Best Fan-Fiction

[jimmy olsen]

I kinda get the others being fanfic, but not Lord of the Flies. Is it because of it being a name for the devil? It's mostly a tangential allegory in the story. One of my favorite books, incidentally.

But given the list, I've to go with Dante's Inferno. Too many juicy cameos to ignore.

I saw it on this list.

https://www.bustle.com/articles/159041-11-classics-that-are-secretly-fanfiction

You could argue that Lord of the Flies is not so much fanfiction as parody, but there's no question that William Golding used the book The Coral Island as a starting point for Lord of the Flies. The Coral Island is a jolly children's book about three English boys marooned on an island, who have a wonderful time and defeat the evil natives with their superior Christian values. Golding disagreed with that simplistic, colonialist angle. He lifted several of the characters and wrote Lord of the Flies as a counterpoint: what if the evil the children encountered was not external, but internal?

[jimmy olsen]

I don't get how Call of the Wild is "fanfiction".  It was inspired by Jack London's time spent in the Yukon during the gold rush but was an original story.

Edit: Jack London was actually there in the gold rush.  I've been to his cabin in Dawson City (it was moved there some time later after London became famous).   Are you trying to say that author's can't be inspired by their own personal experiences?

https://www.bustle.com/articles/159041-11-classics-that-are-secretly-fanfiction

When you think of famous authors who wrote about dogs in the Yukon in the early 1900s, the name Egerton R. Young usually doesn't spring to mind. But Jack London was accused of plagiarizing much of The Call of the Wild from Young's My Dogs in the Northlands. What makes it fanfic instead of out-and-out stealing? Well, when accused of copying the other book, Jack London agreed that he did steal a lot—and he also changed and added a lot, because all fiction steals to some degree (it's a bit of a shady argument, but you get the idea). If only Jack London had lived long enough to go on a Twitter rant about why fanfiction is legit.

[jimmy olsen]

I think fanfic is borrowing somebody else's popular characters and create a new story with them. I love he put in the Aeneid because a lot of Classical epics/drama/history are essentially fanfics. These were presented orally so having somebody famous show up in your story and do some kickass shit was a sure way to draw in a live audience.

The difference with a straight adaptation of somebody else's work, imho, is that the story should essentially be a new one.

I basically stole the list from one I saw on the internet.

[Barrister]

I don't get how Call of the Wild is "fanfiction".  It was inspired by Jack London's time spent in the Yukon during the gold rush but was an original story.

Edit: Jack London was actually there in the gold rush.  I've been to his cabin in Dawson City (it was moved there some time later after London became famous).   Are you trying to say that author's can't be inspired by their own personal experiences?

https://www.bustle.com/articles/159041-11-classics-that-are-secretly-fanfiction

When you think of famous authors who wrote about dogs in the Yukon in the early 1900s, the name Egerton R. Young usually doesn't spring to mind. But Jack London was accused of plagiarizing much of The Call of the Wild from Young's My Dogs in the Northlands. What makes it fanfic instead of out-and-out stealing? Well, when accused of copying the other book, Jack London agreed that he did steal a lot—and he also changed and added a lot, because all fiction steals to some degree (it's a bit of a shady argument, but you get the idea). If only Jack London had lived long enough to go on a Twitter rant about why fanfiction is legit.

So the source for "Jack London was accused of plagiarizing much of The Call of the Wild" is a single link, which takes us to a Google Books link in Finnish.  Where (I think, I don't know Finnish) the actual book itself isn't actually available.

[garbon]

And BB?

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zQJbDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA196&lpg=PA196&dq=my+dogs+in+the+north+lands+jack+london&source=bl&ots=gm-N6Wh2lw&sig=ACfU3U35cQjNvDGbnDyl4Kt02KodCv-9YQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjUg6rEtYDpAhU_VRUIHcvQD54Q6AEwBnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=my%20dogs%20in%20the%20north%20lands%20jack%20london&f=false

[Syt]

I kinda get the others being fanfic, but not Lord of the Flies. Is it because of it being a name for the devil? It's mostly a tangential allegory in the story. One of my favorite books, incidentally.

But given the list, I've to go with Dante's Inferno. Too many juicy cameos to ignore.

I saw it on this list.

https://www.bustle.com/articles/159041-11-classics-that-are-secretly-fanfiction

You could argue that Lord of the Flies is not so much fanfiction as parody, but there's no question that William Golding used the book The Coral Island as a starting point for Lord of the Flies. The Coral Island is a jolly children's book about three English boys marooned on an island, who have a wonderful time and defeat the evil natives with their superior Christian values. Golding disagreed with that simplistic, colonialist angle. He lifted several of the characters and wrote Lord of the Flies as a counterpoint: what if the evil the children encountered was not external, but internal?

By that measure Rio Bravo is a High Noon fan film.

[Savonarola]

. . . Lavinia's big scene is when her hair catches fire.

You don't see that much anymore.

Michael Jackson is a hard act to follow.

[Savonarola]

I think fanfic is borrowing somebody else's popular characters and create a new story with them. I love he put in the Aeneid because a lot of Classical epics/drama/history are essentially fanfics. These were presented orally so having somebody famous show up in your story and do some kickass shit was a sure way to draw in a live audience.

The difference with a straight adaptation of somebody else's work, imho, is that the story should essentially be a new one.

I basically stole the list from one I saw on the internet.

So your poll is a work of fan fiction.

[Savonarola]

Anyhow I'd pick Tennyson's Ulysses; as I grow older I find myself identifying with the ageing Ulysses.

Although if you follow the Samuel Butler (among others) line that the Odyssey is a later work written by a different author than the Iliad; than the Odyssey itself would also be a work of fan fiction.

[Sheilbh]

I think fanfic is borrowing somebody else's popular characters and create a new story with them. I love he put in the Aeneid because a lot of Classical epics/drama/history are essentially fanfics. These were presented orally so having somebody famous show up in your story and do some kickass shit was a sure way to draw in a live audience.

The difference with a straight adaptation of somebody else's work, imho, is that the story should essentially be a new one.

Yeah I quite like that.

I think I'd go for Paradise Lost - in terms of taking someone else's characters and running with it.

[jimmy olsen]

The Aeneid is the best

I'm curious why you picked that one.  The second half of the work, I thought, was mostly forgettable.  Turnus isn't much of an antagonist and Lavinia's big scene is when her hair catches fire.

Well, I love Roman history and I've just always really enjoyed it when I've read it. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's because the Trojans were always objectively the good guys and it's nice to see them finally come out on top.

[MadImmortalMan]

Oh there's lots more reasons. Making Dido a leader in Civ is one. 

[jimmy olsen]

Oh there's lots more reasons. Making Dido a leader in Civ is one. 

Does she automatically hate the Romans?

[Savonarola]

Oh there's lots more reasons. Making Dido a leader in Civ is one. 

It also supplies the theme of Purcell's greatest opera "Dido and Aenes" which, in my opinion, the only English language opera masterpiece before Gilbert and Sullivan.  I do really like the first six books, (the arrival at Carthage until the Katabasis); it's the second six books that I think are dull (arrival in the mainland of Italy to the final duel.)  (I have only read it in translation, though.)

[jimmy olsen]

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