Why Is Fan Fiction King?

[Wifetheif]

I've been watching a lot of book tubers on Youtube of late. Apparently, fan fiction is king and the fastest way to get a best seller. "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer, the original work inspired "Fifty Shades of Grey" which began life as "Twilight" fanfiction. "Fifty Shades" inspired Anna Todd's "After" series which began as One Direction fan fiction. "Fifty Shades" and "After" inspired "365 Days" So the final work was a fiction, of a fiction, of a fiction, of a fiction. in "365 Days" the mafia "love" interest is called "Black." Just a much darker "Grey." Why is this fan fiction cannibalism so popular? The books are uniformly badly written and feature misogyny, that if they had come from the mind of a male author would NEVER have been published. There is questionable consent, stalking, physical abuse, and in the last one, sexual assault bordering on rape! Yet women eat these books up. Why? I mean, I get, tall, dark, and brooding but not "I will give you a year to fall in love with me -- after I kidnapped you!" I can't get my head around the sorry state of modern (published) popular erotic fiction. Can someone explain it to me?

 

[KeithD]

I haven't had the same observation about what is king as you have, nor to be honest, does it bother me much what success others are having with various genres and approaches as long as room has been left for what I like to write.

 

[lovecraft68]

Because people are too lazy to create something from scratch so use an established body of work to vulture off of. My wife saw 365 and said it was good because there was no effort made to Sanitize Black as opposed to trying to make Grey something other than a POS.

I created a character called Tristan Black, a rich billionaire with supernatural abilities who demanded tribute from other gifted families in the form of taking one of their young men or women to his mansion to sexually abuse for a week. I had my MC, the head of the L:efay Coven, break him then have him sexually tortured by past victims she flew in from around the world.

But that was one character in a three novel and counting series who except for being rich and sadist was nothing like FSOG, I just enjoyed the name play and resemblance.

If I wouldn't get sued I'd hype it as what Christian Grey really deserved.

 

[Wifetheif]

Because people are too lazy to create something from scratch so use an established body of work to vulture off of. My wife saw 365 and said it was good because there was no effort made to Sanitize Black as opposed to trying to make Grey something other than a POS.

I created a character called Tristan Black, a rich billionaire with supernatural abilities who demanded tribute from other gifted families in the form of taking one of their young men or women to his mansion to sexually abuse for a week. I had my MC, the head of the L:efay Coven, break him then have him sexually tortured by past victims she flew in from around the world.

But that was one character in a three novel and counting series who except for being rich and sadist was nothing like FSOG, I just enjoyed the name play and resemblance.

If I wouldn't get sued I'd hype it as what Christian Grey really deserved.

And the play on names is satirical. Satire as a concept seems lost on fan fiction authors. I mean Edward Cullen sneaks into Bella's house to watch her sleep and he is unironically the GOOD guy! You stalker loves you, girls!

 

[lovecraft68]

And the play on names is satirical. Satire as a concept seems lost on fan fiction authors. I mean Edward Cullen sneaks into Bella's house to watch her sleep and he is unironically the GOOD guy! You stalker loves you, girls!

Meyers and James were of great service to stalkers and abusive men, one indoctrinating teens into assholes are sexy, and one reminding the soccer mom's of the same thing, need to cover all the bases to help out those great guys out there.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I'm not convinced that fan fiction is king. As so often these days, I was worried I was old and out of touch and I did a bit of reading and judging by this list, nearly all the published fan fiction is based on Twilight (apart from the one example you've already cited) and a lot of it self-published. Fan fiction books don't advertise themselves as such, but looking down the list of New York Times bestsellers, it doesn't look like there are a lot of them currently there.

Fan-fiction is one of those mediums whose spread is only really possible through the Internet and, given how many thousands of people are writing fan fiction its to be expected, that occassionally someone will write something good (or at least popular) and it will make it big. The truth is it is extremely difficult to make it as a mainstream author - people are generally less and less interested in reading book, which at the same time it's easier and easier to publish them.

Writing fan fiction (or say hanging out at a smutty website) isn't a bad strategy because it seems like there is more chance of people reading your Twilight/Star Trek/LotRs based-story than there are willing to read your generic (or even brilliant unique but unfamliar) vampire/sci-fi/fantasy book.

