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Annie Annie Annie
MaineWriter:
Interesting comments, Amanda.
Many have said that the screenplay for BBM is the original fanfic and frankly, I sort of like that description. Even the description of why Diana Ossana started writing it...she said she couldn't get the story out of her head, it grabbed her, etc. I know the feeling.
L
MaineWriter:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on September 18, 2008, 10:41:09 pm ---Tell you what, this is very thoughtful, Amanda, but I have a suspicion Annie's reaction isn't really about "art," or protectiveness, or even necessarily copyright infringement. I have a sneaking suspicion Annie's reaction is really about her feeling aggrieved and put-upon because she has to deal with this tripe, or, worse yet, merde, coming to her unsolicited, and from people who seem to expect her actually to praise them for their endeavors, or so she seems to be saying. Anyway, what kind of person presumes to tell an author that he could write her story better than she could? :o
--- End quote ---
Like I said, readers are an author's bread and butter. It is really a shame if she has gotten so famous that if someone writes something because the story moved him or her to and she dismisses it as tripe or merde. Certainly doesn't endear me to who and make me want to seek out more of her stuff to read.
On another list I am on, authors have been commenting on getting email from readers and how/when they should respond. The overall consensus is that such letters are wonderful and to be treasured and the authors respond to every single one.
--- Quote ---I think Lynne's "edit" is a very astute observation: Doesn't Annie have "people" (publisher, secretary, assistant) who can deal with this stuff so she doesn't have to waste her time on it?
--- End quote ---
At what point does an author warrant "people"? Again, from my other discussion group, many have lamented the fact that it is next to impossible to make a living as a fiction writer these days, and the Stephen Kings of the world should thank their lucky stars every day of the week. Annie might want to remember that, too, and keep in mind that fans like us have made it possible for her to own homes in Wyoming and Newfoundland and to be be to pay "people" in her entourage.
L
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: MaineWriter on September 18, 2008, 11:52:37 pm ---Like I said, readers are an author's bread and butter. It is really a shame if she has gotten so famous that if someone writes something because the story moved him or her to and she dismisses it as tripe or merde. Certainly doesn't endear me to who and make me want to seek out more of her stuff to read.
On another list I am on, authors have been commenting on getting email from readers and how/when they should respond. The overall consensus is that such letters are wonderful and to be treasured and the authors respond to every single one.
At what point does an author warrant "people"? Again, from my other discussion group, many have lamented the fact that it is next to impossible to make a living as a fiction writer these days, and the Stephen Kings of the world should thank their lucky stars every day of the week. Annie might want to remember that, too, and keep in mind that fans like us have made it possible for her to own homes in Wyoming and Newfoundland and to be be to pay "people" in her entourage.
L
--- End quote ---
Let's bear in mind, I wasn't necessarily defending Annie's reaction, merely offering a possible explanation for it.
Let's also bear in mind, we haven't read the stuff she was talking about, either.
I'm not sure I get the point of your question about an author warranting "people" because at least in Annie's case, she has an agent and a publisher. She already has "people." ???
It also strikes me that she isn't talking about "fans like us." Seems to me that she's probably had to deal with some real wackos.
Not to mention her reaction to "moving on Ennis" fanfics. ... ;D But that's a discussion for another thread. ... ;)
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: louise van hine on September 18, 2008, 11:11:12 pm ---I think Annie Proulx DOES have a problem with ownership, afer all, why would she have had her publisher send cease and desist orders to little old fanfic writers like me and threaten to get CBS's lawyers after me? Even though fan fiction falls in the large grey area of inellectual property law, I don't have the money to put where my mouth is so I obeyed the cease and desist order, and ultimately I am glad I wrote an original story instead of hanging it on Annie Proulx's coat rack.
--- End quote ---
Well, but if I were her and I thought you were actually profiting, or might be profiting, or might be trying to profit, off characters of my creation, I'd be pissed off, too. I don't see this as having a problem with ownership. She has every right not to have someone else make money off her intellectual property.
Side question: Does anybody know whether Baum's Oz books are still under copyright or have they entered the public domain? I just got to wondering about that since Amanda brought up Wicked.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on September 19, 2008, 09:42:28 am ---Side question: Does anybody know whether Baum's Oz books are still under copyright or have they entered the public domain? I just got to wondering about that since Amanda brought up Wicked.
--- End quote ---
Good question, Jeff. I'm not sure what the time limit is, but I would think it had passed.
Years ago, I read part of a book called Was. It was really compelling and interesting, but incredibly depressing, which is why I didn't finish it. In it, Dorothy was a clumsy, socially inept orphan who comes to live with Auntie Em and Uncle Henry in this tiny, bleak, gray, isolated house on the windswept Kansas prairie. Em and Henry are grim and taciturn. Henry starts molesting Dorothy. Frank Baum is her schoolteacher. He feels sorry for Dorothy and starts making up lovely escape fantasies about Oz to cheer her up.
This alternated with chapters about Judy Garland as a child and a man with AIDS in contemporary times.
But the Dorothy part was the most interesting. I could imagine it happening just like that. And it made me think of all the miserable, helpless kids growing up in bleak, isolated houses across the country and what their lives would have been like in the days before anybody ever talked about sexual and physical abuse. (Though of course, it still happens now.)
Well, way OT! Sorry. I just like to think of Oz as sort of America's very own fairytale (as opposed to the other, Old World ones). There are so many dimensions to it, endlessly interesting. There's also the one where the Scarecrow represents the farmer, the Tin Man is the working man, and the lion is William Jennings Bryan ...
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