~~ subversion aversion reversion....
Nov. 9th, 2004 05:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaAll right, this is going to sound weird, but... this is part of my long-running issue with the idea of subversive literary criticism. I realize it's my issue and may have limited application, as such.
So. Is it actually possible to subvert a text (or a system, also) by trying to subvert it, or in other words, make it turn in on itself (contradict itself)? For instance, given that you're a fan who is really in the community because you want to change the accepted-- or implicit-- definition/meaning of the text, at least within your own writing. Given that you're not there to 'work with' but rather 'work against' the text while using its boundaries (which would translate to 'remaining in character' as best you could). Would it actually be possible to apply the idea of 'success' to this endeavor?
Is there such a thing as 'success' at purposefully working against canon without attempting to create fanon? Can fanfiction hold some sort of direct dialogue with canon and act as an actual critique of it, and if so, is that even desirable to people who'd consider themselves fans or only people who in fact aren't fans, and would thus not want to read said fanfic?
My knee-jerk response seems to be 'no'. That is, I think that in order to hold such a dialogue with the original text, a fanfic writer would have to be both subversive and simultaneously(!) project their imagination to be part of the flow of canon. I believe you couldn't truly subvert without fully feeling out the shape of the source text-- understanding its biases, listening to its tones, accepting its idiosyncracies to some extent. I suppose I mean, you can't fully remake a 'parent' text on a certain level, because the readership will always be aware of the differences. You can't really subvert, can you, if it doesn't feel 'real'-- if the readers are just suspending their disbelief. If the fic doesn't read like a lost part of canon, basically.
In my Tolkien & Lewis class, we are allowed to write fanfic for our final project, and one of the stipulations of our professor's guidelines is that the story 'work with' the text. That is, she wants us to imitate the tone & language, and to have our fics really feel like they're part of that world. And since the general atmosphere is part of the world, one feels like to really write fic set in it, you'd have to adopt at least some aspect of the style of original portrayal. I'm not saying that's all that's worthwhile to do, since worth is naturally subjective, only that if the implicit goal is to set a fic in a borrowed world, you'd want to borrow as much as possible.
I think... this wouldn't concern me nearly as much if I didn't feel, with a sort of sinking sensation in my stomach, that nearly all the fic I've read in the HP fandom, -ever-, has been subversive in some way-- had set out to twist and play with canon (which is definitely fun) without a concurrent sense of also flowing along its lines. This goes beyond facts, precisely, and into atmosphere-- the feel of the original. So that when you read it, regardless of the quirks of the characters' behavior, you'd think, 'this is them! I am back there, in the world I love! I am back!' Admittedly, this is perhaps the most difficult thing a fan-writer could try to achieve, but it also seems that as a fan, it would be the most delightful.
And yeah, I realize that I'm talking about what sounds like 'genfic' through and through-- but boy, do I wish one could write slashfic & hetfic like that, too. It's the (good) comics-writer's model, really-- take an existing canon, write new issues with the past events/characterizations/styles in mind (hopefully), but expand to include new pairings, new adventures, new angles... like a hidden secret passage. Suddenly you think, oh my god, what if JK Rowling meant for this to happen? I totally thought this with slash sometimes-- like with Miss Breed's `Red', and Aspen's writing (hahaha!!). So like, you could have tricksy subversion that works by popping up when you've already decided 'oh good, danger's past'. That'd be so cool.
So. Is it actually possible to subvert a text (or a system, also) by trying to subvert it, or in other words, make it turn in on itself (contradict itself)? For instance, given that you're a fan who is really in the community because you want to change the accepted-- or implicit-- definition/meaning of the text, at least within your own writing. Given that you're not there to 'work with' but rather 'work against' the text while using its boundaries (which would translate to 'remaining in character' as best you could). Would it actually be possible to apply the idea of 'success' to this endeavor?
Is there such a thing as 'success' at purposefully working against canon without attempting to create fanon? Can fanfiction hold some sort of direct dialogue with canon and act as an actual critique of it, and if so, is that even desirable to people who'd consider themselves fans or only people who in fact aren't fans, and would thus not want to read said fanfic?
My knee-jerk response seems to be 'no'. That is, I think that in order to hold such a dialogue with the original text, a fanfic writer would have to be both subversive and simultaneously(!) project their imagination to be part of the flow of canon. I believe you couldn't truly subvert without fully feeling out the shape of the source text-- understanding its biases, listening to its tones, accepting its idiosyncracies to some extent. I suppose I mean, you can't fully remake a 'parent' text on a certain level, because the readership will always be aware of the differences. You can't really subvert, can you, if it doesn't feel 'real'-- if the readers are just suspending their disbelief. If the fic doesn't read like a lost part of canon, basically.
In my Tolkien & Lewis class, we are allowed to write fanfic for our final project, and one of the stipulations of our professor's guidelines is that the story 'work with' the text. That is, she wants us to imitate the tone & language, and to have our fics really feel like they're part of that world. And since the general atmosphere is part of the world, one feels like to really write fic set in it, you'd have to adopt at least some aspect of the style of original portrayal. I'm not saying that's all that's worthwhile to do, since worth is naturally subjective, only that if the implicit goal is to set a fic in a borrowed world, you'd want to borrow as much as possible.
