![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Inspired by this poll and the surrounding conversation plus stuff I've seen people say before.
The following are examples of things that most people (including their creators) would consider fanworks but still often get excluded from statements saying or implying "All fanworks are...".
"What counts as a fanwork" is a different question to "what should be on the AO3", but I think it 's something that need to be considered before that question can be sensibly answered (plus I just think it's interesting!).
( Read more... )
So, what have I forgotten?
In my opinion fanworks (and fanfic in particular) are an incredibly fuzzy subjective category, the intersection of many interconnected motivations and approaches. I'm frequently reminded of this since I make stuff like G rated satirical fancomics of out-of-copyright sources that don't fit into a lot of people's preconceptions. If there's one thing that melannen's poll made clear to me it's that even my own internal definition makes no freaking sense, so trying to generalize and include everyone seems almost impossible! Yet saying "fanworks are what ever their creators say they are" can obviously be taken to ridiculous extremes.
So...I guess the moral I'm going for is, be aware that it's complicated, and don't overgeneralise. And you are welcome to say "All the fanworks that I like are X"..as long as you accept that other people may be creating and consuming fanworks for entirely different reasons.
(And yes: I am now, finally, largely over my cold and thus up to long rambly meta again :))
The following are examples of things that most people (including their creators) would consider fanworks but still often get excluded from statements saying or implying "All fanworks are...".
"What counts as a fanwork" is a different question to "what should be on the AO3", but I think it 's something that need to be considered before that question can be sensibly answered (plus I just think it's interesting!).
( Read more... )
So, what have I forgotten?
In my opinion fanworks (and fanfic in particular) are an incredibly fuzzy subjective category, the intersection of many interconnected motivations and approaches. I'm frequently reminded of this since I make stuff like G rated satirical fancomics of out-of-copyright sources that don't fit into a lot of people's preconceptions. If there's one thing that melannen's poll made clear to me it's that even my own internal definition makes no freaking sense, so trying to generalize and include everyone seems almost impossible! Yet saying "fanworks are what ever their creators say they are" can obviously be taken to ridiculous extremes.
So...I guess the moral I'm going for is, be aware that it's complicated, and don't overgeneralise. And you are welcome to say "All the fanworks that I like are X"..as long as you accept that other people may be creating and consuming fanworks for entirely different reasons.
(And yes: I am now, finally, largely over my cold and thus up to long rambly meta again :))
