(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

Allow me to give you a tour. A tour of the haunted house of wank in which I currently live.

I kept quiet when this whole thing went down (I think possibly I was camping again; all the fun wank seems to happen while I'm in the woods, which goes to show) and I'm going to admit outright I've never read one of Diana Gabaldon's books, but I think it's time I made a post. And the reason I am making a post is that it haunts me.

A couple of days ago I mentioned Diana Gabaldon to someone in a private email, and since then people keep bringing her up either in my vicinity or to me directly -- at least five or six times, all different people. It's reached the point of absurdity. And I don't want to say Diana Gabaldon haunts me, because as a person I doubt she's aware of my existence, but clearly the concept of her is bearing on my psyche at the moment.

So here's a brief primer: In May of this year, author Diana Gabaldon posted a blog entry about her dislike of fanfic. It's gone missing now, but if you want a summary and screencaps the Fandom Wank entry is here. Quotes included "While not all fan-fic is pornographic by any means, enough of it is that it constitutes an aesthetic argument against the whole notion" and "I think it’s immoral, I know it’s illegal, and it makes me want to barf whenever I’ve inadvertently encountered some of it involving my characters." (You can still see her original post comparing writing fanfic to white slavery.)

There are enough things wrong with these two lines alone that I could write an essay, but they've already been written so you can read those and get the gist of my objections. I will say that the funniest part of that wank, for me, is that an author unexaminedly condemning fanfic is also an author who nicked one of her heroes off Doctor Who. No, for real. And for lulz.

Side note: I like fanfic, I like pornography, and I support and create both (often simultaneously). If you want to write fanfic of my books you go on ahead and by god you have fun. And if you want to make them porny, well, just try to make it good porn. And do read the antipope.org entry linked above first, because it's a good primer on How Not To Wig Out Your Canonist.

ANYWAY, aside from rolling around in slightly stale wank and exorcising the haunting, the point of this post is that the latest RANDOM ACT OF GABALDON to occur in my life was Selkie asking me to ask you for fanfic. Lord John Gray is one of Gabaldon's characters (not the Doctor Who one) and while canonically gay he apparently never gets laid. So Selkie would like reccs to Lord John Gray fanfic, which you may leave here, if you know of any. Or if you want to write some! I'm not fussed.

GET THEE BEHIND ME, FANWANK!

Comments

[essayel.livejournal.com]

Oh he DOES get laid - very carefully - in - um - it didn't make a huge impression on me to be honest. I think it's Lord John and the Private Matter. In any case, he grabs the chance for some rumpy pumpy when he's in a molly house. He tops if anyone is interested. The prose was purple.

I won't write DG fanfic because I don't like the characters enough to want them in my head.

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

Dude, there is new wank this week about FA and Aja. 2003 is haunting us all.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Fiction Alley I knew about; what's Aja and what's the issue?

[lokifan]

What's the FA wank? Dear oh dear...

Btw, Sam, I've serious love for the idea of you as a grumpy dragon. :)

[frogy.livejournal.com]

On the other side of the fence... Mercedes Lackey, whos NaNo pep-talk email of the day suggest writing fanfic if you're stuck.

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

Which is hilarious in its own right.

*chuckle*

[eskanto]

that's pretty awesome.

IIRC, I haven't read any fanfic of her work, though I have read many of her books, and inserted myself into her stories from time to time in daydreaming.

link?

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Never actually read any Gabaldon, and after the various unpleasantnesses am not sure I care even to borrow one of her books from the local library.

[keestone.livejournal.com]

I've never read any Gabaldon either. Two of my sisters have, and when I asked them about the series their response was, "It's not really your style." I took that to mean it was way more Romance/porny than I generally have patience for and didn't bother. The descriptions I've now heard just make me think my sisters were right.

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

I know there's been Lord John Gray fanfic in Yuletide, but I can't vouch for the quality.

[ihlanya.livejournal.com]

Oh I don't care about Gabaldon and her white slavery.

I'm FAR more interested in the story about you wanking in the woods.....

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

I don't have the heart to write the reply I want to, about making a sound or not!

[eskanto]

I'm vaguely familiar with this woman. I read about her in Entertainment Weekly, and someone at work is a fan of the series. It all seems Twilighty to me, really. Maybe somewhat better quality, but still....

From my impression of her, this response does not surprise me.

I can see being a bit squicked about people making your characters do things you didn't intend, but on the other hand, maybe you didn't flesh out these characters to the extent that your readers would have preferred, and they are filling the gaps for themselves, and also as an exercise in creativity.

As long as she doesn't read them, why does it matter if she approves?

I'm not sure how it's "illegal" anyway since no profit is made. Isn't it fair use? IDK....

I just hate to hear authors get all preachy about fanfic. It's like people doing covers on youtube, IMO. Should the artists sue the people for performing their work? *smh*

[elisi]

I can see being a bit squicked about people making your characters do things you didn't intend
Oh but the REALLY funny thing is that her stories are FULL of sex and torture etc. I doubt anyone's written something she's not done already...

[knitchick1979.livejournal.com]

What I find interesting is she's moaning about the pornographic aspect of fanfic when her stuff is pretty damn pornographic itself. Yes, I read her Outlander series back in high school. I saw Scotland in 1745 and went "OOOO HISTORY!" (that's my favourite period of history), then found OMG PORN and wasn't too thrilled with the books.

