Canon, and What It Means To Me
Jun. 30th, 2004 02:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynneSo, I believe I am sufficiently recovered to post about things other than pain (and the flist cheers!), and there's been something I've been meaning to talk about for quite awhile. Mainly, canon, and what it means to me.
So, I read PS/SS back in 1998, and continued reading the books as they came out. I remember how PoA came out a few days before my twelfth(? I think so) birthday, and I got it as a present for my twin, and then secretly read it myself before our birthday actually arrived, just because I wanted to know what happened. We got GoF the day it came out, and I was frustrated that my twin said I could read it only after she was done, while I thought I should read it first because I'm a faster reader than she is. And for OotP, I remember hanging around in Barnes and Nobles for hours as we waited for midnight and June 21st to arrive, and reading the first chapter by streetlamp as I waited for my ride to arrive (I was about a week away from my license), and then coming home and reading the whole thing from 1:00 am to 6:30 am, and going to sleep vaguely dissatisfied (more on that later, though I'm not going into an OotP rant).
I've liked the books for nearly as long as it has been possible to like the books. But the thing is, I never was completely impressed with them. Years ago, I was part of an anime/video games discussion board, and I remember in the General forum, there was a thread on Harry Potter, and some people were saying they loved it and it's the best series ever, while others were saying it sucked completely, and I remember my answer as being something along the lines of "They're good books. Not anything great, but good books." This was early 2002, I think.
And I come directly from thinking the books "not anything great" to being a List Elf at HPfGU (one of the largest and most well-known HP discussion groups on the internet) and an eMentor and coder/dinger at FictionAlley (which is even bigger than HPfGU!). HP has gone from being something I thought "not that great" to something that takes up so many hours of my time it's not even funny, and something I feel guilty about not participating in/fulfilling my responsibilities in for a few days after I have surgery.
And fanfiction, as always, is what I know to have changed me. I've been part of ff.net since 2001, but I mostly stayed away from the HP section, until early 2003, when I decided to look and see what's so great about Harry Potter, that it had its 60,000+ (or whatever the number was then) fics.
And I discovered exactly What Was So Great About Harry Potter--fanfiction. I started with MWPP-era stuff, and eventually read several fifth-year fics, and joined the SBRL list and read a bunch of R/S stuff. I hadn't yet given in and joined HPfGU and FA yet (much less LJ!), but I'd say I was pretty immersed in the fandom.
So then I read OotP, as a member of the fandom. And I was Unsatisfied. As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
copperbadge wrote in stealingharry: "Tom Clancy once said that the difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense. I'm beginning to believe that the difference between fiction and fanfic is that the plot holes have to be a lot smaller." And the thing about OotP is, while I liked parts of it, I was not too impressed with it as a whole. Very reminiscent of my impression of the series as a whole, prior to reading fanfic about it.
And I've come to realize that I'm not in the fandom for the books, the canon. I'm in the fandom for the fanfiction. I'm here for the world JKR has created, and not for how JKR herself writes that world, because frankly, I think that while JKR's a brilliant storyteller (as evidenced by so many of us having been sucked into her world), she's not a brilliant writer, and there are people I consider brilliant writers writing fanfiction for free, people likethistlerose and copperbadge and ladyjaida and so many more, simply because there are things they want to explore and things they want to say.
What canon is for me is more like guidelines, really (:p). JKR's given us the background of the wizarding world with things like Quidditch and Quodpot and Floo powder and portkeys and all that wondrous magic. She's given us all these characters, the Remus and Sirius I love so much, the James and Harry and Regulus and Tom Riddle, Ron Weasley, Ginny and Hermione and Neville and Snape, Peter Pettigrew and Luna Lovegood, and so many more...they are what I love about the HP books. I've found I don't care about what happens in the coming books save for the new characters and concepts introduced! I don't care who the Half-Blood Prince is (maybe it really is Sam! :p) beyond how it'll make me see the characters and possibly subsequently write them. I don't care whether Hermione ends up with Ron, Harry, Neville, or no one/other, or who dies/lives/turns traitor, beyond how it will make the characters react and thereby give me more insight into the characters' minds. Yes, the story developing is interesting, but I've read stories as interesting, if not moreso, in fanfiction.
This is why I love AUs so much, and why many of my favorite fics take place in that alternate universe. It's giving the characters chances that JKR won't let them have. It's why I love the Stealing Harry-verse so much--Remus and Sirius have the chance to find love and really live, and Harry had some happiness in his childhood, and yet Sam still manages to tell a story, with all those traditional elements of a story, and does things with the characters that make me happy. They're still the characters that I first met in the series, but that I only fell in love with through fanfiction, and that I stay in love with through fanfiction. I love AUs because that way I can keep the characters that I love without the nasty things JKR has done to them--if I had things my way, Sirius would never have gone to Azkaban, would not have had an encounter with a mysterious veil, and would be having lots of sex with Remus. I want that happily ever after, and I can get it however I want it, and in so many different ways, with AU.
