headspace-hotel:

headspace-hotel:

“Gross weirdo nerds are comparing the divine comedy to fanfiction! as if fanfiction could ever have real literary merit!” is my least favorite Flavor of Post right now

because instead of, ya know, thoughtfully discussing “fanfiction” and “Real Literature” as social categories of writing, this Flavor of Post relies on mocking anyone who disagrees as a gross weirdo nerd who does not read Real Books. There is no reasoning for the supposedly Obvious Fact that fanfiction is Not Real Literature, only jokes about supernatural mpreg.

The implication is that only someone who is a Gross Weirdo Nerd who doesn’t Read Real Books would need reasoning for something so obvious.

And the reason this pisses me off is that I am someone. who does almost exclusively read Real Books. (Not even YA! Real, Literary™ Adult Books!) and

yeah. agreed. published books all are good on a minimum level, possess literary merit, use tropes in new, original and non-repetitive ways, and definitely don’t describe the author’s gross fetishes in horrible detail. tell me more

Like we could be discussing this in good faith and breaking down why the divine comedy is not fanfiction.

We could be…actually talking about “fanfiction” and how its existence is fundamentally connected to characters and concepts being property owned by individuals or companies

which means works that use mythological or folkloric characters are, in fact, not technically fanfiction because for the vast, vast majority of human existence, no one has “owned” characters, or in other words, there wasn’t “fanfiction” because there wasn’t “original fiction” in the sense that Satan or Loki were the exclusive intellectual property of someone

And then we could have a good faith discussion about how this “fanfiction vs. Real Books” debate is actual bullshit that assumes stories not only naturally are and should be a form of property, but that being property confers on them inherent superiority and merit, and that publishing companies are necessary to promote Good fiction and protect us from Bad fiction.

But instead, we’re dunking on supernatural mpreg.

My bro. My guy. My dude. My buddy. My pal. My good sir. I fucking wish fanfiction invented mpreg