I hate to say it but I think authors need to get off their high horses and realize there's gonna be fanfic, you can't stop it, and might as well just embrace it. It's a form of flattery after all! ;)

[supercrook.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of sex in those books. A lot. I thought the chemistry at least felt right, and I really like Gabaldon's sex scenes (I'm told they're quite hot, but I wouldn't know, and there's at least enough plot/character development to keep me reading through the grinding) but after a while they get mad skippable. Then again, I'm like that with the surgery scenes too.

[ak-alterego.livejournal.com]

Not a rec, but I totally hate when "someone" haunts me. Awhile back it was Wil Wheaton, I saw him in something and then he was brought up in several conversations with different people and THEN had a recurring guest role on The Big Bang Theory in which I was in the middle of marathoning for the first time and he's come up several times since/

[seascribe.livejournal.com]

Dude, ME TOO. Starting with the Big Bang Theory and progressing from there, most recently with Neil Gaiman standing in for him in..something. I was too busy ranting about how Wil Wheaton was haunting me to notice.

[ella404.livejournal.com]

Penknife has a fair bit of good Lord John stuff here
http://penknife.livejournal.com/tag/outlander
including, I think, some Pirates of the Caribbean crossover stuff.

Laughing quite a lot here

[(Anonymous)]

Lord John gets LAID fairly often in his own series. Just not in the one about the Frasers. (_Brotherhood of the Blade_ is one where he gets laid, at the very least)

Just saying.

(And Gabaldon's books have A LOT of sex. I actually recommended them to an anorgasmic friend and it helped her sex life tremendously. So...erm, pot, kettle?)

[jaydeyn-sitari.livejournal.com]

!! Memetic Synergy is happening to you too!

I haven't had any more Pierrot clowns haunting me, for which I am grateful.

:)
Jaydeyn

[bloodrebel333.livejournal.com]

She's - well. I read those books when I was twelve, and twelve only. Jamie Fraser's hand was nailed to a table before Jack Randall orally and anally raped him. She has more sex in her books than most longfics. I. Well. Fuck it. That's all I have to say.

[taerowyn.livejournal.com]

I find authors' reactions to fanfic fascinating. Compare Gabaldon to Merceds Lackey's letter to this year's NaNoWriMo participants out and out encouraging fanfic. (http://www.nanowrimo.org/node/3853430)

I'm one of those people who started writing fanfic before I even knew what it was (i.e. I read a bunch of a series of books and then started thinking "but what would happen if..." and then wrote those stories down.) I've published very little of it anywhere, but it was always a fun sandbox to play in and, as Lackey points out, a great way to work on your writing chops.

[abby1000.livejournal.com]

I read exactly one of her books back in the very early 90s, my boss is a big fan. Hated it and never read another, yuck. Geez, if you don't like fanfic, don't read it!

Following internet pathways...

[witchzlja.livejournal.com]

...brought me here. The web is kind of scary that way.

I sent you an email earlier about your fan-fic "Never Leave a Trace." Asked you to invite me to join the site to leave comments, but didn't give you my livejournal name to do so. It's "witchzlja". Of course, it seems I've figured out how to leave comments without joining the other site, so... whatever. Thanks again for the story!

Julie in PA (witchzlja)

Re: Following internet pathways...

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I will email you an invite code :) But you can also "log in" to leave comments using your LJ login info :)

[kallaneboi.livejournal.com]

DRAMA LLAMAS EVERYWHERE! Good grief.

I'm hiding under my blankets til tomorrow.

[kallaneboi.livejournal.com]

P.S. In no way am I implying you're a llama, either of the drama variety or otherwise. This piece of news was just the cherry on top of a day full of wank. Apologies.

[witchzlja.livejournal.com]

Richard Carpenter, creator and writer of the British TV show "Robin of Sherwood," loved that his work inspired so much independent creativity. Paul Gross, of "Due South," feels basically the same. And the majority of those fics were (are) slash. So many people are just peachy with fanfic that it makes Ms. Gabaldon sound a bit neurotic. It's a huge compliment if what you're creating captures someone's imagination so much that they can't let it go when the episode is over or the book is finished. And frankly, every episode of TV not written by the creator and every sequel to a movie or novelization is just fan fiction with a veneer of respectability.

[(Anonymous)]

Just have to say:

She's really going to complain about some made up characters being written into sex and situations when there's such a thing as 'real people fiction'? where people write about not just the characters, but the people playing them? Now that is creepy and invasive and something to complain about!

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I hope someone writes me having lots of sex.

Preferably with Alyson Hannigan.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Several sandwhiches I have encountered are tuna, this means all sandwhiches are gross and full of fish.

(Note: I am aware some people like tuna. These people are mad. MAD I TELL YOU)

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

I tend to avoid/ignore authorial wank, and read the books if I like 'em, or not if I don't. I happen to love the Outlander series, and John Grey has sex in the other books, just not the ones where he's a bit-player, but echo everyone else saying she's pretty much covered the whole sex-variance matter in the books already. With knobs on (or off, or sliding... er, yeah.)

Some fanfic *is* pretty squicky, a lot if very good, most is mediocre, but hey, at least people like her books and characters enough to take them and play with them, if I were an author I'd be a bit pleased about that :)