Open Road Song

I was actually thinking about this myself in regards to a different post (can't read bookshop's because I know her personally irl and sort of hate her) in which the writer was discussing why fanfic is a good thing, and how it allows us to develop our feelings for and critique the works we're writing about. (convoluted sentences ftw) *That* got me thinking about how I used to be really into the VC--I forced my bffs to read them so I could have someone to discuss them with (before I ever thought of trying to find/write fanfic). Then when I realised "hey, maybe there's fanfic for this!" I was so excited--until I saw that not only did Anne Rice disapprove of it, but that she had filed lawsuits and been sort of crazy about the whole thing. And after that I just...lost interest in the entire universe. I had loved it passionately--but to know that the person who had created it not only discouraged but punished others' creative endeavours made me feel like that universe had stopped expanding and was stagnating. I think there's only a small difference between writing an essay on a book, and writing fanfic--in both the writer is taking clues from the text and trying to interpret them to figure out characterisation/motivation/etc. And for an author to disapprove of fanfic feels, to me, like a.) they're discouraging any interpretations of their text or b.) they've only read a few badfics and made ignorant generalisations based on them. Either way, that's not the sort of person whose stuff I want to be reading. And the thing is, I didn't go through that thought process with Anne Rice. I didn't *decide* I wasn't going to read her stuff any more--I just lost interest. *shrug*

Rambling comment is rambly. But essentially, while I think such a broad statement is sort of silly, I get the reasoning behind it. There are lots of stories out there; why waste time reading one by someone who places stipluations on how you enjoy your experience of their work?