Post by Emmie on Dec 1, 2009 14:53:48 GMT -5
I'll preface this by saying that I'm talking about canon in the Buffyverse where the Creator's voice is clear and concrete. If we were in a 'verse where an Authority of Canon didn't exist, then it would be different. But this is the Buffyverse,so...
Hmm. I believe in the concept of "personal canon"; in other words, you only have to count what you want. That doesn't affect the official canon, but it can affect your own enjoyment of the series. At the end of the day, fiction is entirely subjective and it's up to you how to interpret it. If someone doesn't like Buffy season six, and would prefer to believe the story ended with "The Gift", who are we to tell them they're wrong?
I think "personal canon" is something that exists always and as such doesn't need a name. Canon, by definition, is official. Which means that individual readers cannot all create their own "official" story.
Here's what Brian Lynch says on this matter:
To tell you the truth, I don't [really get canon]. Even when I wasn't writing the characters, it didn't occur to me to think of whether or not things were canon. I understand now why people care, but I just love a good story. For instance, STAR WARS eps 1-3? Lucas says they happened, I pretend they didn't.
If ignoring the Star Wars prequels aids Brian's enjoyment of that series, why should we insist "No, you must count them because they're canon!!!" A lot of people here seem to view canon in black or white terms; it's either canon or non-canon. Scientific fact. The truth is, it's more similar to theology than science. The word canon originated as a term to identify which books the Church chose to be counted in the Bible. As we all know, religion is a very subjective area. Something might be "canon" in the Bible, but that doesn't mean all Christians have to believe it. Some people follow the Bible word-for-word while others read certain stories and form their own personal beliefs and interpretations. Modern-day fiction is similar; there should be a clearly-defined canon, but you don't have to accept it if you don't want to.
Canon either is or isn't to me. Canon is the author's right to decide the events of this book are related to this other book. Readers can ignore it or never even read that book. I can ignore that atrocities committed by the Nazis, right? That doesn't make it not real. Just because I ignore canon or I'm unaware of canon has no bearing on whether it's official or not. It only has bearing on what I like or choose to pay attention to - you see how that's a bad way to determine something official? Something official cannot be determined by such a subjective viewpoint - if a million canons exist, then no canon exists. The more canons that are set up, the less weight the "official story" carries.
So for people who don't like Star Wars Episode 1-3, they can just say I don't like them or I don't want to remember them. They can even make up different explanations in their head (fanfiction, fanwank). But it has no bearing on canon.
Canon is a baseline for everyone to be able to see while they're spinning in circles and losing perspective amidst the interpretive world of fiction. If it too is made subject to individual interpretation, that "canon" holds no weight as an official determination and as such might as not exist because it becomes meaningless. Canon is the only thing fandom can agree on because it's meant to not be subject to individual interpretation - that's why it's useful.
I'd offer instead of the term "personal canon" or "Mycanon", in reality it's "fan canon". It holds as much official weight as "fanfiction" and fanwank".
The authors of the Buffyverse (Joss and his writers who defer to him) write Buffyverse fiction. I write fanfiction. The authors of the Buffyverse determine canon. I can determine fan canon.
The person who chooses to believe the Buffyverse ended in high school or ended after Buffy died in the The Gift - that's their personal belief. It's not official. And that's the primary component of canon - being official. And because it is about being offical, it requires an accepted authority - and here that's Joss. A person who believes the Buffyverse ended with the Gift basically just jumped off Joss' train - okay for them, but it has no bearing on what's official both in Joss' mind and for everyone who else who tuned in to watch the rest.
I'm gonna quote another fanfiction author, Eowyn315, because I like the way she explained the situation:
It is the author's right to determine what books are official. If the author no longer exists to do so or never determined such, then other authorities may be considered. But in the Buffyverse, we don't have to live with this confusion because Joss is around to say what's what. It's not called the Whedonverse for nothing.
What gives that one fan who thinks the story ended at The Gift the right to tell Joss Whedon what he wrote isn't what really happened? Doesn't that seem ridiculous and arrogant?
Hmm. I believe in the concept of "personal canon"; in other words, you only have to count what you want. That doesn't affect the official canon, but it can affect your own enjoyment of the series. At the end of the day, fiction is entirely subjective and it's up to you how to interpret it. If someone doesn't like Buffy season six, and would prefer to believe the story ended with "The Gift", who are we to tell them they're wrong?
I think "personal canon" is something that exists always and as such doesn't need a name. Canon, by definition, is official. Which means that individual readers cannot all create their own "official" story.
To tell you the truth, I don't [really get canon]. Even when I wasn't writing the characters, it didn't occur to me to think of whether or not things were canon. I understand now why people care, but I just love a good story. For instance, STAR WARS eps 1-3? Lucas says they happened, I pretend they didn't.
