(no subject)

[seraphtrevs]

Check out this awesome article about fanfic from TIME magazine!

Seriously, it's the best mainstream article I've read about fanfic. It made my day. :D

Comments

[marenpaisley.livejournal.com]

It's funny that my first reaction after reading the article at my parents' house the other week was a feeling of horror. It was like all of the secrets of the secret society I'd stumbled upon at age 14 were leaked to the press and exposed to the world. It's kind of how I feel about Facebook - our actual identities are on the internet?! Outrageous! :D

It is a great article, though. After the initial shock, I was able to read it for what it is. And when you think about it, it's high time that the spotlight was shown on the hobby that is fanfic writing given that so many people participate in it. It'd be interesting to see if there was ever a way to get an estimate as to how many people do read and/or write fic, just to show how prevalent it is. I also got the feeling that the author found the copyright issue to be kind of silly, but that may have just been my own impression.

[seraphtrevs.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, I can definitely understand that reaction. Like, even if fic ever became ~mainstream~ (which I don't think it ever will), I would never ever (ever ever ever EVER) tell anyone IRL that I do it. I mean, maybe if I wrote only gen, but I don't. People just aren't going to get it.

HOWEVER, it was really nice to see a mainstream article that reacted to fic positively instead of "ew gross" or completely baffled as to its existence. (The last reaction has always confused me - like, is it really that hard to imagine that some people might want more stories about books/movies/tv shows they love? I guess most people are just really passive about their entertainment. It always bugs me when people say that TV rots your brain - it only rots your brain if you're not using it while you're watching.)

And yeah, it would be interesting to see how prevalent it actually is. I imagine more so than we might think.

I also got the feeling that the author found the copyright issue to be kind of silly, but that may have just been my own impression

Yeah, I think he was - and he's right. The Organization for Transformative Works, which they mention, has a lot of interesting thoughts (http://transformativeworks.org/faq) about the legality of fanfiction.