Strange new world...

I've recently bumped into the strange and skewed world of fanfic.

I'm not going to post any links, since a quick google search will certainly land anyone who cares to look in the middle of more fanfic than they can shovel themselves back out of.

Now, please understand that the adjectives "strange" and "skewed" aren't meant in a derogatory way; rather, I find myself at a loss for any other way to describe this stuff. Some of it is frankly awful.

But some of it is disconcertingly...well-written. I almost said good, but then I had an attack of goody-two-shoes ethical heebie-jeebies at the idea of appropriating someone else's characters and universe, and then moving stuff around without permission.

A couple of the interesting things, writerly ethics aside:

1.) My gawd...to write a story that takes such strong hold of readers that they can't let go of it once it's over...

2.) Interesting compulsion to "finish" someone else's story: the writer let me down by not pushing this as far as I think s/he could/should have...

3.) Slash: What the hell is this about? In some cases, about the fan's own unresolved sex-stuff, of course. In other cases, perhaps about tension the author/creator set up, that went nowhere, leaving fans feeling like the tension was unresolved, and the promised pay-off didn't happen.

I'm just sayin'.

It bears thinking about.