shi_koi: (cloud09)
[personal profile] shi_koi


I accidentally read this, and now I feel sick.

Has she never thought that a writer might indulge themselves in fanfiction, simply because the universe created by the original author is so wonderful that we cannot bear to leave it?


 

Not that such a concept would be easily understandable by someone with such a flawed understanding of so many people.

I do a lot of fanfic writing for Yu-Gi-Oh!, not because there's anything wrong with the universe created by Kazuki Takahashi, who is a Godlike being in my mind, but because when I first found out about his creation, it was hard to buy the manga, the anime was un-subbed and impossible to get a hold of, and I had no internet.

Writing fanfics for this fandom was a way to stay connected until I could track down another volume of manga, a way to keep myself immersed in the wonderful world Kazuki Takahashi had created.

It's the same for Naruto. I don't think there's anything wrong with what Masashi Kishimoto created, in fact, when asked who my idols are, who are the people I looked up to growing up, I say Alexander the Great was the first, when I was a child, and now, it him and it's Uzumaki Naruto.

Just because I write something that turns the canon universe upside down, doesn't mean that I think my creation or delve into a pre-existing world is any better, I'm just trying to show my appreciation of the original writer's ideas. I want to share my appreciation of their world with my friends, so I create stories that will draw their attention, so I can say, see, you liked it, you'll love the original work even more, it's amazing.

It's worked before, and I have friends who have become hooked in the same fandoms I'm in now, and it's wonderful to be able to share the excitement with a like-minded person.

It's almost as though Hobb is saying that we must read her work with a closed mind. We must not speculate on anything not pre-written, and my are not to indulge our imaginations of things that might have been, since in her creations, there are only what is, and no divergences have ever had a chance to exist.

What a horrible world.

I may be biased, since I bought one of Robin Hobbs books before, and I tried to read it repeatedly, but I just couldn't get into it. I thought it was terribly dry and more than a little contrived, but it was the sort of book my other half likes to read, so I gave it to him. If the book is a direct representation of her personality and self, then it's no wonder. I shudder now, when I think of it.

I believe the greatest things life has to offer are creation, expression, communication, compassion, evolution and hope.

I wonder how many Robin Hobb and other likewise thinkers would disagree with, or argue that they do not apply to their ideas. (Which are obviously always 'Right' and 'Good'.)

From what I can gather, one of the main points Hobb makes, is that imitation of any sort is wrong, and therefore bad. If applied broadly to life, that kind of statement of belief would be utterly damaging.

During one of the Creative Writing courses I took, our teacher – who was a published writer – encouraged us to find passages in books that we liked, and write our own twist in our own words, before re-writing word for word the exact passage that inspired us, to feel the difference in the writing methods. She did the same for her work, bring in one of her books, and giving us a brief history on what inspired her, asking for ideas on what inspired us, but they had to have been based on her own, as she wanted to understand and share how her work could be interpreted.

It was wonderful, and we spoke of so many things, and her creation myth for her characters was so inspiring. By that same account, imagining the position of Hobb on such matters seems so positively barbaric.

Do as I say, not as I do.

I'm not a very thoughtful person, I say things as they occur to me, and I don't think too deeply into reasoning the whys and wherefores of events and opinions. I cannot break down another's intellection and dissect it rationally with logical explanations and rebuttals.

I can only give my opinion on my understanding of such things, and my gut feeling of Robin Hobbs' words, thoughts and opinions are utterly and completely terrifying. I felt violated that such a person existed. As though, my simple failing, my love of immersing myself in another's world, and playing there was so abhorrent that I was unclean. My ideas? Disgraceful. My thoughts and fantasies – what would Naruto be like with a mother and father? Disgusting.

Reading Robin Hobb's views, not just for writing fanfiction, but wanting to be a part of that world made my feel sick to my stomach, and I wanted to vomit. I still do, but I also want to cry.

