Monday, off to a very Monday start.

[dira]

This post from Diana Gabaldon's blog regarding fanfic is kind of depressing, partly because I had not realized the lady in question felt quite that way about the matter, and partly because I will now inevitably spend the rest of the day composing ever more perfect replies which I will never actually post.

Dammit, Monday.


This entry is crossposted at http://dsudis.livejournal.com/552716.html.

Comments

[were_duck]

Wow, reading that really left a bad taste in my mouth. That is really, really too bad.

[dira]

I think it's the line about how lots of fanfic ought to be "suppressed on aesthetic grounds" or whatever her exact wording was, that's making me twitch the most. Ugh.

[go_gentle]

:(((

plus, i am pretty sure that a couple parts of that rant are in fact incorrect, along with the fact that she's sort of going out of her way to alienate a certain type of fan.

[dira]

Yeah, I mean, among other things it's not actually concretely illegal in the US and she seems to be muddling enforcement of trademark with enforcement of copyright. But she's also just plain coming off as a bully, which is making me sad.

[fox]

Boo. :-(

(Plus, she's wrong about a lot of stuff.)

[dira]

That is the worst part, I am horribly tempted to go correct her factual inaccuracies. But I suspect that down that road lies madness, or at least a return to that weekend I lost to having an internet spat with He Who Must Not Be Named Unless You Want Him Showing Up In Your Comment Thread.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Aw, CRAP. I am sorry, honey. *hugs tightly*

[dira]

*hugs back tightly*

Good Lord, the feet of clay on some people I've been admiring since high school...

[celli]

If I read it, my head will explode, right?

[dira]

There is a LOT of Wrong on the Internet to be had over there. And then some just ... angrymaking things.

So, yes, probably.

[medie]

YES.

*is still glueing hers back together*

[jeeps]

just reading the first few lines made my blood pressure rise, so proceed with caution.

[cofax7]

Is she allowing people to point out her many errors? because if so, I may go read it. Otherwise, not. I am now happy that I stopped reading her stuff many years ago when the character abuse and plot twists became too ridiculous. Frankly, her plotting is no better than a lot of fanfic (and not as good as some). In fact, I would argue that she draws pretty heavily on the Id Vortex herself: she is in no position to be all "oh my aesthetic sensibilities are offended by fanfic!"

::sticks her on the shelf with Robin Hobb, another anti-fanfic writer I stopped reading even before I discovered they were stupid about fic::

[nestra]

It's very heavy on "you're doing bad things with my babies" with a side order of "all fanfic is terrible anyway and should be suppressed for the aesthetic good of the world."

[dira]

The comment thread is indeed beginning to feature people pointing out how she is Wrong on the Internet, but I have no idea what if any attention she's paying to them. And I still quite like her books, so this is rather frustrating--the more so because I DO like them on the Id Vortex level and I quite agree that she does not need to be all offended by people daring to put sex in their fanfic about her books WITH ALL THE SEX IN. ahem.

[nestra]

About two sentences in, the whole thing just devolved into "Wah wah wah," in my head. And that's several paragraphs of Wah.

[dira]

Yeah, I didn't read anything but the subject headings for her numbered 'arguments' and after that it was just sort of glimpses through the haze of WRONG ON THE INTERNET.

[aria]

Ugh, that made it hard for me to breathe from discomfort. YOUR WORK IS NOT YOUR PRECIOUS BABY; if it's been sold off and sent out and no one is spamming your personal inbox with their, oh noes, aesthetically displeasing porn, you shouldn't make that argument. dflkfsdjkfd >:(((

Also, the easiest solution is to just click the goddamn back button. If she knows it exists but actively doesn't read it, I'm under the impression that that's good enough?

Grr.

[dira]

Right? And if you got an email from your creepy neighbor, subject line ME AND YOUR DAUGHTER SEXIN would you read that? No! No you would not. No sane person would. So why the hell is she reading all this fic?

[iulia]

I don't know what DW's comment character limit is, but it can't possibly be enough in which to discuss everything that is hateful and offensive about that post.

I am suddenly glad that I only ever read Outlander...

[dira]

Maybe by the time her next book comes out it will have been so long that I'll have forgotten all about this? /o\

Man, now nobody is EVER going to write me that John/Claire fic I wanted for Yuletide.

[fairestcat]

GAHHHHH. I made it as far as immoral, illegal and "makes me want to barf" and backbuttoneed the HELL out of there.

Just... why are people so wrong on the internet? Why??? And stupidly wrong too.

[dira]

IDEK BUT I WISH THEY WOULD QUIT IT. GOD DAMN.

[medie]

Snark on her instead. Lord knows, that post is begging for it. The illegal argument is laughable, the 'immortal' is downright rage-making. I've been sitting on my hands not to say "Don't you even dare try and lecture anyone about morality. At least, in whatever stories I'm writing, if people have sex, it's because they both want to."

[missmollyetc]

Hallelujah and amen to that!

[missmollyetc]

Oh, blech. Depressing, but not really surprising, isn't it? I have this theory that most published authors are feral fans who never learned to share with the group. It constantly reminds me of graduate school, where I was brought up not to talk about my ideas lest the other competitors (read: students) steal them and make bank before I could write my version.

[dira]

I clearly have been exposed to too many writers who did in fact manage to be eminently sane about fanfic, because it's an unpleasant surprise every time I run into somebody who turns into a total whackjob on the topic. She's SUCH a feral fan, though, now you mention it: I mean, her books are great big homages to the deliciousness of the Id Vortex, complete with spinoff slash series (better than Torchwood!) and, as it now turns out from people elsewhere in the comments, Jamie Fraser got his start as Jamie McCrimmon in "War Games" so ... I give up, this lady is crazy, the end.

[sage]

oh, that is rich given that she got her start writing FANFIC on a romance novel fan forum.

This makes me want to write MORE Lord John fic and then have someone send her links.

*smites*

[damned_colonial]

Isn't Jamie also based on a character from Doctor Who? Citation here.