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The Aeneid is commissioned fanfic with the commissioner's self-insert written in. The Divine Comedy is a self-insert fanfic (of the Aeneid, at least partially) that features a girl the author crushed on, and where all the people the author disliked are burning in Hell.
These aren’t fanfictions, they’re stories utilizing the real world as the authors perceived it. It’s like saying any story whose setting is real life is “real life fanfiction.”
The other negative outcome of writers starting with fanfiction is the unnecessary lionization of worldbuilding. It’s intellectual masturbation: an effort to have everything surrounding a story without actually writing the story itself.
These aren’t fanfictions, they’re stories utilizing the real world as the authors perceived it. It’s like saying any story whose setting is real life is “real life fanfiction.”
The Aeneid is a retelling of Homer, gods and all, with some passages fellating Augustus thrown in. The Divine Comedy is a trip through fictional conceptions of Hell/Purgatory/Heaven, which aren't exactly subjects we have detailed maps of. Those are rather a bit different than writing about the goings on at your local Wal-Mart. Ditto for the tons of stories written throughout the ages that repackage local myths and legends.
The other negative outcome of writers starting with fanfiction is the unnecessary lionization of worldbuilding. It’s intellectual masturbation: an effort to have everything surrounding a story without actually writing the story itself.
You can absolutely get away with way less than worldbuilding cretins enthusiasts would have you believe.
The reader does not care about the entire royal lineage or why certain trees only grow in the MCs village or all that crap. You only need to explain things enough for them to make sense for the narrative and you can use smoke and mirrors to obfuscate the rest, the reader will fill it in.
Lore should be woven into the narrative and only enough to drive the story, going on irrelevant lore dump tangents is awful.
I swear to God I thought the bit of hair on the right was a cat ear growing.
Can someone AI Malfoid into this scene with a cat ear instead of the horn and have lost kitten play instead of man who sold the world
You can absolutely get away with way less than worldbuilding cretins enthusiasts would have you believe.
The reader does not care about the entire royal lineage or why certain trees only grow in the MCs village or all that crap. You only need to explain things enough for them to make sense for the narrative and you can absolutely use smoke and mirrors to obfuscate the rest, the reader will fill it in.
Lore should be woven into the narrative and only enough to drive the story, goin on irrelevant lore dump tangents is awful.
We might be talking perpendicularly. What I'm talking about are things like, e.g., in fantasy story, what can or can't magic do; can everyone use it or not; do either of those have implications for how society and production are structured; etc. Ditto for the effects of the technology that you're examining the implications of if you're making sci-fi. You can just wing it and do whatever, which Rowling did to a large extent, but people will notice the inconsistencies the more you write. You don't need a chapter of backstory for every background character, but if you're not putting thought into the magic or tech, then why are you writing in that genre?
It's funny how much better this fits than the original.
Malfoid is the true master of the Elder Wand. Not Voldemort, not Harry, whom he at least considered a worthy adversary. Not even Snape, his most trusted and gifted follower.
It's Malfoid, one of many disposable servants, following him mainly out of fear for quite some time, whose life he was willing to discard for little more than petty spite.
This all comes to conclusion, as the prophecy comes back to bite him. Like MacBeth, he does not bear a charmed life after all, his hopes for immortality are gone.
He finally reaps the consequences of his hubris, with even his attempt to find the perfect weapon backfiring on him, because of somebody too far below his notice to ever factor into his considerations.
On the other side, there's Potter, still trying to save everyone on his own - and a hair's breadth from failing, because he's not the true master of the wand either.
For all his efforts, perseverance, and designated hero status, trying to live up to heroic ideals simply isn't enough.
It is only by leaning on someone else, by the help of an unlikely ally, that he prevails at last. By looking beyond himself.
A lesson in humility Voldemort never cared to learn.
That's valid. I just hate the term worldbuilding because it's been co opted by people who agonize over minutiae instead of writing compelling stories. "Worldbuilding" to me is literally just writing fantasy.
"Harry! These Muggle contraptions called 'shotguns' are superb fun and a most efficient way to take down dementors! This one, the Winchester Model of 1897, even lets you hold the trigger and fire with each pump." Malfoid pumps her shotgun with a single hand. "Let's go fill VoldeFAG with dozens of 00 buckshot and laugh at him as he flops about like a fish! What fun!"
The Aeneid is commissioned fanfic with the commissioner's self-insert written in. The Divine Comedy is a self-insert fanfic (of the Aeneid, at least partially) that features a girl the author crushed on, and where all the people the author disliked are burning in Hell.
Fanfics are perfectly fine when written for fun or as a way of practicing your writing without having to take the time to plan out your world in advance. The only issue is when writers arrest their development at that point.
Exactly, or at least transforms the nature of the story well.
I think, geniunely, some books fanfictions could be vastly better than its source material.
A lot of stories could be better with a few tweaks. Rowling did not see Malfoy the way the readers did, her essay upthread is really eye opening. The way the reader perceives the character was not the way he was imagined by the author.
It's incredibly difficult to have the finished product reflect the imagined one 100% and with a work as long as HP I'm convinced certain elements were by virtue of "done is better than perfect".
Fans have the privilege of being able to ruminate on the final product without the author's own biases so they can see things the author couldn't.
imo it shows that he was a woefully underdeveloped character in the series and overall had a much better arc than Harry. Fujos figured this out ages ago and wrote reams of slashfic but it's just unpalatable for the general public (understandably). Adding romantic tension between the two just elevates the story in general.
I guess it just kind of makes people think of the stories Rowling could have told, but didn't.
Oh yeah of course. But HP holds up for what it is, a teenage story, well enough. There's no glaring issues without some nitpicking.
There are some stories, like Joseph Delaney's Beowulf which absolutely would be handled better by a willing fan who wanted to rewrite the series. Huge slack as he was literally dying as he was writing the story.
There are clear signs that the entire story was written by the seat of her pants though, to its detriment when you put any thought to it. Time turners, the deathly hallows, the limit of magic etc.
This is such a pornsick antinatalist homosexual phrase. I first heard it from a furry cow talking about a married couple having kids and I can't unsee that sicko perspective.
