Thoughts: I completely, utterly agree with you and am equally mystified by Bloom's viewpoint. If I like a story, I will keep retelling it in my head, complete with embellishments and new chapters and all that.
However, like you, I suffer genuine voyeurism and invasion-of-privacy squick when extrapolating such things about *real people*. This is why I run screaming from RPF and even, I think, why I don't care much for historical fiction about actual historical figures. I feel free to write any damn thing I like about fictional characters (like the ever-infamous alien/human-worm!porn-slash), and even to make free with descriptions of them based on the physical features of actors who portray them . . . but I would die of embarrassment before writing anything fictional about the actors themselves, even something quite innocuous in nature.
Hm. Would be interesting to do some sort of poll and see what % of the population views fictional stories as "open" vs. "closed" . . . and what their relative views on, say, fanfic are. ;)
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However, like you, I suffer genuine voyeurism and invasion-of-privacy squick when extrapolating such things about *real people*. This is why I run screaming from RPF and even, I think, why I don't care much for historical fiction about actual historical figures. I feel free to write any damn thing I like about fictional characters (like the ever-infamous alien/human-worm!porn-slash), and even to make free with descriptions of them based on the physical features of actors who portray them . . . but I would die of embarrassment before writing anything fictional about the actors themselves, even something quite innocuous in nature.
Hm. Would be interesting to do some sort of poll and see what % of the population views fictional stories as "open" vs. "closed" . . . and what their relative views on, say, fanfic are. ;)