eldritchhobbit

I invoke Sturgeon's Law: ninety percent of everything is crud! So why hold fan fiction to a separate standard?

Seriously, I've read very shoddy professional fiction, and I've read fan fiction that far exceeded the quality of the text that inspired it. But I'm most concerned by the idea, the principle of the thing: we as a species have been involved participants in communal storytelling since the first campfires were built (not just centuries, but millennia before copyright). The whole medieval Arthurian tradition is one long parade of fan fiction. I don't think it's any surprise that some of the best storytellers of our age - the Neil Gaimans and Lois McMaster Bujolds and Joss Whedons - appreciate this and support transformative works.