At 03:40 PM 5/14/99 -0700, you wrote:
Sigh, does this thread pop up once every year..It seems like it to
me...:) (Though sometimes it's called OOC debates..^^)
I'll tell you this much, the canon wars are definitely not limited to
the Fanfic Mailing List, and the debate here in comparison to elsewhere
as been EXTREMELY limited. Let's say as compared to the millenia-and-a-
half debate over the validity of such religiously important
texts as the Q and the Codex Sinaiticus.
Let's see if we can't put some cold water on this. As a writer, I believe
you can ignore, fold, spindle, mutilate, or follow Canon rules as you
feel. But as a reader I believe you can not like/ or like a fic depending
on how it follows the series Canon....
You won't be able to resolve this here, I don't think. I will say you
CAN say you like a piece of derivative work based on whether or not it's
consistent with original. *That* is a matter of personal preference.
I would argue that it is not factually true that even a significant
minority agrees with this conclusion; otherwise, the entertainment
would cancel it's expensive ventures into market research and simply
produce original flavor derivatives ALL THE TIME.
Just don't expect some readers to go along with you, some of them may like
stories within a certain style or that don't stray far from the orginal
idea. That's perfectily all right though, they have a right to like what
they like. The same as the writer has a right to write what he wants to
right...:)
I hope no one's arguing that you can guarantee yourself 100% readership
by following a set of arbitrarily set rules (I'd say most of the rules
presented on this list were pulled out of someone's asses, considering
I've only heard of a select few outside of this discussion circle).
However, don't make a statement that "readers won't like this" unless
you have the statistical data to back it up.
-The Reverend Prez
* * *
+-----------------+-<The Badass Reverend of Funk Prez>---+
| Presley H. | Political Science / Computer Science |
| Cannady II | and Electrical Engineering Undergrad |
|<revprez@mit.edu>| at the Mass. Institute of Technology |
+-----------------+-<Anime Manga Development Group>------+
+ Author of Liars and Dreamers, a Robotech fanfic +
+-------<http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/1731/index.html>-+
| MIDN 4/c A-2-2 SQD, MIT-Harvard-Tufts NROTC Battalion |
|_|"The art of war is of vital importance to the state"|_|