t not an apology for RPS.

Here's a question I've never had satisfactorily answered, in spite of having this discussion > 10 times. Why do people use real names?

I mean, wouldn't it be safer to have a story about a teeny tiny actress with long blond hair, on a TV show about butt-kicking, whose name is Heather Jean Glaser? Or, say, Destiny Stabs the pop singer, and her mad passionate affair with all five members of Five Boys N*Hair Gel? And if enough writers of this barely-disguised fiction got together, and all used the same code names for the objects of their affections, wouldn't it be the same pleasureable effect for the readers in the know?

See, I think this is a Very Good Question Indeed. From what I can gather, it IS to all intents and purposes original fiction far more than it's any sort of fanfiction - I've always thought of the key part of fanfiction being the whole business of interaction with an existing narrative.

RPF - no narrative. Colour me foxed.

Only, from what I've gleaned, the name/appearance/speech patterns/biographical details/whatever of the RP in question are being appropriated in the manner of players of Fantasy Football. I may be misunderstanding it all, but that's my understanding - that it's a community-binding thing to have these shared points of reference to use as a springboard for whatever original fic they write, using the individuals as characters.

It is, however, entirely possible that I'm talking out of my ass.

t /not an apology for RPS

Only, from what I've gleaned, the name/appearance/speech patterns/biographical details/whatever of the RP in question are being appropriated in the manner of players of Fantasy Football.

But Fantasy Football pretty much just uses the players' performance on the field. The players' personalities, private lives, sex lives, etc., don't make any difference in which team wins.

I dunno, if he got laid the night before it could have a big influence on how he plays.

Edit: Sorry, just a drive-by quip. Continue the thoughtful debate.

(Is that true? Does sex really affect that? Maybe I've been having the wrong sex)

If it were really, um, athletic sex, he might be tired.

(good for him. but he needs to work on his conditioning)

It should be part of the conditioning routine. Umm, in a perfect world. Which is not my world.

In Fantasy Football, aren't the players paid for the use of their likeness? Or am I smoking monkey crack?

Hil, I am in no way trying to get you or anyone to like/approve of RPS, and I fully respect the distaste and disapproval expressed here towards RPS. (Were I less honest, I should certainly go for the easier route of just keeping my head down rather than engaging in any kind of discussion here, because I'm so not up for a row. But I think that there are interesting questions raised by some of the pieces of RPS I've read, in terms of function and form, and I respect you all too much to misrepresent my stance, even if it means I lower your opinion of me in the process. Honesty best policy and all that.)

I think perhaps you thought I was trying to gloss over the sex, or say 'hey, it's no more offensive than fantasy football'? Because if that's how it came across - I'm totally not trying to do that. The sex is, obviously, central to the RPF that we're discussing.

I know it's the morality/otherwise that everyone else is discussing here, but that's not what I was addressing. I'm not even touching the whether-its-offensive-or-intrusive thing in the above post, because yes, it it intrusive and offensive and I've no interest in flogging a dead horse about the ethics or otherwise of RPS. But do find the way that (I understand) it functions as a form of fanfiction without any narrative structure an interesting question, and that's all I was addressing.

I'm interested in the question of WHY the hell people do use N'Sync rather than N'HairGel to loosely contextualise their flights of pornalicious fantasy (or indeed to send the N'Sync boys off to Pern, or what have you) and I'm positing that the relationship between fanwriter and real person is akin to that between fantasyfootball league player and real footballplayer (as well as having some similarities to the fiction-derived fanfiction I'm more familiar with). It's using real world events & details (which are out of the control of the fans) as the source material for spinning artificial reality, and I dare say that this is a damn sight easier than maintaining an elaborate roman a clef.

I have no quibbles with anyone finding that outrageous/offensive/whatever and am not trying to dispute their right to that stance. I was simply looking at the way that (from my limited understanding & experience of the genre) it seems to function.

But do find the way that (I understand) it functions as a form of fanfiction without any narrative structure an interesting question, and that's all I was addressing.

That's how I took your comments, FayJay.