Current mood:	bitchy
Current music:	The sound of my teeth gnashing

Canon, Fanon and Eejit Fundies
I should really stop reading fanficrants.



I mean, I read it rarely and comment there even more rarely. I have to be in a very jocular frame of mind to even peek in there because it's a hotbed of the Holier-Than-Thou attitude that I despise, but I can't quite abandon it because I like fanfiction; I like the very concept and creativity of it and I'm fascinated by the 'fan phenomenon'.

So, when I read this post:

Just because you think that a certain thing happened off screen does not make it canon! I have certain things that I believe are likely to have happened, but I know that, since they didn’t happen in the book/movie/game itself, it’s not canon!

Quit saying that the things you put in your story are actually canon. It’s possibly subtext or implied at the best, but not canon. (and quite often not even that…)

Canon is what happened in the original book/film/game/insert-medium-of-choice. Not your fanfic.

So get over yourselves, and stop insisting that everyone else is wrong and your personal fanon is canon.

and all the sheep commenting 'How very true!' I felt Moved by the Spirit of Logic to poke the comm a little and point out how very very very STUPID the OP was and commented:

Er... what is your take on book-derived films, then? Because they certainly are not canon.

For example in the LotR films, Arwen was everywhere stealing lines from all and sundry and generally being insufferably Mary Sueish. And let me not even dwell for a moment on the Massacre of Canon that was Miyazaki's Howl. I mean, the list is quite long.

Would you consider a fic based on the film fanon or canon based?

Then there's Marvel-verse where 9938457033498 mutually contradicting version of stories and characters are all canon. Oh, and there's films as well that condradict the pre-existing stories in the comics.

And what about subtext? What about an author who prefers to allude to things and imply them rather than screaming them from the rooftops? Or an author who subtly uses a tight third person POV to show the limitations and/or skewed worldviews of that character? What about ambiguity?

( Here is the thread)

And wouldn't you know it? Only one person (brilliant xicarus_complex) gets it.

Alright, par for the course and I knew the point would whoosh over most heads, because, no matter what they think of themselves, many of the people in there are ignorant immature snots. But when I read this reply to me:

ME: Oh, and Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle which managed to change everything but the names of the characters, destroy the plot and spit on the internal logic of the 'verse.[/me]

And was an absolutely fantastic film.

Which is why we have different canons.

I FOAMED AT THE MOUTH. For two reasons: 1) If a film version is as 'canon' as the book it was derived from, there is NO fanon ever; 2) Miyazaki Howl is utter shit and so fucking AU that it has NOTHING to do with DWJ's novel, like I said, and... Oh. Alright, Three reasons: 1) and 2) as stated and 3) READ THE SODDING BOOKS, YOU ILLITERATE CRETINS, INSTEAD OF SEEING THE FILM AND THINKING YOU KNOW ALL ABOUT SODDING CANON!!!!!111eleventyROAR

No, I mean, really, do these people ever THINK? How do they DARE look down on fanfiction and 'fanon' and consign both to the pit of eternal contempt? When has this hysteria for canon - whatever the fuck that means in terms of real inspiration - taken the place of literary analysis and critical appreciation for THE WORK AT HAND? WHO THE FUCK THEY THINK THEY ARE DECIDING WHAT IS IC AND WHAT IS NOT? WHERE ARE THEIR WELL-THOUGHT ESSAYS ON THE ORIGINAL WORKS? Also, do they have any idea of the true nature of most of Literature, Comicdom and Cinema?

Bloody Shakespeare wrote FANFICS! He also wrote OOC fanfics! At times he barely kept the names of the characters AND made them 'orribly OOC! He wrote slash, for fucksake! Has no-one read the original books and plays he wrote fanficplays about? He used published books and performed plays, you know? His sodding (oh alright, brilliant, lovely masterpieces, but still.) fanficplays are ALL AUs! And so are book/comic-based films or cartoons. All fanfics. Some are good ones and some are awful fanbrattish things, but the fact that they are distributed and the fanfic authors/scriptwriters are paid do NOT them canon make.

Too dead? What about Gaiman, then? Not that he ever denied what he was doing or ever affirmed all the characters in his stories are Originals. What about 90% of past and present authors? WHAT ABOUT FUCKING HOLLYWOOD, AY? WHAT ABOUT THE FUCKING SODDING HOLLYWOOD TAKE ON EVERYTHING‽ (interrobang. Don't you just love it?)

Right, sorry for rant. Let's try and say this with a modicum of decorum this time.

There's nothing more arbitrary - and annoying - than the self-defined elite of fanfiction's decisions about what is and is not 'canon compliant', mostly because their definition of canon itself is as fluid and irrational as that of any twelve year old in love with a story. I'm quite sure that for some of them all this canon blathering is an alibi and excuse to diss the thing they personally hate (slash, for example) and feel righteous about it; but I'm also sure that some of them truly believe that this mythical entity Canon exists and must be conformed to in the most literal sense. For them authors are not allowed to have subtext, allusions, innuendo or ambiguity. Only the written word, book or script, is valid. Characters never change, but are embedded like flies in amber, fossilised and never developing.

I really don't know why they call themselves 'canon-nazis' - well, except they know absolutely nothing about history and nazism, of course - when what they actually are is Fundies. They have NO imagination, no empathy, no critical faculties and no wish to explore the possibilities implicit in any story: actually, the worst 'canon' is, the most possibilities it has.

I think fanfiction is an ancient, noble and respectable art. I think the passion even the worst twelve year olds pour into remaking stories they love is just as noble and respectable even when the results are lamentable. I think writing - no matter how badly - is a wonderful activity, especially for the young ones. I think having fun with stories one loves - or despises, for that matter, that's what parody is for - is one of the higher forms of intellectual exercise. I think Role Playing is a noble and creative thing even when it's a form of fanfiction. AND I think canon is a shit word that must be eliminated because it murks the water and creates loathsome hierarchies and cliques.

In other words, yes, in a canonless context I can accept even Miyazaki's Howl as a VERY VERY AU fanfic that's not ALL bad, but in a canon context? Fantard OOC filth. And this goes for the LotR and HP films as well. Fen, choose a context and for fucksake ADHERE to it. Short-Fused Jane hath spoken. :P

On a not entirely unrelated note, I've posted this fanfic in my other journal. It's rather oldish and I was quite proud of it, BUT illiterate fundies decided is was plagiarised. I suppose because my parrot ear reproduced Pterry's style a little too well and had it - and my old account at FFN... yeh, I know, Pit of Voles and all the rest - taken down with extreme prejudice. It's only a brief first chapter, so it shouldn't be too tl;dr, but tell me truthfully: does it look plagiarised to you?

*bites her nails in anxiety*