So I get home from a camping trip Sunday afternoon and grab this week's copy of Time Magazine out of the mailbox, and what do I see?



That's right - the words "Harry Potter" and "fanfiction" right there on the fucking cover. I knew this was gonna be either really good or really bad, so it was with no small amount of trepidation that I absconded to the library and dropped my pants to sit and read for a bit.

My fears were not quite confirmed and yet I'm still not ready to announce from the rooftops my being an actual fanfiction writer, never mind that it's only two one-shots. The case is made (admittedly, very well) that even the giants of literature were merely playing with characters not of their sole invention, and it's poignantly put by one published author who also admits to writing fanfiction, that writing fanfiction is a form of play and letting off steam moreso than the actual work of writing stories involving wholly new characters.

The Harry Potter portion is shown to be the lion's share of fanfiction at the moment, but the inclusion of things like Bible fanfiction and the inevitable bringing up of Kirk/Spock stories spawning the "slash" phenomena gives the whole article a sort of wink-and-a-nudge feel to it that makes me want to kick the article's author in the teeth.

There are several HP fanfics dubbed "must-reads" and I haven't read any of them! I can't find the names of them in the online article right now, but you can be sure they all got a serious boost in hits recently.

Thoughts?

 

I agree, but I also think that it had to be mentioned. It's highly likely that someone read this article, got interested in this whole new world of fiction out there and found several Harry/Draco MPREG stories on the first page of ff.net.

That's bound to chase some people off.

 

It's a better article than I was expecting it to be. It stays on a topic, doesn't try to show it as better or worse than it is and it seems that author actually did a little bit of a good research. He even says that:

which is quite nice of him.

EDIT:

I wonder how did he choose these "must-reads", no matter what is on his list.

 

Are "lie low at Lupin's" fics really that popular? I can't think of a single one.

Wonder how different this article would be if the writer had stumbled across DLP during his research?

 

"Fan fiction is the spawn of the Devil."

 

They had have stumbled unto DLP. We're omnipresent.

That said, a nice article to introduce people to "fan fiction". I like how it tries to present all aspects of this "cultural phenomenon".

Yes, the topic of slash was a bit too wide for my taste, but seeing how much of it is out there...

As for the article's must reads, I imagine those were concealed by some editor (maybe the same one who emailed Raven) for the lulz and shame it would have generated.

Card's comment just pissed me off though. Fuck him.

 

...I only do it for the whores and the drugs.

 

Is that your own pee?

 

I can honestly say I've never read a fic before in which Harry was black. O_O"


But yeah, I think slash, mpreg, etc being so popular in the fanfiction community does deserve a mention in an article that wants to cover the whole cultural phenomenon of fanfiction.

I think the article did put a bit too much emphasis on it though. There was only really one paragraph on AUs in comparison.

 

No, that's beer in a jam jar. Toohey's Extra Dry... my own piss would probably taste better, actually. Heh.

 

Bitch please.

 

Potterverse? Well-documented?

I gather that the reviewer hasn't read that many book series, then. :facepalm

 

It's a surprisingly balanced article. Normally, mainstream articles on fanfiction make the writers out to be more of an untalented wacko fringe--they lead with words of the authors who hate it (Card, Martin, etc.), then counter by a few defensive words by someone you've never heard of followed by mention of Neville and Giant Squid tentacle porn. I thought the analogy with playing covers from one's favorite musical artists was particularly good.

There's a reason why my Ender's Game parody is no longer posted. (Without going into detail, it was taken down after an unpleasant email exchange in 2010 after the big brouhaha over fanfiction in pro writing circles and CAD letters started going out from attorneys of some big names and their publishers). Even though parody is a legally protected class of derivative fiction and that I'd (probably) win if sued, I really don't have the resources or inclination to fight such things.

 

Did the article say anything about that douchbag on amazon?

 

This, basically. I may have come off as unhappy with the article in that lead post, but overall, I have to say that while I felt there was too much emphasis on the more absurdist elements of fan fiction, it was well-written and bordered on complimentary. I was struck by the musical analogy as well.

So I went back and wrote down the four "must-read" stories listed.

Underwater Light by Maya - something to do with a Draco-Harry friendship. A picture of Tom Feltons beside the synopsis.

Crossroads by Emmyjean - about Lily Potter's time at Hogwarts and her being involved with Scorpius Malfoy.
Confused the hell out of me until I realized they meant Harry's daughter Lily Luna. Adding to the confusion was the fact they placed a picture of Evanna Lynch beside the summary. WTF?

Delicate by padfoot4ever - a story about Ron and Hermione? Had a picture of Rupert beside it. I was in a hurry or I'd have jotted down more details printed about the story. I can't be fucked to look it up but this is the only recced author I've actually heard of.

Call of the Wild by WolfieTwins - a backstory for Lupin and how Dumbledore recruited him to the Order and the DADA position.

 

We should congratulate Times magazine for successfully trolling. :facepalm

Those don't even go into the almost recommended section.

 

Maybe they don't fit our standards, but the highest-recommended stories of our collection would send the average new reader the wrong message.

If you had to name four story recs based on quality, accessibility and proof of value, what would you suggest?

 

It is well-documented. Just not by JKR.

 

Great question! At the moment I seem to be drawing a massive blank when it comes to the hundreds of stories I have read over the years. I can only think of the more recent ones and out of the current selection I think I would go with-

Prince of a Dark Kingdom.

I am curious what other people would recommend to a complete newbie