Dear Ms Gabaldon

[heidi]

re: your dismissal of fan-created works, which was weird, dismissive of Pulitzer prize winning works and other classics, and most frustrating to me, inaccurate regarding the legal issues (although, of course, what you feel is ethical or not is a decision that is entirely your call)

I have a question.


What would the first minute of the May 3 episode of Chuck, which sets the show to the classic opening of Hart to Hart, be?

What about when Richard Castle wears a costume from Firefly?

Or, in fact, all of Studio 60, which is a names-changed-RPF of Saturday Night Live?

What about when Supernatural names a demonic character after a character from Good Omens?

Where does all that factor into your world-view?


I really want to address the discussion of help_haiti, but I am having a hard time doing so without crying. People - not just fanfic writers and fanartists and vidders and iconers but novelists and musicians from around the world - got together to do something positive to help people in need.

I was involved in both help_haiti and Helping Haiti Heal - both were grass-roots projects and collectively, they raised about a quarter of a million dollars which went to Partners in Health, UNICEF, the Red Cross, Red Crescent, Yele and over a dozen more organizations. We sent five-plus planes full of supplies to Haiti this spring because of fannish efforts.

And both projects included thank-yous from fan-creators and notable authors. For example, Helping Haiti Heal's thank-yous included wizard rock memorabilia, and a signed set of Harry Potter books donated by JKR. It included fanart, and signed books from Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Naomi Novik donated the ability to name a character in an upcoming book of hers, and Melissa Anelli personalized copies of her book about the Harry Potter fandom.

Fans and creators came together to do something wonderful, and it helped lives.

Now, how is that like seduction of someone's husband (and, btw, doesn't it take two to tango? Nobody cheats unless they want to.) or for (oh my God I cannot believe this comparison) hell's sake how is that like rape or even taking flowers from a garden?

No, no author has to be as understanding of her fans' urge to create stories or art or vids based on her works as JK Rowling has been.

But I can think of at least a dozen women who, in the last decade, have written (or beta read) Harry Potter fanfic and gone on to publishing contracts and best-sellers and sales of the movie rights to their books - and I know a dozen more who're going to reach that milestone in the next year or two. Yes, people would still be writing Harry Potter fanfic even if JKR wasn't relatively okay with it, because it would still be transformative and fair use and since fair use is a lawful use of copyright...

And that's a good thing.

Oh, and I have one last question for Ms Gabaldon.

When people make icons that include bits of your book covers, how do you feel about that? Because I am really kind of curious...

Comments

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Gene Roddenberry would have been cheering you on, hon. He LOVED the fans, every crazy ear-wearing batleth-waving fic-writing filk-singing porn-drawing one of them. They were what kept his dream alive until he could manage to talk Paramount into putting the franchise back into production, and he freely admitted that without the likes of Devra Langsam and Joan Winston and Shirley Maiewski and Allan Ackerman and Sondra Marshak, there never would have been another second of filmed Trek, let alone eleven movies, five television shows, and God alone knows how many novels and graphic novels and whatnot.

That's why there's this big scene in ST: TMP on the rec deck with all these suspiciously non-military looking people among the extras. They were the First Fandom of Trek, Shirley and Joan and Susan and all the others who had kept plugging away with fanzines and newsletters and cons. He owed everything to them, and he knew it, and that scene was his way of saying thanks. And as much of a schmuck as Gene Roddenberry could be in his personal life, he had the class to give his fans their moment in the movie because he knew that without them, Star Trek would have died after two seasons and no one would have remembered or cared.

Diana Gabaldon should be so lucky.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

That's why we'll always love Gene and the legacy he left behind. Whatever his shortcomings, he had one hell of a vision, and I'm glad he recognized the immeasurable contributions of the fans. I know which scene you're talking about in ST:TMP. I hadn't realized who those people were, and that's just awesome. Makes me proud to be a lifelong Trekkie.

Diana Gabaldon WON'T be so lucky, and her books will eventually be forgotten as the forgettable things they are.