Archive for the ‘Fanfiction’ Category

I hate Twilight. I think Stephanie Meyer’s poorly written and inane series is the worst thing to ever happen to fictional vampire culture. Possibly the entire fiction world.

Vampires that sparkle in the sun? Seriously?

And don’t even get me started on the abusive relationship between Mr. Hot Vampire Guy and his totally unremarkable leading lady.

But this isn’t a forum for me to bitch about Twilight. At least not today. Today I am comparing as impartially as possible the franchises of Twilight and Anne Rice’s older series, The Vampire Chronicles that began with its most notable title, Interview with the Vampire.

My bias is even worse here since I have reed the entire original series by Anne Rice and I absolutely adore it, at least up until the point when the author lost her mind, but again, I will do my best to remain impartial throughout.

Onto the history.
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I once got into a heated debate over how only an idiot would think Harry Potter wins in a comparison with Lord of the Rings because the writing is so superior. Me? I was on Harry’s side.

To some readers J. R. R. Tolkien drones on and on about the details of a leaf when we just want to get to the story, while J. K. Rowling has readership with children barely in their double digits as well as with their grandparents with equal success.

So what is the definition of ’superior writing’ exactly?

As with my previous blog entry, Star Trek vs Star Wars, I do not want my opinion to further cloud this comparison, as I see great strengths in both franchises. Let us begin then, as before, with a quick history.
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If you don’t know what fanfiction is…

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

Just kidding. I have to explain the definition of fanfiction to a lot of people whenever I discuss my hobbies, so I know that it is not quite the household name that I often think it is.

Fanfiction is really for a specific group of people, and while some others outside the practice of writing it know of its existence, many still do not.

Fanfiction is stories about characters or settings written by fans of an already existing fictional work, rather than by the true creator.

This can be of a book, movie, TV series, anything, really, as long as it is written by a fan, not the author, and normally would never be published as it would not have the permission or backing of the original work.

The usual example I give is this. Say you like Harry Potter. You decide you want to write a story for fun, or maybe for some friends to read, involving Harry’s parents when they were younger, because the actual books don’t cover much of that. The story you write would be fanfiction. Read the rest of this entry »

It was the summer of 2005. I was home on break from college, being a little lazy between shifts at the movie theater, and a preview for a new series starting that fall caught my attention on TV. It was going to be called Supernatural, about two brothers fighting evil across the country.

Having been a huge X-Files, Buffy, and Angel fan, I remember being very excited at something new finally coming along to fill that gap in my life. While I knew I probably wouldn’t get to watch the show right away, as I never had real access to television in college, my interest was immediately piqued.

Of course, there was one problem, I thought to myself, “if only they were cute”.

Yeah, I really thought that. I claim temporary insanity. Read the rest of this entry »