Fanfiction as Schroedinger's Cat.

[amanuensis1]

We seem to be in the middle of a big fandom Thanksgiving this week, which I think is adorable and also good for the fandom; I think it prompts one to declare amnesty on one's WIPs and challengefics that one's never going to finish, and instead shift your focus to something that drives you right now.

So here's a good moment for me to sing one of my particular praises of fanfiction.

We hear a lot about why fanfiction is a starting point for writers, but the implication of that is that one will/should move on to original works, as if fanfiction were a genre of the immature storyteller. Not so. Fanfiction is an ode to the state of being in love--in this case, in love with a particular set of characters or fictional setting. For those who share that love, it can be compared to the composition of hymns in a religion. Those who share your religion get it, while those outside of it just think you are strange. But no one says, "Why don't you stop writing those hymns and write some real music?" They may despair over your choice of music genre, if they're not into that religion, but they acknowledge it as a legitimate form of composition.

But there's an aspect to fanfiction that can't even be sustained by an "in love" or "religion" analogy. Fanfiction can satisfy our creative greedy hungers to find out not just what will happen, but to see how we'd feel in the face of many possible outcomes. Fanfiction is a sort of quantum physics of the storytelling world, a kind of Rashomon hivemind where we never have to ask ourselves who had the definitive version. No other fiction is like this. I can read/write a story where Harry falls in love with Cho, then one where he falls in love with Lupin, then one where he saves the world from Voldemort and lives happily ever after, then one where he's killed in the process. And here's what's singular: none of these stories contradict each other. Because they are by definition fanfiction, and somehow, because fanfiction never earns the label "The real version," we can enjoy each of those stories--even the death fics--without feeling the "This is how it is, set in stone" finality that would accompany any other piece of fiction. It's unique. It's a live AND dead cat-in-a-box, and no one has to choose a moment to open that lid.

Comments

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Yes. Exactly.

I love your brain.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Heh. I like my brain too because its pleasures seem simple. XD

[nimori.livejournal.com]

I love you.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

YOU ARE SO LOVED.

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

What a great post!

I also like to point out to people that there are particular challenges in writing fanfic that you don't face in original fiction, because even writing the most alternative of AU's, good fanfic writers still find a way to make their work seem to "fit" seamlessly into the world of the original. Everyone has original ideas when writing fanfic - from the names of spells to complex backstories - but the best authors find ways to incorporate these ideas into their fanfic as if it could have been part of the original. For original fiction, the challenge is merely to remain consistent to one's own style; in fanfic, often the challenge is to mesh with someone else's and grow from there.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Exactly--there are as many constraints with fanfiction as there are freedoms. Fanfiction may build the world for us and allow us to be "lazy" in the worldbuilding, but it presents the fic world as a puzzle, into which we must fit our ideas and style.

[gmth.livejournal.com]

Your brain is so crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside!

(Which is to say: this post rocks my socks. Seriously.)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I am a TWIX BAR!! Er, or something. But I like Twix! *glomps*

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

You make two wonderful points.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

...And those points are "Loopy" and "Greedy" and they're two of the lost dwarves from Snow White! HA!

[starrysummer.livejournal.com]

I love that idea.

I think, to me, there's something so wonderful about being able to go and turn characters psychotic, kill them off, and put them throguh horrific trials, only to pop them back up again and start from a totally different beginning next time.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It's one of the reasons I don't fear warnings for Character Death--I LOVE Character Death in fanfiction. I feel it hard, and I cry, but then after I bit I can hit "rewind" and everyone's alive again and I can see what happens this time!

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

This is so beautifully worded that I think I might even be able to share it with someone who really, REALLY doesn't "get" fanfiction, and she'll actually understand this time.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

If it works AT ALL, then my life on this earth has had a purpose. *glomps*

[snapetoy.livejournal.com]

Absolutely fabulously post, Amy. I love the way your mind works!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

In some ways it's really low-maintenance to have a mind like this. Feed it good fic and it's happy. *tosses brain-biscuit to brain* What about you, who maintain an OTP--does even Character Death get past your defenses, make you think that's all right, because tomorrow you can read something else?

[penknife.livejournal.com]

Mmm, yes, well said.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Am glad to have hit a chord with you. ^_^

[marginaliana]

Very well said. Fanfiction allows something outside of us to belong to us in a very personal manner.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I have emphasized, in the past, that fanfiction is merely taking one's fantasies and ideas about the original and writing them down, which harms no one's copyrights, and if one shares them with like-minded people, still no harm is done. The internet has made things tricky, by creating an ease of distribution and access that might reach even the foolish people who don't want the fannish creations and think they've found something sanctioned by the original author. But there's no getting the toothpaste back in the tube, I say.

