Amy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brightknightie) wrote2010-08-30 06:32 pm
brightknightie) wrote2010-08-30 06:32 pm
Entry tags:
Famous Fanfiction
From a conversation with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pj1228: What do you think is the most famous fanfiction story in FK, or is that not an applicable idea at all? In this case, the "most famous story" would be that which is most widely known for positive reasons. (The most infamous story would be the most widely known for negative reasons; let's not go there.) For example, if we could ask everyone in the fandom to list, off the top of their heads, ten stories no newbie should miss (regardless of faction), the one mentioned most often could presumably be considered the most famous.
I suggested "False Heart" (PG) by Susan and "Physical Therapy" (NC-17) by Ophelia as the leading candidates for fame. However, PJ was unacquainted with either of them, which blew my mind and perhaps also torpedoed my contention.
Of course "best" and "favorite" are each in their own ways much more important and worthwhile than merely "famous." (Please share your recommendations at any time!) But knowing what we share in common is also of interest.
pj1228: What do you think is the most famous fanfiction story in FK, or is that not an applicable idea at all? In this case, the "most famous story" would be that which is most widely known for positive reasons. (The most infamous story would be the most widely known for negative reasons; let's not go there.) For example, if we could ask everyone in the fandom to list, off the top of their heads, ten stories no newbie should miss (regardless of faction), the one mentioned most often could presumably be considered the most famous.I suggested "False Heart" (PG) by Susan and "Physical Therapy" (NC-17) by Ophelia as the leading candidates for fame. However, PJ was unacquainted with either of them, which blew my mind and perhaps also torpedoed my contention.
Of course "best" and "favorite" are each in their own ways much more important and worthwhile than merely "famous." (Please share your recommendations at any time!) But knowing what we share in common is also of interest.
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A few weeks ago, I read someone say that it was too bad that the old common FK archives weren't organized such that she could find her favorite pairings automatically; instead, of course, they are organized the old way, by author, and at most tagged by story type. As a newbie being introduced to fanfiction back when, I learned to seek out stories by author, not pairing, and I keep thinking that this seems to be a marked change in approach to fanfiction by fan generation. I'm not saying it's bad, just different and attention-catching.
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I do not know the present location of the JADFE archive and do not feel any lack for that. I wish them every success and happiness, but they're just not my genre.
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And since we're on the subject of top stories, in my world we'd go here: False Heart/Kind Soul, Lizards in the Grass, something by JMR, a story by Karin Welss and Marian Gibbons that is no longer available publicly, a Natalie story whose title escapes me right now, but I believe it was written by a person whose name was Giselle Marie Baxter? something by Val (Icebreakers maybe?), something by Chris Hunt, and a story by Laura Whaples that doesn't appear to be on the fkfic website, about Nick's relationship with Lacroix, something by Apache maybe? and a short story set in a park in Jerusalem by Sarah something? (Rarely Beloved, I think.)
My list doesn't have anything written later than 1996 or 1997, does it?
thank you so much for playing with me!
>"I suspect that perspectives might change based on when one joined the fandom."
Oh, yes. I'm probably foolish to have thought that even a few stories would have been persistently recommended down the generations of newbies. But some, you know... how could they not have been? :-)
>" I can't imagine that someone whose FK worldview is Lacroix would find either False Heart or Kind Soul to be "important" in the sense I believe you're talking about here."
In this case, I was using "ten stories no newbie should miss" as a backdoor to measuring fame; I thought that ten might be enough to loop in a few stories outside a respondent's own faction. Just as you say, I would have to come up with a compensation for factionalism to really get to what it is we do share beyond factions.
(It's curious, but it often seems to me that FK is at once the most and the least divided fandom I've seen.)
>"False Heart/Kind Soul"
I would start there, too. No question.
>"Lizards in the Grass"
I believe that I've never read Susan's "Lizards in the Grass"
or her "Dreaming of the Knight."Neither is online, and I've not had an opportunity to purchase the zines. I do own a copy of "A Little Knight Music" by Jude Wilson,to be read someday after I get hold of "Dreaming of the Knight" (or give up on getting it).ETA: I do own "Dreaming of the Knight" and can read "A Little Knight Music." I just forgot from long habit. I am a forgetful, but lucky, lucky reader...
