Is Fanfiction a Legitimate Activity for Fans? Essay

Robin Hobb (2005) defined fanfiction as the written work of fans and readers who use the author’s original characters in their own fiction without any form of consent. As an author who is against fanfiction, she wrote a full length essay to describe this genre of writing as a foul approach to the craft. On the other hand, a blogger named Justin responded to the different items Hobb listed. In this light, many have said that writing fanfiction is not a legitimate activity for fans, much less legal. As Hobb illustrated in her essay, fanfiction is definitely a genre of literature that should be heavily discouraged. Her arguments aimed to justify that legal actions should be taken upon this seemingly intellectual theft. In contrast, Justin’s arguments aimed to legitimize this form of writing, and point that fanfiction is not illegal. To illustrate the premises, the terms legal and legitimate should be defined. The online dictionary wrote that legal refers to an act recognized and permitted by law. In relation to fanfiction, there are no laws that allow writers to create fanfiction. Subsequently, there are no laws either that bans this activity. When writing fanfiction, writers are explicitly asked to write disclaimers to declare and clarify that they do not have any sort of rights over the characters by the original authors. Legitimate activities are those that are in accordance to law. The online dictionary listed that it questions the authenticity of the object or act. Fanfiction is not entirely an authentic artwork since the characters used in the stories are borrowed from someone else. However, since these rights have been wavered in the form of disclaimers, the other elements of fiction are in the hands of ‘fans and readers’, legitimizing their intellectual property over their fanfiction. The following paragraphs will present the arguments of Hobb and the responses by Justin. These are aimed to exemplify if fanfiction is truly a legal and legitimate activity for fans. How each side argues around the motion, however, does not result to a fact. This means that this is merely a deliberation between two writers regarding this issue. First, fanfiction writers compose using the author’s elements in the story: characters, settings and general plot without consent, as Hobb said in the same essay. Here, the author was trying to imply that the writers are stealing intellectual property. Justin responded to this by saying that once published materials are shared to its audience, these people become engaged and take part in its success or downfall. He also questioned why those movie tie ins are more acceptable and not categorized as fanfiction when only sponsorship sets it apart. Just because money is involved doesn’t mean that fanfiction writers are practicing intellectual theft and productions battling for movie tie ins are very welcomed. The blogger further expressed that when they sue fanfiction writers, it is as if they are suing children for drawing the many Disney characters. In this set of arguments, the legality of fanfiction is given priority. Financial affairs are usually tied with legal actions. Here, it has been said that fanfiction writers do not earn through writing this genre. These writers create stories to satisfy curiosities and fantasies that were intrigued by reading or watching an original artwork. Any writer would say that they write for entertainment first, and money maybe later. Second, Hobb implied that there is no good coming out of writing fanfiction. It does not violate any copyright law, and writers do not earn from it. Justin responded to this by stating that fanfiction creates more than possibilities along the original story lines. It allows fan communities to have a stronger bond. More importantly, it gives way to a broader creative opportunity to express themselves as writers. Many writers create stories not to earn, but simply to experience the joy of writing, something many known authors went through even before the start of their careers. By writing fanfiction, people discover other writers who have the same interests. It promotes relationships among fans, and not just their creativity. Third, Hobb said that it lowers the ratings of their works. Fanfiction is a form of identity theft. Justin immediately responded to this by saying that fanfiction can be a form of literary criticism, and that when she despises these forms of fiction, she is taking these criticisms as personal judgments. Furthermore, the author of the blog added that fanfiction widens the readers of the works of these authors, especially when the fanfiction has been well written. Hobb continued that those who read fanfiction about Harry Potter might get the wrong idea about the context of the series; Justin said that majority of those who read Harry Potter fanfiction are most likely those who have read or seen the works J. K. Rowling has authored. Fourth, the author said that fanfiction writers who create stories based from her work is in a way claiming her work, and cannot be right from any angle. Justin reacted that these writers are her readers, and that they are those who will be saying if her works have been successful or not, if she is a great writer or not. That is how the industry of writing is. One is not a successful writer if his reader was not happy about his story. Moreover, Justin added that reading is half the joy because all texts have different interpretations. Hobb can never ascertain that her readers will all have the same idea after reading her works. Everybody have different mind sets and different backgrounds, which can strongly affect how they read and understand a story. Furthermore, authors should feel privileged and honored that their works gained fanfictions because it goes to show that their stories deeply touched the hearts and minds of these people that they respond in such a creative avenue. Fanfiction writers do not tell authors that they made a mistake, and that their works are ugly. In fact, they have become inspired; they just have different interpretations. Fifth, Hobb said â€Å"the intent of the author is ignored. † The original context was changed: relationships, death, ending, and plot. Justin further emphasized that it was how the fan writers perceived their works. Nothing was written to spite the author. More importantly, nothing was written to â€Å"close† loose ends in the story. It is more of widening the possibilities in the story; the ‘what ifs’ and ‘maybes’ the audience have encountered during the course of the story. The works of the many authors are deeply loved and fully appreciated, knowing the time and effort they must have exerted to finish the novel or series of. Fanfiction writers are not holding any claim on it. Sixth, Hobb was told that fanfiction is an appropriate avenue to become a better writer. She responded by saying that if this was the truth, then karaoke creates singers and coloring books create artists. Justin just called her â€Å"ludicrous†. Among her arguments, this is by far the weakest. Of course, these are the avenues to discover talent. How else would you know if a child would be a painter if you won’t give coloring books, a musician without instruments, or a writer without books? Talent cannot be discovered without initiating its search. Seventh, to counter this, Hobb said that fanfiction is not a means to become a writer. By completely changing many aspects of the original context, this pretense of creating stories is not a good practice of writing. Justin responded to this by presenting examples like Max Ernest, Duchamps and Basquiat, Public Enemy, DJ Shadow and Negativeland, whose masterpieces must be considered as theft of intellectual property and be imprisoned. The original ideas of the authors are not stolen. They are, in way, taken into the next level. Eight, Hobb always emphasized that the original idea belongs to its creator, as Justin pointed out. However, not all plots are invented. Ideas are usually similar. They are only altered slightly, and it would seem different. In such a craft, ideas are not always new, but what matters is how it was approached and written. It usually boils down to the same theme. Critiques question craftsmanship and not the main idea alone. These points highlight that Hobb’s arguments against fanfiction are very weak and does not fully justify fanfiction as an illegal activity for fans. Plagiarism was not committed since fanfiction writers give full credit to the original authors. Moreover, these writers do not create fanfiction to earn, but simply to write and relate with other writers of the same interests. They write for growth and not selfish reasons. Hobb failed to give light to her legal and legitimate stand against fanfiction since her arguments mainly concerned personal rants and close minded opinions. This paper initially stated that the points brought out in this paper cannot fully stand on either affirmative or opposition. However, based on the given text, this paper concludes that fanfiction is a legitimate activity for fans. Works Cited Justin. November 9, 2005. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2. 5 Malaysia License. 27 December 2007 .