Fanfiction.net is the legally gray slum of literature, overpopulated with mostly bad Alternate Universe versions of popular novels.
I go off balance at “legally gray slum” since my first interpretation is that it’s a slum with a legal requirement to make things the color gray, and then I have to sort it out.
Also, there’s probably no need to talk about fanfiction.net rather than fan fiction. Part of my problem with guessing how it ought to be phrased is that there’s no way to know whether the audience knows anything about science fiction, or likes science fiction.
I’d go with “uninspired, cliched variations on popular culture”—if the reader does know something about fan fiction, they’ll know it’s not just about novels, and that some of it’s filling in gaps rather than alternate universes.
I have to disagree. I think “art” sounds terrible here; I’m expecting ff.net to be hosting not only paintings but music and drama as well.
Here’s what you should say:
The website fanfiction.net is a questionably legal slum of derivative literature, mostly populated by uninspired, cliched variations of popular stories. Unexpectedly, however, it hosts a few works...
That sounds good, but what about the end of the paragraph?
The adventure’s protagonist, Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, is extraordinarily intelligent, curious, and rational, overlapping little with the brave but academically average Harry Potter of J.K. Rowling’s celebrated works.
Sorry, I was unclear. I was wondering if you think that “stories” is broad enough to include the things Nancy mentioned such as video games. It may be, but I’m not sure.
I think a misunderstanding still persists, because now I notice you’ve gone back to “popular novels”, while retaining “Rowling’s celebrated works”. My suggestion, just to be absolutely clear, was: “popular stories” and “Rowling’s celebrated novels”.
(If you were worried about “popular stories” not being broad enough, “popular novels” is even narrower, and definitely doesn’t apply to video games.)
No, you were clear. I’m considering sticking with “novels” though as 1) the reader probably won’t know enough about fanfiction for it to be a problem, 2) I like how it sounds this way, and 3) it’s probably true that most of the stuff on there is about books. (Maybe not though considering how much anime stuff there is).
I would say so. What is the title of the first page in every video game manual? “Story”. (At least it was back in my day.)
The narrative element of video games is what makes them suitable fanfiction subjects. The same presumably applies to any other art form which might be represented on fanfiction sites.
I don’t think your sentence is in any way misleading.
I like “art” better. My mental referent for “media” is the news media, though, and that’s affecting my preference. If thinking of “media” as meaning “news outlets” isn’t common, media could also work. Art still has an esthetic edge though.
It’s a mess because these things shift fairly quickly (I think some of them cycle in less than a generation), and there’s no way to tell how old the person reading your essay is, aside from not knowing their tastes and background.
Another thing to do is, if you refer to fanfiction.net, you may want to explicitly state that it’s a website. I don’t know how oblivious admissions officers are, and it likely varies a lot.
Yeah, Lessdazed suggested that. I made the change but most of lessdazed’s suggestions are so far only affecting my google docs version of essay since 1) I’m not completely sure how I want to use all of them and 2) I’m making a lot of edits pretty quickly.
I go off balance at “legally gray slum” since my first interpretation is that it’s a slum with a legal requirement to make things the color gray, and then I have to sort it out.
Also, there’s probably no need to talk about fanfiction.net rather than fan fiction. Part of my problem with guessing how it ought to be phrased is that there’s no way to know whether the audience knows anything about science fiction, or likes science fiction.
I’d go with “uninspired, cliched variations on popular culture”—if the reader does know something about fan fiction, they’ll know it’s not just about novels, and that some of it’s filling in gaps rather than alternate universes.
I think I’ll go with something like this:
I don’t like the word culture at the end though. I may just use “novels” despite that it isn’t entirely accurate. Do you have any other ideas?
The thing is, there’s fan fiction about movies, games, comics, etc. How about “popular fiction”? “Popular art”?
And I’m torn between ‘fan fiction’ and “fanfiction”. Wikipedia uses both in the article.
I vote for “popular art.” Wait, never mind, you already decided.
I haven’t decided. Do you think “art” is better than “media”?
I have to disagree. I think “art” sounds terrible here; I’m expecting ff.net to be hosting not only paintings but music and drama as well.
Here’s what you should say:
That sounds good, but what about the end of the paragraph?
There you can use “novels”.
So do you disagree with the following comment by NancyLebovits? or do you think “stories” is broad enough to still work?
That was posted when it read “variations of popular novels”.
Wrong passage. I was talking about specifically about the passage you quoted, at the end of the paragraph:
Rowling’s Harry Potter books are indeed novels, so the word may be properly applied: “J.K. Rowling’s celebrated novels.”
(Guess: you misread the grandparent as “Then you can use ‘novels’ ” rather than “There you can use ‘novels’ ”.)
Sorry, I was unclear. I was wondering if you think that “stories” is broad enough to include the things Nancy mentioned such as video games. It may be, but I’m not sure.
I think a misunderstanding still persists, because now I notice you’ve gone back to “popular novels”, while retaining “Rowling’s celebrated works”. My suggestion, just to be absolutely clear, was: “popular stories” and “Rowling’s celebrated novels”.
(If you were worried about “popular stories” not being broad enough, “popular novels” is even narrower, and definitely doesn’t apply to video games.)
No, you were clear. I’m considering sticking with “novels” though as 1) the reader probably won’t know enough about fanfiction for it to be a problem, 2) I like how it sounds this way, and 3) it’s probably true that most of the stuff on there is about books. (Maybe not though considering how much anime stuff there is).
I would say so. What is the title of the first page in every video game manual? “Story”. (At least it was back in my day.)
The narrative element of video games is what makes them suitable fanfiction subjects. The same presumably applies to any other art form which might be represented on fanfiction sites.
I don’t think your sentence is in any way misleading.
Edit: The tag didn’t seem to be working so I made it visible.
That falls into the “quirky exception” category. As far as I know, most of fanfiction.net is Harry Potter and the like.
I still don’t think the sentence is misleading. If necessary a qualifier like “mostly” can be added.
I like “art” better. My mental referent for “media” is the news media, though, and that’s affecting my preference. If thinking of “media” as meaning “news outlets” isn’t common, media could also work. Art still has an esthetic edge though.
Yeah, I’m just worried that they’ll think of paintings and stuff when they read “art”.
If you say “literature” earlier in the sentence that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. “Popular works” might be another term to consider.
That’s the same conclusion I came to, so I chose “art”. I use works later in the paragraph.
It’s a mess because these things shift fairly quickly (I think some of them cycle in less than a generation), and there’s no way to tell how old the person reading your essay is, aside from not knowing their tastes and background.
I may go with “fiction”. Or what about “media”.
I’ll probably just write “fanfiction.net″ so it’s not too big a problem that Wikipedia is inconsistent.
Another thing to do is, if you refer to fanfiction.net, you may want to explicitly state that it’s a website. I don’t know how oblivious admissions officers are, and it likely varies a lot.
Yeah, Lessdazed suggested that. I made the change but most of lessdazed’s suggestions are so far only affecting my google docs version of essay since 1) I’m not completely sure how I want to use all of them and 2) I’m making a lot of edits pretty quickly.
I endorse this.