 

[Bramblethorn]

There is questionable consent, stalking, physical abuse, and in the last one, sexual assault bordering on rape! Yet women eat these books up. Why? I mean, I get, tall, dark, and brooding but not "I will give you a year to fall in love with me -- after I kidnapped you!" I can't get my head around the sorry state of modern (published) popular erotic fiction. Can someone explain it to me?

From a quick look at your story page, seems like you write a lot of very similar themes yourself, so I find the question a bit confusing - if this is a fantasy you find appealing, is it so hard to buy that other people including women could also find it appealing?

I wouldn't agree that it's particularly a "modern" thing. Non-con/dub-con themes have had a significant place in fiction for a long time. John Norman's "Gor" series has been going since 1967, and there are quite a few female Goreans. "Taming of the Shrew" is less overtly sexual, but it's about a guy who bullies and gaslights an assertive woman to remould her into an obedient wife. Rhett Butler was a pretty popular character. And you can find a lot of similar (though usually less explicit) storylines in older romance - if anything, modern romance is a bit more particular about consent than the old school.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Fan-fiction is one of those mediums whose spread is only really possible through the Internet and, given how many thousands of people are writing fan fiction its to be expected, that occassionally someone will write something good (or at least popular) and it will make it big. The truth is it is extremely difficult to make it as a mainstream author - people are generally less and less interested in reading book, which at the same time it's easier and easier to publish them.

Fanfic has been around much longer than the Internet though. Dante's "Inferno" is fanfic - self-insert fanfic at that.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Fanfic has been around much longer than the Internet though. Dante's "Inferno" is fanfic - self-insert fanfic at that.

That's why I said 'spread'. Fan-fiction stories were passed around at conventions and such like, but they are, by nature, impossible to publish commercially and the number of people going to these conventions is limited. It's not impossible that a publisher might see one of them, find the author and say 'Hey, kid, how about writing something that won't get us sued.'

If you go back far enough, of course, then before copyright then everyone is free to copy 'the classic tales' - anyone can and did write Arthurian Legend tales and it's different from Lord of the Rings fan-fiction.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't see it as king. I see it as one of many different things that people like.

The appeal of fanfiction is easy to see: it borrows from a ready-built world that people are fans of. It's easy to see how some women would fantasize about Edward from Twilight and want to read more stories about him. I don't have a "fan" personality so it doesn't do a lot for me, but I completely understand how it appeals to others. I've always been a LOTR fan so I wrote a ridiculous sex romp set in Mordor. I got it out of my system. It was fun to do but I don't expect to do any more of that sort of thing. But I get the appeal.

Women like bad boys. They always have, and they always will. Not all women, and not all kinds of bad. But the fantasy is real, and strong. It's undeniable. Why do people like Grease? It's the bad boy and the good girl. Some people--men as well as women--enjoy fantasies about being controlled and having choice taken away from them, or about being seduced by "the dark side." There are many reasons for it.

 

[Wifetheif]

From a quick look at your story page, seems like you write a lot of very similar themes yourself, so I find the question a bit confusing - if this is a fantasy you find appealing, is it so hard to buy that other people including women could also find it appealing?

I wouldn't agree that it's particularly a "modern" thing. Non-con/dub-con themes have had a significant place in fiction for a long time. John Norman's "Gor" series has been going since 1967, and there are quite a few female Goreans. "Taming of the Shrew" is less overtly sexual, but it's about a guy who bullies and gaslights an assertive woman to remould her into an obedient wife. Rhett Butler was a pretty popular character. And you can find a lot of similar (though usually less explicit) storylines in older romance - if anything, modern romance is a bit more particular about consent than the old school.

