Yep, yep. So true.

Here’s what fanfic authors/fans need to remember when anyone gives them shit: the idea that originality is somehow a good thing, an innately preferable thing, is a completely modern notion. Until about three hundred years ago, a good writer, by and large, was someone who could take a tried-and-true story and make it even more awesome. (If you want to sound fancy, the technical term is imitatio.)

Most art historically speaking is fanfiction.

I suspect we disdain that form now because much of it is produced by minorities and women. If our distaste equaled its prevalence, 95% of Western art would have to be thrown in the trash.