I've read some previous posts about fan fiction in the general sense, but do you think it would exist in the BookWorld? There's obviously a non-fiction section (Samuel Pepys Fiasco), but where would fan fiction fit and how is it run? Is it a sub-genre or a separate world? Is it peopled by Generics trained up to play certain roles, and do higher-grade Generics increase the chance of the work becoming published and moving into the Great Library (Wide Sargasso Sea comes to mind)?

What do you think goes on behind the scenes when an author is hired to write sequels to classic novels, like Mr Darcy's Daughters, Scarlett, Mrs de Winter, H: The Story of Heathcliff...? Since JFf has stated a preference that people not write Thursday Next fanfic, does this mean there aren't any additional Thursdays running around (ThursdayFf)?

Just had a thought: could sub-calibre sequels and prequels to classic novels be part of a plot by Goliath to get into the BookWorld by using its own authors to access the stories created by someone else?

HITW

Well.

Fan fiction is one of those things that should be "out there" in bookworld: it's definitely written stories, though I wonder how it's connected to the rest. Would they be seperate from the main written source, or connected so that the only way to fan fiction is from the main source. Heck, maybe the HP fan fiction would be scampering around the Hogwarts "set" and generally getting under people's feet.

I'd presume that they would have generic characters made to resemble the main characters, but without the "vibe". Fan fiction would generally be rarely enough read that they could keep one set of generics for all of them, or certainly not one for each story.

I imagine the relationship between fanfic characters and their "real" counterparts would resemble the relationship of Fanboys (of the trekkie type) to writers/ actors, at their worst stereotype. Like fanfic would want a real character to attend and constantly get snubbed, so they're happy to get a "real" spear- carrier or generic in their story. On the other hand, the original can easily rope some fanfic schmuck to stand in while they go off and do illicit tricks, and hope noone notices.

Hmmm, I'm mentally writing the story where in Lord of the Rings, the entire fellowship fails, because half the cast wonders off and bring in some hobbit slash to cover for them.

Where would stories that rewrite character's backgrounds fit in? (Gregory Maguire's Wicked, for example)

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Turn the silliness to eleven!

Well presumably they'd live in the Well of Lost Plots - maybe there's a whole sub-section for "t'interweb" since that's where a large amount of fanfic - and also some original stuff - lives these days?

Also, bearing in mind that a lot of fanfic is based on TV series', how would that work?

For instance, Star Trek have this whole "canon" and "non-canon" thing about where books fit in to the ST universe i.e. some book are deemed to have "actually happened" in TV land in the past and some are not. But since TV storylines are (presumably) meaningless in the bookworld, then all you have is the books - and the fan fiction............

While we're on the subject, where do graphic novels fit in. I mean, no-one is going to tell me (I hope) that - for example - Gaiman's Sandman series - doesn't count as literature......?

Ok I need an ice pack and a nice lie down now - my brain hurts!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2007 10:32AM by xmorpheus.

I assumed that as (most) t.v. drama is scripted, the scripts would be in the library, but a bit downmarket from real books....

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My computer beat me at chess, but I won at kickboxing

Fair point, but plays (which would be scripted) are covered in bookworld, hence Hamlet. Although where they are is negotiable. So you also hit the whole "how does the same story told in different media get placed". How would a teleplay of Pride and Prejudice be connected to the book. What about graphic novels of books?

Graphic novels almost certainly are in bookworld, but perhaps the difference in medium makes them seem very odd. (They don't walk, for example, they just jump through stages of walking, and pass from point of action to point of action instantly)

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Turn the silliness to eleven!

Loved Maguire's Wicked!

There's scope for how fanfic ties in with lending characters to videogames -- fanfic based on videogames is huge. Characters sidelining in videogames might insist upon something in their contracts to prevent them from having to take on additional work in fanfic or else they won't have enough energy left to do their day jobs. Those who do take on too much work without sharing it with a generic, well...ever feel like a much-loved book isn't quite as good as it was the last time it was read?

