I can definitely see the extra status that being officially published confers, although, heh, sometimes people are sued anyway (Wind Done Gone).
A bit off topic, but I've always found movie tie-ins or TV-related novelizations to be incredibly boring, even though I enjoy fan fiction. I think part of it has to do with the legalities -- as a reader, I know that whoever is writing the official tie-ins doesn't have as much license, and as such, the book is generally not going to dramatically change the canon of the universe. No one is going to be killed off permanently or fall in love with someone unthinkable, etc. But I think that has more to do with keeping a franchise alive than with the intrinsic nature of a published tie-in.
I've always wondered about the slippery slope -- most people would consider fairy tales and myths public domain, despite the fact that there are authorial sources for some. Some people would consider "famous" novels or stories of the past few centuries public domain, while others don't, ergo lawsuits against Wind Done Gone. And most people would consider contemporary novels solely the author's property. Hee, this is probably what I would have ended up writing my thesis on had I not gotten sucked into anime ;).
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-10-19 10:35 pm (UTC)A bit off topic, but I've always found movie tie-ins or TV-related novelizations to be incredibly boring, even though I enjoy fan fiction. I think part of it has to do with the legalities -- as a reader, I know that whoever is writing the official tie-ins doesn't have as much license, and as such, the book is generally not going to dramatically change the canon of the universe. No one is going to be killed off permanently or fall in love with someone unthinkable, etc. But I think that has more to do with keeping a franchise alive than with the intrinsic nature of a published tie-in.
I've always wondered about the slippery slope -- most people would consider fairy tales and myths public domain, despite the fact that there are authorial sources for some. Some people would consider "famous" novels or stories of the past few centuries public domain, while others don't, ergo lawsuits against Wind Done Gone. And most people would consider contemporary novels solely the author's property. Hee, this is probably what I would have ended up writing my thesis on had I not gotten sucked into anime ;).