Essay: "Fighting against the world" [from "The case for commercial fan-fiction"]

[Shlomi Fish]

Hi all!

This is an excerpt out of a larger essay I have written, which is made of several smaller sections, and titled "Commercial Real Person Fan Fiction (RPFs), crossovers and parodies as 2021 geek/hacker imperatives for revitalising the film industry":

https://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/culture/case-for-commercial-fan-fiction/

It is CC-by, requires no registration, and is noscript, lynx, and wget/etc. friendly.

With love,

— Shlomi Fish




[[fighting_against_the_world]]
== Fighting Against The World

link:../#fighting_against_the_world[Node Link]

____
Chuck Norris was challenged to fight the world, and accepted. He bet on
himself, won, and collected the bet money.
____

(
https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/fortunes/show.cgi?id=shlomif-fact-chuck-156[Chuck
Norris Facts by Shlomi Fish (= me) and Friends]. )

[[player]]

== An error occurred.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w81oU-26MqQ[Try watching this video on
www.youtube.com], or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your
browser.

("Never underestimate the power of the Schwartz" from Spaceballs)

[[player]]

[[an-error-occurred.]]
== An error occurred.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPOviqxFllA[Try watching this video on
www.youtube.com], or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your
browser.

("Little Buddha - Awakening.")

Also see https://www.gotquestions.org/Elijah-prophets-Baal.html[the
story of Elijah and the prophets of the Ba'al]

'''''

They said
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software[Free and
Open Source Software (FOSS)] will never win. Nowadays, Microsoft, and
Apple have many original FOSS contributions, and hire close-to-full-time
open source devs. Even https://github.com/electronicarts[EA] has FOSS
code.

They said https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_content[open/free content]
is a fad. https://www.wikimedia.org/[Wikimedia],
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fandom_(website)[Wikia] and countless of
blogs, microblogs and social media pages and web forums are evidence to
the contrary.

They said music will never be open.
https://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/culture/case-for-commercial-fan-fiction/#better_now_by_choice[Many
independent YouTubers] and the commercial success of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghosts_I%E2%80%93IV[_Ghosts I-IV_] proved
them wrong:

____
Whether
https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/facts/Taylor-Swift/[Taylor Swift]
gets the rights for her old songs back or not, it won't change the fact
that even though they're her brainchildren, they belong to everyone (who
can cover, remix them, & listen to them). Neither Swift nor her record
label will likely go bankrupt soon.
____

( https://twitter.com/shlomif/status/1378421699142635525[@shlomif (= me)
tweet] )

They even said
https://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/computers/software/New-Breed-of-Version-Control-Systems/[the
CVS version control system will not be replaced], but Subversion did
mostly supplant it, and now
https://better-scm.shlomifish.org/docs/this-site-is-irrelevant/[git is
the dominant version-control system].

They likely thought the Christian crusaders during Saladin's time will
remain fanatical to Jesus. Well, most of them did not denounce their
faith, but proclaimed Jesus told them that
http://shlomifishswiki.branchable.com/Saladin_Style/[returning to fight
Saladin was pointless]. Some people would now call that "common sense",
and I was told there are now several Christian interpretations of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_%28TV_series%29[_Buffy
the Vampire Slayer_], which had two Jewish actresses in leading roles (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Michelle_Gellar[Sarah Michelle
Gellar], and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyson_Hannigan[Alyson
Hannigan] ) and had a strong occult general theme.

Now they tell me that ``Commercial fan-fiction will never happen'' or
that it will be "unethical". When will they ever learn?

[[player]]

[[an-error-occurred.]]
== An error occurred.

Unable to execute JavaScript.

Well, I'm still going to try, and there may be obstacles, and setbacks,
and I might not succeed, but I won't give up for now. I may still
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FCld2UJMRg["walk away" or "run"] from
this based on what my judgement tells me. But I'll carry on for now.

And I'm not alone. There are many fan-fiction (or "original" fic)
authors who would love to see their ideas filmed, but know that
submitting them to Hollywood studios is futile. There are dozens if not
hundreds of unemployable formerly "big name" actors, actresses, film
makers, and screenwriters. There are many disgruntled lawyers who make
https://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/culture/my-real-person-fan-fiction/#commercial_fanfic[atrocious
"Intellectual Property" demands] and even put one long paragraph of
legalese on a McDonalds' Happy Meal toy. And even the Hollywood
executives likely feel trapped.

I have some "enemies" as well. My greatest enemy is naturally myself -
how I manage my time, how I say what I say, my prejudice and
https://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/culture/case-for-commercial-fan-fiction/#guidelines_as_dogma["rules"]
I succumb to, and my past record, legacy and mismanagement. I also have
to handle:

* Slashdot reviewers who keep my submissions in the queue for months and
are effectively unreachable.
* reddit readers who downvote comments or posts they disagree with (or
find
http://shlomifishswiki.branchable.com/Encourage_criticism_and_try_to_get_offended/[blasphemous
/ true]).
* subreddit administrators who remove my posts from public view - either
for being blasphemous or due to their delivery being lacking.
* The https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/927:_Standards[Internet
instant messaging services and protocols] being fragmented, unusable,
messy, or insecure.
* WordPress, which I was told is the best-in-class blog engine,
http://shlomifishswiki.branchable.com/WordPress/[being incredibly bad
and unusable] even for the end-commentators, whose comments are often
eaten or their links rendered as plaintext.
* People's tendency to either over-idolise or demonise other people,
organisations, or idea systems, and take them as gospel or anti-gospel.
* Possible interpretations of the USA Constitution, various acts and
bylaws or even court precedents and other
https://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/culture/case-for-commercial-fan-fiction/#guidelines_as_dogma[guidelines]
that are getting in the way now.
* Some people's reluctance to change.
* People who accuse me of having ulterior motives of promoting my
"agenda" or "religion", when I think they are a solution to the
underlying problem and am trying to help:
+
____
"Are we to understand," asked the judge, "that you hold your own
interests above the interests of the public?"

"I hold that such a question can never arise except in a society of
cannibals."
____
+
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged[Ayn Rand in Atlas
Shrugged] )
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivirus_software[Anti-malware
software] or
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall_(computing)[firewalls] that block
my domains, and which are often malware in their own right.

They are not obstacles to be casually dismissed. But they may not be
insurmountable. Furthermore, I am not seeking to destroy the commercial
film industry this time, but to make them prosper. And I believe
commercial fanfiction will be nice to have, even if some film studios go
out of business (which I hope will not happen).