What are your views on fanfics?

[Sidereal Wraith]

Most of the fan fiction I’ve come across is pretty boring or dull. Very rarely have I seen fan fiction that has supposed the original work it’s using as a basis. 

[Jotari]

On 6/4/2024 at 10:07 PM, lenticular said:

Or consider just how many modern works are essentially adaptations of Shakespeare. And that a lot of Shakespeare's work was adaptations of classical stories. If it's OK for Shakespeare to take Pyramus and Thisbe and turn it into Romeo and Juliet, then for Sondheim et al to take Romeo and Juliet and turn it into West Side Story, why is it not then OK for a random fanfic writer to take West Side Story and turn it into something new? Obviously, an average fanfic writer is not going to be nearly as talented as Ovid, Shakespeare or Sondheim, but restricting the right to make art to people who make "good art" is an obviously horrendous idea.

Romeo and Juliet was actually taken directly from a book called Romeo and Juliet from an Italian writer called Matteo Bandello. The same guy wrote 12th Night and Much Ado About Nothing (which I'm just learning about now and find quite interesting as it means the story 12th Night is based on probably has an actual title). I don't know when it was first published (or how much Shakespeare changed or retained the story) but considering Matteo Bandello was dead two years before Shakespeare was born, I can only assume if someone were to try the same thing in the modern day the worked would have been held in copyright by some corporation or estate who would sue the ass off of anyone who tried to turn it into a financially successful work.

[lenticular]

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

Romeo and Juliet was actually taken directly from a book called Romeo and Juliet from an Italian writer called Matteo Bandello. The same guy wrote 12th Night and Much Ado About Nothing (which I'm just learning about now and find quite interesting as it means the story 12th Night is based on probably has an actual title). I don't know when it was first published (or how much Shakespeare changed or retained the story) but considering Matteo Bandello was dead two years before Shakespeare was born, I can only assume if someone were to try the same thing in the modern day the worked would have been held in copyright by some corporation or estate who would sue the ass off of anyone who tried to turn it into a financially successful work.

Oh, cool. I didn't know that. You learn something new every day. I'm certainly no Shakespeare scholar, but digging into it a bit more deeply (read: I looked at a few articles on Wikipedia), it seems that it's more complicated than that. Apparently, Shakespeare more likely adapted from Arthur Brooke, who adapted from Pierre Boaistuau, who adapted from Matteo Bandello. And Bandello in his turn was probably adapting from Luigi da Porto, who was drawing on multiple sources including Pyramus and Thisbe.

But yes. Any way you slice it, there was a whole lot of copying going on here that absolutely would not fly in the modern world. He'd either have been sued into oblivion, or else it would have been authorised by the rights holder, and it would be released as "Disney's Romeo and Juliet" in big type with a tiny note saying "screenplay by W. Shakespeare" on the back of the DVD.

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, lenticular said:

Apparently, Shakespeare more likely adapted from Arthur Brooke, who adapted from Pierre Boaistuau, who adapted from Matteo Bandello. And Bandello in his turn was probably adapting from Luigi da Porto, who was drawing on multiple sources including Pyramus and Thisbe.

Wow, and people complain about Hollywood only having remakes nowadays XD

Anyway that largely encapsulates my thoughts on fanfiction. Which is that modern copyright law sucks. It extends so far beyond the author's death that it doesn't end up protecting anyone. Just becomes a corporate badge that we can only hope they treat right. I get a creator wanting to financially protect the IP they themselves created and is their main source of income, but all this stuff should be free for alteration and experimentation once the author is dead or no longer actively publishing. There is, ultimately, no meaningful difference between fanfiction and adaptation. It mostly comes down to "is this a tv show or a short story someone posted to the internet". The closest to an actual distinction is fanfiction is often written with the presumption that the reader is already familiar with the world or work in question, but even that isn't a solid rule and something sequels naturally rely on too.

[lenticular]

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Anyway that largely encapsulates my thoughts on fanfiction. Which is that modern copyright law sucks. It extends so far beyond the author's death that it doesn't end up protecting anyone. Just becomes a corporate badge that we can only hope they treat right. I get a creator wanting to financially protect the IP they themselves created and is their main source of income, but all this stuff should be free for alteration and experimentation once the author is dead or no longer actively publishing.

It's even worse than that, honestly. In a lot of ways, the current state of copyright law actually hurts creators. By allowing corporations to horde vast libraries of copyright, we give those corporations enormous power and control over the creative industries, which in turn allows them to dictate one-sided contract terms with all the people who are actually out there creating our art and culture. Musicians aren't signing awful contracts with Warner and Sony because they're idiots; they're signing them because they're the only games in town. (Yes, I am aware this is a simplification, but it gets my point across.)

[SmashEmblem]

Personally, I think they're great! I really like AU's in particular, and First-person fanfics; sometimes after reading one it makes me see the character in a whole new light! And plus, writing fanfics are fun too! You get to mess around with characters like babies in a ballpit.

[Railgun]

They're fine. It's inevitable for any franchise with a big fandom to get fan works - whether it be writing or art. It just shows much said franchise means to the public. It's supposed to be flattering.