Yes, I DO have questionable content stories. This was especially true during my early days of posting on Lit.Com. I even have a few that could be considered "fan fiction." My stories that are inspired by someone else's work are rather few and in one of those cases, the characters "Ki-Gor and his wife Helene" are in the public domain. I suppose you can say there is room for every fantasy (a scan of L.Com proves that) The problem n THIS case is fan fiction copies of fan fiction. Stephanie Meyers kicked it all off with "Twilight" which was, of course, an original work. It promoted a dysfunctional and controlling relationship as its "ideal." There was no sex in that book until marriage which is fine. But EVERY subsequent iteration of "Twilight" "Fifty Shades" "After" "365 Days" KEEPS the toxic relationship and amps it up to an absurd degree. Your stalker is NOT your lover! Your kidnapper is NOT interested in your welfare! These aren't "bad boys" like Rhett Butler they are psychopaths! These books would NEVER have been published if the authors were men because everyone would have pounced on them as misogynist and problematic. Why aren't publishers seeking out writers of original material? I self-publish on another platform and do OK by it. My stories are original. I have also published nonfiction in the real world under my own name via reputable publishers. Fanfiction is training wheels fiction. Someone else has done all the heavy lifting. Also, each book is progressively less well written. Stephanie Meyer is a bad stylist and poor writer but at least "Twilight" is original and has some genuinely good ideas. "Fifty Shades" began as "Twilight" fanfiction. E.L. James is an abysmal writer and the BDSM in "Shades" is wrong, ill-informed, and dangerous to try in real life. Ann Todd who wrote "After" considers E.L.James one of her "favorite" authors. "After began life as One Direction fanfiction crossed with "Fifty Shades," Todd's writing is even more turgid than James's! "365 Days" is "Fifty Shades" crossed wth the MAFIA and kidnapping. The writing is even worse than Todd's and the book has essentially NO plot! It is a question of diminishing returns. What's the next step? Caveman clubs passing college girl -- drags her way to his cave and vilely uses her and the college girl just can't get enough?

 

[Voboy]

...dude.

Learn to break up your paragraphs.

On point? I don't think your assertion has a lot of merit. You're generalizing from a few standout examples. I think you think fanfic is king because you see a lot of fanfic, which probably reflects... what you look for. I don't look for fanfic, so I don't see it. So I don't think it's king.

On the contrary. In LitLand, Incest is obviously queen. Or, if you insist, king. I know that from the stats, even though I don't go looking for it.

YMMV.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

When there's any bestseller, there's always thinly-disguised derivative fiction riding on its coattails, as publishers try to quickly cash in on a trend.

So yes, there's a dozen imitators of 50 Shades out there - many of which like Black Lace novels were out there previously. Sexy vampires were always out there from Dracula onwards but in the wake of Buffy and Twilight became a huge genre, spinning off into sexy werewolves and all sorts.

Derivative genre fiction sells. Hence loads of detective novels with yet another hardboiled cop and sassy sidekick, quest novels where halflings (Hobbits being copyrighted) and humans seek the noun of the day, yet more abusive childhood novels ideally with some sexy incest, and loads of romance fiction where woman eventually gets a satisfying male against all odds of him being a stalker/abusive/undead/a poor third son.

At least with fanfic there's either good characterisation to draw on, or the fic is creating depth for a character who didn't have any in the original.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Yes, I DO have questionable content stories. This was especially true during my early days of posting on Lit.Com. I even have a few that could be considered "fan fiction." My stories that are inspired by someone else's work are rather few and in one of those cases, the characters "Ki-Gor and his wife Helene" are in the public domain. I suppose you can say there is room for every fantasy (a scan of L.Com proves that) The problem n THIS case is fan fiction copies of fan fiction. Stephanie Meyers kicked it all off with "Twilight" which was, of course, an original work. It promoted a dysfunctional and controlling relationship as its "ideal." There was no sex in that book until marriage which is fine. But EVERY subsequent iteration of "Twilight" "Fifty Shades" "After" "365 Days" KEEPS the toxic relationship and amps it up to an absurd degree. Your stalker is NOT your lover! Your kidnapper is NOT interested in your welfare! These aren't "bad boys" like Rhett Butler they are psychopaths! These books would NEVER have been published if the authors were men because everyone would have pounced on them as misogynist and problematic.

Just gonna put this out there:

Why aren't publishers seeking out writers of original material?

They are. But there are vastly more wannabe authors than there are seats at the table.

I self-publish on another platform and do OK by it. My stories are original. I have also published nonfiction in the real world under my own name via reputable publishers. Fanfiction is training wheels fiction. Someone else has done all the heavy lifting.

Not really, no. Like any other form of fiction, fanfic is subject to Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap. But the idea that "someone else has done all the heavy lifting" badly misconstrues how fanfic works.

By and large, fanfic isn't about tracing over what the original author already created. It's more about exploring outside the limits of the original author's imagination, answering questions the original didn't address, and sometimes about critiquing flaws in the original.

Every writer chooses to prioritise some aspects of storytelling and de-emphasise others. Some love world-building, some love writing character action, some want to write sex scenes. They're all valid choices. Fanfic tends to be character-focussed; by working within an existing setting, authors give themselves more space to explore characterisation and interaction without having to do a ton of world-building that isn't really the point of the story.

