I started reading the Harry Potter books when I was eight. I started reading fan fiction because I wanted to read more about characters I already knew. Fan fiction is written by amateurs imitating their favourite writers, even if mostly to poor effect. All writers imitate other writers, but only writers of fan fiction preface their stories with warnings: ‘I own not, you sue not’ or ‘If I owned Star Wars, Jar Jar Binks wouldn’t exist.’ (Others write the theft into their titles – ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’.) I read fan fiction online in the nether regions of the web, but once you start looking you find it everywhere: Arthurian legends, fairytale adaptations, a ‘sequel’ by a different author, historical novels, RPF (Real Person Fiction). Geraldine Brooks’s March, a novel which sees the events of Little Women from the perspective of the girls’ father, and which won the Pulitzer Prize? Faaan fiction.
At the London Review of Books, the sordid confessions of an ex-fanfiction addict.

175 Notes/ Hide

  1. asongforjuliet reblogged this from ekwannox
  2. gordblossom reblogged this from themonicabird
  3. ieatyoungchildren reblogged this from themonicabird
  4. notasecond2waste reblogged this from themonicabird
  5. ekwannox reblogged this from listenheremeow
  6. listenheremeow reblogged this from themonicabird
  7. thepainfullyobvious reblogged this from themonicabird
  8. legallyblained reblogged this from exitpursuedbyclare
  9. exitpursuedbyclare reblogged this from themonicabird
  10. ifiwerescience reblogged this from vyalava
  11. supermandy reblogged this from themonicabird
  12. kmighty09 reblogged this from themonicabird
  13. vyalava reblogged this from themonicabird
  14. zlovell reblogged this from themonicabird
  15. themonicabird reblogged this from millionsmillions
  16. churchofnaomily reblogged this from thestarksneedlifealert
  17. thestarksneedlifealert reblogged this from lizardwriter
  18. lizardwriter reblogged this from osito-panda
  19. bitcheswithbooks reblogged this from millionsmillions
  20. infamoushero reblogged this from sssammich
  21. linksnchains reblogged this from millionsmillions
  22. signalspells reblogged this from millionsmillions