Steve's Canon versus Fanfic Post

[ourobouros_1999 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 16428

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Steve Vander Ark" <vderark at b...> wrote:
>

(Pops out of lurkerdom.)
 I'm occupying an intermediate position. I'm not going to go out 
reading HP fanfic until the series is over. I'm too busy waiting to 
see what JKR will do, because I feel there is just so much to be 
revealed. And I agree that pastiches probably do alter the reader's 
perspective in subtle ways, and that to fanfic or not to is a 
personal choice. 

<snip>
> > 	
> > Pippin, who is wondering if your determination to avoid all 
fanfic 
> > extends to The Aeneid or Paradise Lost?
> 
> I've read both. Do you consider them fanfic? And I only worry about 
> fanfic when it comes to Harry Potter. I don't care this 
passionately 
> about any other books. Sounds weird, but it's true. So what if 
> someone writes a pastiche of Sherlock Holmes or even Janet 
Evanovich, 
> both of which I read with great delight. I just don't care as much 
> about them.
> 

For me, it's because JKR isn't done yet. If HP was one book, or the 
series was over, I'd probably be maniacally seeking out fic, like I 
do for other things, which are done, I'm a fan of. 
You could kind of argue that Paradise Lost is "fanfic" or that 
Inferno is as well, because certainly they color our perceptions of 
the Bible (I mean, look at what Inferno has done to our way of 
thinking about hell, and Paradise Lost about the devil...both of 
which were not as well developed in the original text :) ) in ways 
that the original was not intended to further. 

Charmian
(who's currently thinking about the status of completed incomplete 
manuscripts, like the one someone did of Dorothy Sayer's Thrones, 
Dominations)