Shady Thoughts: In Defense of Media Science Fiction and Fan Fiction
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| Title: | Shady Thoughts: In Defense of Media Science Fiction and Fan Fiction |
| Creator: | Mary Jean Holmes |
| Date(s): | Winter 1982 |
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| Fandom: | Star Wars is mentioned, but it applies to all science fiction fandoms |
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Shady Thoughts: In Defense of Media Science Fiction and Fan Fiction is a 1982 essay by Mary Jean Holmes.
It was printed in Shadowstar #5 and is part of the Shady Thoughts essay series.
The essay's topics are "literary snobbishness" regarding science fiction media and fanworks by members of the general population.
From the Essay
Over the past few months, I have had the dubious pleasure of being repeatedly confronted with a peculiar form of literary snobbishness— bigotry, if you must. The particular attitude to which I refer is that of utter condemnation of science fiction that is not totally confined to life on the printed page. In specific, science fiction in the media.
Media science fiction is oft the first and only exposure the general public and/or small children receive of SF. How many of us adult fans grew into what we are because, in our impressionable youth, we loved Star Trek or Buck Rogers -- even Superman or The Shadow? Mr. Spock and Flash Gordon were heroes for entire generations of imaginative children; they led inquisitive young minds to eventually seek out and read the "classic" heavier literary SF. Many of today's most respected authors were (and still are) fans of some media science fiction hero; a number had their beginning in writing and sometimes printing tales of their idols.Why, then, do some fans so vigorously denounce today's amateur writers? Why shouldn't Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and a new crop of heroes and villains lead today's youngsters into a world we all know and love?
And why shouldn't adults who, for all their so-called maturity, still need to keep alive their inner Child—that source of imagination and dreams—be allowed to love these new and old heroes with equal, if somewhat different, fervor?
Okay, I'll admit it gets out of hand a lot. Sturgeon's Law—90% of everything is trash—holds as true in fannish circles as in pro. Much of fan fiction is mediocre to poor, but a lot of everything is. So many of the bad Mary Sue stories and other garbage do tend to make the genre as a whole look pretty poor. Lousy artwork and over-zealous groupies don't help, either.
But, on those rare occasions, when fan fiction is good—and I mean really good, truly outstanding —it's the same as any other purely original fiction: entertaining, thought-provoking, moving, amusing. And often -- especially to younger hearts—that which moves becomes doubly meaningful, as the characters involved are persons already known and loved.
So, what's wrong with that? Why are such things spurned by some people? Why shouldn't science fiction in the media be considered as worthwhile an expression of the field as that appearing solely in magazines and books? The intricacies and the presentation differ by necessity, but the depth of plot can be the same.
Even the difficulties of present-day man living in a future society in the recent Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and the many, many societies variations that appear in Britain's Doctor Who, or even Battlestar Galactica.
None of these are utterly vapid; none are totally without redeeming depth. I grant you: Starsky and Hutch and several other such fan areas have no real place in a strict science fiction convention or 'zine, but the others are perfectly valid, and have their place indeed. It is one of honor.
If writers—either amateurs or professionals—choose to draw upon these roots to touch their audience, why must they be frowned upon by literary snobs whose inner Childs have died?
In my own case, I have chosen to write both original and derivate fiction for the same reason. I enjoy writing, and am thrilled endlessly whenever someone is somehow entertained or moved by my work. I'm sure the same holds true for other authors. Does this somehow degrade us and our art, simply because we choose at times to venture into the realm of derivate work?
I say no. If adults—especially science fiction fans who, chances are, have grown too fast to adulthood, and/or were socially outcast in their youth—manage to find heroes in their adulthood to nurture their Child and the sense of wonder in their souls, more power to them. They are the dreamers of today, and the hope for tomorrow.
Let them express their dreams.