...I've rambled a lot, and I probably have more to say, but it's nearing three am now (whoo, back to my usual hours!) and I should probably shut up. Anyway.
What do all of you think of canon, and what does it mean to you?
ETA: Figured I should put what I mean when I say "canon". Copied and pasted from comment withhi1arity.
Which is to say, the characters, plot, and background information we get from the books. The canon-as-guidelines for me is the characterization and the background information, and those are things most AUs I read will stick to, and what any future AUs I write will likely stick to, even if they toss canon plot out the window :p.
ETAx2: (because I should probably say it) No, I would not want canon changed so that Sirius never went to Azkaban and whatnot. Canon is still canon, and I want fanfic to stay fanfic and JKR to write canon the way she writes it. That doesn't mean, however, that I can't like fanfic better than canon :p.
So, I read PS/SS back in 1998, and continued reading the books as they came out. I remember how PoA came out a few days before my twelfth(? I think so) birthday, and I got it as a present for my twin, and then secretly read it myself before our birthday actually arrived, just because I wanted to know what happened. We got GoF the day it came out, and I was frustrated that my twin said I could read it only after she was done, while I thought I should read it first because I'm a faster reader than she is. And for OotP, I remember hanging around in Barnes and Nobles for hours as we waited for midnight and June 21st to arrive, and reading the first chapter by streetlamp as I waited for my ride to arrive (I was about a week away from my license), and then coming home and reading the whole thing from 1:00 am to 6:30 am, and going to sleep vaguely dissatisfied (more on that later, though I'm not going into an OotP rant).
I've liked the books for nearly as long as it has been possible to like the books. But the thing is, I never was completely impressed with them. Years ago, I was part of an anime/video games discussion board, and I remember in the General forum, there was a thread on Harry Potter, and some people were saying they loved it and it's the best series ever, while others were saying it sucked completely, and I remember my answer as being something along the lines of "They're good books. Not anything great, but good books." This was early 2002, I think.
And I come directly from thinking the books "not anything great" to being a List Elf at HPfGU (one of the largest and most well-known HP discussion groups on the internet) and an eMentor and coder/dinger at FictionAlley (which is even bigger than HPfGU!). HP has gone from being something I thought "not that great" to something that takes up so many hours of my time it's not even funny, and something I feel guilty about not participating in/fulfilling my responsibilities in for a few days after I have surgery.
And fanfiction, as always, is what I know to have changed me. I've been part of ff.net since 2001, but I mostly stayed away from the HP section, until early 2003, when I decided to look and see what's so great about Harry Potter, that it had its 60,000+ (or whatever the number was then) fics.
And I discovered exactly What Was So Great About Harry Potter--fanfiction. I started with MWPP-era stuff, and eventually read several fifth-year fics, and joined the SBRL list and read a bunch of R/S stuff. I hadn't yet given in and joined HPfGU and FA yet (much less LJ!), but I'd say I was pretty immersed in the fandom.
So then I read OotP, as a member of the fandom. And I was Unsatisfied. As
copperbadge wrote in stealingharry: "Tom Clancy once said that the difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense. I'm beginning to believe that the difference between fiction and fanfic is that the plot holes have to be a lot smaller." And the thing about OotP is, while I liked parts of it, I was not too impressed with it as a whole. Very reminiscent of my impression of the series as a whole, prior to reading fanfic about it.And I've come to realize that I'm not in the fandom for the books, the canon. I'm in the fandom for the fanfiction. I'm here for the world JKR has created, and not for how JKR herself writes that world, because frankly, I think that while JKR's a brilliant storyteller (as evidenced by so many of us having been sucked into her world), she's not a brilliant writer, and there are people I consider brilliant writers writing fanfiction for free, people like
thistlerose and copperbadge and ladyjaida and so many more, simply because there are things they want to explore and things they want to say.What canon is for me is more like guidelines, really (:p). JKR's given us the background of the wizarding world with things like Quidditch and Quodpot and Floo powder and portkeys and all that wondrous magic. She's given us all these characters, the Remus and Sirius I love so much, the James and Harry and Regulus and Tom Riddle, Ron Weasley, Ginny and Hermione and Neville and Snape, Peter Pettigrew and Luna Lovegood, and so many more...they are what I love about the HP books. I've found I don't care about what happens in the coming books save for the new characters and concepts introduced! I don't care who the Half-Blood Prince is (maybe it really is Sam! :p) beyond how it'll make me see the characters and possibly subsequently write them. I don't care whether Hermione ends up with Ron, Harry, Neville, or no one/other, or who dies/lives/turns traitor, beyond how it will make the characters react and thereby give me more insight into the characters' minds. Yes, the story developing is interesting, but I've read stories as interesting, if not moreso, in fanfiction.
