And Now For Something Completely Different: Fanfiction as a Genre of Literature

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Title:	And Now For Something Completely Different: Fanfiction as a Genre of Literature
Creator:	Lady Rogue
Date(s):	December 28, 2006
Medium:	online
Fandom:
Topic:	Fanfiction
External Links:	And Now For Something Completely Different: Fanfiction as a Genre of Literature, Archived version
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And Now For Something Completely Different: Fanfiction as a Genre of Literature is an essay by Lady Rogue.

It is part of the Fanfic Symposium series.

Excerpts

Now that we know exactly what fanfiction is, how does it fit in as a genre of literature? For the most part, it meets the most widely used definition of literature, that being a written text. However, many naysayers have spoken out against fanfiction and have called the authors such names as thieves, plagiarists, and just bad writers. The main argument against fanfiction says fanfic authors are uncreative as they are borrowing characters someone else created, and that to be a true writer, the author must come up with a completely original story.

The argument goes: 'writing fanfiction is uncreative and that the writer will not learn anything from it'. Likewise many say that fanfic writers will never be able to write their own original works as they do not need to create their own universe, characters, etc. As fantasy writer Robin Hobb said in her rant against fanfiction, "Fan fiction is a good way to avoid learning how to be a writer. Fan fiction allows the writer to pretend to be creating a story, while using someone else's world, characters, and plot. ...The first step to becoming a writer is to have your own idea. Not to take someone else’s idea, put a dent in it, and claim it as your own" (Hobb). If this is true, then William Shakespeare was not really a writer. Take for example the following summary: Two young lovers are forbidden from seeing each other and must meet in secret. Tragedy strikes when one believes the other is dead and proceeds to kill himself. Finding her lover dead, the remaining youth kills herself as well. For most, the first thing that would come to mind would be "Romeo and Juliet". About 1500 years previous to Shakespeare writing this great tragedy, Ovid was creating a story that fit this summary as well. "Pyramis and Thisbe", from the Metamorphosis, dealt with two young lovers who were forbidden from seeing each other and who ended up dead after Pyramis killed himself over his belief that Thisbe was dead. Not only did Shakespeare borrow the idea from Ovid, he later used the story of Pyramis and Thisbe in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream". On a similar note, Arthur Conan Doyle was not a writer as well. In a scene from The Sign of Four, Holmes turns to a confused Watson and says, "'How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, HOWEVER IMPROBABLE, must be the truth?'" (Doyle). This, of course, was one of Holmes' more famous mottos. Yet there was another detective about 40 years earlier who said something similar, "'Now, brought to this conclusion in so unequivocal a manner as we are, it is not our part, as reasoners, to reject it on account of apparent impossibilities. It is only left for us to prove that these apparent 'impossibilities' are, in reality, not such'" (Poe). This quote was stated by Edgar Allen Poe's Auguste Dupin in "Murders of the Rue Morgue". But the similarities do not stop there. Holmes and Dupin also use the same methods of crime-solving and even have similar personality traits. Of course, it was no secret that Doyle was influenced by Poe when creating Holmes as he openly spoke of his admiration of the author’s work.

I am not saying that all fanfiction is great. There is still a lot of bad writing out there. What I am saying, however, is give fanfiction a chance. The tradition of borrowing ideas and characters and creating something new has been around for centuries. If we begin to limit creativity now and say an author has to be completely original, then eventually we will no longer have literature at all.