Reading Something Old New Again

I'm going way off topic this week, but it's because of a certain call I've been answering. And I think that call has to do with all of the edits (and writing) I've been working on.

When I love a story, I always want more. I'll read and re-read the same book again and again. For example, I'm a huge fan of Jane Austen. And, while I haven't read all of her novels, the ones I have read, I read again. And again. She never wrote sequels of her most beloved books. But, other people have.

Just like Sense and Sensibility, I find myself re-reading the Pamela Aiden series Fitzwilliam Darcy, A Gentleman. But, every time I do, it brings to mind a question I've been asking myself for many years. Something of a debate I've held with myself over my guiltiest of pleasures. When is it art and homage and when is it just fan fiction?

One might offer publish-ability, or time between the artist's demise and the creation of the work. Is it some magical bridge over which the original work has crossed to become “a classic”?

The urge for a sequel or a re-imagining is an old one, I think. Listen to anyone speaking about Shakespeare and debating his originality versus older stories. You have the Iliad and the Odyssey, stories based on earlier oral tales. Apocryphal bible works elaborating on Christ's life long after anyone who knew it was dead or the lives of Adam and Eve and their children.

Is there really such thing as a new story? Or new characters?

Look at the continuing of Robert Ludlum's work since his demise. Or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Go to any fantasy shelf and see how many people jumped off Tolkien's cliff. Or, go onto Amazon and type in anything related to Jane Austin -- even the author herself has become the focus of works of fiction.

This isn't limited to written works. Look at how many books are written about Star Trek, certainly not written by Gene Roddenberry. Or Star Wars novels. Or Dr. Who.

Back in the early days of the internet, the first things out there were either academic, military, or fan fic. Particularly Trekfic. I remember being 14 and going down to the college library to borrow an internet connection faster than my AOL dial-up to read Babylon 5 fan fiction, downloading it on 3.5 inch floppies or printing it out for reading at home. I got a friends addicted to the stuff over the years. What I've read has shifted depending on what has had my attention: Gabriel Knight, X-Files, Harry Potter, and Twilight. Fringe. NCIS. Inuyasha. Sense and Sensibility. Sherlock Holmes. Too many things, really.

And yes, there is a heck of a lot of crap out there, but there are also brilliant writers out there, people who could honestly be published. If.

If what they were writing didn't have to have someone's permission (or someone's estate's permission) to publish. If they changed some names and got an editor instead of just a beta-reader.

I've read fabulous work from all walks. Some people use it as their only writing outlet. Others decide at some point that they don't get enough satisfaction working with someone else's characters on something that they could never see themselves publishing. Really, it's the reason I've tried not to try my own hand in it, only enjoying other people's efforts. (It's been an urge I've found hard to avoid. I might say that my last written novel was walking a fine line, the original idea for this story coming out of my RPG addiction.)

But sometimes, it works. Pamela Aiden's novels started out there in the ether.

And perhaps there's where the rub lies. This stuff is about love of characters and worlds and curiosity about possibilities. It isn't done for the money. Or with permission. But out of love.

And that's why I keep returning. Both to original texts and to some of the better things that have been written out there -- out of love. And, it helps us see something we love, something old, yes, but also something new again. Which is why I find myself going back.

Especially when I'm re-imagining my own characters and my own stories, trying to untangle the knots of my edits.