OK, must confess that when I first read the original entry my response was "'Fanfic'? What is fanfic?" . . . then, reading Amlaped's comment and your response, I have some idea of what the term means . . . but it does seem that definition is a key, as I find myself agreeing with you both and I think the reason why is that I read the two entries with different definitions of fanfic in my mind . . . I think of Homer (in either single author mode or composite author mode) and The Iliad . . . Homer's characters and Homer's story both pre-existed the written form that is The Iliad . . . but it seems that a definition of fanfic broad enough to encompass The Iliad would be very broad indeed . . . OK, how about Lucan's Pharsalia? . . . Lucan's epic is of the conflict between Caesar and Pompeii (sp?) and the unnaturalness of civil war . . . it's a verse form of historical novel . . . to what extent are Lucan's Caesar and Lucan's Pompeii constitute Lucan's creation? . . . certainly all historical novels are not fanfic . . . but what if someone completed The Pharsalia (Lucan committed suicide as a result of his involvement in a failed political coup; this story is wonderfully told in John Hersey's novel The Conspiracy) . . . would any author who picked up Lucan's story where it leaves off (in perhaps the world's first cliff-hanger ending: Caesar and his new love Cleopatra are trapped a pier with their small handful of body guards numerically overwhelmed by an on-coming hostile force) be creating fanfic?
But if fanfic is defined more narrowly: the writer must be a fan and the story must take existing characters and tell their further adventures BUT within the existing fictive universe . . . would Miller's Dark Knight, then, be fanfic? Moore's Swamp Thing? . . . Or is the extent of the re-invention involved in these stories such that they move outside of the earlier incarnation of the characters' universe . . . or do graphic novels fall outside of the discussion because of the collaborative nature of their creation?
Would love to hear Richard's ideas here, since some of his writing clearly is fanfic, regardless of the parameters of the definition . . . well, provided he could step back at least one step from himself to make those comments.
OK, have been thinking out loud here, because the topic, as revealed by y'all's two comments, has set my curiosity on fire.
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Defined and Redefined
Date: 2010-01-17 01:42 am (UTC)But if fanfic is defined more narrowly: the writer must be a fan and the story must take existing characters and tell their further adventures BUT within the existing fictive universe . . . would Miller's Dark Knight, then, be fanfic? Moore's Swamp Thing? . . . Or is the extent of the re-invention involved in these stories such that they move outside of the earlier incarnation of the characters' universe . . . or do graphic novels fall outside of the discussion because of the collaborative nature of their creation?
Would love to hear Richard's ideas here, since some of his writing clearly is fanfic, regardless of the parameters of the definition . . . well, provided he could step back at least one step from himself to make those comments.
OK, have been thinking out loud here, because the topic, as revealed by y'all's two comments, has set my curiosity on fire.