Diana Gabaldon link round-up

[amelia_petkova]

This isn’t complete and somebody may have done it already, but I wanted to gather together my bookmarks.

So recently Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series, decides to bash fan fiction and chooses the most unfortunate metaphors and similies possible. There are ways for an author to say they don’t like fan fiction or at least to not have fic forwarded to them, but this is most definitely not the right way to go about it. At least we ended up with some entertainment.

I first heard about it through lotesse, who put up a link to the post on ontd. They have Gabaldon’s original entry in her blog. (Update: the link to the post no longer works. I'm kind of disappointed that Gabaldon took it down/friendslocked it!) Among other things, she compares writing fan fiction to selling children into white slavery and growing marijuana in her backyard. The threads at ontd are lots of fun. They also have some other rebuttals added to their original post.

George R.R. Martin adds his two cents.

Fantasy author Catherynne M. Valente has put up a good response to the situation.

There’s a very good post written by sheafrotherdon. Particularly good for pointing out the laughability of Gabaldon believing that she can make set-in-stone declarations about fan fiction (aka the “final say”) and for including excerpts about how Gabaldon believes that she really is her characters. This leads to good times in the comments.

Up until this time, I can’t say I ever really had an opinion on Diana Gabaldon as a person. I read the first few books in the Outlander series and enjoyed them, but lost track after that. (The increasing length probably had something to do with it.) But again…pissing off such a huge number of fans is not the best choice in the world.

Let me know if you have links to other bits I should be reading.

ETA: See comments for more related links.

Comments

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

You know what amused me most about the whole affair? He main character - Jamie Fraser - was 'inspired by' and I suspect based on Jamie McCrimmon from the old Doctor Who series. What is that if not fanfic about a timetraveller and her Highlander companion? ;D

[amelia-petkova.livejournal.com]

I have such a giant happy face now! :) :) :)

I'll have to look into that section of the DW series.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

Cecilia Tan on Fanworks--brilliantly put. :)

Charles Stross on the same, realising that he is "not a precious sparkly unicorn".

Mercedes Lackey, who has always tried to allow fanfiction in various ways, is finally relieved to be able to say 'go ahead and get on with it'. This one's a bit older than this whole mess and happened earlier in the year.

Mostly to the precious sparkly unicorns, I want to tell them to grow the hell up. But I have Sherlock Holmes porn to write.

[amelia-petkova.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recs. I'm considering writing a sort of mock-serious post along the lines of "I write fan fic...and I regret nothing!"

[hasufin.livejournal.com]

I think it's a shame that sometimes authors - in the interests of not messing with their "piles of gold" cannot read fanfics nor even accept story ideas - it's something which is harmful to both the authors and the fans, but I understand the restriction.

However, I think that an author can protect their own profitability without shitting on their fans. I've never had nor likely will have an opinion on Gabaldon as an author, and my only opinion on her as a person comes from this post. George R.R. Martin, on the other hand, has lost a reader. I've always heard good things about his work, but his attitude is simply not acceptable.

[amelia-petkova.livejournal.com]

It would be nice if authors could read fan fics for their work but I also understand why it happens in so few cases. I know cleolinda has done a post about it at least once and I think the fantasy author Robin McKinley may have also mentioned it in her blog (http://robinmckinleysblog.com/) at some point, though I can't recall when it was. It's gets to be such a sticky issue when you realize that people thinking about one book (as an example) are likely to have similar ideas, and the potential of having to deal with somebody who says, "I mentioned that idea to the Author, so she needs to pay me royalties." But it is nice when authors are able to say, "Just because I can't know the specifics of your fan fic, doesn't mean you can't have fun with it."

I've seen Martin's books on the shelf but hadn't read any of them. (But that's not surprising; my To Read list is very long. Typed. And single-spaced.) I'm certainly not going to say that Gabaldon is 100% evil--writers have off days, too--but she's definitely lost points with me from this, for her insane logic if nothing else.

[hasufin.livejournal.com]

That's the thing - there are plenty of good authors out there; I'll drop that guy in favor of one who respects their fan base, or at least has the sense to only be so disrespectful in private.