[insipid-paragon.livejournal.com]

YES. Yesyesyesyesyes. I wish I could think of something brilliant or at least demonstrative of an ounce of intelligence, but all I can do is nod emphatically and say I agree whole-heartedly.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Well, if you think of anything extra, come back and spill it! *hugs*

[scribbulus-ink.livejournal.com]

Nothing to add but a big ol' WORD. That's how I feel about fandom/fanfiction, too.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Does this mean we are unhappy with the stories as presented? Or so happy with them we must have more, to fill in our fannish frenzy of speculation? I do think it can work both ways. ^_^

[glockgal.livejournal.com]

This is really so beautiful and I love the comparisons you use and everything. Because it's strange how I don't ever need to justify drawing fanart to non-fandomy people, but I always get on the defensive when I mention fanfic.

One of the main things, also, that I try to remind people is that many fanficcers are doing this for fun. It's not meant to be a 'path to writerly professionalism' or anything, it's for love and entertainment, as you said.

Hooray for imagination!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

And, you know, when I say "fanfiction," I imagine that fanart is a visual depiction of fiction, too! Fanart that illustrates canon always has artistic interpretation within it, and fanart that speculates and illustrates beyond the canon is telling its own visual tale. Fanart IS Fanfiction. (There, I boiled it down to a slogan, wah ha ha!)

[reddwarfer.livejournal.com]

You are so awesome, you know that? *loves*

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It is fandom that is Teh Awesome, and YOU are part of that! Mwah!

oh, love!

[pinkfinity.livejournal.com]

May I frame this? And put it into FA's Newbie's Guide/FAQ? Credited, of course.

Re: oh, love!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, my! Yes, you can do whatever you like with it! Quote, print, mock, vilify, bake into cookies. ^_^

Convergence of the Brains!

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

I have been mediating on this issue in *exactly* these terms of late. In fact, I take the analogy further: when a pairing or other relationship (or event) becomes "canonized" (=observed), the probability function collapses and the amount of fanac devoted to that particular pairing, etc., *declines* because all outcomes are no longer equally plausible. I call this the "Schroedinger's Pairing" effect.

Thus, although fans frequently say that they want their pairing to become canon, they really shouldn't. This is also one reason that the proportion of slash in a fandom tends to go up with time (after canon is closed): for slash, the probability function *never* collapses, so all possibilities remain open. Because of quantum!

Re: Convergence of the Brains!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Migod, is that true? Does one see a decline in fanworks for a pairing (etc.) once it becomes canonized? Because that's so cool it's freaky!

And yes, you never collapse the probability function on slash! That's so perfectly put I must smooch you. *smooches*

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

I love this. You are brilliant.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I am only a ship on the waves of the collective fandom! *watches metaphor try to float*

[dphearson.livejournal.com]

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

You hit it on the nail, precisely.

*loves you*

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love it when I get to ring true with you like that. *hugs*

[alyndra]

*glomps and loves*

*agrees with everything*

You are teh coolest!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*tries to be clever* Well...as long as the cat thinks so! XD

[yamapea.livejournal.com]

That was beautifully put. Thank you. ♥

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Ah, yer aweseome. *hugs*

[cluegirl.livejournal.com]

Schrodinger/Cat dub-con! You know you want to write it!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*drums heels* DON'T SUCKER ME IN!

[meri-oddities.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, exactly. That's why it works and that's why we're attracted to it. It's *our* version. We can find others of our kind, or others of a different kind, but it's all ours.

Well, and concisely, put.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Now, the question is, are we all, "Joiiiiiin us!" or are we, "It's ours; go get your own!" ?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

halleluja, halleluja, amen.

When I'm in love with fandom writing, man... is it ever luuuuuuuv. Thank you for being so godddamned eloquent, you! :D

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It is SO love. This is why we have pairing soundtracks and everything!

[fluffyllama.livejournal.com]

It's a live AND dead cat-in-a-box, and no one has to choose a moment to open that lid.

Aha, that's perfect. It really is.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Now someone has to write an essay on the jossing of one's preferred canon, and the types of reactionary fics written! ^_^

[underlucius.livejournal.com]

This is excellently put.

I adore fanfiction for the sandpit it is for me, I can make mud pies and experiment and people can tell me what they think of my messes. And even though I'm one who is crossing the Rubicon to the cold feedbackless world of publication - I loathe the people who say that fanfiction isn't real.

I utterly agree with you about the million alternate universes theories too, and I'd never really thought about it before. i've read fics where Sirius lived, died and was joined by Remus, James never died, Harry is a kitten - and as you say, they are ALL TRUE.

My original writing though, has to stay sacrosant (for me). Once I have written that one of my characters has done something, it's "REAL" for me. If Iever have to change something, it's very hard, because it wasn't like that - it's like changing the world.

So that's why I really really hope that people slash Standish like crazy - I can't write what's inside Shroedinger's catbox, but others can.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

God, yes--that's exactly right, about not being able to change one's own stories. I feel the same way about my own fanfiction, even--if someone asked me to write versions/sequels for some of my sad-ending fanfics, so that they ended happily, I'd have to say, "Oh, but I can't! But you can, if you'd like!"