Hee. I think I contradicted myself in the middle of that.
Clarification?
1.) I don't think it's possible for one interpretation to become the norm. It didn't happen with Buffy fanfic or Harry Potter. For that to happen you'd have to have everyone see it and it would have to be done commercially. The only stories that risk that happening are those that are in the public domain such as Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice - which has more published fanfic on it than anything out there, yet people still see Austen's version as the norm.
2) That doesn't mean the audience's or reader's interpretation won't vary from the writer's or that fanfic won't influence their interpretation or anything will. It does. But I don't believe a writer can ever control how someone will interpret their work or share it.
Narratives change when we interact with them. And everyone sees them differently. There really isn't one way or "the popular way" to see it - no matter how much the evil marketing people who rule the world would like that to be the case. Television critics such as Alan Sepinwall or Ken Tucker may be able to perk my interest in seeing a tv show they love or turn me off of one they hate before I've seen it or show me an angle that I have not seen before, but they do not control how I see it. Or necessarily change it. Any more than unbridled_brunette or selenak or herself or various other fanfic writers will change how I view the character of Spike - all they are doing is showing me another interpretation.
I think the only way for a fanfic interpretation to become the norm is if the original story were no longer available, it ceased to exist. Which is the case, if you think about it, with very old texts or stories - such as the Bible, the Greek Myths, Legends, Fables, Fairy Tales - stories passed down orally or translated so many times now that we no longer quite know what the original tale or interpretation is...(with the possible exception of The Bible). And perhaps in time - when the original version of Buffy is lost and it has been rebooted by someone else and that version takes over, it too will change. It's more likely actually to happen with a television series or movie - it has happened. That's what Ron Moore did with Battle Star Galatica - he re-did it, so that the new version is the norm and the old few remember. But he did it with the original creator's approval - Glenn A. Larson was all for it.
OTOH - the new versions of Sherlock Holmes really haven't changed the fact that most people see Conan Doyle's original tales as the norm.
It may depend on the strength of the original story in the consciousness of the viewer/reader. How strong and well-written it and the character was. How many gaps, how satisfying. BTVS wasn't that well-written, it had gaps. People felt a need to reinterpret it. They loved the characters that the writers created, but not what the writers choose to do with them or the plot - so numerous fans chose to ignore what was on-screen or say, in the comics, and create their own canon with those characters. To date there's no consensus - so a new canon has not replaced the original creators version. Too many people still prefer that. But this happens a lot with tv shows. The stronger televisions series - better written ones - tend to not have it happen as much - but television is a difficult medium to do without losing a viewer or two, or not screwing up here and there. Particularly genre television which has a lot of demands, many of which the writer can't get the funding to pull off the way he'd like to. The constraints of the medium of tv and film and even graphic novels...tend to result in stories that are more open to re-interpretations and re-tellings becoming the norm.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-07-16 12:29 pm (UTC)Clarification?
1.) I don't think it's possible for one interpretation to become the norm.
It didn't happen with Buffy fanfic or Harry Potter. For that to happen you'd have to have everyone see it and it would have to be done commercially.
The only stories that risk that happening are those that are in the public domain such as Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice - which has more published fanfic on it than anything out there, yet people still see Austen's version as the norm.
2) That doesn't mean the audience's or reader's interpretation won't vary from the writer's or that fanfic won't influence their interpretation or anything will. It does. But I don't believe a writer can ever control how someone will interpret their work or share it.
Narratives change when we interact with them. And everyone sees them differently. There really isn't one way or "the popular way" to see it - no matter how much the evil marketing people who rule the world would like that to be the case. Television critics such as Alan Sepinwall or Ken Tucker may be able to perk my interest in seeing a tv show they love or turn me off of one they hate before I've seen it or show me an angle that I have not seen
before, but they do not control how I see it. Or necessarily change it.
Any more than unbridled_brunette or selenak or herself or various other fanfic writers will change how I view the character of Spike - all they are doing is showing me another interpretation.
I think the only way for a fanfic interpretation to become the norm is if the original story were no longer available, it ceased to exist. Which is the case, if you think about it, with very old texts or stories - such as the Bible, the Greek Myths, Legends, Fables, Fairy Tales - stories passed down orally or translated so many times now that we no longer quite know what the original tale or interpretation is...(with the possible exception of The Bible). And perhaps in time - when the original version of Buffy is lost and it has been rebooted by someone else and that version takes over, it too will change. It's more likely actually to happen with a television series or movie - it has happened. That's what Ron Moore did with Battle Star Galatica - he re-did it, so that the new version is the norm and the old few remember. But he did it with the original creator's approval - Glenn A. Larson was all for it.
OTOH - the new versions of Sherlock Holmes really haven't changed the fact that most people see Conan Doyle's original tales as the norm.
It may depend on the strength of the original story in the consciousness of the viewer/reader. How strong and well-written it and the character was.
How many gaps, how satisfying. BTVS wasn't that well-written, it had gaps.
People felt a need to reinterpret it. They loved the characters that the writers created, but not what the writers choose to do with them or the plot - so numerous fans chose to ignore what was on-screen or say, in the comics, and create their own canon with those characters. To date there's no consensus - so a new canon has not replaced the original creators version.
Too many people still prefer that. But this happens a lot with tv shows.
The stronger televisions series - better written ones - tend to not have it happen as much - but television is a difficult medium to do without losing a viewer or two, or not screwing up here and there. Particularly genre television which has a lot of demands, many of which the writer can't get the funding to pull off the way he'd like to. The constraints of the medium of tv and film and even graphic novels...tend to result in stories that are more open to re-interpretations and re-tellings becoming the norm.