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"Star Trek is the second oldest fandom in existence. [...] I honestly don't think you can bring a new idea to the fandom. We've seen it all before, really. [...] you'll need more than a gimick to keep our attention [...] If you want us to respect you [...]"
[source: http://community.livejournal.com/fanficrants/8227664.html]
I am fan enough to have spent a fortune on tapes to record the various series when they -finally- aired on German TV. And I freely admit that I loved TOS and some of the later installments (though not TNG, with few humoresque exceptions). But to start writing means to treat into new territory. You have to learn the symbolism, the characters, and you will make mistakes until you figure things out. Therefore, statements like the one quoted above made me never to touch anything remotely StarTrek fanwise with anything but a very long pole. It certainly kept me from ever writing it (ever since the '90s).
Whether that's been good or bad (for me or ST) we'll never know, but it certainly allows me now to grab the e-popcorn, lean back and watch the battle to unfold. To quote one of the fashion entertainers in the -admittedly abysmal- model shows on German TV:
"Drama, baby, drama!" [*eg*]
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 15:44 (UTC)From:Honestly I don't see why old fans are supposed to be better than new fans just because they're old. Sure, being new to a fndom might give you some disadvantage, you might have missed a bit of canon (but that's not FOR SURE, you could have done your homeworks well also), you hadn't spent as much time wondering about the characters and you might have lost your chance to read old fanwork not anymore available on the net or take part to old discussions but this doesn't mean old fans are Gods.
They might have failed to understand the characters completely. But maybe that's just me being bitter about this kind of unwelcoming rants...
no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 16:11 (UTC)From:What's sad in my eyes is that it keeps people from even trying and thus some good works from being written.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 16:30 (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 17:08 (UTC)From:I received a nice welcome in the fandoms I'm active in and I certainly try to give the same to others in return. If there's stuff I dislike or feel too repetitive, I might not engage in the argument or point to the places where it's been dealt with before, but I certainly don't say "You're too new to have an opinion about that!".
What irks me most is this "all good ideas have been told" notion in these rants. They make me think of Arthur C. Clarke's short story "Reverie" (first published 1939, *well* before StarTrek). It starts with the statement "All the ideas in science fiction have been used up!" and then takes two pages to entirely discredit it, ending with "What it needs is not more imagination or even less imagination. It is some imagination."
[The story is part of ACC's "The collected stories" paperback as well.]
no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 17:20 (UTC)From:LOL If all the ideas have been told then the whole world would stop writing and making movies and so on considering we've more than 2000 years of storytelling, way more than the ST fans can hope to have.
Sure, maybe it's a bit difficult to find something ABSOLUTELY unique nobody had ever thought before but still I think there's still enough new in many works to be enough new. So if humans still have tales to tell after 2000 years of productions why ST fans should have already used up all their bullets?
Maybe a person might have used up all his own, have lost interest in the fandom but... a whole fandom? huge as the ST one? Wish so much material as the ST one? It doesn't seem believable.
... and I wonder if the story you mentioned had been printed in my country because you made me curious...
no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 17:44 (UTC)From:I can't help you search for it, since I don't speak Italian. But ACC is a worldwide translated author and his short stories are very popular. I think your chances aren't that bad.
If you can't get it in Italian, you might want to try it in English. He writes a very good English prose that's still not difficult to read. I started reading him while I was still in school.
This is the book I have: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Collected_Stories_of_Arthur_C._Clarke It's been published in 2001. So you might be lucky on ebay or in second hand bookshops. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-17 21:04 (UTC)From:I'll keep my fingers crossed then and t to find him next time I manage to get into a libray!