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leethet ([personal profile] leethet) wrote2011-07-13 05:48 pm

30 Day Fandom Meme Day 13

Day 13 – Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?
I’m always extrapolating from canon – what fanfic doesn’t? - so clearly I’m fine with fanon. That said, I don’t like AUs as the genre’s currently “defined” (that being a loose term). I don’t want to read my spies in Les Miserables or Starsky and Hutch as midshipmen in 17th century England. I don’t buy the general concept that Starsky, or Illya, e.g., would be the Starsky or Illya we know if they had a completely different life – we are as we have lived – so to me AUs are all original fic with original characters. I like the fandoms I like because I like them, not something other than them. This is not a judgment on the quality of AU fics, just a taste preference.
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[identity profile] elmey.livejournal.com 2011-07-14 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
There seems to be some very well established fanon (talking about MFU) that just about every writer uses, but sometime the adherence to fanon as though it were canon, irritates me; I never feel guilty for not following it. Canon however, unless it's obviously contradictory (or unless it's The Return) I would never ignore.

I'm with you on AUs. I like the characters and their milieu. I count my blessings that the High School AU craze hasn't hit MFU :)

[identity profile] leethet.livejournal.com 2011-07-15 06:18 am (UTC)(link)
I agree with you about fanon becoming as established as canon (or more so), but I think it's kind of ... not inevitable, exactly, but ... it's hard to keep "good" fanon (that is, simply, fanon you like) from seeping into your mind and taking up residence, which is how one story with, say, girly Illya, becomes a bunch of stories with girly Illya. Something about a fanon trope appeals to a lot of people and they latch onto it - and sometimes feel that canon supports it. That's such a subjective thing (although ... girly Illya makes me go o.O) that even though I have firm ideas about what comes from canon and what's my interpretation, I respect that another person might go "How can you call that behavior canon?????" Because I do that when I read some characterizations/behaviors.