I think... this wouldn't concern me nearly as much if I didn't feel, with a sort of sinking sensation in my stomach, that nearly all the fic I've read in the HP fandom, -ever-, has been subversive in some way-- had set out to twist and play with canon (which is definitely fun) without a concurrent sense of also flowing along its lines. This goes beyond facts, precisely, and into atmosphere-- the feel of the original. So that when you read it, regardless of the quirks of the characters' behavior, you'd think, 'this is them! I am back there, in the world I love! I am back!' Admittedly, this is perhaps the most difficult thing a fan-writer could try to achieve, but it also seems that as a fan, it would be the most delightful.
And yeah, I realize that I'm talking about what sounds like 'genfic' through and through-- but boy, do I wish one could write slashfic & hetfic like that, too. It's the (good) comics-writer's model, really-- take an existing canon, write new issues with the past events/characterizations/styles in mind (hopefully), but expand to include new pairings, new adventures, new angles... like a hidden secret passage. Suddenly you think, oh my god, what if JK Rowling meant for this to happen? I totally thought this with slash sometimes-- like with Miss Breed's `Red', and Aspen's writing (hahaha!!). So like, you could have tricksy subversion that works by popping up when you've already decided 'oh good, danger's past'. That'd be so cool.
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no subject
Date: 2004-11-09 04:47 pm (UTC)I think that most fanfic isn't written with the intent of being subversive -- it's a form of literary "play" that allows people to bring forward themes that they want to explore without having to set up their characters. I admit that I find the things that people bring out in various characters really interesting, and I have a very hard time re-reading the series and not looking for the little threads my favorite authors have teased out to turn into a fuller story.
There's also an argument to be made that it's very hard to subvert children's fiction in a way that isn't trite. JKR isn't necessarily trying to make a big philosophical point (other than, perhaps, "eugenics is bad, and anyone who believes in it is unrelentingly evil and needs to be stopped"), and thus there isn't necessarily an overlying philosophy that can be taken in and twisted and represented. One can always write smut, but it's not as shocking as it was, and most of it is desperately OOC (mostly, I think, because even in Book 5 I have problems seeing Harry as being a "real teenager" with real teenage hormones). One could write from Voldemort or Grindelwald or Lucius' POV, but I think it would be an overly hard sell at anything less than novel length, because they're such flat characters in canon that there's little interest in trying to reinterpret them without fleshing them out a little.
I agree with you that trying to write in the mood of the author is a useful exercise, but I'm not sure that it's always possible to write in their mood and not absorb some of their philosophy into your own work. Once you've tried to subvert the philosophy, it's like changing gravity -- it's just not quite the same, and it can't and shouldn't be the same. Narnia without the Christianity or Middle Earth without the looming spectre of WWI (even if he didn't mean to write allegory, the mood of ME is (at least to me) clearly a reflection of what happened during the Great War) isn't Narnia or Middle Earth anymore, it's pastiche.
(Somehow I feel like I've completely misinterpreted what you're saying, and having written all of this, I'm no longer sure if I'm disagreeing or just violently agreeing, but thanks for making me think.)
no subject
Date: 2004-11-09 04:50 pm (UTC)(
no subject
Date: 2004-11-09 06:32 pm (UTC)Play might be seen as subversive :D :D I meant, the -least- subversive thing (at the opposite side of the spectrum) would be like-- complete imitation, right? Something like that. And most fanfic doesn't seem to even attempt that (judging from the rampant OOCness everywhere, at least). But yes, not 'serious' subversion :>
I'm really interested in the 'not trite' thing-- it's a new critique angle. I mean... yeah... you could say that JKR, at least, is simply too simplistic to subvert 'well' (whatever that means). Though I don't think CS Lewis is, necessarily, y'know? Plenty of meat there to bite into without seeming to tread in shallow waters or attempting to stretch canon beyond how far it was 'meant' to go. Plenty of people (I feel so so tiresome saying this, you have no idea) think that yes, Voldemort is a laughable villain, and that's why the idea that he is the (a?) real villain at all should be subverted. That is to say, the real 'danger' is within Harry and the Gryffindors that follow him & the Ministry & Dumbledore in this case, and Slytherins get an overblown bad rap to cover up the Gryffindors' misdemeanors by false contrast, etc. (Can you tell I'm sensitive on this issue?? Aaaargh, faaaaandooommmmmm, why do you hurt me sooooooo?? ...Mind you, they have a point, I am just twitchy like an over-worked horse by now.)
That's exactly where I was going-- that by writing in the mood, you'd absorb philosophy along the way. That was my central point. To fully subvert, you'd have to kind of... align yourself with the canon to such an extent that you'd be attacking from within, almost. Er. Does that even make sense? I just mean you can't overturn canon from the outside since you'll never actually cross that gap of readers being aware 'this is just fanfic'. And that's exactly it! Yes! Like trying to subvert gravity! Yes! Yes! (Picture me getting over the top with the yesses ala Herbal Sensations commercial.)
... I think we were mostly violently agreeing, actually~:)) Maybe :>