The cockroach reference mentioned here was an extended metaphor, not a direct comparison. Here’s what I said:
“Before someone asks: how do I feel about other people writing fanfic in my worlds? Hmm.
“Used to be I didn’t care for it. Some aspects of it still make me twitch, slash in particular. (And I go back far enough to remember a time when “slash” meant only one thing: K/S. Boy, have I now dated myself: were dinosaurs ever walking the earth then.) And of course it depends on which characters are involved. Writing Herewiss/Freelorn slash seems like a waste of time. We *know* they do it…though I prefer that the lights be turned off, as it were, when I venture into their bedroom. …And so on. But then…Kit and Nita? When I have my own plans for how things are going to turn out, and the characterizations of both seem to me to have made it plain that they’re not going to be ‘going there’ just yet? Hmm.
“Yet you can’t stop people thinking about it…or writing about it. Truthfully, it’s kind of like going into a Manhattan kitchen where there is as yet no gecko living under the fridge. You turn the lights on, and Things scurry away under the cupboards and into every crevice. You can try to stomp on all the ones you see. But they’re fast, and clever at hiding. Then you turn the light off and go away, and out they come again and get back to doing what they were doing before you turned on the lights. They don’t care that you pay the rent on the kitchen. They’re there to party. Only dragging in the exterminators will stop them. But (chopping the metaphor off) do I really want to do that? Is it, perhaps, something of an overreaction?…
“The nature of present reality would seem to indicate that there’s some other, more affable, more enjoyable, possibly more mature way to deal with the situation. I’m considering one or two. We’ll see how it all works out…”
And so far it’s working out pretty nicely, as we see from the second round of “Wizards On Call”, for which you can see some details at the fanfic’s gateway page (as well as at the main YoungWizards.com page). I’m presently thinking about what my next contribution will look like. Anybody can join the party: you don’t have to write a segment to vote on one. Drop by and have a look. ETA: this project was later abandoned by necessity, as the web utility being used to write it was bought, disastrously repurposed, and then shut down.
Oh, and for the FanLib participants: For the time being, I think this particular scholium of YW fiction is going to remain noncanonical, even though I’m playing in it too.
