Robert Rodi and the Relationship of fans to their canon.
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Robert Rodi and the Relationship of fans to their canon. |
| Creator: | Aja |
| Date(s): | August 31, 2003 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Harry Potter, comics |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | Robert Rodi and the Relationship of fans to their canon. |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Robert Rodi and the Relationship of fans to their canon. is a 2003 essay by Aja.
It is part of a 2002-04 series of essays. See About Writing.
Some Topics Discussed
- authorial intent, who "owns" characters
- head canon
- fans, reality, real life
- a mention of Aja's March 21, 2003 letter to J.K. Rowling
Excerpts
For everybody else who is remotely interested in fandom, comic books, fanfiction, or any other hallowed halls of geekdom: you must read Robert Rodi's What They Did to Princess Paragon. Written in 1994, this book is a delightful sendup of, well, everything I just mentioned. I felt as if I were reading a satire by somebody who'd been taking notes for their underground novel while attending comic cons all over the midwest. In addition to being a really delightful look at some of the more bizarre and subversive elements of homophobia (if such a subject can be delightful?), it also offers among other things a really hilarious caricature of Neil Gaiman (Nigel Cardew in this incarnation--I've never read a single thing by N.G. and even I recognized this portrait).
But the real reason you all should read it is that it offers a nicely thought-provoking look at the question of ownership of a much-loved cultural icon, and asks blatantly, who owns it? Does Princess Paragon (read: Wonder Woman and all of her ilk) belong to her faithful fans and readers, to the corporate suits that produce and deliver her to the public, to the writers who ensure her continuation, or to the sole person who invented her in the first place? The reason this novel takes an effective stab at the question is that Robert Rodi is obviously both a comic-book writer and a fan of comics; in addition to being a fabulous author whom I've loved ever since I read his classic coming-out farce Closet Case, he clearly knows his turf and knows whereof he writes when he tackles obsessive fans, egocentric cartoonists, and the many kinds of reality associated with the creation of character and folklore around a cultural icon.
Obviously, the minute I read this I thought, must tell fandom! Not the least because I have lately been thinking about what it means to love a character in your own mind and what sort of responsibility that entails, if any at all. I, personally, have a deep and undying love for my Harry and Draco. I firmly believe that the things I love about them and write about are mine and that no one can take that away from me. I'm not, obviously, picketing JKR to make them gay and redeem Draco (though I did write her a letter about Draco, attempting to explain to her why we love him so much, and probably failing utterly); what I am sticking to is that I have just as much right to love them and stand by my interpretation of them as I do to love anything else in "real" life.
While Robert Rodi paints Jerome as being just on this side of psychotic in his obsession with the characters from his comic book fantasies, he also makes it clear that Jerome has never once tried to live in his own life, or face his own reality. I hold that it is every fan's right (as long as we are, obviously, well-established in our own realities), to hold our characters as dear and think of them as passionately as we like. Of course, if JKR does make Hermione a lesbian, or announce that, yes, Remus and Sirius were humping like dogs, no one will be happier than I; but faced with the more serious possibility that she will continue to make Draco a one-dimensional unredeemable [sic] bully, my status as a fan of the series will not be jeopardized. I will read and continue to enjoy Harry Potter, and freely criticize what I don't like, while still holding to "my" Harry and "my" Draco. There is a reason that finishing my fan fic has always been one of my highest priorities, and that is because I feel it is just as much "mine" as anything else I have ever written. It is important to me; I have lavished many happy hours away thinking about it and writing about it, and I feel that regardless of what it owes to JK Rowling the characters are ultimately my characters.