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.
The first few Trek novels -- which were written by SF/F authors who had published other work but had a fondness for Original Trek -- were published before Next Gen was a glimmer in anyone's eye. Because of this, they could do almost anything in those books, and some of the old books were fabulous. John Ford's Final Reflection, for instance. But once the Next Gen show had been established the licensor cracked down on the plots and those books became a lot less fun in every possible way.
And yes, there are limits on the novels. I did write a Buffy short story (Summer Vacation), and I so badly wanted to write a Buffy novel -- it was the only time I've felt that I could, because I knew who all the characters were at the beginning of the second season; the cause and effect changes didn't start to fluctuate until season 3, imho. But... at the time, well into Season Three, the bible had become this: There was no Mayor. There was no Faith. Angel had kind of ... not died somehow, and they were all living in second season Sunnydale. And in that amorphous atmosphere, I couldn't see the clarity or sharpness of the characters. The short story was enough; I really enjoyed writing it, I appreciate the right of the licensor to make decisions on the characters, and I disagreed with some of their decisions -- but it taught me a lot, and I'm not sorry I did it. I would have written more, as I've said elsewhere, but as a Buffy story, I didn't get positive feedback from it until long after it had been published, and this clearly indicated to me that whatever it was that I saw or that spoke to me in that show wasn't what was speaking to other readers.
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 ;).
I consider what's done with source to be as important as the source. Myths, religion, fairy tales -- the reason they work as source material is that they're in theory part of the greater public consciousness. So any reworking of the elements takes that greater awareness and subverts it, or modernizes it, casting it in a way that sheds light on the here and now from the vantage of the greater mythic scope.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 12:14 pm (UTC)The first few Trek novels -- which were written by SF/F authors who had published other work but had a fondness for Original Trek -- were published before Next Gen was a glimmer in anyone's eye. Because of this, they could do almost anything in those books, and some of the old books were fabulous. John Ford's Final Reflection, for instance. But once the Next Gen show had been established the licensor cracked down on the plots and those books became a lot less fun in every possible way.
And yes, there are limits on the novels. I did write a Buffy short story (Summer Vacation), and I so badly wanted to write a Buffy novel -- it was the only time I've felt that I could, because I knew who all the characters were at the beginning of the second season; the cause and effect changes didn't start to fluctuate until season 3, imho. But... at the time, well into Season Three, the bible had become this: There was no Mayor. There was no Faith. Angel had kind of ... not died somehow, and they were all living in second season Sunnydale. And in that amorphous atmosphere, I couldn't see the clarity or sharpness of the characters. The short story was enough; I really enjoyed writing it, I appreciate the right of the licensor to make decisions on the characters, and I disagreed with some of their decisions -- but it taught me a lot, and I'm not sorry I did it. I would have written more, as I've said elsewhere, but as a Buffy story, I didn't get positive feedback from it until long after it had been published, and this clearly indicated to me that whatever it was that I saw or that spoke to me in that show wasn't what was speaking to other readers.
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 ;).
I consider what's done with source to be as important as the source. Myths, religion, fairy tales -- the reason they work as source material is that they're in theory part of the greater public consciousness. So any reworking of the elements takes that greater awareness and subverts it, or modernizes it, casting it in a way that sheds light on the here and now from the vantage of the greater mythic scope.