There's a
rather brutal debate abour fanfic raging on Tumblr and elsewhere, and as an avowed, out-of-the-closet ASOIAF fanfic writer, I'd like to give my 2 cents.
I joined Westeros.
org (sorry for the typo) in 2009 and liked it there. Webmaster Ran's (Elio's) posts were always balanced and to the point. Only a few days ago I found
webmistress Linda's outburst against ASOIAF fanfic on Tumblr. Her previous entries are even more brutal. She writes
a rather more self-collected essay on her website.
When Linda had started criticising "Game of Thrones" on Westeros, I was already leaving the ASOIAF boards. Since HBO had at best postponed to S3 my fave character, going there was painful, and with my temper I was constantly picking fights to defend my guy. So I can't judge Linda's alleged "racism" and other criticism of her point of view. Right now I barely know who the S2 actors are; I hope someday I'll be able to go back.
(I could bother reading some of Linda's comments on Westeros and her own site. My non-existent attention span forbids me.)
(I could also bother to argue the following point: if GOT Jeyne Westerling is "black" - and awesome as Oona Chaplin is - is GRRM okay with it? If he is, the author of the books, where is the problem? If he isn't, is he being slowly ousted from having a say in the TV series, as I fear? But this is a topic for another post.)
Linda's most cogent argument against fanfic is: the author doesn't want it. On one side I understand it. On the other I don't, because as a writer I've actually had fanfic written about my characters. OK, it was written by friends, because for now my readership is limited to family and friends; I hope to change that soon, but I was awed (as in AWWW) by the impression my characters had created on the readers, to the point that they had entered their own fantasy, not just mine.
(Such as the impression a minor character like the Blackfish has made on a troubled girl, how he has been a therapy for her - and the indifference she, and many others who asked, have encountered from author and producers.)
But I can understand that not all authors are as crazy as I am. GRRM is against fanfic. But not really for the reasons Linda lists. I feel Martin's motives (wish I could find the link) are mainly legal - as in, what if I now write a fanfic where Maege Mormont and the Blackfish are lovers, and unknowingly Martin makes them lovers in "The Winds of Winter", and then I sue Martin for stealing my idea? I would not - else I'd have already sued JK Rowling - but I understand there are enough crazies out there that they could do it. This is a legitimate concern.
Then, of course, Martin may be squicky about the idea of Maege and Brynden doing teh sexay, or whatever. He has a right to say so. Robin Hobb, my other living favourite fantasy writer, has FORBIDDEN all fanfic about her characters, and she is listed on FF.net as one of the authors who allow no fanfic. Hence, no Hobb fanfic on FF.net. There's no such caveat on FF.net about Martin. I seem to recall that he lifted the ban from FF.net. I might have imagined it, bear with me.
Anyway, Linda doesn't raise the legal issue in her Tumblr essay. (She does in the essay on her site.) She only insists on the will of the author. In this she is perfectly right, and we fanfic writers are wrong. If a friend tells us "don't do this" and we do it, we're in the wrong. I had to overcome a big sense of guilt to post my fanfics.
BUT. We're also talking about ART here. I'm convinced that Martin is art like Stephen King is art like every "quite useless" (in Oscar Wilde's words) human creation designed to elicit a purely emotional response is art. Now, since the beginning of time, art has been copied. And history has been its judge, culling bad art from good art. After a century, Martin will survive, BryndenxMaege will not. I'm fine with it. IT'S INEVITABLE.It's a rather cruel argument to use against someone who doesn't want his characters copied. I don't like it myself. But the very fact that the topic has surfaced and is so hotly debated shows that it's important. However, fanfic is not slavery or any other pivotal argument. Fanfic is ART, derived from something else which is also ART, and it has its own rules.
I hate to say this, but when an author puts out a work of art, he can no longer control the way this work of art will be used. Salvador Dali is the author of the
Mona Lisa with Moustache - is it, or the Mona Lisa, not art? Of course, Leonardo is dead. What if he were alive? Would it be Leo vs. Salvador like Linda vs. fanfic writers?
Isn't these dynamics the thing that keeps art alive?(Am I not syntax-challenged?)
Anyway, for me there's a much more cogent argument. When you refer to adversaries on Tumblr as "girls" (with a negative connotation) or "twats" (the female genital organ used with a negative connotation) or even liken writing fanfic to masturbation and even paedophilia, then sorry, not only I don't follow you but I don't share your views anymore. I once inferred on a board that a certain someone had administered BJs to certain someones to get a certain something, and then I apologized. Not that I'm better than anyone, but I try to understand which things hurts which people.
Linda, I like you, and I'd like to see the same graciousness on your part.