And so it begins (again)...

[akk]

"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*]

Comments

[akk]

Well, with Trek it's:
New material being rumored... *squeak*
New material being leaked... *squeal* and/or *ugh, that breaks continuity (which is broken in itself)*
New material being published... *Full Out War* until the a) the next rumor or b) the fandom newbies growing old enough to perpetuate the notion of "we against *those imbecile babies* (whatever happens first).

The arguments don't change, only the protagonists and the acronym. ;)

"I suspect the phrasing..."
Likely, though laziness is probably part of the picture. If they condemn it as "not being literature", they don't have to consider it, don't have to come up with arguments, justifications, proper analysis, etc. pp. They can just crinkle their nose and ignore it, while placing their coffee mug on a welly volume of reader's digest, coming conveniently on paper instead of on screen.

[ranalore]

You've just encapsulated the fannish cycle of any open canon. *G*

Likely, though laziness is probably part of the picture.

Not as much, in my experience. Granted, I mostly run in genre circles, but it's often a case of attempting to raise the legitimacy of what they're doing by pointing to this other thing over here as "not real writing." It's the same principle as the fannish, "My kink is okay, your kink is sick and wrong."

coming conveniently on paper instead of on screen

Even proponents of e-publishing and online publishing venues fall prey to dismissal of the entire category of fanfiction, though. It's a particularly lively push-pull as more neopros and semi-pros let our media fannish ties be known. We're all supposed to be ashamed of that sort of thing, you know.

[akk]

Well, I know more the picture in Germany and there is a tendency to just label new media as irrelevant. The same argument is used in (political) bloggers vs. print media over here, for example. Amusingly, a slight difference is in contemporary authors. Quite a number of them have their own webside or blog and seek interaction with their readership. But then, fiction in Germany has long been ruled by "a literature papst" (Marcel Reich-Ranicki) and whoever's not Günther Grass (at least!) has no chance of getting a favorable critic.

Online and e-publishing has no root in my country (sadly). Last year took a new effort to create a market for ebooks, but the conditions the publishing houses set (prizing that of a paper copy - 2 Euros *shakes head* and promising to prosecute any ebook found online) makes it highly unlikely that the technology will take hold any time soon.

I noticed the notion of "to be ashamed, you thief!" Their problem. I caught books on paper decidedly worse than most fics. Poor trees, their lives went to waste.

[ranalore]

There are writers on the U.S. scene who dismiss the entirety of e-publishing, but they're generally recognized as throwbacks. Which is not to say sensibilities have caught up with the technology in any way. There's still a certain stigma attached to any but traditional publishing formats, and that perception is only changing slowly.

Fanfic isn't condemned for the technology involved, though fandom as a whole has been more accepting of new publishing formate than the rest of the reading public (and you can find articles lamenting the rise of web-publishing in fandom; google The Fanfic Symposium for a good example). Fanfic is condemned for being derivative. Given that the most vehement critics are authors of tie-in novels and Tolkien ripoffs, the condemnation is particularly idiotic.

[akk]

Perception often changes slowly, but at least it *is* changing. Otherwise, all reliable documents would still be carved in stone and we'd all have back problems after reading the morning slate. I admit, I still prefer the tactile feeling of a paperback to an ebook, but that has more to do with the switching of pages taking too long as to allow flipping back and forth through the book. I wait for improvements on that regard.

I know that fanfic is disregarded as derivative, ignoring the fact that virtually all works are derivative in various ways (not only the obvious ones like tie-in novels). It's just similar to what is thought about bloggers over here. Or graphic novels a few years back. By now graphic novels have been on bestselling lists and are discussed in literature circles (though not by Mr. Reich-Raniki *g*), a few years back they were considered smears on wasted paper catering for those geeks, who failed to grow up. Graphic novels have made it, comics are on the way, and fanfic is basically in the phase of "being noticed" by "normals" (a.k.a. the amorph mainstream). We'll see what happens. :)