If ignoring the Star Wars prequels aids Brian's enjoyment of that series, why should we insist "No, you must count them because they're canon!!!" A lot of people here seem to view canon in black or white terms; it's either canon or non-canon. Scientific fact. The truth is, it's more similar to theology than science. The word canon originated as a term to identify which books the Church chose to be counted in the Bible. As we all know, religion is a very subjective area. Something might be "canon" in the Bible, but that doesn't mean all Christians have to believe it. Some people follow the Bible word-for-word while others read certain stories and form their own personal beliefs and interpretations. Modern-day fiction is similar; there should be a clearly-defined canon, but you don't have to accept it if you don't want to.
Canon either is or isn't to me. Canon is the author's right to decide the events of this book are related to this other book. Readers can ignore it or never even read that book. I can ignore that atrocities committed by the Nazis, right? That doesn't make it not real. Just because I ignore canon or I'm unaware of canon has no bearing on whether it's official or not. It only has bearing on what I like or choose to pay attention to - you see how that's a bad way to determine something official? Something official cannot be determined by such a subjective viewpoint - if a million canons exist, then no canon exists. The more canons that are set up, the less weight the "official story" carries.
So for people who don't like Star Wars Episode 1-3, they can just say I don't like them or I don't want to remember them. They can even make up different explanations in their head (fanfiction, fanwank). But it has no bearing on canon.
Canon is a baseline for everyone to be able to see while they're spinning in circles and losing perspective amidst the interpretive world of fiction. If it too is made subject to individual interpretation, that "canon" holds no weight as an official determination and as such might as not exist because it becomes meaningless. Canon is the only thing fandom can agree on because it's meant to not be subject to individual interpretation - that's why it's useful.
I'd offer instead of the term "personal canon" or "Mycanon", in reality it's "fan canon". It holds as much official weight as "fanfiction" and fanwank".
The authors of the Buffyverse (Joss and his writers who defer to him) write Buffyverse fiction. I write fanfiction. The authors of the Buffyverse determine canon. I can determine fan canon.
The person who chooses to believe the Buffyverse ended in high school or ended after Buffy died in the The Gift - that's their personal belief. It's not official. And that's the primary component of canon - being official. And because it is about being offical, it requires an accepted authority - and here that's Joss. A person who believes the Buffyverse ended with the Gift basically just jumped off Joss' train - okay for them, but it has no bearing on what's official both in Joss' mind and for everyone who else who tuned in to watch the rest.
I'm gonna quote another fanfiction author, Eowyn315, because I like the way she explained the situation:
"I could write a series of stories about a set of characters. I could say that these stories are a canonical part of the Maggieverse. But it wouldn't matter. My stories would be bad. Nobody would read them, much less discuss them. Calling them canon would be like the proverbial tree falling that nobody hears. It doesn't make a difference.
As an author, I'd strongly disagree with that. *possessive author alert*
I consider each of my fanfics to be a "verse" of its own (and a few have more than one fic in that 'verse). It doesn't matter whether anyone reads them, comments on them, or discusses them - I have determined what "canon" is for that 'verse. And it would make me VERY upset if someone were to write a fanfic in one of those 'verses that I didn't approve of, and have the readers consider it part of the canon I've established. It would also make me very upset if someone read my alt s6 series and didn't like the fourth fic, so they decided that the canon for that series stops at the third fic. I don't care if you don't like it, and I don't care if you don't read the parts you disagree with (it's no different than skipping over a BtVS episode you dislike), but you are not the arbiter of what does and does not happen in a universe I created.
Maybe it doesn't matter to you what I consider canon. But it matters to me. And it especially matters when someone violates the canon I've set (which has happened, incidentally, so this isn't entirely theoretical).
That's why I can't imagine doing that to a professional writer/creator. I don't have to like the season 8 comics - in fact, I can completely ignore them if I want; no one is forcing me to read them or talk about them - but I can't tell the creator of the Buffyverse that the comics he wrote aren't part of it.
I think the difference is that I see audience response/reception and defining canon as two completely separate things. People can react however they want to something - they can love it, they can hate it, they can think it's dumb and choose to ignore it, and they can interpret it in a completely different way than the author intended. But they can't say, "This didn't happen."
People do that all the time with BtVS - within the TV series, there are plenty of individual episodes and scenes that people skip over because they don't like them and don't want to rewatch them. That doesn't make those episodes or scenes "not canon," even if it's an episode that's universally hated by all of fandom.
The audience reception of season 8 can be that it's inferior to the TV series, that it's not a logical continuation of the series, that it's not worth reading, and they may choose not to acknowledge or include it when writing fanfic and meta about the series. But that has absolutely no bearing on whether it's canon or not."
It is the author's right to determine what books are official. If the author no longer exists to do so or never determined such, then other authorities may be considered. But in the Buffyverse, we don't have to live with this confusion because Joss is around to say what's what. It's not called the Whedonverse for nothing.
What gives that one fan who thinks the story ended at The Gift the right to tell Joss Whedon what he wrote isn't what really happened? Doesn't that seem ridiculous and arrogant?
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