Fiction or Fanfiction?
Aug. 14th, 2008 02:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arnheimsdomainPicking up on something that came up in one of the workshops at SqueeFest, I was surprised to learn that Alexandre Dumas' serialised Musketeer novels were based on the "Mémoires de M. d'Artagnan" by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras, themselves an embroidered version of the real d'Artagnan's life (Charles de Batz-Castelmore).
So how does Dumas' work differ from the subsequent adaptations for the films, credited to his 'original' (despite his own open acknowledgement of Courtilz)? By reputation, perhaps based on more effective distribution, or substance - the "value added" in his ideas? Does this make 'good' fanfiction with its own literary value or invention more valid than that which simply recycles characters in predictable ways?
If so, does the apt but arguably token appearance of the character in Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac" have its own merit? What is the difference between such story development and fanfiction? Perhaps only the currency of legal protection on the base work and characters? Was the 'intellectual owner' of D'Artagnan as a character the man himself, Courtilz who invented many of his exploits, or Dumas who made him legendary? Is fanfiction necessarily pirated art, stolen goods?
Of course, if you can claim your work is 'parody', you are on safe moral (if not legal) ground and the hack 'creatives' of the world make livings by stealing popular work and changing just enough details to avoid legal action ('Relic Hunter' is on the box right now, what is that to 'Tomb Raider', affectionate homage?). Is fanfiction actually more honest by not changing the names? I think most fanfic writers I have read could write an uncharacterised, cliche-ridden 'by the numbers' episode of the current series butchering 'Flash Gordon' with their eyes closed (mmm, actually, maybe that's how it's done!), they would just face prosecution intead of remuneration unless they got it approved by the licence-holders within the industry first.
The many adaptations of Ian Fleming's Bond have mostly been licensed, from the recognisable and 'authentic' Colonel Sun by Kingsley Amis, through Gardners' extensive and generally well respected 80's modernised reworking (which I believe set the tone for the post-Roger Moore era of films and thus rescued the franchise from its own self-parody) to the Young Bond novels which apparently aspire to consistency with the originals, but which perforce are well removed from them in content and setting. 'The Man from UNCLE', Napoleon Solo was a Bond villain originally adapted with Fleming's blessing before descending into parody. If the legal rights argument holds, doesn't that make the unlicensed '83 Thunderball remake "Never Say Never Again" fanfiction? Or must fanfiction always be produced by amateur or small scale sellers - 'outsiders' to the relevant industry?
So how does Dumas' work differ from the subsequent adaptations for the films, credited to his 'original' (despite his own open acknowledgement of Courtilz)? By reputation, perhaps based on more effective distribution, or substance - the "value added" in his ideas? Does this make 'good' fanfiction with its own literary value or invention more valid than that which simply recycles characters in predictable ways?
If so, does the apt but arguably token appearance of the character in Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac" have its own merit? What is the difference between such story development and fanfiction? Perhaps only the currency of legal protection on the base work and characters? Was the 'intellectual owner' of D'Artagnan as a character the man himself, Courtilz who invented many of his exploits, or Dumas who made him legendary? Is fanfiction necessarily pirated art, stolen goods?
Of course, if you can claim your work is 'parody', you are on safe moral (if not legal) ground and the hack 'creatives' of the world make livings by stealing popular work and changing just enough details to avoid legal action ('Relic Hunter' is on the box right now, what is that to 'Tomb Raider', affectionate homage?). Is fanfiction actually more honest by not changing the names? I think most fanfic writers I have read could write an uncharacterised, cliche-ridden 'by the numbers' episode of the current series butchering 'Flash Gordon' with their eyes closed (mmm, actually, maybe that's how it's done!), they would just face prosecution intead of remuneration unless they got it approved by the licence-holders within the industry first.
The many adaptations of Ian Fleming's Bond have mostly been licensed, from the recognisable and 'authentic' Colonel Sun by Kingsley Amis, through Gardners' extensive and generally well respected 80's modernised reworking (which I believe set the tone for the post-Roger Moore era of films and thus rescued the franchise from its own self-parody) to the Young Bond novels which apparently aspire to consistency with the originals, but which perforce are well removed from them in content and setting. 'The Man from UNCLE', Napoleon Solo was a Bond villain originally adapted with Fleming's blessing before descending into parody. If the legal rights argument holds, doesn't that make the unlicensed '83 Thunderball remake "Never Say Never Again" fanfiction? Or must fanfiction always be produced by amateur or small scale sellers - 'outsiders' to the relevant industry?
