Diary of a Mad Editor

Archive for February, 2008

I Refuse to Accept Your Denunciation of my Rejection of Your Denunciation

Anyone happen to catch the most recent debate between Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton?

Well, if not you didn’t miss much. However, there was one moment in the debate that had me rolling my eyes. Obama was asked to respond to Louis Farrakhan’s unsolicited endorsement of his candidacy with respect to how it impacted Obama’s standing with Jewish-American voters. Obama made it clear that he did not share Farrakhan’s views and clearly denounced Farrakan. Clinton responded that he should go one better and “reject” Farrakhan.

When Obama said in the previous debate that “we are entering silly season,” he couldn’t have spoken more truly. As Clinton’s poll numbers have dropped, her attacks have become more desperate and ridiculous. This little tussle over words is just the latest example. Now I don’t care whether you support Obama, Clinton, McCain or the tooth fairy, but even the staunchest Clinton supporter would have to concede how stupid this line of attack is. If you are going to attack someone over the use of a particular word, at least know what you are talking about!

Reject: to refuse to accept. i.e. I reject your poem because it sucks donkey dick. I reject your offer of assistance because I don’t trust your motives.

Denounce: to speak out openly against. i.e. I denounce you as a hate-monger.

In the context of the debate, not only was Obama’s use of the word “denounce” correct, it was a much stronger condemnation of Farrakhan than Clinton’s call to “reject” him.

Not that having a better grasp of the English language automatically makes you a better leader, but it does make you a better communicator and better able to inspire the masses.

Perhaps, Hillary should invest some of that campaign money in a good dictionary. Silly, indeed!

Is it Just Me?

Is it just me, or is YouTube further evidence that the

OO OO Mary Sue, Whatever Are We Going to Do With You?

For awhile now, Marije, a fan of this blog, has been prodding me to skewer certain writers of fan fiction. I’ve resisted the call to do so — not because I have any respect at all for writers of “fanfic” but because it’s just too easy to poke fun of these pathetic losers.

Back in the 1970’s fan fiction played an important role in sustaining interest in certain franchises such as Star Trek and Star Wars. Unfortunately, what began as a genuine homage from fans in the fanzines of the era, has devolved into a cottage industry of bad and ludicrous writing stinking up the Internet. But fan fiction isn’t a bad thing just because the writing’s bad – it’s bad because it also undermines the integrity of the original work.

I’m not the only one who isn’t fanfic-friendly: writer Lee Goldberg constantly attacks writers of fan fiction on his blog. Ironic when you consider that Goldberg has written a number of “tie-in” novelizations based on the T.V. shows Monk and Diagnosis Murder — which, as far as I’m concerned, is practically the same thing as writing fan fiction. Clearly, though, there is a difference between what Goldberg writes and what some acne-faced turd on Quizzilla.com or FanFiction.net writes. It is in this difference that I find myself torn between defending the authors of fan fiction and blasting them to hell. See, Goldberg’s writings are licensed by the original creators of the characters he writes about whereas fan fictioneers are infringing on the original authors’ copyright.

One form of writing is done by professionals for commercial purposes and the other is done by delusional amateurs purely for love/self-love. Here’s the problem — now the fanfic losers want copyright protection extended to their “original” creations. This move has incurred the wrath of big media who, up until recently have been willing to leave these nobodies alone. But now, with high-profile battles between J.K. Rowling and authors of fan fiction based on her Harry Potter books and the emergence of a new group, the Organization for Transformative Works, the battle over the legitimacy of fan fiction is just getting started.

By law, fan fiction is defined as a derivative work. As such, copyright protection remains wholly with the author of the original work and not with the authors of fan fiction based on that original work.

Now, I find myself wanting to defend these fan fiction writers because I don’t like the idea of billionaire authors like Rowlings going after the little guy — afterall, aren’t these the very losers who bought Rowlings books to begin with? It seems unfair somehow. On the other hand, if groups such as the OTW are successful in their attempts to extend copyright protection to writers of fan fiction, it would open up a Pandora’s Box and not just hurt writers like Rowlings, but would hurt lesser known writers as well.

Not only would it deprive writers of the ability to legally recoup licensing fees should they choose to go after fan fiction writers, but it would open the original authors up to litigation. I recall at least one instance in which this has already happened. The well-known fantasy author, Marion Zimmer Bradley was once sued by an author of fan fiction based on her work who claimed she had infringed on his copyright. The guy didn’t have a case, but Bradley lost money defending herself. If fan fiction receives legal parity with original work, it would create a wave of frivolous lawsuits in which any author of fan fiction could claim that the original author stole their ideas. As a writer, I cringe at this very thought. Giving derivative works that kind of legitimacy would destroy any value intellectual property protection has for writers.

So, what’s the answer?

How about live and let live?

To Rowlings, I’d say, be happy so many people enjoy your books and realize you wouldn’t be rich without their love. Realize, that rich as you are, you will never be Tolkien, C.S. Lewis or even Lewis Carroll so write your books, cash your royalty checks and shut your mouth.

To writers of fan fiction: You are not exactly flattering anyone with the garbage you write. You guys make Rowling, Rice, George Lucas et. al seem like Nobel Laureates by comparison. A 14 year old kid writing fan fiction is unfortunate but forgivable, but when you’re 30 and still writing it, it is just pathetic. If you want to be taken seriously as a writer and have full copyright protection and all that good shit, write something original and worth reading. If that is beyond you, then you really need to shut your fucking mouth.