"Fanlore - Home Page"

Fanon is any element that is widely accepted among fans, but has little or no basis in canon. Sometimes it's a small event in canon that gets exaggerated; sometimes it's something in a fanfic story that gets picked up on and repeated by other writers until it's so common that newbies might think it's a canonical fact.

When Fanon Becomes Canon

Sometimes fanon becomes canon because TPTB planned to reveal a canon fact all along, and fans merely beat them to the punch by figuring it out ahead of time. Other times, bits of fanon are created by fans, then picked up by TPTB and made into canon. For instance, in Stargate SG-1 fandom, fanfic writers gave a recurring character, Major Davis, the first name "Paul." A few years later, the show's writers officially gave the character the first name Paul.

Similarly, in Highlander fandom, the fans quickly took to calling the unnamed U.S. city where Duncan MacLeod lived "Seacouver," because it was clearly meant to evoke the feel of Seattle while looking suspiciously like Vancouver (where the show was filmed). Eventually, the show creators officially adopted the name for the city, referring to it that way offscreen. (Although it was never mentioned on the show, it did appear as prop canon--a newspaper contained an ad for an event at the "Seacouver Community Center"^[1] -- and in some of the tie-in novels.)

A variation of fanon is "personal canon" or "head canon," which is a set of "fanon"-like facts that are accepted as canon by an individual fan or a smaller group of fans, sometimes in the making of a shared universe.

Controversy

Some fans think fanon is a sign of lazy thinking or lazy writing^[2], arguing that a fan writer should come up with her own story elements or interpretations, and not repeat the story elements or interpretations of others. For example Victoria P. writes on fanon: "After a while, fanonical characterizations all start to feel the same, and isn't one of the aims of fanfic to produce diversity? [...] I mean, when the fanon is so incestuous that the new writers can't tell fanon from canon and accept the former as the latter, that's a problem, to me."^[3] In a related vein, there are fans that believe that overwhelmingly popular fanon acts like a stranglehold on the range of possible character and story interpretations, essentially creating an orthodoxy from which authors stray at their peril.^[4]

Occasionally a writer's use of fanon can indicate an unfamiliarity with the actual source, as if she is writing fanfic based not on the show, but on other fanwriters' interpretation of the show. For instance, in The Sentinel fandom, it was once quite common to find stories that depicted Blair Sandburg as a life-long vegetarian; use of this fanon element became widespread, despite the fact that several key episodes of the show (such as "Blind Man's Bluff" or "Spare Parts") indicate that Blair is, canonically, an enthusiastic omnivore.^[5] As writing fanfiction without having actually viewed the source is generally looked down upon, use of fanon that blatantly contradicts canon can be taken as a warning sign to readers that they are about to encounter badfic. Similarly, stories that contradict fanon (but not canon) may be described by some readers as OOC or AU, in cases where fanon has become so powerful that it attains a force equal to (or surpassing) canon itself.

However, not all fanon contradicts canon. Certain types of fanon are created because certain details or interpretations invented by fans seem so right, so true or plausible or pleasurable, that they're repeated by other writers almost as a form of tribute, as if that's what must have really happened. From this point of view, fanon is an essential aspect of how fanfiction writers improve on or flesh out (often sketchy) source texts.^[6]

External Links

1. Agent with Style's Fannish Glossary Accessed October 23, 2008
2. Fannish Glossary Accessed October 23, 2008
3. Dictionary Accessed October 23, 2008

References

1. ↑ Transcript of the episode "The Valkyrie" mentioning the Seacouver Community Center appearing in that episode. Accessed 3 December 2008
2. ↑ Dorothy Marley. The Seven Deadly Fanons of Characterization: a Spotter's Guide. Posted 14 October 2003. Accessed 3 December 2008.
3. ↑ Victoria P. like a garment made to measure (on canon and fanon). Posted 8 March 2004. Accessed 3 December 2008.
4. ↑ Vee_fic untitled entry. Posted 15 May 2007. Accessed 24 December 2008.
5. ↑ Canon? or Fanon? Accessed December 3, 2008
6. ↑ Fabu. More than you ever wanted to know about canon and fanon. Posted 20 February 2004. Accessed 3 December 2008.