I don't pity Hobb for never knowing the joy of sharing in the love of something with others, and I don't hate her, or dislike her. I would rather forget she exists. I don't want my life tainted with her presence, I don't want to remember that there are people like her around. I know it's childish but she's like the bogeyman under the bed, and I want to grow up and forget it existed.

I adore the creators of the fandoms I enjoy myself in, and especially those I dabble in. I try and recruit my friends into buying the books, seeing the movies, buying the games, talking about the series, and basically involving themselves in the wonderful worlds I've discovered, and I've found this behaviour goes both ways.

Why can't people be happy with what they have? Why can't they be happy to share? What's wrong with others sharing your ideas?

My head hurts now.

I'm sorry for the rant.

If you guys read through this, I'll love you forever, especially if you don't hate me now. ::sniffle::


I need some love.

Hugs all,

~Shi-koi~

 

 

 


Date: 2007-12-28 08:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cherry-san.livejournal.com
And I give you love. D: -huggles-

I've always been defensive about people who are against fanfictions. They always so that it's not as creative as original writing, etc, etc. Bah. I've always wanted to slap them upside the head. I've always though fanfiction are a bit harder to write than original writing just because while the characters are created, you need to properly keep them in character. Since they are not your own, you don't have the liberties of an original character where since you own that character, it can't be OOC. In addition, you have the work with the situation given to you in canon and make it fit your storyline.

I rephrase one of my statements: It's harder to make a -good- fanfiction than write a crappy original story. Gurg. <.< -gets really heated and annoyed at the subject- I'm probably bias, since I read more fanfictions that original fiction but that's simply because most of today's newer fiction really sucks.

But urg. Hokay. I stop. I could rant on and on about this topic. @.@

But I still give you love. Lots and lots of love. -hands you a cookie-

Date: 2007-12-28 09:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
Thank you! ::gets teary-eyed:: You get exactly what I mean.

It's easier to dismiss blatantly hating rants than it is with stuff like this, because it's so insidiously evil.

I love my fandoms, and I hate it when people think that by making your own addition, you're somehow 'ruining' the original. Which is all stuff and nonsense.

Date: 2007-12-28 09:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cherry-san.livejournal.com
Exactly. Fanfiction have always been my way of just showing how much I love a fandom and how much a fandom has to offer. The best fandoms have the most fanfictions, just because people love it and don't want it to end even after it officially has. It's just another way to express how much you love it. Authors should be flattered that people love theyr creation enough to write fanfiction, not be offended that they think people are trying to change it.

Date: 2007-12-28 09:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
Exactly! I have a good dozen fandoms, which I got into by being enticed by some brilliant fanfiction, not in the least, the Harry Potter fandom. And the Gundam Wing fandom...etc...

Date: 2007-12-28 09:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cherry-san.livejournal.com
Wow. xD my count for the number of fandoms I'm in just to read fanfics is a bit large too. xD Gundam Wing is a definite, among SG-1 and the start of GetBackers (thought it's a pain trying to find the entire manga for that last one @.@).

Date: 2007-12-28 09:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
It is a bit of a nightmare trying to find the manga for GetBackers, isn't it? I gave up after a while. I watched the anime, because I adore chibi-Ginji, and I love the colourful Akabane/Ginji interactions...

I adore Akabane-san, almost as much as Ginji. He's teh love.

Date: 2007-12-28 10:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cherry-san.livejournal.com
@.@ I actually ended up buying the first two volumes and then I find up to volume 4 or 5 in English but I'm stuck after that. >< I'll probably end up buying the anime then, if it's really that impossible. (Which it probably is since it's been licensed for so long and I really dun want to spend all that money buying a hardcopy.)

Date: 2007-12-28 10:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
I actually downloaded the anime ages ago...although I have to admit that I've neglected this fandom for about a year. ::coughs:: I know this place sells them, for free shipping.

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk

Although if you're not in the UK then I don't know if it'll be useful. ::sigh:: Sorry.

