this breaks my heart and pisses me off, all at the same time

You all know how much I love Diana Gabaldon's writing, and her Outlander series. I adore Jaimie and Claire. I've been reading her books for as long as she's been writing them, about 18 years, now. I have recced her to friends and family; I've given her books as gifts; I wrote her this long, rambly, gushing email and squealed like a little kid when she wrote me back.

Then today I see this:

Diana Gabaldon on fanfiction: "I think it’s immoral, I _know_ it’s illegal, and it makes me want to barf whenever I’ve inadvertently encountered some of it involving my characters."

It's not so much that she's against fanfic -- everyone is entitled to their own opinion/thoughts/feelings on stuff. But it's how she compares fanfic authors to thieves and rapists, or the creepy, stalkery, pervy neighbor who writes dirty emails of his fantasies with your daughter.

I really feel kind of betrayed here, which is all kinds of silly. I don't know the woman, she doesn't know me. But she's coloring all of us with the same crayon/paintbrush, equating us with plagiarists and worse, and it just really hurts.


Link by way of azephirin and gweneiriol.