It's so funny that I'm one of those 'what are you doing here if you don't like it??' knee-jerk reaction people these days when 1) I still don't really like all of canon; 2) I used to have this said to -me- ^^;;
I think it's because I always had specific reasons, as in, "well, I like fanon" or "well, I like my idea of the character, forget canon"-- so this whole questioning thing only seems to make sense if one seems both obsessed with/interested in and really sick of or annoyed with canon. I can easily understand that sort of thing from an intellectual/geeky pov-- that is, one often obsesses over ideas that particularly get under one's skin, trying to refute them-- but from a fannish viewpoint, where fan = emotionally caught up, a lack of positive emotion seems like the antithesis of happy shiny bonding between fans.
I've often loved my perception or some fanon interpretation of canon moreso than the actual 'objective truth'-- that usually applied to fandoms where I started with fanon, and found it more interesting, though. The process of starting off with canon, growing disappointed but sticking with because-- what?-- I'm not sure. I stop reading/participating when I'm disappointed; so basically, what people don't understand is a) there's a different sort of obsession involved; b) the unhappy fans are 'trapped' with their emotional investment no matter whta the text does to them, just as the happy fans are. Perhaps.
The whole conjunction of the personal issues (investment) & the 'objective' issues (canon interpretation) in arguments just really annoys me, and it just highlights that fandom is just... not my thing, because I actually believe this conjunction of the personal and intellectual is the nature of fannish discourse. It's not this way with criticism in any other venue, but in a fannish situation, one is assumed to criticise out of love-- just as one is assumed to be there at all because one wants to be. I mean, so the question arises, why would one want to be an unhappy fan?
This all gets complicated, pitting 'canon' fans against 'character' fans. Of course you can be a canon fan without being a character fan (though it's rare) and vice versa (probably more common). Particular character fans are probably much more likely to step away from the rest of canon, emotionally, and judge it based on how it reflects or uses that character. Canon fans are always going to just go with the flow and accept the canon take on whatever character-- because they're there for the narrative, and in fantasy (YA) fiction characters are pretty much allowed to be cardboard villains in terms of popular perception, I believe.
What am I even saying??
I think I'm saying this whole fan vs. fan thing makes my head hurt. I used to be not-a-fan (of canon) while being a fan of fanon, now I am a fan of canon in theory and not so much of fanon -through- being a character fan. It's all very strange~:))
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Date: 2004-12-01 04:36 am (UTC)I think it's because I always had specific reasons, as in, "well, I like fanon" or "well, I like my idea of the character, forget canon"-- so this whole questioning thing only seems to make sense if one seems both obsessed with/interested in and really sick of or annoyed with canon. I can easily understand that sort of thing from an intellectual/geeky pov-- that is, one often obsesses over ideas that particularly get under one's skin, trying to refute them-- but from a fannish viewpoint, where fan = emotionally caught up, a lack of positive emotion seems like the antithesis of happy shiny bonding between fans.
I've often loved my perception or some fanon interpretation of canon moreso than the actual 'objective truth'-- that usually applied to fandoms where I started with fanon, and found it more interesting, though. The process of starting off with canon, growing disappointed but sticking with because-- what?-- I'm not sure. I stop reading/participating when I'm disappointed; so basically, what people don't understand is a) there's a different sort of obsession involved; b) the unhappy fans are 'trapped' with their emotional investment no matter whta the text does to them, just as the happy fans are. Perhaps.
The whole conjunction of the personal issues (investment) & the 'objective' issues (canon interpretation) in arguments just really annoys me, and it just highlights that fandom is just... not my thing, because I actually believe this conjunction of the personal and intellectual is the nature of fannish discourse. It's not this way with criticism in any other venue, but in a fannish situation, one is assumed to criticise out of love-- just as one is assumed to be there at all because one wants to be. I mean, so the question arises, why would one want to be an unhappy fan?
This all gets complicated, pitting 'canon' fans against 'character' fans. Of course you can be a canon fan without being a character fan (though it's rare) and vice versa (probably more common). Particular character fans are probably much more likely to step away from the rest of canon, emotionally, and judge it based on how it reflects or uses that character. Canon fans are always going to just go with the flow and accept the canon take on whatever character-- because they're there for the narrative, and in fantasy (YA) fiction characters are pretty much allowed to be cardboard villains in terms of popular perception, I believe.
What am I even saying??
I think I'm saying this whole fan vs. fan thing makes my head hurt. I used to be not-a-fan (of canon) while being a fan of fanon, now I am a fan of canon in theory and not so much of fanon -through- being a character fan. It's all very strange~:))