I think just knowing that it *is* fanfic, you consciously or subconsciously accept things that might jump out as major flaws if you picked up a fiction magazine and read the same story. ... Just the sense that really important things, that are key to understanding the characters, aren't going to be explained. That's fine in fanfic, but would require a *lot* of extra writing to be passable as origfic.
*nod* I think the point I was trying to make (and only became aware of just now) is that it's incredibly common and not at all limited to fanfic for people to read a story without knowing the backstory.
The lack of context bothers us mightily when we read something with serial numbers filed off, because we know the context and the "right" way to read a story. But in the rest of our lives, we also constantly enjoy things that we don't have the "proper" context for. How many media don't have some kind of context or backstory that would enhance our enjoyment of it if we knew it?
Though as you say, it can depend a lot on how skilfully the writer patches things up. I massively enjoyed the Akira anime because of the thrilling animation and music and general spectacularness, but the story didn't make much sense to me until I read the manga too. Many fics will make no sense at all if you just change the names and a few details, and there are some that will never ever make a lick of sense outside their fannish context no matter how hard you try to color in the blanks. But there are at least as many for which it would be perfectly possible to rewrite things so that they're understandable enough for someone without the context. This goes for all existing stories that someone may want to rework for a new audience. How many were convinced that The Lord of the Rings was a completely unfilmable novel, until somebody managed to make a movie that actually was incredibly enjoyable even to people who've never read a word of Tolkien?
I suspect that the people who are the most knowledgeable about and invested in the context are quite possibly the worst judges of whether or not a story can be adapted for an audience that doesn't know the "proper" backstory. Many creators who work with things that have a backstory know how to patch things up so that someone who doesn't know the backstory can still enjoy it on its own merits. That may seem annoying to people who do know the backstory - "They don't get what it really means!". When I go to see a movie set in ancient Rome or Greece, I try really hard to tune out all the others in the audience who are not antiquity geeks, because they're missing all the mythological background and history stuff and enjoying it for the wrong reasons from my point of view. Their reading of those stories feels shallow to me. But that's just my point of view, and it has zero effect on others' ability to enjoy said stories.
(This even counts for stories that don't have an "official" backstory in the form of more canon attached, but that just take place in a setting that some readers will know oodles about but others not. When I read an original novel set in the US or China or Italy, depending on the story, there will be a few to a huge number of things that will fly right over my head because I've never lived in those countries. Someone who does know the context for the story set in China will probably find my reading of it shallow or mistaken on various counts. And sure, I probably would find it even more interesting if I was actually aware of all the things I missed, but I'll enjoy the story either way.)
In short, I think we really shouldn't be surprised when people find something with the serial numbers filed off perfectly good and enjoyable. I suspect we as fans are very very bad judges of whether or not a "good" adaptation can be made of any given fic. /tl;dr
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 01:38 am (UTC)*nod* I think the point I was trying to make (and only became aware of just now) is that it's incredibly common and not at all limited to fanfic for people to read a story without knowing the backstory.
The lack of context bothers us mightily when we read something with serial numbers filed off, because we know the context and the "right" way to read a story. But in the rest of our lives, we also constantly enjoy things that we don't have the "proper" context for. How many media don't have some kind of context or backstory that would enhance our enjoyment of it if we knew it?
Though as you say, it can depend a lot on how skilfully the writer patches things up. I massively enjoyed the Akira anime because of the thrilling animation and music and general spectacularness, but the story didn't make much sense to me until I read the manga too. Many fics will make no sense at all if you just change the names and a few details, and there are some that will never ever make a lick of sense outside their fannish context no matter how hard you try to color in the blanks. But there are at least as many for which it would be perfectly possible to rewrite things so that they're understandable enough for someone without the context. This goes for all existing stories that someone may want to rework for a new audience. How many were convinced that The Lord of the Rings was a completely unfilmable novel, until somebody managed to make a movie that actually was incredibly enjoyable even to people who've never read a word of Tolkien?
I suspect that the people who are the most knowledgeable about and invested in the context are quite possibly the worst judges of whether or not a story can be adapted for an audience that doesn't know the "proper" backstory. Many creators who work with things that have a backstory know how to patch things up so that someone who doesn't know the backstory can still enjoy it on its own merits. That may seem annoying to people who do know the backstory - "They don't get what it really means!". When I go to see a movie set in ancient Rome or Greece, I try really hard to tune out all the others in the audience who are not antiquity geeks, because they're missing all the mythological background and history stuff and enjoying it for the wrong reasons from my point of view. Their reading of those stories feels shallow to me. But that's just my point of view, and it has zero effect on others' ability to enjoy said stories.
(This even counts for stories that don't have an "official" backstory in the form of more canon attached, but that just take place in a setting that some readers will know oodles about but others not. When I read an original novel set in the US or China or Italy, depending on the story, there will be a few to a huge number of things that will fly right over my head because I've never lived in those countries. Someone who does know the context for the story set in China will probably find my reading of it shallow or mistaken on various counts. And sure, I probably would find it even more interesting if I was actually aware of all the things I missed, but I'll enjoy the story either way.)
In short, I think we really shouldn't be surprised when people find something with the serial numbers filed off perfectly good and enjoyable. I suspect we as fans are very very bad judges of whether or not a "good" adaptation can be made of any given fic. /tl;dr