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

Re: I confess!

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

I certainly took my first "Pros" story as if it was an original fiction. It was so for me. However I was in a "fanfic" turn of mind; I mean, I knew I would find there some basic elements that, for me, are at the core of fanfiction (and very rarely found in the mainstream literature), that is to say: action, friendship, partners, mainly male characters (and only very minor female characters) and, principally, a strong focus put on the partners' relationship (would the story be slash or gen).

Outside fanfiction, I don't read fiction at all (with the rare exceptions of a few classic works or detective novels) necause I know in advance I will be repelled by the characters most readers seem to appreciate in the current literary trends.