The problem, I find, with talking about fic is that no generalization goes unchallenged. *g*
While I agree that for a fanfic to work, one has to have read majority of the body of work to have the underpinning assumptions down, the story itself is generally a pretty narrow topic.
I'd say that there's plenty of fic that addresses the whole of the source product, either by reinvisioning it (Kodiakke Max's In the Company of Ghosts, which spins four seasons of Farscape radically off its axis), by broadening its scope (Peg and Macedon's Talking Stick Stories set in the Voyager universe), or producing a classic "episode" of the show in written form (any one of dozens of X-Files casefiles written by people like Jill Selby or Nascent).
Certainly the bulk of fic, and the easiest to write, is the stuff that spins easily off a single moment, focusing on a single character or pairing. But it is possible to write fiction that handles the characters and the situations of the source product in as even-handed a manner as the producers do. It's just harder.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-10-21 10:01 am (UTC)While I agree that for a fanfic to work, one has to have read majority of the body of work to have the underpinning assumptions down, the story itself is generally a pretty narrow topic.
I'd say that there's plenty of fic that addresses the whole of the source product, either by reinvisioning it (Kodiakke Max's In the Company of Ghosts, which spins four seasons of Farscape radically off its axis), by broadening its scope (Peg and Macedon's Talking Stick Stories set in the Voyager universe), or producing a classic "episode" of the show in written form (any one of dozens of X-Files casefiles written by people like Jill Selby or Nascent).
Certainly the bulk of fic, and the easiest to write, is the stuff that spins easily off a single moment, focusing on a single character or pairing. But it is possible to write fiction that handles the characters and the situations of the source product in as even-handed a manner as the producers do. It's just harder.
Just my $.02, of course.