Vanity publishing is discussed somewhat in FAS as being outside the scope and jurisdiction of the Great Library. I'd suspect fanfic has a similar situation, floating out there in the nebulous regions of the BookWorld, with no hope (except in rare cases) of ever getting published. Since every author brings their own interpretation of the characters, there are probably a million Harry Potter clones stuck in their own stories and novels and sagas, of varying ranges of quality. (Come to think of it, perhaps the way to deal with all those DanverClones is to get thousands of aspiring writers to write Rebecca fanfic!)

As far as books written by new authors that extend the story of previously written classics (I wouldn't call these fanfiction although they're certainly related), I'd assume that in most cases they use Generics trained to become the new characters, rather than using the original character. After all, the thousands of Minotaurs in fiction aren't all played by the original one.

Fan-fic eh? I'd like to think of fan-fic as something like grammasites, only not necessarily all harmful, and some highly sought after by certain, rabid collectors. Like a Morpho Absoloni.



Found a website that refers to their framed butterflies as "delicately deceased and professionally framed." Doesn't that sound like it should be in a 1950's detective drama?

*edited to add a t to sought*



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2007 03:35PM by Bonzai Kitten.

Hmmm....

I would say they are in the Well, but not policed by Jurisfiction. The characters are mostly C grade generics, since they have names, but are not really defined.

Or something like that. :)

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

I always thought that bookworld was just a smaller part of a "fiction" world that contained all that could be fiction. but then again I guess the "non-fiction" books would have to be excluded...where would reality TV go? (if it was a book It should have stayed in the well of lost plots....)

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by the way...I've been convicted of Gramatical Homicide, and charged 18 years to life, so don't bother telling me about all the spelling mistakes. It's already on my record.

Reality TV should remain on the part of the map marked "here be dragonnes" and never mentioned again! :P

well we know that the non-fiction section exists. TN and Miss Havisham jumped into a washing instruction label and from there to a washing machine manual.

So they're definitely there somewhere!

I don't care where reality tv goes, just so long as it in not around here and it goes there soon

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My computer beat me at chess, but I won at kickboxing

Well that's a difficult one - reality TV is still scripted fiction.....

Reality is only vaguely "scripted" or "fiction", no matter how much they play with the attendants or edit the material for dramatic effect. And while non-fiction is in there, it's a blatant different form of "non-fiction" to just reality (enctclopeiae, dictionaries, historic treaties etc.).

What sort of stories are in there?
Soap opera?
Videogames?
Tabletop Role-playing?
Email scam stories?
Advertisement issues?
Newspaper reports?
Newspaper commentaries?
Stories I thought about writing on the bus but never got down and just wrote?
Blogs?
Live Action Role Playing?
Scenarios set up to examine psychological reactions?
Scenarios set up to make people look tits on television?
The "plot" of dirty movies?
Alternate Reality Games?
Lexicon worlds?
Webcomics?
Books that only exist in other books?

What?

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Turn the silliness to eleven!

Speaking of books that exist in other books, I wonder if Jasper's going to deal with the existence of a second BookWorld inside the Thursday Next books, which of course are inside BookWorld1.

Recursive bookworlds? Fun...

*brain gets into a twist*

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Ah let's not forget urban legends, though I believe they belong somewhere between Cautionary tales and oral...someone should definalty draw this out...(of course this was the whole point of the "war" thing in the book wasn't it?)

Ah recurseive bookworlds will only get more fun once the sequels come around...thing about it not only is there a bookworld in book 1 but in most if not all of the other books here or yet to be made.

Makes you wonder a little about the copywrites though. the other characters in the bookworld are copyrighted...so in tuesdays first book would she have to fight copyright laws....

if that makes any real cents.

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by the way...I've been convicted of Gramatical Homicide, and charged 18 years to life, so don't bother telling me about all the spelling mistakes. It's already on my record.

Well, there've been at least two instances of "[some character] was supposed to be here, but he was unable to come due to copyright restrictions" or some such. That's just Jasper complaining that he couldn't get permission to use the characters, of course, because I'm sure encountering a character in person within the BookWorld falls under Fair Use.

I think we need an orangutan to guide us through this lot.