The Appeal of Celebrity?

[raphy]

Yup, Iceman, it was yours I was talking about. First story of yours I ever read, and i thought it was truly excellent. Amazing writing, man, seriously.

 

[A7inchPhildo]

Hey, famous people are real too! sans surgery, photoshopping an make-up, that is

Oh they are real I know. but nothing like the characters everyone knows or sees them as.

 

[Icingsugar]

Oh they are real I know. but nothing like the characters everyone knows or sees them as.

Bah. You just don't read enough gossip tabloids.

I can't believe I just said that.

/Ice - hides in shame

 

[McKenna]

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[damppanties]

Re: Re: The Appeal of Celebrity?

I've watched Friends quite a lot (my husband is a fan.) I'm completely puzzled as to who the girl is with the "awesome tits." Anyone want to fill me in? Last I checked, their tits were hardly remarkable.

Jennifer Aniston. I think.

 

[McKenna]

.

 

[damppanties]

I was thinking Phoebe until I saw 'Office Space'.

Then there was that get-up where Monica has a blonde wig and BIG boobs for that waitress job... maybe Zack caught that one.

 

[snooper]

Could we have a little serious thought?

RPF is using the appearance of someone who is well known to save the author the effort of defining a character. It is pure laziness.

Using a complete scenario (eg Star Trek) is even more lazy. It is also plagiarism, that is using someone else's intellectual property without permission. In all civilised countries it is also at least a civil offence and in some it is a criminal offence.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Hey, famous people are real too! sans surgery, photoshopping an make-up, that is

I'm a journalist. I know how to de-retouch the photos of CLaudia Schiffer and Pamela Andersson to make them look fat and flat-chested!

 

[raphy]

Could we have a little serious thought?

RPF is using the appearance of someone who is well known to save the author the effort of defining a character. It is pure laziness.

Using a complete scenario (eg Star Trek) is even more lazy. It is also plagiarism, that is using someone else's intellectual property without permission. In all civilised countries it is also at least a civil offence and in some it is a criminal offence.

But no one ever gets sued for fanfic, because most fans know that you can't sell a fanfic and smart TV producers know that it's the fans that keep shows popular. They're not going to piss off the people that keep them on the air.

 

[Sabledrake]

Personally, I don't think of it as "lazy." I do think of my fanfic time as more recreational than my other writing time. Fanfic's something I do for fun in between the stuff I hope to sell someday. And boy, those readers can get pretty demanding!

Wrong, well, that's another matter. Cheating? Copying? Stealing? Yeah, probably so, even when it's meant in the best spirit of fan-love.

I don't know of anyone who's actually been outright sued for fanfic, but I know of several sites that have been taken down per request of the original creator or copyright owner (and I had to take down a Gargoyles / Callahan's crossover after hearing from someone who knew Spider Robinson).

It's a dubious dilemma. Crack down on fanfic and fanart, and alienate the fans who make something a success and keep something alive ... versus protecting intellectual property ...

J.K Rowling is said to be supportive of _some_ HP fics, but not the dirty ones. Lisanne Norman is okay with it as long as it follows outlines she created (with the understanding that she can and will never read it herself). Ann McCaffrey, I've heard, is totally opposed to it.

Sabledrake

 

[raphy]

Beat me to it, Sable - I was about to cite Ms McCaffrey as a violent opposer to fanfic.. In comparison with, say, someone like George Lucas, who loves to watch the stuff people come up with when they make Star Wars fan movies.

 

[Madame Manga]

Could we have a little serious thought?

RPF is using the appearance of someone who is well known to save the author the effort of defining a character. It is pure laziness.

Using a complete scenario (eg Star Trek) is even more lazy. It is also plagiarism, that is using someone else's intellectual property without permission. In all civilised countries it is also at least a civil offence and in some it is a criminal offence.

RPF (which I admit doesn't turn me on) is not laziness. It is an expression of the author's personal sexual fantasies. Is every casual erotic writer supposed to have a jones only for her imaginary friends? Yes, as I said, most of it is really, really bad. But don't dump on other people's harmless fun, even if it gives you the yuckies. RPF does not a stalker make, but it always has a built-in audience--it will be read by someone who gives a damn, and sometimes that's all the writer wants.

Look at some "serious" Star Trek fan fiction (if you can bear to). Trek is an extraordinarily complex world, built by many writers over decades. In order to write halfway decent Trek fic, a writer has to do enough research to know that universe cold. Every fic will be pored over in detail and mercilessly kibitzed by fans even more rabid. Original SF universes are a picnic by comparison--the author is always right!

By now, fan fiction is well entrenched on the Net. The legal arguments have gone on for years, and no legal theory has yet stamped out fic, or is likely to. The more savvy producers actually encourage it--you can gauge the true depth of the audience's devotion to a show or movie by the "unauthorized" response. It usually adds to the value of intellectual properties rather than detracting from them, IMO.

MM

 

[Svenskaflicka]

J.K Rowling is said to be supportive of _some_ HP fics, but not the dirty ones.

As if Harry Potter has ever been children's books...

 

[jessy19]

I LOVE Celeb stories because they are fantasy and you can take them wherever you want. I want to write more celeb stories featuring male celebs since most stories are featuring lesbian or slutty female celebs. I want to do a gay or bi male celeb story (hopefully someday)

 

[TaffyJ]

Someone set off the censorship sirens!

If a writer creates a fictional universe and fills it with interesting characters, do they not expect the audience to think about the creation and have a personal response to it?

Are we to go to a movie, then seal our mouths with duct tape as we're walking out of the theatre?

In other parts of the world, maybe they can add more sexuality to popular media characters, but here in America, we get the whitewashed version. At best, the Grey-washed version. That is probably a good thing. As a mother, I'd hate to have even more promiscuity shoved in my child's face whenever he leaves the house.

As Dr. M stated, we are given only a hint of sexuality in characters and storylines. It's plain frustrating, dammit!

I love Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. But I've been dying to read about Perrin or Rand getting nasty. There's none of that out there, so I'll just have to create it myself! I would never dream of selling any of my humble claptrap for profit, so what's the harm? It fulfills my fantasy, and maybe the fantasies of a few other fans, too.

If someone were to tell me I am not allowed to think that kind of thought about the characters Rand or Perrin, or write down my fantasy, or even share it with others, that sounds like censorship. I never claim to BE Robert Jordan, and I never ask for money.