Endings Part 2: Fanfic

[shapinglight]

Okay, so following on from my post about endings yesterday - which got rather sidetracked in places, must admit, but that's what happens when an author (ie. Joss) comes back and spoils a perfectly good ending - some more about endings, fanfic etc.

There have been various posts recently about the deadness (or otherwise) of the author. I haven't commented because, frankly, I can never think of anything clever enough to say, and besides, as in most things, I change my mind all the time.



For instance, while I'm fine with the concept of the author being dead in theory, when it comes to Spike's soul quest in season 6 of BtVS, if I see someone saying that they think Spike went to Africa to get the chip out and was tricked (which is definitely one way to interpret events on screen), I'd be the first to jump in and say, "That's not what happened. Joss/Fury/Espenson says..." etc, etc. (Well, when I say I'd be the first to jump in, I probably wouldn't say anything, actually, because I hate fighting with people, but I'd be thinking it, and would probably go back to my LJ and make a grumpy post about this deluded person who still won't believe Spike wanted a soul, the b*****d!).

I admit, this is a big failing of mine. I blame Post-Traumatic Joss Syndrome, and the fact that I spent the hiatus between seasons 6&7 of BtVS basically in bits, clinging desperately to anything that made the attempted rape a little less appalling - and Spike always wanting a soul was definitely one of those things. I can remember the sheer relief I felt when David Fury, in his usual charming manner, ("I wrote the damn episode, so I should know") confirmed in some interview that this was the case.

But anyway, I digress. The author is (mostly) dead etc. I do wonder, though, if this concept works so well when it comes to fanfic. I mean, it's fine for the author to be dead when it comes to published novels, say (a lot of them actually are dead), but does it really work in the same way when you have amateurs posting fanfic on the internet for their friends/acquaintances? There's an awful lot more interaction between reader and writer, after all, which can (or could, back when the Buffyverse fandom on LJ was a lot bigger, and a lot wankier) lead to some massive kerfuffles. Someone would say they don't like something in a story, the author would respond, the commenter would respond, the author's friends would pile in to back them up, the commenter's friends likewise. Hey, presto! Kerfuffle.

That doesn't happen so much now, fortunately, but to take a very minor, personal example. When I write a fic, I try to write the ending that I think is right for it. Of course I do. However, being a lot less than perfect, I don't always succeed - or I might think I have, but others don't agree. If I were a published writer back in the dark ages before the internet, the people who don't agree might write to me by snail mail and tell me so (I did that to two authors back in the 70s/80s and got responses from both, I think because I'd sort of accused (very, very politely) one of racism and the other of homophobia and they felt they had to defend themselves), but really they're so distant from me I can ignore them if I want. The same is not true, though, of things posted on the internet - well, not on LJ anyway, maybe Ao3 is different (which reminds me, I should try to post something on there), and in fact that doesn't apply just to fanfiction. Published authors/TV writers etc are right there on Twitter.

Is the author still dead when you can actually troll them on the 'net talk to them? I'm confused.