But, when you're in an "academic" creative writing course, one of the things they ask you to do is copy other writers as a way to learn.
And it's not like "meta fiction" never gets published - books like Wide Sargasso Sea or Foe or the collections of short stories by horror authors set in H. P. Lovecraft's world. I'm sure all those authors were writing the equivalent of fan fiction before their meta stories were actually published.
The larger problem, I think, is that everyone knows about fan fiction, thanks to the internet, and can access it easily (these days). That sort of thing is supposed to remain hidden - at least until it does become acceptable for publication (and is given permission via legal and monetary settlement).
(I remember reading an article that separated the fan fiction and meta fiction along male-female lines. iow: When women play in someone else's world, it's fan fiction, and should be ridiculed. But, when men play in someone else's world, it's meta fiction, and should be published. But I can't find the damn thing. I'm thinking it might not have had a solid argument (Wide Sargasso Sea?), or I would have mentioned it before.)
Basically, I'm saying it's not like academia doesn't, at times, advocate doing exactly what fan fiction does. I suppose they just like to feel they have control of it. And, with the internet, there's still the unnerving lack of it (from some viewpoints ;-) ). It also tends to involve one of the "lesser genres" (fantasy, scifi, porn, cop shows :-p)...
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Date: 2008-03-27 06:54 pm (UTC)And it's not like "meta fiction" never gets published - books like Wide Sargasso Sea or Foe or the collections of short stories by horror authors set in H. P. Lovecraft's world. I'm sure all those authors were writing the equivalent of fan fiction before their meta stories were actually published.
The larger problem, I think, is that everyone knows about fan fiction, thanks to the internet, and can access it easily (these days). That sort of thing is supposed to remain hidden - at least until it does become acceptable for publication (and is given permission via legal and monetary settlement).
(I remember reading an article that separated the fan fiction and meta fiction along male-female lines. iow: When women play in someone else's world, it's fan fiction, and should be ridiculed. But, when men play in someone else's world, it's meta fiction, and should be published. But I can't find the damn thing. I'm thinking it might not have had a solid argument (Wide Sargasso Sea?), or I would have mentioned it before.)
Basically, I'm saying it's not like academia doesn't, at times, advocate doing exactly what fan fiction does. I suppose they just like to feel they have control of it. And, with the internet, there's still the unnerving lack of it (from some viewpoints ;-) ). It also tends to involve one of the "lesser genres" (fantasy, scifi, porn, cop shows :-p)...