Date: 2007-12-28 11:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cherry-san.livejournal.com
Ohh~ Their international shipping is free. 8D -checks the prices- .. -converts prices to dollars- 8D This site really does sell these for cheap. But, urfg. I need a Visa credit card. ;.; -uses Discovery- I had a MasterCard but I lost my wallet a few weeks ago and just never got a new one. @.@

Date: 2007-12-29 12:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
Do you have a debit card? I think they take those too...::thinks::

I tend to use paypal for everything.

::eyes bug out:: You lost your wallet? With your card? Did you cancel it? ::freaks out::

Date: 2007-12-29 01:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cherry-san.livejournal.com
I'm planning to get a Debit card soon. Hopefully. When I have time. XDD;; I only have a Savings accounts open so I need to make a new checking account first.

... They accept paypal? o.o Where? -searches-

Yeah. xDD;; The cards and stuff are all cancelled. -very absent minded- I was at the movie theatre with my friends and my purse probably knocked over on the floor or something. I actually lost the same wallet a few years back at school but it was returned to be (sans cash of course) a few months later. XD;

Date: 2007-12-29 01:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
Wow. Lucky! Well, not for losing the money, but for getting it back eventually.

Date: 2007-12-29 02:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cherry-san.livejournal.com
Yeah, it was very lucky and it make me rather happy. It was about six months after I lost my wallet in the middle of summer and one of my old peers called me and asked for my address (since while I knew his name and stuff, we never really spent time together). xD Apperently, he'd found the wallet in a construction zone near his house and my student ID was still in it. XD He even drove over to my house to drop it off and everything (including the already cancelled credit card) was still in it except the cash. XD

Date: 2007-12-29 01:02 am (UTC)
order_of_chaos: (Snow Doctor)
From: [personal profile] order_of_chaos
*hugs*
What a depressing world-view. Fanfiction's fun. I don't look at canon and think "that's wrong - it should have gone like this," I look at it and think "this universe makes it possible for alllllllll these other similar universes to be imagined, and is therefore even more awesome than I'd have thought it was without taking fanfiction into consideration, and I am all but drunk on the sheer potential of it."
And I do so stick thought-bubbles on the Mona Lisa - and when I do, it doesn't mean I think they should have been there on the original.



*deletes Robin from the fabric of the universe*

Date: 2007-12-29 01:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
::is in awe:: I love you! That picture is wonderful, and just what I needed to see.

I know what you mean about seeing potential. It's why I started writing fanfiction. I was alone at home, and my other half worked nights and slept during the day, we'd moved recently and I didn't know anyone, we had no internet and the local library was terrible unless you wanted books on raising horses, or agriculture or those long generation-spanning epics where no-one is happy and everyone gossips over boring things...::sigh:: (Yes, I did end up reading some, I was that bored)

Anyway...I started daydreaming while cooking dinner, thinking about the cliffie from the book, and wondering what would happen next, and I was assaulted by hundreds of scenarios. Well, since I had nothing better to do, I put pen to paper - er, or rather, fingers to keys, and started writing.

I didn't actually upload my fics for another two years.

I happens even with fanfiction, doesn't it? The phrase 'fin en queue de poisson' has changed my life in regards to fanfic, and reading fics with open endings means there are endless scenarios to wonder about.

I love it.

Thank you for deleting the non-entity whose existence I have now forgotten...um, what was I talking about again? Oh, yeah, cookies!

::gives virtual cookies::

Date: 2007-12-29 09:36 am (UTC)
order_of_chaos: (TARDIS Inverse)
From: [personal profile] order_of_chaos
*pounces on cookies* Thank you!


I stumbled across it on the internet, then kept stumbling across it until I started reading it - and reading fanfiction, naturally, is one of the leading causes of plotbunnies (right up there with shiny new bits of canon), so I ended up writing it too.

Yep. *grins* Forget necessity - cliffhangers are the mother of invention.

"Fin en queue de poisson" - translate? I've never heard it before.

Date: 2007-12-29 09:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
Ah, plotbunnies, the bane of a fanfic writer's life.

So cute, you just can't avoid them.

