money and fanfic

I tigged this in in mirabellawotr's LJ but then got so enamoured with own golden dew drops of wysdomme that I just thought I'd bore all of you with them as well:

The money issue is, I think, one of the most obvious and striking and also fundamental differences between fanfic and origifc. And perhaps it is the *possiblity* that any origfic on the web may be turned into a publication that is sold somehow or other that also taints (and I use the word advisedly) origfic with the brush of commercialism.

Fanfic is so wonderfully uncommercial. It swims in the interstices of capitalism. It feeds off capitalism because we need the global media to feed us with the televised or cine-screened pap we twist to our purposes (and, of course, the world-wide publishing industry) but what astounds and delights me always is the generosity of online fans: generosity of time, energy, and money too, if you count up the gifts that get sent by surface mail.

It's also testament to the power of narrative. It is as if people just can't stop themselves: narrative *will* be generated. It just sprouts up everywhere.

Whee!

selyons is back!

*does somersaults*

yet more hp reccage

mistful!! Is she genius, or what?

Dancing Queen.
I can't even rec this one. I can only stammer incoherently. The style! The wit! The pace! The short paragraphs! The Draco! The Dudley! The breeziness that suddenly topples into gorgeousness! Oh, I am so dead.

The Professional's Guide to Badgering People. I don't even know who Zachariah Smith is (I'm not in the habit of actually reading canon, good lord) but if this is him, I want to read him for ever. And I can, because there are sequels! Oh, the deliciousness of it. And the prose just zips along. The irreverence!!

Heh, and it's even got badgermonkey's name in the title. Well, half of it. (Yes, yes, I know this is a cheap shot at luring Miss D. into tigdom. Works every time, though. *snorfles*)