If y'all will excuse my bluntness, there are quite a few authors on this site who could learn some valuable lessons about characterisation from fanfic if they weren't so busy sneering at it. I know of several few professional authors who sell original work, but who cut their teeth writing fanfic, and their work is the stronger for it.

Writing fanfic is generally not my thing; I've dabbled, but I enjoy the world-building side of things too much. However, I do a fair bit of beta-reading for people who do write fanfic, and so I have an idea of the amount of creativity and work that goes into it.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

I've been watching a lot of book tubers on Youtube of late. Apparently, fan fiction is king and the fastest way to get a best seller. "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer, the original work inspired "Fifty Shades of Grey" which began life as "Twilight" fanfiction. "Fifty Shades" inspired Anna Todd's "After" series which began as One Direction fan fiction. "Fifty Shades" and "After" inspired "365 Days" So the final work was a fiction, of a fiction, of a fiction, of a fiction. in "365 Days" the mafia "love" interest is called "Black." Just a much darker "Grey." Why is this fan fiction cannibalism so popular? The books are uniformly badly written and feature misogyny, that if they had come from the mind of a male author would NEVER have been published. There is questionable consent, stalking, physical abuse, and in the last one, sexual assault bordering on rape! Yet women eat these books up. Why? I mean, I get, tall, dark, and brooding but not "I will give you a year to fall in love with me -- after I kidnapped you!" I can't get my head around the sorry state of modern (published) popular erotic fiction. Can someone explain it to me?

I don’t know if it is king and I’m not a fan of it.

That said, my next story is a sex version of Hot Fuzz so what do I know?

 

[Bramblethorn]

That's why I said 'spread'. Fan-fiction stories were passed around at conventions and such like, but they are, by nature, impossible to publish commercially

There's actually quite a bit of commercially published fanfic out there, some of it with quite a high profile. Off the top of my head: Jean Rhys' "Wide Sargasso Sea", Geraldine Brooks' "March" (won a Pulitzer), Neil Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald" (won a Hugo), "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar", and "The Problem of Susan", and the entire Flashman series. Kim Newman has pretty much built a career out of fanfic drawing on everything from Dracula to Biggles to Peanuts to Superman.

As you noted, it's easier when the source material is out of copyright, but a couple of those examples are based on works still in copyright.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I don’t know if it is king and I’m not a fan of it.

That said, my next story is a sex version of Hot Fuzz so what do I know?

As I understand it, HF was originally intended as a romance, and it wouldn't be at all hard to turn it back into one.

(Or maybe you're writing about the adventures of Doris Thatcher. I'd read that.)

 

[Emilymcplugger]

As I understand it, HF was originally intended as a romance, and it wouldn't be at all hard to turn it back into one.

(Or maybe you're writing about the adventures of Doris Thatcher. I'd read that.)

Thanks. I was gonna post in GROUP but think in celebrity might be better, even though the characters will look very different (and Danny will be Danielle).

Early days though. Only 3000 words in.

 

[SimonDoom]

That question "Why?" can be a pesky, but often fruitless, question. I go back to this great interview with physicist Richard Feynman about the problem of asking "Why?" questions:

.

I see erotica like that. You can keep asking, "Why are people turned on by X?" but in the end you won't get an answer. People like what they like, and they come to places like this to get what they like. You level whatever criticism you want against Twilight and 50 Shades, and you might be right, but people like it, just like some people are turned on by feet. I don't get the foot fetish, but I don't have to.

 

[RetroFan]

Fan fiction is very common on various sites across the internet, but while I can think up sexy situations involving TV shows and movies I would be too nervous to write and post them in case those who held the copyright saw them and called in their lawyers.

Is it likely the BBC would take exception and issue a cease and desist order if I wrote a story about Doctor Who in which Ben and Polly (two very good looking companion characters from the mid 1960s) were having wild sex all over the TARDIS, always just eluding the very suspicious and disapproving Doctor? Would CBS's legal department go into a spin if they found I had written an Everybody Loves Raymond/King of Queens crossover story about a partner swapping evening where Robert and Debra pair up, as do Raymond and Carrie, Doug and Amy, Deacon and Holly and Spence and Kelly? Or would the legal eagles at Warner Brothers (who hold the copyright for Hanna Barberra) be interested if I wrote a fan fiction and Scooby Doo and the lesser known Funky Phantom cartoon where the two groups are attempting to solve a mystery together, and April, Velma and Daphne get into each other's panties and have a blonde/brunette/redhead lesbian three-way, while the guys remain clueless about what the girls got up to?