::gives virtual cake (now with ZERO calories!)::

Er, right, sorry about that. ::blushes:: 'Fin en queue de poisson', translates into 'To end like the tail of a fish', that is, to come to an abrupt and unexpected end. To leave a story unfinished or unwrapped, but in a planned way. To open up ideas, but not to close with a specific meaning. To intentionally leave the reader filling in the end/blanks themselves, with no intention of closure.

Brilliant, isn't it. ::channels 10:: Absolutely magnificent!

I adore that phrase, and it helped me a lot in my writing.

Date: 2007-12-29 10:14 am (UTC)
order_of_chaos: (Gallifrey)
From: [personal profile] order_of_chaos
*laughs with glee* I knew just enough French to work out that it had something to do with "end" and something to do with "fish". But then I thought that couldn't possibly be right.
Oh, it is. Fantastic! How much of Doctor Who have you seen? And, randomly, have you read [livejournal.com profile] ciceqi's Mascotverse? That's the universe that converted me to Zack/Sephiroth/Cloud/Aeris.

Date: 2007-12-29 10:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
Yeah, that phrase is a bit weird, isn't it? ::laughs::

Hmn, well, I've seen most of the original series, and all of the current Doctor Who series with 9 and 10, including the specials and extra sketches.

Mascotverse? ::opens page:: Woohoo! More ficcies I haven't read! Thank you! Thank you! My OTP4 is Zack-Cloud-Aeris-Sephy (and every combination thereof).

Date: 2007-12-29 11:15 am (UTC)
order_of_chaos: (Default)
From: [personal profile] order_of_chaos
I don't need to avoid mentioning spoilers then - I haven't seen most of the original series, but I've seen the current ones (except for Voyage of the Damned and I'm going to watch that soon).

*grins* Mascotverse is every combination thereof, pretty much.
Muuuust. Not. Reread. *resists*

Date: 2007-12-29 11:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
I'm not going to give anything away, but Voyage was good. Very good, at least IMO. Buuuuut...that could also be because I love teh Doctor, who is MAGNIFICENT!

::cough:: Sorry, I haven't slept in two days, and my period cramps are playing up.

::bangs head on keyboard::

I'm going to read Mascotverse later, after I've had some sleep, so I can savour it. ::grins::

Date: 2007-12-29 12:13 pm (UTC)
order_of_chaos: (Default)
From: [personal profile] order_of_chaos
How could anyone not love the Doctor? Right. Am going to watch it now!

My sympathies to your keyboard :-P

Good idea, that. Sleep as well as reasonably possible! And once you've read Mascotverse, you can read everything else she's written. *grins*

Date: 2007-12-31 01:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
Yes! Yes! Yes! Go! Now! Go watch it!

On a completely unrelated note, I was reading a fic yesterday, I think it was Ruby, by Vathara, and the thought suddenly occurred to me that Zack (Fair, obviously) and Jack (Harkness, equally obviously), had more than just rhyming first names. They're surprisingly alike in personality too...or at least, before Jack was left behind (aka, in Torchwood).

Date: 2007-12-31 05:20 am (UTC)
order_of_chaos: (Default)
From: [personal profile] order_of_chaos
Gone. Have. *grins widely* And it was good!

Not quite equally obviously, given that I spent rather a long time with Pirates of the Caribbean as my favourite fandom, with Captain Jack Sparrow. You can never have too many Captain Jacks.
I don't know Zack as well as I know Jack (everything I know of Final Fantasy VII I learned from fandom), but that would be... outgoing, irresistible, irrepressible, bright smiles, loyalty, bigger on the inside, and if they met (and weren't in exclusive relationships at the time) there would - or ought to - be very fun sex.
And I have no trouble at all imagining Zack waking up with both his executioners.

Date: 2008-01-04 03:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
I *adore* PoTC. I dragged my other half to the cinema to see it four times. Twice after HPatOoTP.

Will is teh love! Jack is teh smex! Elizabeth is teh hugglestuff! They're my OT3 for PoTC.

