From: "Kevin J. Maroney" <kmaroney@ungames.com>
Subject: RE: (whorl) Fan fic? Fooey.
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 15:26:28 

At 11:22 AM 6/19/01 -0700, you wrote:
>No, no. I meant the word in a strictly technical sense;
>the existence of fanfic is completely dependent on, and
>draws its energy from, the primary creator of the fictional
>world. (Or would that be "secondary creator," since the
>fictional world is, by definition, a secondary creation?
>In which case the fanfic writer is a tertiary creator,
>and...)

I'm not certain I'd agree with that. The point of fanfic is to create works 
which fulfill a need that the original author's work doesn't fill, whether 
that desire is to see Kirk and Spock doing it or seeing how Xena reacts to 
meeting Patty Duke.

(Besides, the biologists I studied under in college said that the term 
"parasite" was falling out of favor because it was impossible to define 
clearly....)

>An interesting side note: Are franchise novels fanfic?
>Ever? Is "fanfic" a boolean or a fuzzy term?  One can
>see a kind of spectrum running from purest fanfic; to
>things like the "Best of Trek" anthologies; to the more
>blatantly fannish Trek novels (i.e., "Spock, Messiah");
>to the professionally franchised books; to "authorized
>continuations" like the Anderson/B.Herbert DUNE books
>and the "New Foundation Trilogy"; to hommage and parody;
>to "heavily influenced," and finally ending with "pure"
>creation (which is _never_ pure).

I would argue that William Shatner's _Star Trek_ novels are blatant fanfic. 
Mary Sue fanfic, at that.

-- 
Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney@ungames.com
Kitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction
http://www.nyrsf.com


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