I’m done explaining why fanfic is okay.

beautifuluniversemasterchump:

bookshop: I’m done explaining why fanfic is okay. Yes, because all fan-fic is well written, and all JohnLock is as good as anything that’s won the Pulitzer Prize. The main problem with fan-fic isn’t the material, it’s the fact that it’s written by fucking idiots who just want the main characters to fuck. If it’s neither of those things, and is well-written, then it’ll probably be good. It’s as simple as that. Get off your high-horse, you total fucking asshole.

Hi, Jack. Can I call you Jack?

It’s fanfic. Not fan-fiction, not fan fiction, not “fanfiction” in quotes. Fanfiction, fanfic, or just fic. That’s what we call it. That’s what it is.

The argument that all fanfiction is Pulitzer-worthy is not an argument that appears anywhere in this essay. What does appear is a list of Pulitzer-winning, acclaimed, and beloved works that can best be described as doing exactly what fanfiction does. The reason we’re listing them out here is because many people think that fanfiction is plagiarism, theft, illegal infringement, or to quote one person’s words to me directly, “the devil’s work.”

But I’m so glad that you don’t think fanfic suffers from any of those problems because clearly they were just distracting me from the real issue. Thank you so much for explaining to me that all fanfiction is written by fucking idiots who just want the main characters to fuck.

But for your well-positioned advice, I might have assumed that the Sacrifices arc by Lightning on the Waves, who has spent nearly a decade rewriting the entire Harry Potter series in order to completely deconstruct and critique the class, race, and social structures that JK Rowling built, was something worth talking about.

I mean, it’s one of the longest works of fiction ever written; it’s longer than Proust. It’s got hundreds of original characters on top of the giant cast of Harry Potter, and but for your timely arrival I might have thought it was a painstaking reworking of plot and a profound exploration of character.

The author’s stated purpose is, “I’ve tried to take several clichés (among them Harry being Sorted into Slytherin and having a twin brother who is deemed to be the Boy-Who-Lived) and write a story that’s both good and has rounded characterization." But I guess the author was lying and she really just wanted to see Harry fuck someone, and all those three million words were just about fucking. I mean, after all, you said so.

But, thank god, you got here just in time to tell me this was just a shitty piece of dreck by an author who wants two characters to bone.

Or this House of Leaves/Inception crossover. It has anagrams, puzzles, hovertext, careful page formatting in the style of Danielewski, reversed text, and an intricate layering of two universes over one another in ways that amplify and transform both. But I guess it’s just trashy porn and not a clever example of literary remix culture, right, because–

–I mean, you’re so sure and I’m sure you’ve carefully examined the opinions of hundreds, if not thousands, of other people who agree with you on this subject—whereas I’m just a woman and a fucking idiot and an asshole, that’s what you said, yeah?, who actually reads this detritus.

And I guess dozens of people only wrote poems in invented languages, created fictional historical documents, made fanart, sang songs, and wrote additional fanfiction about this novel-length Stargate:Atlantis fic because they wanted to celebrate splooge and cocks and jizz, not explore an intricate and fascinating political epic that tried to take the problematic elements of a shitty show and imbue them with real consequences that critiqued real-world systemic privilege and colonization.

I guess this fic where the whiteness of Gaiman's American Gods gets a post-colonial critique via a crossover with Journey to the West is just about fucking. I guess this fic where the religious worldbuilding of Supernatural gets shaken up because the Son of God dies is just about fucking. I guess this fic that explores drug use and false identity in the context of Hollywood is just about fucking. I guess this fic where Anne of Green Gables is a brilliant modern feminist is just about fucking. I guess this fic where we lose our childhoods is just about fucking. I guess this fic that offers a scathing sci-fi critique of pre-repeal DADT by way of a brilliant Harrison Bergeron homage is just about fucking. I guess this fic that explores how terrifying it is to simply take what you want for yourself is just about fucking. I guess this metatextual fic where Justin Timberlake is a serial killer and this metatextual fic where Fueled By Ramen punk bands fight off an advancing vampire apocalypse are just about fucking. I guess this fic (out of the zillions) that explores the dynamics of consent vs sexual harassment is just about fucking. I guess this fic that fixates on the surreality of this modern life is just about fucking. I guess this fic that explores how we grieve, cope, and move on is just about fucking.

How fucking dare you take one casual and condescending glance at fandom and decide you know everything there is to know about it and the people—the women—who write it. Who the fuck are you to think you have the right to dismiss millions upon millions of works of literature written and distributed entirely for free and for no other reason but love and the desire to explore shared worlds? What do you know about the millions of fans and the five+ decades of fanfic-based subculture, with its own oral and written history and culture and tradition, that we, the people who write that fic and pass down that culture, don’t know? How many fucking hours have you spent crafting a plot, betaing fics, editing AMVs, recording podfics, putting together fanmixes, making fanart, GIFsets, photosets, icons, fanvids, roleplays, machinima, meta, scanlations, translations, transcripts, challenges, or cosplay?

And for that matter, who the fuck are you to say that stories where two characters fuck are worthless pieces of garbage written by "fucking idiots?” I guess I can’t read D.H. Lawrence anymore. Guess I can’t read Murakami. Guess I can’t read E.M. Forster, Ayn Rand, Stephen King.

Or is it the fact that they’re romance that makes them so worthless? Sorry, Charlotte Bronte. Sorry Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Judy Blume, Jennifer Crusie, Courtney Milan. Out on the dung heap you all go, along with the billions upon billions of women and men who read and enjoy romance as a genre.

Who the fuck are you to decide that stories where two people fuck can’t call themselves works of literature? Who the fuck are you to tell everyone who wept over this fic where Peeta and Katniss recover from the trauma of the Hunger Games that they’re fucking idiots along with the author? Who the fuck are you to deem that this novel-length political satire that skewers the British royal family is rubbish just because, oh, god, two people have sex in it?

And who the fuck are you to decide the terms on which we get to love, cherish, and value the things we create for ourselves and each other? This fic where David Cook and David Archuleta wake up married is one of the greatest things I’ve ever read, and if talking about this fic, loving this fic, and wanting people to know that this fic has value to me makes me a fucking idiot, then sign me the fuck up for Remedial English.

Because here’s the thing, Jack. You may think that you know exactly what fanfic—not “fan-fic"—is and what the people who write it want. But even the filthiest, porniest, dirtiest, evillest, most child-hood ruining fic you’ve ever read—like this one—has value, because not only did someone put their time, effort, and themselves into writing it, and not only did someone else out there enjoy reading it, but they created it within a vibrant, unique community that is a culture of pure creation and free exchange.

For you to devalue and dismiss all of this, all of this boundless creativity, this spirit, this intelligence, and this endless wealth of talent and imagination, and, yes, insanely hot fucking, just because you’ve preemptively decided that all fanfic is what you say it is, and the people who write it are just entitled idiots looking for validation?

Well, Jack. I’m sorry, but it looks like the only fucking idiot I see in this equation is you.