an old joke about the appeal of canon

[brightknightie]

Years ago, to shorthand my fannish interpretations and preferences, I used to say: "I'm a canon-based lifeform." ;-)

Many people love total AUs and flat-out "canon? what canon?" denial, and that's great! I'm different. When I care enough about a story world to engage fannishly, I can't usually, happily, simultaneously disengage from it that way. Conscious divergences from canon ("What if?"s) are all joy and delight; and hidebound fidelity that cannot forge anew is pointless, of course; yet there must be awareness of the raw material, tribute to the superstructure.

I'm a foil fencer (not epee, not saber). If you know modern sport fencing, that sums up my fannish tendencies even more pithily: I freely choose and celebrate the weapon — ~cough~ I mean, "sporting equipment" ~cough~ — with all the intricate, infuriating, beautiful rules meant to make you behave in the ways that would be wise if it were sharp, which it's absolutely not and shouldn't be. :-)

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A happy US Thanksgiving to those celebrating today! Good luck to those working on fannish events like HLH_Shortcuts, NaNoWriMo, and Yuletide! Best wishes to those hunting Ditto in Pokémon Go! Comfort and strength to all people of good will. ♥

Comments

[greerwatson]

For the most part I also revel in canon, and extrapolations that are reasonably soundly based in canon (though the occasional divergent AU can appeal). I've dabbled elsewhere; but, for my main fandoms, canon is pre-eminent—and for the same reason you cite. If I didn't love it that much, I wouldn't still be here.

Of course, I'm not averse to ignoring "Last Knight" altogether; but that's a whole other thing.

[skieswideopen]

I'm a day late, but happy Thanksgiving! I hope you had a good day! I was hanging out with an American friend last night, and his Scottish husband cooked a mini-Thanksgiving dinner for us, so I actually celebrated after a fashion.

[brightknightie]

Thank you very much! Warm [US] Thanksgiving wishes to your displaced friend. ;-) He sounds very lucky in his husband and friends.

Have I mentioned lately how grateful I am to have you in my fannish and personal circles? You are encouraging, interesting, engaging, faithful, and delightful. I'm grateful for you.

I did have a pleasant holiday, thank you, and I'm determined to have a pleasant (and productive!) weekend, too. Tonight, I'm going to a community theater production of an obscure musical called 1940s Radio Hour (and today I'm writing for HLH_Shortcuts). It is raining like crazy, which... will help keep me at my keyboard, and not out catching pokemon ;-) which is tempting, because they're having a doubling event.

[skieswideopen]

I'm grateful to have you as a friend too. You're unfailingly kind and thoughtful in a way that I greatly admire, and I'm so happy that I've had the chance to get to know you

I'm glad you had a pleasant holiday and I hope you had a productive writing weekend. How was your musical?