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This is mostly relating to the HP fandom and recent events regarding the saleability of fanworks, but some of the points regarding fannish entitlement interested me with regards to Atlantis fandom.
These points are made here in this post.
1. Non-canon fill-ins.
Interviews, blogs, things that don't actually happen in the show. Are they canon? Are they not? Anyone whose OTP/pet theory has just been crucified in an interview/blog entry and who has aspirations to being a canon-thumper will say that information outside of canon, even if given by the creator(s) is non-canon. Anyone whose OTP/pet theory has been confirmed by an interview/blog entry is going to claim it is.
And for a canon that is created by multiple people where the out-of-canon fill-ins are also created by multiple people (ie. a television show like Atlantis), it gets doubly confusing! Especially where they are deliberately performing the blog version of the Dance Of The Seven Veils - don't reveal everything at once, let the layers come off slowly.
"After a certain point, you have to either throw up your hands or go crazy, and some people choose the latter."
Although I guess the definition of 'going crazy' varies from person to person...
2. Balkanization
'Balkanization' is the habit people make of only talking to those who share the same opinions as themselves. When you have a big enough group of people who want canon to imitate their version of fanon, who needs canon anyway?
I think that 90% of the Elizabeth- and Shweir-fans onf my f-list unfriended me after the 14th January 2007. I wasn't distraught over Elizabeth's departure, see? I'm not exactly one of the more popular John/Teyla fans, either - mostly because I don't think that John/Teyla is a special relationship that is better than any other possible relationship for the pairing: I just like it.
"If people disagree with you, you can just call them wrong, make your own space, and ignore them. So, naturally, when the AUTHOR disagrees with you, you stick with the same pattern--decide they must be crazy and go your own way."
Replace 'the AUTHOR' with 'Joe Mallozzi' and it pretty much reads for SGA fandom.
I haven't been around much lately and I haven't been reading the f-list (busy with the overseas trip). This just caught my attention and I figured I'd pass it on as food for thought.
Time to get ready to head off to the Moulin Rouge!
These points are made here in this post.
1. Non-canon fill-ins.
Interviews, blogs, things that don't actually happen in the show. Are they canon? Are they not? Anyone whose OTP/pet theory has just been crucified in an interview/blog entry and who has aspirations to being a canon-thumper will say that information outside of canon, even if given by the creator(s) is non-canon. Anyone whose OTP/pet theory has been confirmed by an interview/blog entry is going to claim it is.
And for a canon that is created by multiple people where the out-of-canon fill-ins are also created by multiple people (ie. a television show like Atlantis), it gets doubly confusing! Especially where they are deliberately performing the blog version of the Dance Of The Seven Veils - don't reveal everything at once, let the layers come off slowly.
"After a certain point, you have to either throw up your hands or go crazy, and some people choose the latter."
Although I guess the definition of 'going crazy' varies from person to person...
2. Balkanization
'Balkanization' is the habit people make of only talking to those who share the same opinions as themselves. When you have a big enough group of people who want canon to imitate their version of fanon, who needs canon anyway?
I think that 90% of the Elizabeth- and Shweir-fans onf my f-list unfriended me after the 14th January 2007. I wasn't distraught over Elizabeth's departure, see? I'm not exactly one of the more popular John/Teyla fans, either - mostly because I don't think that John/Teyla is a special relationship that is better than any other possible relationship for the pairing: I just like it.
"If people disagree with you, you can just call them wrong, make your own space, and ignore them. So, naturally, when the AUTHOR disagrees with you, you stick with the same pattern--decide they must be crazy and go your own way."
Replace 'the AUTHOR' with 'Joe Mallozzi' and it pretty much reads for SGA fandom.
I haven't been around much lately and I haven't been reading the f-list (busy with the overseas trip). This just caught my attention and I figured I'd pass it on as food for thought.
Time to get ready to head off to the Moulin Rouge!
no subject
I didn't get the impression you'd have gotten offended; you seem to have your head screwed on straighter than that. *g* But it wasn't really a road I felt like going down, especially in someone else's blog and entirely tangential to the main point of the original post. I usually try to keep from doing that unless it's a situation where discussion of the issue has specifically been invited by the OP. Keeps my (and everyone else's) blood pressure down, I'm sure! And, no, this isn't meant as a criticism of you or anyone else for doing that; it's just that I have been easily sidetracked by potentially inflammatory topics in the past and I am, slowly but surely, learning not to have a quick trigger-finger on the keyboard.
And yeah, I agree with you that most people are pretty reasonable most of the time; it's the flameworthy minority that spoil it for everyone. (Also, I suspect that even most reasonable people have an inner flamer lurking within, when something really pushes their buttons. Unfortunately those button topics are different for everyone, and nearly everything is guaranteed to tick off someone.)