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dangermousiea.k.a RPF=Real Person Fiction.
First off, I am sure there are many genuinely lovely people who read/write it, but speaking purely personally, I don't read it, don't write it, and that my main feeling is puzzlement.
As in "why?" What's the point? If you write a fanfic about Anakin Skywalker, or Hermione Granger, or the crew of Firefly, you have enough information: background, character, plot, interactions, to base your fanfic on. You definitely have all the info needed to extrapolate (that is why there are "in character" fanfics and OOC). You just take characters you already know and love (or hate) and explore the situations and possibilities that haven't been explored on the show. Well and good, right?
But when you write RPF, you basically only know what the "character" looks like. I mean, unless you are Orlando Bloom's butler, or Ewan McGregor's secretary, and write RPF about them on your day off, you are unlikely to know anything about your subjects, other than their appearance and the basic facts in magazines. You don't have ANY info for a fanfic. And you know, how fanfics are "in character" or not? Well, RPFs are by definition not in character, because you don't know the character. Let's face it, in real life, the chances of Viggo Mortensen running off to marry Orlando Bloom in a touching ceremony in Vermont are non-existent. So, since you are completely inventing the "plot" or your RPF and inventing the "actors'" characteristics, then in reality, you are having the actors play yet another role. This time Hayden Christensen is not a lightsaber-wielding Jedi, this time he is an emo boy who meets a cute waitress in a cafe. Neither of these is HC, and so why not write a normal original story, and just say that your character looks like HC, or Liam Neeson, or "insert name here."
You are not writing about a real person as you know nothing about them. You are writing about a fictional character who happens to look like an object of your fancy, no different than a role in a movie. So why drag in real people when there is little to no connection to their reality, by the very nature of your disconnect from them? It's not as if the story would suffer any. In fact, people like me, who find RPF instinctually "ick" might actually give it a chance if it was a regular story.
If anyone wants to explain the allure of RPF to me, I'd be really curious (I am not being sarcastic here) as I singularly fail to see any purpose in it: I mean why would you read an RPF written by someone else? If you write a fanfic about Veronica Mars, people might read and enjoy it because you and I and the rest of VM viewers have a fairly compatible view of who VM is and what she does (since we have the same comprehensive shared data from the show). If you write a fanfic about Justin Timberlake, what relevance does it have to other people, and why would anyone read it, since there is no "common version" of JT out there, since there is no common pool of data, and you are creating completely fictional and non-shared characteristics of him for your fanfic.
Basically, there are nice people out there who like RPF, and they must have some reasons. I am just curious as to why because any appeal of it completely escapes me (I have "invasion of privacy" issues about it as well, but that's another matter entirely).
I am not being snide, or snarky, or mean. I am honestly puzzled and would like various points of view on the matter, both from pro and con RPF folks, on why RPF readers (more so than the writers, I can see this as a wish-fullfillment thingy perhaps) like it.
First off, I am sure there are many genuinely lovely people who read/write it, but speaking purely personally, I don't read it, don't write it, and that my main feeling is puzzlement.
As in "why?" What's the point? If you write a fanfic about Anakin Skywalker, or Hermione Granger, or the crew of Firefly, you have enough information: background, character, plot, interactions, to base your fanfic on. You definitely have all the info needed to extrapolate (that is why there are "in character" fanfics and OOC). You just take characters you already know and love (or hate) and explore the situations and possibilities that haven't been explored on the show. Well and good, right?
But when you write RPF, you basically only know what the "character" looks like. I mean, unless you are Orlando Bloom's butler, or Ewan McGregor's secretary, and write RPF about them on your day off, you are unlikely to know anything about your subjects, other than their appearance and the basic facts in magazines. You don't have ANY info for a fanfic. And you know, how fanfics are "in character" or not? Well, RPFs are by definition not in character, because you don't know the character. Let's face it, in real life, the chances of Viggo Mortensen running off to marry Orlando Bloom in a touching ceremony in Vermont are non-existent. So, since you are completely inventing the "plot" or your RPF and inventing the "actors'" characteristics, then in reality, you are having the actors play yet another role. This time Hayden Christensen is not a lightsaber-wielding Jedi, this time he is an emo boy who meets a cute waitress in a cafe. Neither of these is HC, and so why not write a normal original story, and just say that your character looks like HC, or Liam Neeson, or "insert name here."
You are not writing about a real person as you know nothing about them. You are writing about a fictional character who happens to look like an object of your fancy, no different than a role in a movie. So why drag in real people when there is little to no connection to their reality, by the very nature of your disconnect from them? It's not as if the story would suffer any. In fact, people like me, who find RPF instinctually "ick" might actually give it a chance if it was a regular story.
If anyone wants to explain the allure of RPF to me, I'd be really curious (I am not being sarcastic here) as I singularly fail to see any purpose in it: I mean why would you read an RPF written by someone else? If you write a fanfic about Veronica Mars, people might read and enjoy it because you and I and the rest of VM viewers have a fairly compatible view of who VM is and what she does (since we have the same comprehensive shared data from the show). If you write a fanfic about Justin Timberlake, what relevance does it have to other people, and why would anyone read it, since there is no "common version" of JT out there, since there is no common pool of data, and you are creating completely fictional and non-shared characteristics of him for your fanfic.
Basically, there are nice people out there who like RPF, and they must have some reasons. I am just curious as to why because any appeal of it completely escapes me (I have "invasion of privacy" issues about it as well, but that's another matter entirely).
I am not being snide, or snarky, or mean. I am honestly puzzled and would like various points of view on the matter, both from pro and con RPF folks, on why RPF readers (more so than the writers, I can see this as a wish-fullfillment thingy perhaps) like it.
