Re: "Thursday Next" Quarantine Lifted?

"Thursday Next" Quarantine Lifted? by Calista on 2012-11-05 23:20:00 UTC Reply

Recently I checked out Jasper Fforde's web site. His very good "Thursday Next" series is on the list of quarantined continua on our wiki. However, apparently things have changed since then.

What are your thoughts on Fan Fiction and people making Thursday Next RPG's on the internet?

Specifically this bit:
December 2010: After speaking to many Fanfictioneers and understanding the genre a litttle better, I have modified my opinion since writing the following. I still have no interest in reading any of it, but would regard it more as a celebration of writing rather than simple copying. The bottom line is that all creative writing is good, wherever it is, whoever does it, and whatever the subject, and nobody should attempt either conciously or unconciously to discourage those who wish to express themselves. Question: Is the Thursday Next series itself Fanfiction? Does the act of publication define Fanfiction? And how do we properly define publication?

Interestingly, the Q&A also has the initial statement about his preference for original writing.

If we do conclude that this means Fforde is okay with fan fiction, here's what I suggest:

Since the author has tentatively allowed fan fiction, but still prefers original writing, we should make an agreement that anybody who does a mission to Thursday Next should also, once per Thursday Next mission, write something that is not fan-fiction--a PPC interlude, an original story, or even an essay or a poem. That way we get to fix the bad fanfic, and we still honor the author's preferences.

Perhaps in-world this could be represented by some sort of portable, small-scale creativity shield generator that agents could carry to prevent ficverse fusion events; the generator would be a one-use item created by taking data from a newly created continuum which has never been published. Since Thursday Next is already a massive crossover, some precaution probably needs to be taken to prevent continua from uncontrollably merging at the Thursday Next nexus.

Thoughts?

Re: "Thursday Next" Quarantine Lifted? by Anonymous on 2012-11-06 17:42:00 UTC Reply

I hadn't realized the quarantine was officially lifted, but I certainly got that impression after reading the latest book, One of our Thursdays is Missing, where the island of Fan Fiction is portrayed as a sort of perpetual celebration of writing and enthusiasm.

You know, a Jurisfiction exchange agent would probably be a really interesting character for a PPC agent. I might do that.
I was under the impression by SingingTheThunder on 2012-11-06 09:09:00 UTC Reply

That the quarantine was self imposed and the consensus was that the meta nature of the continuum would cause problems.

Nay. by doctorlit on 2012-11-06 16:05:00 UTC Reply

'Twas in response to the post Calista linked, before this more recent edit. While Fforde didn't outright ban fanfiction like some authors, his stance against it still made it an "author's wishes" situation, which the PPC of course wanted to respect.

I'll happily update the wiki to reflect this brave new world, if no one has any objections.

Hurray! by EileenAlphabet on 2012-11-06 08:47:00 UTC Reply

I am currently reading the series for the first time (I am at Something Rotten) and I thought it would be awesome to do a mission in. Because of the meta-nature of the 'verse, the agents would have to bring in a blatant (and extremely whiny) author self-insert. Natually, learning that the continuum was quarantined made me go sulk in a corner.
It would be wonderful if the ban was lifted.

As for your idea about having to do an original work every time one does a mission in the continuum, I appreciate the idea, but I think having different rules for writing in different continua (other than whatever the different in-universe rules might dictate) could make things very complicated very quickly.
After all, Fforde is not the only author who has lifted a ban on fanfiction (Anne McCaffrey springs to mind) or who would prefer people writing their own fiction (can't think of an example here, but we could very well be talking about a lot of authors). We would either have to have to use the same rules for everyone or be facing, to my mind anyway, a serious inconsistency.

I agree, no rules by Calista on 2012-11-06 16:39:00 UTC Reply

I really wouldn't want to make it an absolute rule. Having rules beyond the usual constitution and common sense things has never been our thing. It'd be more of a voluntary honor-the-author deal, kind of like throwing a dollar into the coffee fund at the office. :)

Re. a new piece of technology to take into metafiction or massive crossovers, using original writing as a way to keep fusion events from happening--I guess that's up to the people doing the missions.