I am an island. Or something. Cheese. Monkeys.

[tzikeh]

Very, very, very simple question, posed because I think I'm the only person left in fandom (and I'm mostly serious) who doesn't:

clarification: I don't mean you have to be *in* the fandom to be a "fan" of the source. If you saw the movie and liked it okay, that's enough. I'm trying to be really specific: if you haven't seen the source (no familiarity other than general fannish osmosis or you've caught an episode or two) or you don't like the source (tried it an didn't like it), have you still gone and read fanfiction for it - for any reason at all. That's the question.

[Poll #540738]

Note that there is no third option, because "Only if Fan X is writing it" falls under "Yes", and "I occasionally glance at stories for Y Fandom because all of my friends are in it but I don't actively seek it out" falls under "Yes", and "I only read Story Z that one time because everyone was raving and I'd seen two episodes of the show" - wait for it - falls under "Yes".

I'm feeling very alone right now....

Comments

[danceswithwords.livejournal.com]

My fanfiction reading is primarily motivated by a desire to spend more time with characters I love, in situations I find intriguing, so I've never felt a desire to read stories outside my own fandoms. I only have X amount of time for reading, and there's so much I want to read in my own fandoms and in original fiction, that it's never really occurred to me to seek out stories in an unfamiliar fandom.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

See, this is exactly how I feel. The draw of fanfiction for me is *more* of something I already love. I don't read fanfiction to be exposed to new fandoms; if I wanted that, I'd Netflix or TiVo or buy the book or whatever. I don't want to be exposed to a new fandom through someone else's interpretation of the characters and universe; I want to experience the canon on my own and then enjoy the fanfiction for what it does best.

I guess people like us are very much the minority in fandom now.

[thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com]

What you said.

If I don't know the original source, it might as well be original fiction.

I read fanfic, like you said, because I want more of the characters/situations/whatever of the show/movie/book I like to begin with.

If I don't know Starsky and Hutch from a hole in the wall (and I don't), I can pretty much promise you I won't get more into the fic than I would other non-fanish fiction. In fact I'm more likely to dislike it because I won't understand the references to the little things that are sprinkled throughout fanfic without explanation. When someone writes original fic there's no assumption that you have some background knowledge so everything is explained. Fanfic usually assumes you know the canon. If I wasn't a Sentinel fan, I'd be completely confused by the wolf and panthers that frequently pop up in the fic. If I wasn't a Stargate fan, I'd be completely bewildered by the references to the number of times Daniel has died. (In any other fandom, dead is dead. You get one shot at it. Not so much in Stargate. I think Buffy is like that too to a lesser degree, but the vast majority of the time, dead is dead.)

I don't need to torture myself with the "I don't get its" of fandoms I don't like/know.

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

I'm in this group too. If I am not familiar with the source, the fanfic has no pull for me. But I am an fannish old fogey. I wonder how the answers correlate with ages?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling a lot - it will be an interesting venn diagram for "chronological age" and "years spent in fandom", is my guess.

[tv-elf.livejournal.com]

I'm torn because I have read fanfiction for a show I don't watch, but it is very, very, very rare. Yet, I have done it. I'm actually becoming more likely to even avoid most fanfiction for fandoms I like; but that has more to do with my inability to suffer crap quietly.