In all three cases, it would probably be rather unlikely that writing such fan fiction would end up in legal problems for me. Yet there is that very real and un-nerving possibility that this could happen, and that is enough to deter me from writing such stories.

It's the same with real life celebrities. Say for instance I wanted to write a story set in the late 1990s/early 2000s about a UK pop group with both male and female members who have an orgy in a hotel room on tour. if I was to write such a story I would create a fictional pop group, I wouldn't use a real pop group of this era like Steps or S Club 7.

 

[XerXesXu]

That question "Why?" can be a pesky, but often fruitless, question. I go back to this great interview with physicist Richard Feynman about the problem of asking "Why?" questions:

.

You can keep asking, "Why are people turned on by X?" but in the end you won't get an answer.

Watch again. He said you will get an answer.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Fan fiction is very common on various sites across the internet, but while I can think up sexy situations involving TV shows and movies I would be too nervous to write and post them in case those who held the copyright saw them and called in their lawyers.

Is it likely the BBC would take exception and issue a cease and desist order if I wrote a story about Doctor Who in which Ben and Polly (two very good looking companion characters from the mid 1960s) were having wild sex all over the TARDIS, always just eluding the very suspicious and disapproving Doctor? Would CBS's legal department go into a spin if they found I had written an Everybody Loves Raymond/King of Queens crossover story about a partner swapping evening where Robert and Debra pair up, as do Raymond and Carrie, Doug and Amy, Deacon and Holly and Spence and Kelly? Or would the legal eagles at Warner Brothers (who hold the copyright for Hanna Barberra) be interested if I wrote a fan fiction and Scooby Doo and the lesser known Funky Phantom cartoon where the two groups are attempting to solve a mystery together, and April, Velma and Daphne get into each other's panties and have a blonde/brunette/redhead lesbian three-way, while the guys remain clueless about what the girls got up to?

In all three cases, it would probably be rather unlikely that writing such fan fiction would end up in legal problems for me. Yet there is that very real and un-nerving possibility that this could happen, and that is enough to deter me from writing such stories.

It's the same with real life celebrities. Say for instance I wanted to write a story set in the late 1990s/early 2000s about a UK pop group with both male and female members who have an orgy in a hotel room on tour. if I was to write such a story I would create a fictional pop group, I wouldn't use a real pop group of this era like Steps or S Club 7.

Looking forward to that Steps/S Club 7 orgy now.

Can the second iteration of Atomic Kitten also pop by.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

Stories don't come from a vacuum. If with all the names changed a publisher can't tell that a work used to be fanfiction, so what? In all of these cases the fanfiction in question was AU fanfiction, meaning that the story and setting are completely original and the characters personalities are altered to fit the new backstory. If originality is the concern, how is writing a story about Pippi Longstocking any more original than writing one based on your own real life sister?

Dantes Inferno is Bible fanfiction. As is every retelling of Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, the three musketeers, every Disney movie based on a book, ect. Even outside of retellings, referential symbolism is the backbone of a lot of literature. And as such I will defend fanfiction as an art of its own.

When it comes down to it all work is derivative and fanfiction is late stage capitalism's last living remnant of the oral tradition. With nothing going into public domain in decades thanks to America’s backwards copyright law, I think it’s fair to use fanfiction as a medium to deconstruct and challenge established narratives. By using an established cast of characters the audience is already familiar with the writer gets the unique opportunity to change the way the reader understands the source material.

Every conceivable idea has already been written down by someone. What makes a story original is not whether or not an idea has been done before but the order in which they are arranged and what ideas they are combined with.
A wholly original work would be incomprehensible.

Get off your high horse and fuck off man

 

[Wifetheif]

Stories don't come from a vacuum. If with all the names changed a publisher can't tell that a work used to be fanfiction, so what? In all of these cases the fanfiction in question was AU fanfiction, meaning that the story and setting are completely original and the characters personalities are altered to fit the new backstory. If originality is the concern, how is writing a story about Pippi Longstocking any more original than writing one based on your own real life sister?

