There may be a difference between pastiche, homage, intertextuality and whatever we fanfiction writers are up to.
I think, in some ways, it's got to do with independence. A successful 'sequel' or 'homage' or intertextual reference will tend to be a reference that points towards its source, but also stands on its own. My feeling is that fanfic doesn't stand on its own, nor do most continuations of the universes of dead novelists. Whereas, say, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid does stand on its own, and tell its own story, even though it relies on at least a passing knowledge of films noirs.
(For the sake of the argument, let's pretend I just said Tough Guide to Fantasyland and fantasy novels, instead of a Steve Martin movie! Not that the Jones book tells a story, but it does stand on its own.)
Dependent works aren't bad, per se, but they're dependent on the source, and I think you're right, when source and secondary work are the same medium, it becomes "Why should I read this, instead of the source?" It does feel in some ways like a substitution, rather than an expansion. Movies and TV can be presumed to need/take canon-fixing and expansion, because for time reasons they are forced to ellipsize out every excruciating detail and conversation. Written works don't tend to have the same pressure.
All that said, I read (on recommendation) one very long, extremely Mary Sue, fanfic novel set in Middle-earth. It involved only lesser canonical characters, and did not change canon as it is set out in the novel; but it did have all sorts of interpretations and "further adventures of" and sex and some gentle canon-fixing. And I got to the end and sort of laughed at myself and said, "Why was I afraid of this piffle?" It's a good story, as fanfic goes: reasonably faithful to both plot and language, well-written, kind. But it felt like the flimsiest thing in the world, and no threat or reflection on the book.
That was reassuring, to me. I guess it was proof that, as with the movie adaptations, the making of fanfic does not unmake the source book. Not that I am leaping to read hard-core elf bondage now, but I think now that no amount of hard-core elf bondage can do anything to the source work -- it will always be there, and I will always be able to find people who want to talk about it, not its dependent descendants.
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There may be a difference between pastiche, homage, intertextuality and whatever we fanfiction writers are up to.
I think, in some ways, it's got to do with independence. A successful 'sequel' or 'homage' or intertextual reference will tend to be a reference that points towards its source, but also stands on its own. My feeling is that fanfic doesn't stand on its own, nor do most continuations of the universes of dead novelists. Whereas, say, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid does stand on its own, and tell its own story, even though it relies on at least a passing knowledge of films noirs.
(For the sake of the argument, let's pretend I just said Tough Guide to Fantasyland and fantasy novels, instead of a Steve Martin movie! Not that the Jones book tells a story, but it does stand on its own.)
Dependent works aren't bad, per se, but they're dependent on the source, and I think you're right, when source and secondary work are the same medium, it becomes "Why should I read this,
instead of the source?" It does feel in some ways like a substitution, rather than an expansion. Movies and TV can be presumed to need/take canon-fixing and expansion, because for time reasons they are forced to ellipsize out every excruciating detail and conversation. Written works don't tend to have the same pressure.
All that said, I read (on recommendation) one very long, extremely Mary Sue, fanfic novel set in Middle-earth. It involved only lesser canonical characters, and did not change canon as it is set out in the novel; but it did have all sorts of interpretations and "further adventures of" and sex and some gentle canon-fixing. And I got to the end and sort of laughed at myself and said, "Why was I afraid of this piffle?" It's a good story, as fanfic goes: reasonably faithful to both plot and language, well-written, kind. But it felt like the flimsiest thing in the world, and no threat or reflection on the book.
That was reassuring, to me. I guess it was proof that, as with the movie adaptations, the making of fanfic does not unmake the source book. Not that I am leaping to read hard-core elf bondage now, but I think now that no amount of hard-core elf bondage can do anything to the source work -- it will always be there, and I will always be able to find people who want to talk about it, not its dependent descendants.