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 read it for interaction with Character A and Character B that I know from Show X.

Sure, I like reading fanfic for that, too. I like reading more about characters that I've become fond of through the source material.

But if I don't know the guys and it's a well-written story with hot sex... *shrug* How is that any different from reading original fic (i.e. pro fic)? Which I assume you do. You don't have a pre-existing emotional connection when you read original fic but the writer creates one for you. Well-written fanfic will do the same thing.

[destina.livejournal.com]

But if I don't know the guys and it's a well-written story with hot sex... *shrug* How is that any different from reading original fic (i.e. pro fic)?

Because a) the sex isn't the point, for me, and is often superfluous in ff stories *g* and b) no matter how well-written fan fiction is, nearly every ff writer makes a set of assumptions about their audience -- that they know the world, that they know the characters, and are familiar with the canon to some extent. Therefore, they don't explain any of this, and they don't construct their stories like short stories where characters are unknown to the reader and must be introduced. (And really, to be truthful, even original short fiction often fails in this regard, and can't make me care about the characters in 5000 words or less.) There's no background, nothing to pull me into the story and get me hooked on who these people *are*. The stories are meaningless to me without that emotional, visceral connection to characters -- either one that's formed through learning about them over time, or one I bring *to* the story.

I really can't explain it any better than that. YMMV, of course, but that's the 'why' of it, for me.