Re: Fanfic and Politics: A Response

From: Ron Bauerle <BAUERLE_at_engr.erie.ge.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 16:42:53 -0400 (EDT)

>From: hk512_at_cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Joseph Delacroix)

I know you asked for replies to you not the list, but hopefully the
following will be both relevant and short enough to be OK:

>Having read the comments someone made about Gonterman's fanfic, and
>specifically the comments made about his anti-anti-CDA stance
>that was contained within it, I am driven to reply to it in a fashion
>which I reserve exclusively for such inflammatory prose.

That someone was Chris Forsyth, whom I'll be quoting in a bit...

>Sir, do you wish to say that you would take away David's right to
>free expression, just because it *supports* the limitation of said right?

I'm sure Chris can speak for himself, but I think you misinterpreted him.
Here's what he said:

>> What *is* the problem, however, is using what up until then was a
>>decent, if somewhat sub-par writing-wise, story as a soapbox to bash a
>>group that you politically disagree with. Bashing people you know, like
>>that group of AOLers that you had argued with, is tolerable, but bashing
>>an entire group you've had no contact with at all is something else.
>> A simple, polite suggestion to you, Mr. Gonterman...please edit that
>>story to get rid of the political references, or at the very least, mark
>>it on your site as politically-oriented as you did the other story that
>>put forth your views on the CDA and as you keep refering to it, 'smut' on
>>the net. Also, please at least take the time to look up the ACLU site,
>>and read the information on just what the CDA is doing, as compared to
>>what the media claims it was supposed to do.
     
>> Along with the above, I give a caution to anyone else who might be
>>thinking of including politics in their fanfics...please don't.
>>Otherwise, the flames will probably become fast and furious. And there a
>>lot of people with lower tolerance threshholds than me.

Here's my short version of what Chris said:

If you want to send a message, call Western Union.

IMHO, the issue isn't free speech vs. censorship, but rather what's
appropriate for fan-fic. Some people like/don't like TTBS/sex stuff in it,
others like/don't like politics, or religion, or violence. My feeling is
that people should be free to write what they want (I'll not get into the
copyright/trademark aspect of it), but I suggested a while ago that
somebody (preferably the authors) rate the fan-fic in terms of sex and
violence so that people like myself who care for neither could skip it.
Apparently this hasn't happened.

You could argue that it's hard to know where to draw the line on these
ratings; given the preceding two messages, we should at least add politics
to the ratings, and a previous thread (either started or continued by me)
implied grimness should be added. I suppose religion should be added too,
though it's not usually relevant to most fan-fic, at least Sonic stuff...

Just some more rambling,

RDB

Received on Wed Apr 17 1996 - 17:19:56 PDT