This isn't necessarily contradictory to the PPC's views by
Cat-on-the-Keyboard
on 2016-02-23 03:51:00 UTC
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Okay, I’ve been thinking about this a lot since you posted it, particularly your note at the bottom. From what I’ve seen of the PPC, our philosophy does not run counter to Lynch’s statement. If the PPC believed that deviation from canon was intrinsically bad, we would have no concept of goodfic. No fanfic will perfectly fit the canon, since fanfic is, by definition, not canon. From the missions and wiki articles I’ve read, the PPC seems to primarily target bad writing. Going “happily nuts with the elements [. . .] that you like” does not mean it’s acceptable to put zero effort into writing good characters or be too lazy to use comprehensible grammar and expect praise for your writing skills. Nor does it make it ethical to spread dangerous misconceptions about what makes a healthy relationship, how women “should” behave, or basic anatomy. Nor does it make it okay to write a completely unrelated story and name your OCs after characters from whatever canon they most resemble in an attempt to attract more people to your story (I swear people do this).
Notably, Lynch does not say there should be no fanfiction approval loop; he just wants to be left out of it. “Completely ignoring the questions of what [the creator would] want” does not mean completely ignoring the questions of what your audience wants. Readers generally want stories which are legible, don’t reinforce thought patterns which can endanger them, and aren’t cynical and manipulative (I do, anyway. This opinion is seconded by my sister). And if you’re claiming that something is fanfiction, your readers are probably expecting it to bear at least a passing resemblance to the canon, or at least to be related to it in an interesting way. If you promise the reader (for example) that a character is in the story, you are breaking that promise if none of the characters in the story bear a resemblance to that character. The PPC deals with the relationship between fanfiction authors and their readers. The relationship between canon creators and their fanfiction authors is dealt with by the creators’ lawyers.
(Also, the more I reread this quote, the more it seems like the author just wants people to stop sending him their fanfiction and is trying to be polite about it.)
Aaaaaand I just wrote this instead of working on my history project. I wonder if my teacher will let me turn it in for partial credit?
Then again, you may be wrecking an author's.entire work. by
DCCCV
on 2016-02-22 05:50:00 UTC
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I always thought about that whenever my friend decides to cross everything together. How do things go back to normal? Your stories should be in spirit, and things should generally return to status quo. How else can everyone else write a story in the same universe? Their point may be just as valid, but still...