Huh. Interesting! For my part, I never considered it not public. I post my fanfiction to the Internet. I won't be arrogant enough to think much of the public is interested in reading it, but a few do and all can. And even the more restricted zine or mailing list publishing strikes me as much like the APAs of old -- a small audience, but still a public one.
It's not professionally published -- that would be treading the wrong side of the deference line, as well as weakening a fair use legal defense, and anyway no reputable publisher would touch it. But it's still out there, and being read and critiqued by fans of the original work and the occasion fan of the fannish writer.
Fanfic is even covered in the press periodically (though usually not well.) It's even being studied academically, though that's just beginning to branch out from a sociological "why do these people behave like this?" method into consideration of fanfic as a text like any other. I guess I'm not clear what the criteria for public are?
The most awkward part is that the creators themselves tend to avoid seeing it, as you say, so there can't be a response from them directly. But as with most book reviews, fanfic isn't really aimed at a conversation with the author, it's aimed at a conversation with the other readers about the author's work.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 07:58 am (UTC)It's not professionally published -- that would be treading the wrong side of the deference line, as well as weakening a fair use legal defense, and anyway no reputable publisher would touch it. But it's still out there, and being read and critiqued by fans of the original work and the occasion fan of the fannish writer.
Fanfic is even covered in the press periodically (though usually not well.) It's even being studied academically, though that's just beginning to branch out from a sociological "why do these people behave like this?" method into consideration of fanfic as a text like any other. I guess I'm not clear what the criteria for public are?
The most awkward part is that the creators themselves tend to avoid seeing it, as you say, so there can't be a response from them directly. But as with most book reviews, fanfic isn't really aimed at a conversation with the author, it's aimed at a conversation with the other readers about the author's work.