FanLib and stuff

[mhalachai]

Even I, with my head buried in the fandom sand, have noticed the recent mess over FanLib.

So I have dusted off my soap box and have some words. Keep in mind that I'm tired after an 11-hour work day and am pretty much incoherent. So I will let the linky links do my talking.

First off, I can't even begin the backstory on this one, I have some links that I think will nicely sum up my feelings on the matter:

The comm to end all comms: life_wo_fanlib

101 reasons by liz_marcs to stay away from FanLib

As proof that we will slash anything: FanLib is already generating its own advertising slash fic: "In Just Seven Fics, I Can Make You A Man" (FanLib slash, rated ... Um.) by lizbee

And something from a dude named Henry Jenkins who sets out the whole FanLib background in nice plain text and language.

---

Then, word from on high:

Cory Doctorow: In Praise of Fanfic -- in which a nice level-headed guy says something nice about us fanfic writers.

He's even so well liked that Tanya Huff/andpuff (my new saint, after having watched the first several eps of Blood Ties -- omg a fun show) points everyone in the essay's direction, without mentioning FanLib directly.

---

Then why I'm not too worked up over it:

My fandom has already been put on notice.

I speak, of course, about the Anita Blake books. If you follow my fics, you'll have noticed that no matter how annoyed I get with current canon, I can't stay away. Dawning Light, Inevitable, Switchback, etc., etc. Anyway, Laurell K. Hamilton has made some noise in the past about fanfic being disallowed, and to this day most mainstreamish fic archives won't allow Anita Blake fic in. That's fine. I can pretty much guarantee that my fandom's never going to bcome part of the mass of FanLib (Can't tell if the "Lib" here stands for Liberation, Liberty or Libel). I like it like that. Ignore me and I won't hurt the canon.

And that's not even beginning with the crossover angle to all this.

To make a long story short (too late!) I'm going to stay as far away from FanLib as possible, as it's not the sort of place I want my writing.

---

In unrelated news, I'm fascinated with the song Fulsom Prison Blues. I miss Johnny Cash.

Comments

[quicksilvereyes.livejournal.com]

Hey! How have you been?

I've gotten totally caught up in this whole FanLib fiasco somehow. It just makes me so mad. Have you seen the metafandom coverage or fandom_lawyers where I asked them to analyze the FanLib TOS? The results weren't at all reassuring. Oh, and there's also a project in the works to build a multifandom archive of our own at fanarchive.

Henry Jenkins is a professor at MIT and the most famous aca-fan. He just got back from Phoenix Rising, but in his blog, he discussed FanLib and invited Chris Williams, one of the co-founders to talk. And you know what? He accepted. After ignoring us for however long, Jenkins invites him to chat and he says "sure why not?" You should definitely check out the discussion. We're feeding Henry the questions Williams won't answer.

:P

[sabriel-0405.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of FanLib until now. Though that's not surprising. While I have read fanfic in fandoms other than ABVH, I don't do much of it. Based on the one article that I read from your links, I don't think I'd want to bother.

I loved Cory Doctorow's commentary on fanfic. I think it's accurate. However, I think it's only when you've been totally screwed and had your life threatened, like Mercedes Lackey, I believe, that you think, hmm, maybe this isn't such a good idea. If there weren't so many crazy people out there...people so willing to believe that there their idea is so unique that no one else could possibly think of it and therefore it must be plagarism. It's why Laurell can't publicly support it.

A few years ago, when I was new to LJ, I read a dust-up about a fanfic author in the BtVS world, who wanted to charge money, or at least solicit donations, to read her work. She was quickly booed off the planet.

[deepfishy.livejournal.com]

On the plus side of the FanLib explosion, I'm finding a whole bunch of interesting people and sites I wouldn't have otherwise. (Henry Jenkins, for one - I'd completely forgotten he had a blog; also, Feminist SF (blogs.feministsf.net), though they can be a bit scary at times :/...)

Also, that Locus article on fanfic cements (duct tapes?) Cory Doctorow's place as King of Teh Webbernets. He is a distant ruler, and shines from afar. Also, he wears a red cape and goggles and blogs from a high-altitude balloon (http://xkcd.com/c239.html).

I was sooo tempted to make you an 'On Notice' board with "Anita Blake Fandom", but I figure you'll have more fun filling in the slots yourself: http://www.shipbrook.com/onnotice/

I find myself missing Cash at odd times. I think I'm sort of preemptively mourning all the musicians I've only just (re)discovered - Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Lindsey Buckingham, David Gilmour - because listening to Johnny Cash's last albums reminds me that they've had a long career already and time's ticking on...

(more galling is only discovering an artist after they're dead, as was my experience with Jeff Buckley's music)

[ansku]

I've promised myself I won't even go check that site out, it sounds like a place that makes my head hurt :) I always thought the 'Lib' stood for 'library' though...

[mzlizzy.livejournal.com]

Like you I'm not too worked up over FanLib, having decided after a quick look that it wasn't for me. Thanks for the Henry Jenkins link, it's a very good read!

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Anytime.

PS Icon love. God, that man is cute.

PPS: I think that if my fandom was one of those being promoted on FL, I'd be a bit more up in arms, but as it stands, I'm on the sidelines of fandom anyway. I like it this way.

[shadow-in-eden.livejournal.com]

o.O

I hadn't heard of this, either, before you pointed it out. I just did a little poking and... man, they are smart but a lot more stupid. *shakes head* I wonder how many fell for it.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

It's weird, really. I think it's getting blown out of proportion to a certain extent, but I wanted to toss in my two cents.

And now all I want to do is write bad fanfic, baby :)

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

You can't write bad fanfic. It just might not be to others tastes.
I got your journal off ancientcitadel and now I get to read and read and read. Yippee

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

What sorts of fandoms are you interested in? I've got all my fics tagged by fandom on the right-hand side of my journal.

And welcome!

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

I love crossovers, especially Buffy/Angel, Stargate universe, Highlander, House, I'm just getting into Harry Potter (my nephew is going to lend me the books), The Sentinel, Britcom, Numb3rs, NCIS. I'm sure I could come up with others but can't think of them just at the moment. I'm not really a shipper, I like the gen stories.
Thanks for the welcome, I'm still on my L's (learner driver in Australia) in the world of journals.

[rhianona]

since the whole fanlib thing came to mass attention while I was in finals, I thank you for the links. I'm not planning in getting involved in it but I'm happy to finally know what the heck is going on. :)

[eavling.livejournal.com]

You know, some authors go in the complete opposite direction, like Baen Books which has free downloads of some of their author's published works.