When fanfic encounters the rest of the world

[firecat]

"Is It Time to Rethink the Rules of Fanfiction?" by AJ McDougall

Stupid title (fanfic? RULES?) for an article that wanders into some interesting areas of the topic of "what happens when creators and other entities in the mundane world encounter fanfic."

Quote which has very little to do with the rest of the article: "Actors like Orlando Jones, Michael Sheen, and Mads Mikkelsen have all said they’ve had fun wading through [Archives of Our Own] to read stories about their characters (with Mikkelsen adding he 'tremendously' enjoyed the steamier stories he found)."

[*runs off to write some steamy fic for Mads Mikkelsen*]

Comments

[amadi]

I'm also an old crusty who prefers a separation between fandom and people in the industry overall. I think the permeability created by social media has made for some sticky situations. Creatives, especially, who write and create shows and showrun, shouldn't be reading fanfic for whatever they're actively working on, just the same way that if someone sends them a spec script unsolicited they should not even open it. But I also don't like how people feel that they have something beyond a parasocial relationship with celebrities because of twitter or whatever, which entitles them to things that they have no right to demand. It just forced a young 18 year old actor in a queer-themed show to have to come out in real life, and that's not acceptable.

[firecat]

But I also don't like how people feel that they have something beyond a parasocial relationship with celebrities

Thr issue of fans presuming too much about their relationship with creators/performers has existed as long as there have been creators and fans. But Twitter or whatever does make matters worse.