A really interesting article by an author who found his words and ideas incorporated into a Broadway play, and began to see that they weren't necessarily "his" words at all.
I think I'm mixed up about the difference between derivative and transformative fiction and how that applies to fanfic. Seems like the New Yorker author would look down on fanfic as un-creative because we call it derivative (don't we?).
She writes, "Isn’t that the way creativity is supposed to work? Old words in the service of a new idea aren’t the problem. What inhibits creativity is new words in the service of an old idea."
Are fanfic stories new ideas, or simply new words in service of old ideas? I feel like I could read it either way, but I'd been thinking we were more transformative than that.
I believe that we are. We take a universe that is already created and the characters that populate it and we extend their lives beyond what the creators have allowed them to be expressed.
Not to play with the wording, but rather than "new words in the service of an old idea", I think fanfiction is "old idea in the service of new words", if that makes any sense.
As Sarah T said in your journal, the author is definitely not using the terms in their legal senses. I agree with you that he probably would look down on fanfic -- but then he also seems to believe that just because he transcribed a television interview, reproducing the interview takes "his" words, so I wouldn't consider him the final word on this.
I firmly believe that there are no new stories, so I'd say that creativity exists in new words as well as old -- it all depends on the quality of the storytelling, not on how closely we can tie one particular text to its predecessors.
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She writes, "Isn’t that the way creativity is supposed to work? Old words in the service of a new idea aren’t the problem. What inhibits creativity is new words in the service of an old idea."
Are fanfic stories new ideas, or simply new words in service of old ideas? I feel like I could read it either way, but I'd been thinking we were more transformative than that.
From:
no subject
Not to play with the wording, but rather than "new words in the service of an old idea", I think fanfiction is "old idea in the service of new words", if that makes any sense.
From:
no subject
I firmly believe that there are no new stories, so I'd say that creativity exists in new words as well as old -- it all depends on the quality of the storytelling, not on how closely we can tie one particular text to its predecessors.