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

[reginagiraffe]

I'm a big ol' YES! If I've never seen the source but the fic has a character played by an actor I like, I'm there. If I don't know the source but the story is written by an author I like, I'm there. If I've never seen the source but everyone is raving about the story, I'm there.

To me, if I don't know the source than it's no different than reading original fic.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

To me, if I don't know the source than it's no different than reading original fic.

Right - and this hits at the crux of my question. I don't go to fandom for my original fiction. I want fanfiction to be fanfiction - and all the attendant joys therein. The basic delight of fanfiction, for me, is playing in canon your audience is already familiar with. I'm... just in a different place.

[reginagiraffe]

Well, sure. Do I enjoy fanfic that's written in a fandom with which I am very familiar and like a lot and written about characters that I know well and love dearly more than I love fanfic in a fandom I know nothing about? Absolutely.

But I'm pretty much willing to read anything as long as it's well-written.

[misspamela.livejournal.com]

*nods* Exactly!

I'm not sure where the "it's like original fic" is used as something negative...I like to read anything by people who write well, whether it's profic or original fic. If there was a ready supply of free, well-written, easily acessed homoerotic fiction out there that wasn't fanfiction, I'd read that too.

(I only added "homoerotic" because there are places with free, well-written, etc, etc and they're called libraries. And yes, I do use those. *g*)

[misspamela.livejournal.com]

That should be "original fic or fanfic."

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Hm I'm not seeing "it's like original fic" being used as a negative. I love original fiction (as can be attested by my and I'm sure many of our bookshelves). But - I don't go to *fanfic* for original fic. I go to fanfic for fanfic. They're different beasts with different expectations of the reader. One of the things I enjoy so much in fanfiction is that the readers are expected to have a shared pool of knowledge, which allows the author a freedom with allusion and shorthand that writers of original fiction don't have. Much delight can be had in original works with the discovery of what *will be* the shared pool of knowledge, once the audience is built for the book, but that's a wholly different joy than what I get from fanfiction.