...wow...

[tielan]

I just read angua9's essay on Appropriating vs. Appreciating.

She talks mostly about Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter, because those are her fandoms. But I've seen a lot of the 'Appropriating vs. Appreciating' attitudes in Atlantis fandom over the last six months - my own behaviour and the behaviours of the fans in my segment of the world included - so I think this is relevant for Atlantis fandom as well.

Really, read the whole thing, but take note of the conclusion!

"I somewhat sort of understand why people seek their own personal version of fictional works, tweaked to fit their own tastes and interests, but I don't think I'll ever understand the vengeful anger they often seem to feel when something goes wrong with this, to the point that they're actively and openly rooting for the movie to tank at the box office, the show to get cancelled, or the next book to get remaindered. I don't understand why they seem to want everyone to agree with them that the work they used to love totally sucks now, and - most of all - why they want and expect sympathy and understanding for their pain. For myself, I'm too busy feeling sympathy and understanding for the poor authors who tried to provide an entertaining and satisfying fictional experience only to see it hijacked, distorted, misunderstood, and misinterpreted to feel pain for people who were maximizing their own pleasure. They chose the pain when they chose the pleasure is my feeling."

Comments

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

Word. I see that mostly in die-hard crazy ass shippers. I remember after the SGA episode where we found out that John had been divorced that someone wrote an essay about how that made him more gay and thus love Rodney more. *facepalm*

[allisnow.livejournal.com]

that made him more gay and thus love Rodney more.

Oh dear God.

[tielan]

In my experience, the die-hard crazy-ass shippers are certainly very likely to appropriate rather than appreciate.

Further on in the thread, someone points out that:

I'd actually extend that further and say that the more spectacularly delusional enthusiastic appropriators are the ones that identify so strongly with a character in the first place that they can't separate the fictional development of that character from the things they hope for for themselves: the character becomes a projection of everything that they'd like to be and to experience. Depending on exactly what the appropriator is dreaming of, you get either a Mary Sue or a rabid shipper (or some combination of the two).

To be honest, this is the kind of appropriation that seems to be rampant in the SGA and SG1 fandoms: over-identification with character to the point where a slight to the character is a slight to the fan.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

It's really really true. And rather funny when the die-hard crazy-ass shippers hate on Mary Sue.

[greenconverses.livejournal.com]

That essay rocked. Thanks for the link.

[tielan]

Welcome!

I can't meta that intricately, but it's fascinating to read the people who can and do.

[beanie-j.livejournal.com]

I agree and there are way too many citable examples of this in the SGA fandom.

It's when people really cannot draw the distinction between that personal cannon and the show itself - actual canon - where every interaction on the show has to mean something because of the personal canon of shippers, slashers and even those who just love one character, have adopted. SGA is often quite ambiguous and leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Interpretation is great - it would be boring if we all saw the same and got the same things from SGA.

It is when these interpretations start impinging on my enjoyment of fandom - intentionally or not, that is when I start to have a problem with it. How people conduct their fandom life is not my business, nor is it for my judgement. However, too often in SGA as a fandom, people don't think about how negatively their appropriation - most often the forcing of a particular character relationships on others - affects those around them, be it largely unintentional.

I think to an extent, everyone in fandom 'appropriates'. Everyone has their ideas about the show they love, what they think works and what doesn't. That is fine, really, it is. I honestly don't think it's as straightforward as belonging to either the 'appreciating' or 'appropriating' camp anyway. I don't think appropriating characters for fan-fictional means necessarily negates the ability to appreciate a work for it's authorial canon. Concern about the direction of the show you love, to me, does not indicate appropriating behaviour either. People aren't feeling pain over certain S4 spoilers because of personal canon...

[tielan]

I think to an extent, everyone in fandom 'appropriates'.

Oh, certainly. To write fanfic is to appropriate the original work - to co-opt it for one's own use and take the canon characters and scenarios beyond authorial intent.

I honestly don't think it's as straightforward as belonging to either the 'appreciating' or 'appropriating' camp anyway.

It definitely isn't. There's discussion about it in the comments - about the various degrees of appreciating and appropriating, being part of a continuum and related to how much the fan identifies (or over-identifies) with a character.

But some of the more obsessive Appropriating behaviours are definitely visible in SGA fandom right now.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Oh, what an awesome essay! Thank you SO much for linking to this!

I will say, though, that the sort of appropriating behavior s/he talks about is utterly endemic to Harry Potter fandom in a way that SGA doesn't even begin to approach. I spent a couple of years on the fringes of HP fandom and it's the most appropriation-minded fandom that I've ever seen in my life. You'll see some people in SGA who have gone off the delusional end of the spectrum to varying degrees, but in HP, it's practically every other person you run into. It's not just a fringe opinion, but the prevailing opinion in HP fandom that JK Rowling has screwed up the books and that fanfic is superior ... although the exact point at which canon went off the rails, and the exact manner in which fanfic is better, totally depends on which of the many shipper camps you're talking to.

But this essay pretty much nails why I get so massively frustrated with seeing variants on the theme of "I prefer fanfic to canon" or "As far as I'm concerned, nothing after [x] actually happened" or "[x] and [y] are SO doing it on the show" or "Even though they said [x] in canon, they really meant [z]". And it's not as if I've never done some back-end fanwanking of my own, but at least I recognize what I'm doing.

[tielan]

I will say, though, that the sort of appropriating behavior s/he talks about is utterly endemic to Harry Potter fandom in a way that SGA doesn't even begin to approach.

Oh, certainly, SGA is on the relatively small scale compared with HP, but then, HP has become the defining infanity for all fandoms.

There's a part of me that sympathises with people who prefer their own fanon conception to canon, and there's a part of me that wants to smack them and tell them "bloody well get over it, you idiot!"

And it's not as if I've never done some back-end fanwanking of my own, but at least I recognize what I'm doing.

There's reaction posts - that I get. Reaction is something that few people can control, and in such a spooge-able environment as LJ, blowups are more common than in face-to-face.

And then there are campaigns to make a show fail, or people who insist that nothing beyond one's happy place exists, or who claim that one's own version of the canon is superior simply because it happens the way the fan wants it to happen...

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Uh-huh. I think it only really starts to bother me when people start encroaching onto others' fanspace with their pet fanon. I mean, if I'm surfing around and stumble upon a bunch of slashers discussing how John is so very canonically gay, it might irritate me a bit, but it would be the height of rudeness for me to jump in and tell them they're wrong. But if they start going around and entering discussions, bashing characters and ships that interfere with their OTP, *that's* when it goes from being just a group of like-minded fans having fun, to the sort of wank that drags the fandom down for everyone.

I do get a lot more involved with the source texts than the person who wrote that essay. But at the same time, I recognize that canon is the final authority. It's, well, canon. And I might have my own pet theories and favorite interpretations of ambiguity, but if canon comes to contradict me, then I'll just revise my theories in light of the new information, because duh, it's canon. While I do respect other people's right to interact with the source text in whatever ways make them happy, I have a really hard time wrapping my mind around the "My fanon is the one true path to enlightenment" mentality.

[tielan]

But at the same time, I recognize that canon is the final authority. It's, well, canon.

Absolutely.

I find it difficult to go against canon in my fanfic. Not impossible (especially since a large portion of what I write is relationship fic, which, in the Stargate Universe, is really all non-canon), just difficult.

I do take canon into consideration when writing relationship fic, though - at the least, I try to reconcile what I want to happen through the lenses of the character personalities as displayed by the show.