"Tainting the canon"; one author's philosophy offanfic

[heidit at netbox.com]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., cassandraclaire at m... wrote:
> I think it's a matter of perspective and what you see as canon-
true. 
 
> I've read other stories which seem to be striving far harder to 
> capture the exact tone, style, dialogue and characterization of 
JKR's 
> original work, yet which IMHO lack the animating spirit that makes 
a 
> story, to me, unputdownable. I can admire them for their technical 
> excellence in mimicry yet be unable to maintain interest in 
finishing 
> them. 

Along the same lines, there are stories which adhere to what some 
believe will happen in canon, or has already happened (such as Ron 
and Hermione falling for each other)but don't include one original 
element of magic, and even occasionally don't incorporate magic the 
way JKR already has in canon. I find it very difficult to read a 
story, especially a romance or action-filled story, that doesn't have 
some *real magic* in it, and by this I mean something more than a 
randomly used summoning spell.  I want to see creativity come into 
play when the writer makes up a spell or names a place or creates a 
way for witches & wizards to do things that's different from the way 
we muggles do them. I love Lori's Bubbles, Penny & Carole's bone-
fragment charms, Masoumi's chibi!draco and his cold ball of light, 
Alicia/Sue's skywriting and Gwendolyn Grace's Elf, Ryan. I don't like 
stories that have people staring at the water during the second task 
for an hour, with NOTHING going on about water, not even a giant 
clock counting down the bloody seconds until the time is up. How hard 
can that be to create or conjure?  

> It's simply a matter of what you read fanfic for and what you find 
> enjoyable in it. I don't read fanfic because I want book 5. (I do 
> want book 5, but that's not what I'm looking for in fanfic.) I read 
> it because I love the characters and I love discussing them and I 
am 
> interested in seeing other viewpoints on them, other people's 
> extrapolations of possible futures. 
Time for my "meetooo!" I honestly don't see fanfiction as any 
different than the conversations we have on the OnTopic list. The 
character discussions are similar, in that way, to fanfiction. I 
remember last fall reading a comment on one of the lists - either 
this or PoU - basically a challenge to listies in general as to 
whether anyone with theories about a character could sustain them in 
a creative way through a convincing fanfic - this was the inspiration 
for what I've been doing with SoC. The beliefs I hold about the 
characters are all that I manifest in SoC, and I try to pair them 
with magical devices, spells and procedures that comport with canon, 
even if certain of them, like the Smores and Music Box in teh 3 
Broomsticks, or the Herbal Monitors during the third task, have no 
basis in canon themselves. I like to think that they could exist in 
JKR's world. But somebody who read SoC and didn't want to see any 
overlap between the wizarding and muggle worlds might be irritated at 
my belief, which I staunchly hold, that One Hit Wonders in the music 
industry are often teenage witches & wizards playing in the muggle 
world for a year or so before going into work at the ministry (and 
yes, I think Elvis and Elton John are wizards. Prove me wrong :)


--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer 
<pennylin at s...> wrote:
> Now, people have argued (and you might agree) that the characters in
> *all* of the above stories are not true to their canonical selves.  
It's
> a subjective judgment though.  

I do agree with Penny- it is a subjective judgment, and while I love 
all the fics she mentioned (egomaniacal as that sounds (and for that 
I apologize)) if you want fanfics that don't predict traits of the 
characters at some point in the future or the past(I'm thinking 
either MWPP or Young Harry Young Ron Young Draco fics here), AND are 
great on the grammar/spelling front AND contain magic exactly AND 
only in the way JKR treats it, you're not going to find that needle 
in a haystack in Surfeit of Curses, and I don't think you'll find it 
in the other fics as well. 

Penny's right - "Lori did an outstanding job of extrapolating traits 
& characteristics of the canon characters for her adult 
characters..." but every single manifestation of her characters' 
characters will not match up with what you, the reader, believe their 
characters to be. However, I think it's perfectly easy to segregate 
the fanon from the canon, but that might just be me. 

Penny also said 
> Draco -- he's definitely different in the works of Cassie & Heidi 
than
> he is in canon.  He is *not* his canonical self.  He *is* though a
> *possible* canon self.  I don't think the Draco created by either of
> these authors is implausible at all.
I don't think they are either - and despite what some people who 
haven't read each chapter for SoC have said, Draco in SoC is not at 
all similar to Cassie's Draco. Sex appeal is just something the kid's 
read about in books, and he's not as biting as Cassie's is. Of 
course, he's also between 2 and 4 years younger (and 11 years younger 
in one chapter) which does make a significant difference. 
SoC incorporates explorations of canon from non-Harry perspectives - 
mostly Draco's, with some of Hermione's - so of course you can't read 
it to see JKR's narrative take on Draco, or Hermione, or Snape BUT it 
is 100% based on canon. I put in nothing "factual" without checking 
the books to see if it matched with what JKR wrote.