Will's my favourite though. Jack's close. Damn close. So close he should probably wear a condom and use lube (for Will's sake).

Date: 2008-01-05 12:37 am (UTC)
order_of_chaos: (Against the Wig - by black_claw)
From: [personal profile] order_of_chaos
Pretty, shiny, piratical people! Covered in rum, which is a vile drink and liable to cause porn. *grins*

I didn't discover it until the first one was out on DVD, so I had the DVD to watch obsessively and no need to drag anyone anywhere.

My OTP is Sparrington (teh snark), with bits of Will/Elizabeth and Groves/Gillette on the side. Branching out into moresomes, though, I get combinations of Elizabeth/Will/Jack/James/Groves/Gillette, and idle contemplations of orgies when I can't decide.

(Elizabeth/Will/Jack/James/Groves/Gillette.
Elizabeth/Will/Jack/James/Groves/Gillette.
Elizabeth/Will/Jack/James/Groves/Gillette.
Elizabeth/Will/Jack/James/Groves/Gillette.)

With the occasional Anamaria thrown in due to corruption by reading guede_mazaka's Gameverse (James/Jack/Will/Elizabeth/Anamaria).

Date: 2008-01-05 07:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
is ded from lik all da drool

I only got to see the last one at the cinema, too. It was my other half who got me into PotC, because we were having a movie night and he brought the first DVD home with him when it came out. ::points finger:: I blame him! It's not my fault! The porn bunnies (which are the evolved forms of the plot bunnies) got me!

Date: 2007-12-29 04:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] silver-sama.livejournal.com
Well, thank god no other author thinks like her, or fanfic writers would cease to exist, and we'd be living in a world of uncreative hell.

What's all this shit about "fanfic writers think the author's ending sucks and wants to create their own ending because that's the way they want it to be"? We are NOT, for the record, trying to screw with the original endings. Because the characters and the plots only take a certain, narrow path in the author's book, fanfic writers tend to explore all the other possibilities of a plot and/or character to see if they can create something new and original yet still canon. It's perfectly harmless; we're not doing it for money, and it gives us a chance to explore and hone our own writing skills.

No bitch is going to put a lid on our creativity. Hobbs is just going to have to live with fanfic writers for the rest of her life.

Date: 2007-12-31 01:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
Tell me about it. Plus, by her reasoning, wouldn't that mean that all fanfic writers would only ever write one fanfic? Their ultimate masturbatory fantasy fixit-upper?

Date: 2007-12-29 08:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] radowan.livejournal.com
I remember I read that text around the time it came out, and I was enraged. Even know when it's no longed news for me, reading it agains reminds me why I boycott R. Hobb's books.

She's surprisingly narrow-minded. And I guess that she's also rather unconfident about her work, since she seems to be afraid of 'non-professional writers' who might surpass her in her own field. I'd call her a coward.

Date: 2007-12-31 01:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shi-koi.livejournal.com
A coward, insecure, unsure, and completely wacko. Hell, she way as well have written her books and hidden them from us unworthy readers, just so we couldn't get 'ideas' about her precious babies.

Date: 2008-03-23 10:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] farseer-lolotea.livejournal.com
And she'd quite possibly be justified in doing so:  Although she has her fans, her work strikes me, at least, as the blandest of plain-vanilla fantasy.  Nothing to write home about.

Date: 2008-03-23 10:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] farseer-lolotea.livejournal.com
Thank you.  Thank you for posting what many of us were already thinking. 

As someone who's at work on a few WoW fanfics myself, I actually cringed and felt guilty when I first read Hobb's screed.  Sooner or later, I may just post my own rant:  In my opinion, those narrow minds who froth about fan fiction are in desperate need of introduction to the Japanese concept of dōjinshi.

Luckily, although there are other authors who are equally narrow-minded (many of whom, rather hypocritically, pen derivative works all the time), there are also authors who don't feel the need to attack their own fan base (read: bite the hand that feeds them).  J.K. Rowling (reportedly a regular on MuggleNet) comes to mind.

Once again...thank you.

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