In Defense of Fanfic - David Friedman’s Substack

A lot of current writing is self-published, either online or in print or kindle.

A lot of current writing is self-published, either online or in print or kindle. Much of it is fan fiction, stories set in a fictional world created by another author, often using his characters. Being a fan is seen as lower status than being an author, fan fiction as a low status literary activity. Quite a lot of what I read and enjoy is fan fiction, hence this essay. I will list what I believe are the main charges against it and try to show that they are for the most part mistaken. Most fan fiction is trash. Also true of most other fiction, as per Sturgeon’s law. The solution, as with…

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