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"plagiarism, or a good way to encourage young writers?"
I glanced at a copy of School Library Journal at work today and saw this cover blurb:
Okay, 1)by the definition of "using someone else's work or ideas," yes, of course it's plagiarism; by the definition of "passing someone else's work or ideas off as one's own," no, of course it isn't. That clears things up, right?
2)We're not all teenagers.
I skimmed the article, and it was pretty positive, and dispelled a lot of the myths like "fanfic is uncreative" and "fanfic is all crap," which was nice. And I realize this was School Library Journal, but still, I would have liked some acknowledgement that fanfic is about more than just teenyboppers just getting into writing.
Their hook into the article was something like "when Harry met Bella; remember that time Harry Potter took Bella Swann to the prom?" To which, all I can say is "Ack!!"
An outsider's view on fandom is always amusing, in a shake-your-head, they-just-don't-get-it kind of way.
Fanfiction: plagiarism, or a good way to encourage young writers?
Okay, 1)by the definition of "using someone else's work or ideas," yes, of course it's plagiarism; by the definition of "passing someone else's work or ideas off as one's own," no, of course it isn't. That clears things up, right?
2)We're not all teenagers.
I skimmed the article, and it was pretty positive, and dispelled a lot of the myths like "fanfic is uncreative" and "fanfic is all crap," which was nice. And I realize this was School Library Journal, but still, I would have liked some acknowledgement that fanfic is about more than just teenyboppers just getting into writing.
Their hook into the article was something like "when Harry met Bella; remember that time Harry Potter took Bella Swann to the prom?" To which, all I can say is "Ack!!"
An outsider's view on fandom is always amusing, in a shake-your-head, they-just-don't-get-it kind of way.
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I suppose by the "using someone else's work or ideas" definition, then fanfiction is no more plagiarism than parody, even though I don't see people clamoring to sue Saturday Night Live or MAD magazine or the like. Now that I've actually been at this for awhile, I'm really bugged by that attitude; what they don't realize is that some of the most amazing pieces of work ever created are fan-based, work that I fully believe could reach more people as fanfiction than as an original story sitting on some shelf that might not ever see the light of day. Perhaps that isn't always the author's primary reason behind presenting it as such, but as far as I'm concerned, that's still reason enough.
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