wordplay

This summer I’m taking the quickest class EVER on American culture and television and it’s really kind of fun. One of our assignments is to survey a group of people about a show that they all watch and then talk about the place of the media property within the lives of the individuals and the community. Thank goodness for LiveJournal, eh?

So, then, below are some very open-ended questions, meant to elicit some information about your viewing experience. Answer as briefly or as fully as you think is appropriate. You may respond either in a comment to me (all comments screened) or via email at tea.and.toast@gmail.com. All responses will be stripped of identifying information in the paper I’m writing for my class and in any subsequent work; I have no plans to use this further, but, you know, it’s always possible. If there is interest, I may post the write-up here, but again, please remember that your responses will never be matched with your username or any demographic information you choose to provide which may identify you.

Because I am me, I put this off until ridiculously late and the paper is due this week. This means that sooner is better for filling this out, but I'll happily take late responses just so I have a more complete set.

Finally – THANK YOU, thank you so much for taking the time to fill this out.

( Survey questions )

As of right now, I am officially writing a story about pigeon racing, and there's a decent hook between racing homing pigeons and the emotional center of this fanstory, and it's awesome - like, I am literally filled with awe that this is canon and that it's so easy to write up when I know the writers thought they were being complete smartasses. And between Google, Wikipedia, and this book (which I've already read, so I feel like I'm ahead of the game), I am actually sort of buried in research material about pigeon racing. So, OK, my fandom education is completely haphazard, but that's part of why writing Radek is so fun - last time I wrote him I spent all this time thinking about growing up after the Prague Spring, and now it's pigeons. ♥ ♥ ♥

Those of you not of the SGA persuasion might miss this (unless you also spend time at Journalfen) but there's a kerfuffle over at sga_flashfic that's just INTERESTING, particularly as it appears to be time for LJ based fandom to have another broad and meandering discussion about intellectual property. This time, the basic question is: is it cool to use another person's fanfic as the jumping off point for your own fic without clearing it with the original writer? The majority opinion seems to be, "um, no, and haven't we covered this?" but there's a vocal minority who insist that since we never ask permission from the writers of the original source material, there's no moral or ethical obligation to ask for that from fanwriters, either. This cannibalizing of source material, the mishmash collage approach to ideas and inspiration, that's just what we do, they say - it's part of what the fannish writing collective is all about.

I... actually think they might be right.

One arguable position is that maybe it's OK to use the work of someone who's not of your tribe as your jumping off point. I have said before that I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the presence of creators at cons and maybe this is part of why. Is this basically about belonging to a subculture and a community and not screwing over your fellow fen? Or is it simply that professional writers got paid for their work and so they've gotten their due off of it, whereas a fanwriter's rewards are more intangible and therefore need to be more protected and more carefully preserved?

What do you think? I'm still working this out for myself. Is there a REASON that within the community, fanfic writers' rights to their property ought to be more respected than the rights of the writers of the source material? And what is that reason?


ETA: OK, I think I have worked this out a bit more now. Thoughts behind the cut. ( Read more... )