]

Agree with you completely OP (although I didn't realise it was a common opinion until this thread!).

I sometimes wonder if it's partly due to fanon. Fanfic is almost like a crowd sourced affair in that you get commonly accepted fanon growing out of it. It's almost as if fans, as a group, feel out the characters with our many many stories and fanworks. :) And of course people are there because they love the original source material and are not just getting paid for it.

Man, I love fandom. :D