[duh. -.-]

[reenka]

I read dorrie6's comment on Sister M's post on Harry-bias in canon about how Draco's understandable and could be made plenty sympathetic in fanfic without white-washing his choices and experiences/beliefs (or making him a pathetic whiney baby or boring and uptight or too serious or... *grumblegrumble*), and I was like YES! and I AM NOT ALONE, I KNOW THAT! and SO WHY ARE THINGS THE WAY THEY ARE??!? and why do people say this on a canon post and only argue till they're blue in the face on most fanon posts.... I just realized: it's because these issues themselves (including my reaction!) aren't really analytically based. I really can't sit there and go, 'okay, so I was thinking about this and it's not like I'm about to scream in frustration or anything... um....'

I mean, we may love the HP books, yes, but we can (sometimes) discuss them calmly 'cause we're not -as- invested as we are in our work or that of our friends or y'know, "our" porn and reading kinks or whatever. That's the bottom line, probably; bigtime fans don't like it when you diss HP (unless it's v. subtle/intellectual and goes over their heads), but they'd probably like it even less if you said their favorite porny fun-fun-happy-time fic sucked & was lazy & OOC. :/ It's hard to say 'this sort of fic SUCKS ASS' in a subtle & intellectual way, I guess :>
    (And it actually never ceases to amuse me that as an actual reviewer, I'm a total verbose squee-monkey and never snark or say snide things... I love fanfic not because I'm so critical/analytical but because I'm just IN LOVE so I notice tons of bad -and- good things the way girls obsess over their butts and notice that light pink rash on the far-off fold of their left buttock...)

So no one says it unless they want to whine, don't care about stirring up shit or are somehow untouchable in fandom. But yes, regardless: point is, it's fic so it's about passion whereas discussing canon can easily-- and is easily-- made purely intellectual in fandom (when it's not a jizz-bottle of pure wank). DAMN IT ALL TO HELL ANYWAY.

The sad sad truth is, I'm probably more -attracted- to fanfic meta than canon meta because it's more emotionally meaty and volatile as a subject in the first place, because it's more -fun- since it's tapping into my creative self, my dreaming self, my wanting-fun-fun-happy-porn self. Canon, to me, is just like 'oh, that's interesting... oooh, I LOVE Harry... oooh, Draco... huh... wow, Snape sure is fascinating, I wonder what's going on... tralala... oh look, it's a zombie!!' -.- Oh, self. *groan*
    PS. I don't mean I like fanon more than canon, I really do just mean I like fanfic more, which is a subtle difference but it's there. Or perhaps I should say I'm v. picky about what sorts of fanon I like & how they relate to canon?? I like a certain kind/flow of canon/fanon relationship, because to me it really is all about relationships between things and never 'the thing alone', which is why I secretly would want most canon meta to be more fanony and of COURSE I want all fanon meta to be canony(!), and I don't just mean romantic relationships, btw. :P

Comments

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Hahah-- well, the thing is, all fanfic is 'fanon' 'cause it's Not Canon by definition-- so if you write or read enough of it, even Very Accurate fanfic acquires a separate life, a set of tendencies or missing pieces or whatever. Like, you can be accurate but dull, or accurate but still be missing something from another person's/reader's (still plausible) interpretation that -makes- or defines the character to them. Especially with characters that are ambiguous or not well-developed in canon, like Draco (or even the Marauders in some sense), there's a lot of room for both interpretation and debate as well as nitpicking and categorizing and gossiping, all that. Fanon isn't necessarily 'anti-canon', it's just everything that's -not- specifically, factually canon, and in ambiguous cases this becomes quite an interesting and wide field for meta.

As for 'fanony canon', I think I mean when you have ambiguousness and interpretations/preferences that aren't being projected or said to be Really There, but rather just as part of the discussion. Like, 'here's what I thought of this scene' but also 'here's what it reminds me of' and 'my favorite bit was...' and 'this made me think of it going -there-' and 'I want to think about that more like this, 'cause it's fun!', all kind of riffing on canon rather than just analyzing it. Playing with it creatively or seeing it as 'material' for creative things without actually doing them. Like, brainstorming and playing around in the universe without writing or role-playing being involved directly :D