Dantes Inferno is Bible fanfiction. As is every retelling of Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, the three musketeers, every Disney movie based on a book, ect. Even outside of retellings, referential symbolism is the backbone of a lot of literature. And as such I will defend fanfiction as an art of its own.

When it comes down to it all work is derivative and fanfiction is late stage capitalism's last living remnant of the oral tradition. With nothing going into public domain in decades thanks to America’s backwards copyright law, I think it’s fair to use fanfiction as a medium to deconstruct and challenge established narratives. By using an established cast of characters the audience is already familiar with the writer gets the unique opportunity to change the way the reader understands the source material.

Every conceivable idea has already been written down by someone. What makes a story original is not whether or not an idea has been done before but the order in which they are arranged and what ideas they are combined with.
A wholly original work would be incomprehensible.

Get off your high horse and fuck off man

Over on Amazon, I write shrink fiction. I assure you my ideas are original. Now if you are going to claim that there are only so many plots in existence. I think that is an established fact. In the cases where I have written fanfiction here at L.com; I've used characters in the public domain. I don't ride on anyone else's coattails or use their characters in my own work. I'm not stealing from Stephanie Meyer or J.K Rolling or "reimaging" their work through my own lens. If you think that "Harry Potter" was simply another of "Every conceivable idea has already been written down by someone. What makes a story original is not whether or not an idea has been done before but the order in which they are arranged and what ideas they are combined with" you are clearly delusional. Rolling did not invent witchcraft or British boarding schools BUT she did NOT base Harry Potter on a previous work by someone else. Stephanie Meyer did not invent either vampires or werewolves, nor did she base her versions on the writings of someone else. We can debate the merits of her writing all day but her creation was original and HERS. She did not steal the plot. She did not steal the characters, she did not rewrite someone else's work!
Those two examples certainly qualify as "Wholly original works" and NEITHER is "incomprehensible."
I'm sorry if you lack imagination and read others, not for inspiration but to rob them blind.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Stories don't come from a vacuum. If with all the names changed a publisher can't tell that a work used to be fanfiction, so what? In all of these cases the fanfiction in question was AU fanfiction, meaning that the story and setting are completely original and the characters personalities are altered to fit the new backstory. If originality is the concern, how is writing a story about Pippi Longstocking any more original than writing one based on your own real life sister?

This is the weird thing about the Twilight - Fifty Shades of Grey relationship - to even get published, you need to remove practically all traces of the original work. So, while FSOG started as fanfiction - by the time it gets published its something completely different. I suppose if you go into it knowing that they are supposed to be Belle and Edward, you might intepret the book in a different way, but for most people, it's just an interesting footnote. (Strangely, I've ended up reading both of thos books even though they are well outside of my usual reading lists). It seems like the other Twilight-inspired books are more liberal with their vampires, but even so, as others have pointed out, vampire romance wasn't exactly a new concept with Twilight. There seems to be a particular phenomenon around Twilight with the whole, openly fan-fiction but different enough not to get sued set of books.

More interesting are the original series inspire Star Trek fan-films, which are made purely out of love for the original series and are filling a style of Trek that isn't being made anymore. After some flip-flopping on the issue Paramount eventually deciding that as long as they are not-for-profit, amateur made and family-friendly, they're happy to look the other way. Ultimately, for most creatives (or businesses), having and encouraging an active fan community is a good thing, but to some extent they still need to protect the brand.

Dantes Inferno is Bible fanfiction. As is every retelling of Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, the three musketeers, every Disney movie based on a book, ect. Even outside of retellings, referential symbolism is the backbone of a lot of literature. And as such I will defend fanfiction as an art of its own.


When it comes down to it all work is derivative and fanfiction is late stage capitalism's last living remnant of the oral tradition. With nothing going into public domain in decades thanks to America’s backwards copyright law,

I think most people agree that the current copyright situation is ridiculous. At this state, according to the original intent of copyright, anyone should be able to make their own Mickey Mouse cartoons, or James Bond or Batman comics. But even once Batman enters the public domain, good luck in designing a Batsuit that doesn't infringe on any of the designs used over the past eighty (?) years of Bruce Wayne.

I think it’s fair to use fanfiction as a medium to deconstruct and challenge established narratives. By using an established cast of characters the audience is already familiar with the writer gets the unique opportunity to change the way the reader understands the source material.

I don't agree here particularly, in the sense that, fanfiction is either okay or it's its not okay. It doesn't really matter if it challenges narratives or even if it's any good or not.