[ 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

[(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)]

uhhhh sometimes it is? there are some INCREDIBLY talented fic writers out there. Just because they're not published/on someone's list of "classics" doesn't mean they aren't just as good.

[intrigueing]

Oh, yeah, there's a few fics that really are that good. But there's not too many, and certainly not as many fics as there are original novels that are that good.

[(Anonymous)]

That's just a factor of numbers though. Fanfiction is a niche hobby - there's just less of it in general.

Also, there's a shit ton of shitty published books.

[(Anonymous)]

No, I've definitely read fanfic better than Catcher in the Rye. Because Catcher in the Rye is shit.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for saying it so I didn't have to.

[intrigueing]

Aw, I think Catcher in the Rye was awesome. But I won't say it's impossible for fanfic to be better than it.

[(Anonymous)]

Catcher in the Rye is one of those classics that a *lot* of people hate.

[intrigueing]

I blame all the shitty copycatters. I mean, "troubled whiny teenage angst" is an incredibly overused plot by now.

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Nah, I just found nothing sympathetic, redeeming, or even interesting about the main character. I think it was just too much of a lit-fic man-pain flavor of teenage angst, because "troubled whiny teenage angst" is usually the sort of thing I have sympathy for. It's admittedly been fifteen years since I read the book, but in retrospect, it seems too much like Holden Caulfield was going to grow up to become Kevin Spacey's character in American Beauty. YMMV, but blecch.

[inevitableentresol]

About 30% of the fanfic I've read is better than Catcher in the Rye.

Fanfic doesn't even have to have good spelling and grammar to be better than that book. Just to have a less wah-wah-wangsty protagonist.

The problem with published books which are terrible is that I (used to) get sucked into reading the whole thing because I couldn't believe the book got published. I would keep reading until they 'got good'. Which hardly ever happened. Thanks to fanfic, I don't make that mistake any more. Three chapters, and I'm out.

Fanfic has this fantastic thing called a back button. Everybody knows that 90% of fanfic is shit, sure - the remaining 10% divided into pretty good with 1% of that being the pure gold. Thanks to BACKBUTTON - quickly away from the dross and in search of the gold.

The best original fic will always be better than the best fanfic, perhaps.

But in terms of ease of finding quality new stories per time taken, fanfic has a better hit rate, because of links, searchability, recs and backbutton. Add to that the subjects that fanfic covers - niche storylines that make no sense to publish commercially.

At the moment, fanfic wins.

[(Anonymous)]

Serious question, why can't fanfic be better than "actual real original literature"? All it's missing is the "original" part, and originality is overrated. I've read fanfiction that blew me away and classic literature that left me flat. It's not like getting paid to write automatically makes the writing better or something.

[intrigueing]

I suppose it's just that fanfic is niche, and its meaning is not applicable to broad audiences and a large variety of people, and as the purpose of literature is communicative, that definitely makes fanfic less "great" from a literary standpoint, even though there are some fanfics that are better-written than some classics.

This is purely descriptive though, there's no rule that says fanfic has to be niche, or that all fanfics will always be niche. After all, a huge amount of fairy tales, legends, plays, and general pre-copyright law writings that are considered great now are basically fanfic. Virgil's Aeneid may be the example that's most similar to modern fanfic in terms of form. :)

[inevitableentresol]

Considering how many literary classics were banned in their time, I think being niche is nothing new.

A product that's designed to be attractive to a broad audience is usually a mess of compromised choices, don't you find? If the result isn't bad, it's usually at least schlocky. Not always, just usually. It seeks to not offend.

Of course, great art can come from compromise and (self) censorship (I'm thinking of some classic Hayes-code era movies), but it usually doesn't.

For me, fanfic being niche is a plus.