Interesting post re: fanfic

[pegkerr]

From the ever quotable scott_lynch, here posting about Robin Hobb's rant against fanfic here. The discussion continues on metaquotes here.

I offer this without comment since I know many on my f-list are fanfic readers and writers; the discussion is getting very lively. If you chime in, please be polite, people.

Comments

[naomikritzer]

Lois McMaster Bujold has an essay about her years of obsessive Star Trek fandom, and how what she and her friends loved was not so much the show itself, as the ways that they themselves filled in the blank spaces that the show left.

She notes in that same essay that her readers are generous enough to fill in the blanks in her own work.

I respect an individual writer's preference not to allow others to come play in their world. But I think that rants like this one, which express utter contempt for the very idea of fanfic, offer disrespect to the inherent participation that the reader brings to the books they read.