FanLib--Boo!

So my take on this whole FanLib thang (no, I'm not going to link to the site--find it yourself) is that if everything eventually becomes commercialized. That's the way capitalism works. If something is popular enough eventually someone will try to make a buck of of it. Thanks, Sieur Marx.

But this is just stupid. The whole point of fanfic is that it's not corporate. It's unlicensed, uncensored, and not-for-profit. Fanfic writers are about the purest type of writer there is: they write only for an audience, for the sheer love of it. They know they'll never be bestsellers, or win the National Book Award. They are Pure Will unassuaged of purpose and delivered from the Lust of Result.

Is nothing sacred, she howls? Leave my Mulder/Skinner slash alone! I'm not the only one, thankfully, who is disgusted by this attempt to turn fanfic corporate.

And I predict that it will fall miserably. Oh yeah, maybe twelve year olds in Nebraska who want to write Heroes or Supernatural fanfic will be happy to post away and have their work co-opted by the suits. But I suspect everyone else will realize that the fanfic communities that already exist are perfectly satisfactory and have the added advantage of not being slathered with banner adverts, as well.

Fanficcers unite in saying Boo!