From: Penny Dreadful pennydreadful@powersurfr.com
Myself, I like the convenience of a pre-established (yet conveniently vague) universe and timeline, *and* prefab characters (with conveniently vague back-stories).
That, to me, is one of the appeals of fanfic, both writing and reading. You don't have to start from scratch every time, and the convenient vagueness of the universe and the character backstories allows them to be tweaked whichever way the writer wants.
However, I prefer to see this convenient vagueness used 'as a springboard rather than an ironing board' (to quote from a review of an album by the Subhumans, not that many people on the Lyst will even have heard of them) and one-dimensionalising original character (m or f) and background is IMO a near guaranteed way of ironing a story out flat. I'd like to think that if writers really cared about their fiction *as fiction* then they would pay attention to such matters. Clearly many fan writers do. Some don't. And I've just been struck by a vision of a hypothetical piece of fan art, depicting the Liberator crew, which features a brilliantly rendered Avon in the company of four or five stick figures with smileys on their faces. Unfortunately I can't draw, otherwise I'd have a go. (I could probably - *probably* - manage the stick figures but the Avon would be a bit of a poser.)
Neil (who keeps typing 'the Lust' instead of 'the Lyst')
PS Preface quotes from Crass, eh? Attagirl! Though good job you stuck to those two lines because I can't really see Travis 'trapped in a haze and flow of bridal gown'.