Been thinking more about this. What makes it not public is the attempt to fly under the radar of the Powers That Be, right? Or at least not actively draw their attention? Though how much that's done varies quite a bit from creator to creator. I know of at least one mailing list, read and posted to by the author, where fanfic is simply labeled "fanfic" so she can avoid reading it, but there's no attempt to pretend that it doesn't exist.
Still, it does happen. It's more like an underground newspaper, in that sense. Which, I would argue, is still entitled to do book reviews and write political editorials.
I'd rather everything were aboveboard and able to be openly discussed, but that's where that legal grey area comes in. As long as fanfic writers can't afford to be a test case, it's just easier to keep your head down and hide, in the crowd if not altogether. That also becomes a manners question -- of not endangering fellow community members, and of not forcing someone to take notice of something they were turning a blind eye to.
In that sense it's almost like a pre-Stonewall gay community. Not entirely public, but not entirely private either. But I think if it *could* be entirely public, it would be. It's when certain forms of discourse are banned or chilled that they go underground. If that then disqualifies them as discourse, I think we have the potential for a catch 22.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 09:48 am (UTC)Still, it does happen. It's more like an underground newspaper, in that sense. Which, I would argue, is still entitled to do book reviews and write political editorials.
I'd rather everything were aboveboard and able to be openly discussed, but that's where that legal grey area comes in. As long as fanfic writers can't afford to be a test case, it's just easier to keep your head down and hide, in the crowd if not altogether. That also becomes a manners question -- of not endangering fellow community members, and of not forcing someone to take notice of something they were turning a blind eye to.
In that sense it's almost like a pre-Stonewall gay community. Not entirely public, but not entirely private either. But I think if it *could* be entirely public, it would be. It's when certain forms of discourse are banned or chilled that they go underground. If that then disqualifies them as discourse, I think we have the potential for a catch 22.