An Elitist Stance of Fanfiction
Join me as I intrepidly delve into the controversial opinion that fanfiction is substandard. Yes, this is an opinion I hold. No, this opinion doesn’t mean I think fanfiction is bad without exception. Yet, this opinion means I think fanfiction is indelibly inferior to straightforward fiction.
As always, let’s start with the basics: fanfiction is fiction written by fans that borrows from existing material. What is borrowed could be a character, a plot, or a setting; what is existing material could be a book, a series, or a movie. In essence, fanfiction is unoriginal. That it is unoriginal is what makes fanfiction, in my opinion, subpar. Ideas and stories stemming from borrowed material may themselves be original, but the seeds of such ideas and stories are not.
This may brush up on the dilemma of what is truly original—the character’s name Harry Potter in the Harry Potter series was based off J. K. Rowling’s childhood neighbor Ian Potter, the series’ story was inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia, and the series’ setting was based off various British locations including boarding schools. While reductive and not entirely exhaustive, I draw the line between original and unoriginal where what is borrowed is or isn’t 1:1. To address some expected pedantry, a superficial name change is virtually the same as a 1:1 borrowing if the character is also significantly the same in terms of personality, behaviors, and background (e.g., Harry Potter would be unoriginal if he wasn’t a wizard at all, if he lived nearby J. K. Rowling in his early life, and if he went on to to work as a damp-proofing technician (i.e., if he was a facsimile of Ian Potter)). I think that about establishes the basics and common ground most can agree on in terms of what fanfiction is and what originality is. Now for the controversy.
Fanfiction SUCKS. Let me rephrase: fanfiction is BAD. I’ll rephrase again: fanfiction is not to my liking. There we go. Yes, I don’t like fanfiction and I can’t be bothered to read something significantly borrowing from another thing. A big part of the reason for this, aside from unoriginality, is the same reason I stopped caring about Marvel movies: it becomes a “cinematic universe”. Fanfiction expands existing material, on and on, indefinitely. More than that, a fanfiction is virtually an installment or iteration of an established story that redirects, changes, or subverts the established story. I don’t want to see a fan’s version of Harry Potter romances where Draco and Hermione fall in love, and I don’t want to see “true” or “untold” stories of Luna Lovegood or Dobby. My sentiments extend to established stories that are remade, adapted*, or continued either by new or the original creators—I do not want them. The very idea of keeping up with all of it is exhausting, and the entire notion of Marvel’s What If…? is aversive to me.
*Adaptations have worked and can work (e.g., The Lord of the Rings), but they require faithfulness to the established material; more often than not adaptations don’t and can’t work (e.g., The Rings of Power), because the creators are captured by their own inviolable faith that precludes them from creating a faithful adaptation. In other words insightfully provided by J. R. R. Tolkien: “Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made.”
This is to say nothing of the quality of the writing in fanfiction, which I will now say more of. Fanfiction by its nature is not officially published due to obvious copyright restrictions (fanfiction may be published when reworked into an adequately original story or when it is free). This means fanfiction is not (typically) created rigorously with quality, because it has no editing hoops to jump through that help polish it; grammar and punctuation can be lackadaisical if not bad, and so can the content of the story and the manner in which the story is told. Setting aside technical accuracy in writing, the art of storytelling is either poorly understood or neglected in fanfiction. I imagine the methodology of storytelling is considered a hassle to fanfiction writers and is just something that gets in the way of the idea that inspired them to write. So they tend to forgo it. And, 9 times out of 10, the fanfiction is running almost entirely on that basic idea that led to its creation, and is frequently helped by tropes, clichés, and recycled plots. Perhaps Draco getting together with Hermione is compelling on its own, though the fanfiction writer would likely choose to ignore both characters’ background and traits that’d influence their relationship (e.g., one being pureblood, the other being mudblood) and insert a superficially interesting trope like amnesia or an affair (let’s say it’s caused by a substance, maybe a Tibetan turnip (or if we’re being entirely uncreative, let’s say alcohol)) that conveniently makes the two act the way the writer wants them to act. In this way, fanfiction is very similar to soap operas.
Now, all this said, there are exceptions to my opinion of fanfiction. Fanfiction can have enough originality beyond what it borrows and it can have an appropriate structure (beginning, middle, and end (no “cinematic universe” treatment), decent grammar, and compelling storytelling). Such exceptions I may—hack—I may—cough—BLEH—I may even like. But-there-hasn’t-been-a-fanfiction-I’ve-seen-that-I-enjoyed-yet! Phew. I almost blacked out there. There are other things that aren’t fanfiction that give me similar bleck-y feelings and for all intents and purposes are fanfiction. I mentioned them earlier: remakes, adaptations, and continuations. They can be insipid cash grabs like Disney’s live action remake of Moana; insipid cash grabs like Warner Brothers’ series adaptation of Harry Potter; and insipid cash grabs like Warner Brothers’ movie The Hunt for Gollum. I knew, after Star Wars was lobotomized by commercialization, I knew The Lord of the Rings’ days were numbered. I knew they would come for it eventually. I just hoped it would end with The Hobbit trilogy, and then again with The Rings of Power, and then most recently with The War of the Rohirrim. But no, there is still The Hunt for Gollum. Additionally, there was recent news Stephen Colbert would be co-writing yet another LotR film with Peter Jackson. I… I just… sigh.
Anyway, I don’t want to go off on too much of a tangent. That’s my spiel against fanfiction; it tends to have unoriginality and poor quality in its technical writing and storytelling.