>"something by JMR, a story by Karin ... and Marian ... that is no longer available publicly"
I don't know what I'd pick to represent JMR because it's been so long, but perhaps one of her AU N&Ner monkey's-paw pieces. And NLVC, the whole sequence as a package: I consider its removal the biggest loss to the fandom of that sort to date (second place: Tippi's stuff).
>"a Natalie story whose title escapes me right now, but I believe it was written by a person whose name was Giselle...?
That must be "The Price of Silence." It was her only FK fanfic. Present tense, Natalie and Lacroix, unique and memorable.
>"something by Val (Icebreakers maybe?)"
Her "Icebreaking" (pre-"Dark Kngiht," Natalie and Nick) is very good, but her "Silent All These Years" (an origin for Janette, written before AFWTD) is even better, in my opinion. Still, going for enduringly significant, "Icebreaking" is still canonical, while "Silent" got roundly Jossed (as Neonhummingbird calls it in any fandom).
>"something by Chris Hunt"
I'd go with her "The Bargain," which I asked her if I could recommend, long ago when I had her email, and never received a response (it's my third-favorite never-yet-recommended story). Her Divia one is crackerjack, too, as I recall.
>"a story by Laura W... that doesn't appear to be on the fkfic website, about Nick's relationship with Lacroix"
She's got two stories on the Former FTP Site, and I don't think I've read either. I will now; if she's on your list, I doubt I'll be disappointed by anything she's done. Thank you.
>"something by Apache maybe"
Yes, both for quality and for fair representation of the third-season characters. I might go for her "Distant Thunder," but my subjective taste perhaps does not do her writing justice. She's also got that one where Vachon sees a midnight showing of the original HL movie and murders a girl...
>"and a short story set in a park in Jerusalem by Sarah something? (Rarely Beloved, I think.)"
You're spot on: "Rarely Beloved" by Sarah W. It is my very top favorite story that I've never yet been able to get permission to recommend. (My second favorite that I've never yet been able to recommend is "Users" by Kate K.)
>"My list doesn't have anything written later than 1996 or 1997, does it?"
Both Val and Apache wrote after '97, so your "something by" can be counted for their later works, if you like. ;-)
But yes, that is, among other things, about when the volume of FK fanfiction went into steep decline. There have been good stories since -- I think you'd really enjoy some of Dorothy's -- but the total volume of stories is incomparable.
Re: thank you so much for playing with me!
Ah, yes. The "in crowd". Chatting to one another...obscurely. No way do the Jill-come-lately types like me get these references.
Well, JMR="Jamie Melody Randell", I assume. AKA Imajiru. Author of "....what's an arcsecond?", ""Vampires Are Useful For More Than Just Hickeys", and "Trio" (among others). But the rest of the references....
As you say: "each generation of fans." :(
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I try never to use anyone's real full name here on the Net where search engines can find them and cause trouble in employment and other real life concerns. In this case, I doubt that the person with whom I was speaking knows the current alias of the author in question. It did not occur to me to supply it, since we both knew what was meant, and I was not thinking of the comments as being addressed to the whole public in the same way as the post.
The unnamed series was removed by its authors from the Net in '97. They expressed strong wishes that it successfully vanish. They subsequently "de-FK"ed it and published it professionally.
There is no obscurity regarding Tippi, widely known as Wicked Cousin Tippi, except that I've omitted her last name per my custom. She is another fan author who left the fandom long ago, successfully removed all her fanfiction from the Net, and asked not to be recommended. The last time I heard from her, many years ago, she had been professionally published in an anthology.
Those fans who did succeed in removing their stories from the Net acted in a particular window of time. It is no longer possible to have their success in vanishing, as far as I know.
Some relations from a decade and a half ago retain complex personal considerations that must be respected in various ways. Caution in public forums would seem the best way with references to real people.
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Other people, of course, remain eminently googleable since their stories are archived hither and yon—but that obviously doesn't apply in the cases you mention.
Corrections
Error 1: I forgetfully misattributed Lizards in the Grass (by Karen M.) and Dreaming of the Knight (by Jude) to Susan. My apologies to all of them.
Error 2: I do own the Lizards in the Grass zine, just like I own the Dreaming of the Knight zine. I forgot. My apologies to the people who were the sources of those zines for me.
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It's probably been a very influential story! Fanfic is full of the association of Janette and jewelry, yet that's not really something we see on screen. What she wears in the present day is mainly costume jewelry, and there is never once a scene of Nick or Lacroix giving her jewelry.
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