This is why I love AUs so much, and why many of my favorite fics take place in that alternate universe. It's giving the characters chances that JKR won't let them have. It's why I love the Stealing Harry-verse so much--Remus and Sirius have the chance to find love and really live, and Harry had some happiness in his childhood, and yet Sam still manages to tell a story, with all those traditional elements of a story, and does things with the characters that make me happy. They're still the characters that I first met in the series, but that I only fell in love with through fanfiction, and that I stay in love with through fanfiction. I love AUs because that way I can keep the characters that I love without the nasty things JKR has done to them--if I had things my way, Sirius would never have gone to Azkaban, would not have had an encounter with a mysterious veil, and would be having lots of sex with Remus. I want that happily ever after, and I can get it however I want it, and in so many different ways, with AU.
...I've rambled a lot, and I probably have more to say, but it's nearing three am now (whoo, back to my usual hours!) and I should probably shut up. Anyway.
What do all of you think of canon, and what does it mean to you?
ETA: Figured I should put what I mean when I say "canon". Copied and pasted from comment with
hi1arity.Which is to say, the characters, plot, and background information we get from the books. The canon-as-guidelines for me is the characterization and the background information, and those are things most AUs I read will stick to, and what any future AUs I write will likely stick to, even if they toss canon plot out the window :p.
ETAx2: (because I should probably say it) No, I would not want canon changed so that Sirius never went to Azkaban and whatnot. Canon is still canon, and I want fanfic to stay fanfic and JKR to write canon the way she writes it. That doesn't mean, however, that I can't like fanfic better than canon :p.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-30 04:48 am (UTC)There are certainly stories out there that I like better than the books, I suppose, though that might be too strong of a thing to say. Always, I will love the books more than any fanfic that I read or write, because even if an author knows a character inside and out, they will inevitably get certain things wrong, as only JKR knows what she's talking about.
As for her writing, you can't truly judge her by the children's novels that she writes because they are for the ickle ones. :p A ten year old won't appreciate a Jaida!fic like the rest of us do.
I think I'm being jumpy and defensive because one of my friends (and a huge HP fan--the person who tugged me into it all--and a reader/writer of fiction) informed me that she hates JKR due to the fact that JKR thought we were ridiculous for believing the hoax. I didn't believe it for numerous reasons, but apparently my friend really loved that particular title, and is now offended...and told me that she won't be reading the next books.
I think that JKR gets a lot of crap--too much crap, at that--from everyone. We ridicule her writing, we bark at her when she makes 'Flints' (which may not be--we may just want to point out every fault she has!), and we constantly seem to dish out problem after problem with how she formulates things. To me, HP is about the books. The fanfiction is an added bonus that keeps me happy while I wait, but it's not everything there is. Fanart is much the same.
There are many people writing stories who have only read one or two of the books, and have seen the three movies. They are also in the fandom for the fanfiction, and they are also blemishing the fandom with their fanfiction. (Not that the blemishes are visible behind the wank, but I digress.)
I guess what I'm trying to say is that to me HP is it. I write because it makes me happy and I read fics because it makes me extremely happy, and I draw because inspiration hits. I stayed in the fandom because it was so active and filled with brilliant people--not just authors or artists, but theorists and researchers and people who wanted to get beneath the stories and not just make more up.
Fiction is the magnet keeping me in as much as I am, but I would certainly be here even without it.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-30 05:09 am (UTC)Thing is, that doesn't matter to me as long as I like the characterization and think it makes sense within the bounds of what she's given us. If we don't know about those certain things that are wrong because JKR hasn't told us, what does it matter than they're wrong at all?
I'm not trying to judge her on her writing, or be mad at her because she's made Flints, or anything like that. Didn't mean to come off that way if I have. It's just that I've discovered that reading fanfic about her books makes me happier than reading her actual books does (if only because she's never going to focus on Remus and Sirius the way I--and most of the fanfiction--I read do). I don't understand why your friend isn't going to read the next books, because well you know, I still like them and want to know what happens, but I don't enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy certain fics.
I also stay in the fandom for the reasons you do--the authors and artists and the theorists and researchers and so on. But I never would have gotten into the fandom in the first place if I hadn't decided to read fanfic, because I wouldn't have been that interested. My initial (and continuing) reaction to the books was different from yours, is all. But when things are over and done, and book seven's been written and published and read and discussed to death, if RL hasn't taken over my life and if fanfiction's still here (which I can't imagine that it wouldn't be), I'll probably still be reading it and writing it myself.
Now as it's past five am...will respond to any further comments this afternoon when I wake up :p.