Marmota ponders fandom and her relationship to it

[marmota_b]

It has emerged that I expect greater excellency in fanfiction than I do in (most) original works.

(As in, Marmota ponders stuff and comes to an explanation for her confusing intuitive thought processes.)

When stated that way, it's weird, and pretty unfair of me. But it's a fact. I go to fanfiction to have gaps filled and worldbuilding expanded upon and characterisation retained and deepened. And there are many times when fanfiction works like that; which however doesn't make my expectations any more fair. It amounts to expecting more of one's local amateur sportspeople than one would of the professionals. And I'm intentionally using this example because I think many fans of local amateur sportspeople probably unconsciously do.

Basically, I'm a fan of fandom, the way other people may be fans of TV shows or comic books or maybe book series. (Not individual books and films, that works differently, and is closer to what I enjoy as a fan in the simple sense.*) It makes me wonder how many other people approach it the same way, if maybe unconsciously (as I did). There must be more people feeling similarly; although I think the distinct possibility that a much greater majority of people probably doesn't (why should they?) goes a long way towards explaining why a lot of fanfiction falls short of my expectations. I should keep in mind that the fault is in my expectations, not the work itself.

...

Also, I feel like this is the sort of thought that could start a very interesting conversation on Tumblr. But there's no way I'm entering that cesspool myself. If you have and also think it could, feel free to share over there (but please let me know?).

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* I always prefer works that are done and finished over ongoing, probably because any potential disappointment is also done and finished. And that's, um, unfair towards life. :P

Comments

[heliopausa]

Interesting! :)
Yes, I come to fanfiction to have the interesting corners filled in,the background stories brought into the foreground, the possibilities of the characters explored. Yes, I think that means that fanfiction is starting from higher ground than original fiction - the characters/worlds/situations are already known to be intriguing, at the least, and the fanfiction faces the challenge of not dropping too markedly from that point, and preferably taking off from there, and hitting new heights. Good point!

This also tugs at part of my reservation about real-person historical fiction - it should at the least not sell short the real life it starts from.

I don't see the parallel with amateur sportspeople - I think what people enjoy most with local amateur sportspeople is the sense of human connection.Or is that what you meant by "more", rather than more speed, more height, more strength?

[marmota_b]

Um. I think I'm going to use your mention of human connetion as a sounding board and say that what I mean is this: When rooting for someone like that, you do it for the emotional connection, but at the same time, unconsciously, you end up holding them to what's basically mythically unattainable standard, precisely because of the emotional connection? Holding them up to a standard that's not quantifiable, so actually much higher than what you expect of the professionals.
Which is where I see the connection with fanfiction, I think: I think readers of my ilk kind of want all fanfiction to be... mythical. To do more than just tell a story in a well-worded way? And obviously we expect that from professionals, too, but because now there's also the element of fandom community involved, it's that, square. (In the mathematical sense; I'd say it this way in Czech where it would be clearer. :D)

[heliopausa]

Mmmm... yes, I think I follow your meaning when you say that the human connection means you hold them to a higher standard - perhaps because you/we to some extent identify with them, and so you/we are part of the falling short, if such falling short should happen. It matters so much more when it's family! :)

(In English, it's more grammatical to say "it's that, squared"; the past tense makes it clear that the mathematical operation has been completed.)

[marmota_b]

Also, this reminds me of the problem of so many adapatations of works in other media being unsatisfactory. Because, obviously, they usually have to pick, or interpret, and that inevitably makes it less of a "square" and more of a ... is it "square root"? Funnily, they don't teach you stuff like that when they teach you a foreign language. :D
... anyway, it makes me think fanfiction is actually in a better position than adaptations, and makes me wonder if any adaptation has ever taken more of a fanfiction stance of just expanding on a smaller element of the original work instead of trying to condense the whole of it? (ETA: It would probably not be satisfactory as an adapatation, either, but it would at least be interesting. :D)

[heliopausa]

I'm not sure what the question is in the first part here. Is it just the maths vocab? - in which case... two squared is four; the square root of four is two. If you mean the metaphor, it doesn't really work backwards in English - and yes, there's so much in a good novel that it's an almost impossible task to transfer the whole into another medium. Short stories and novellas are more possible. Have you read "The Dead", by James Joyce?

But as for adaptations using just one small part of the original, rather than trying to deal with the whole - oh, certainly! (But would they then be called adaptations?) Let me consider, to find an example....

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Or do you decline to call it an adaptation?

[marmota_b]

It's a play based on a play. I'd call that officially "sanctioned" fanfiction. :D But yes, something following that line is probably what I had in mind.

And yes, I did mean the terminology. You get used to it in your native language by constant school use. But if you learn another language from a basic philological-cultural-linguistic point of view, math & physics &c terminology is conspicuosly missing from your vocabulary...

[heliopausa]

Re: maths vocab - I should have added the square of two is four, two cubed is eight; the cube root of eight is two and the cube of two is eight; after that it's just two to the power of four... or two to the fourth power etc. For unknown or undefined, we say "to the nth power", pronounced "enth".

[marmota_b]

Belated thanks for that clarification. :D Czech has a similar thing to "to the nth power", actually. The terminology - for all levels of the operation - is, literally translated, something like "onto the nth", and you might specifically say, colloquially, "onto the nth" to say that something is something to a huge amount. ETA: I mean, it's a mathematical term that's filtered down into colloquial metaphorical usage.

[marmota_b]

Even more belated: yes, I have read "The Dead".
I don't think Joyce in his more advanced stages is something I can stomach fully, but The Dubliners were a huge revelation. Also something that works a lot better in English than it might in other languages. But that's how it goes.

[heliopausa]

I mentioned "The Dead" as an example of a short story translating well to the movie form, as opposed to a full-length novel. There's a 1987 movie of it. (Errr... there's also a horror movie of the same name. :D )

[marmota_b]

I've read somewhere - I think it was in fact a Tumblr analysis of The Fury Road :D which quoted a film theory teacher or something - that a film's structure should be more like a short story than a novel. Which made a lot of sense. So, overall, yes. :-)
Novels translate better into TV miniseries, I think. Prime example: the super-popular Czech humourist novel(-length book) Saturnin. It was turned into a miniseries and a film at the same time (series cut down to a film). The film isn't bad and works well on its own (when I first saw it, I had no idea that was how it came to be), but the series retains the feel of the book a lot better.

[heliopausa]

That sounds very interesting - thanks!