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

[leethet.livejournal.com]

It's not at all that it's a bad thing to read fanfic as original fic (it's weird to me, but that doesn't make it bad), except that if you do get into the actual show/book/whatever ... I would think it'd be a jolt, as you indicated. :) I do think whatever your original source, that's how you see the characters to a large degree, whether that source be the show, good in-character fanfic, or wildly OOC fanfic that makes you eventually think "what show was this writer watching?" when you actually see the show. :) (With, of course, the caveat that in character and OOC are in the eye of the beholder).