A question on fandom familiarity

[leethet]

I just read a remark from someone saying they'd read and enjoyed an MFU fanfic despite knowing nothing about the show, and it got me thinking ... how?  Why? WTF? *G*

Then it occurred to me, if you read a fanfic about a show you know nothing about, you're really reading original fic, aren't you? For your purposes, it's all new, there's no "canon" (that you know about) to compare the story or characters to, there's only the writer's skill at telling a story. It's original fic.

I assume this reader read the fic because they knew the writer from another fandom and trusted their work (because I can't imagine why anyone would bother, otherwise). But I'm interested in people's thoughts on this. Is it weird to read in a fandom you know nothing about? Would you do it? If so ... why? Because it's an author you trust from elsewhere? But ... isn't it still, basically, reading original fic? So why?

Any thoughts are welcome here. This is really weird to me. :)

Comments

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

It always seemed weird to me too, but apparently it's becoming more and more common.

The only fanfic I ever read that I didn't know the source text was in Professionals. A friend wrote a novel and asked me to read it and I did. I liked the novel but it didn't really interest me in the show.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

See, that's what I think would be most common - an interest in the thing itself, developed naturally and organically, leading to an interest in what are, even if they're excellent, still offshoots of the original (fic, art, vids, conventions, whatever).

But again, I have to think the reader was a fan of that writer (which, again, supports my "it's original fic to them" theory *g*). Otherwise, I really can't imagine the temptation. There has to be some hook present, it seems, whether familiarity with and liking for the author's style or, as Veronica says, a rec from a friend whose tastes you trust to correspond to your own.

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

I have to say, if I like a source text, I might search for fanfiction but for me anyway, it doesn't work in the reverse.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Pretty much the same for me.