Snark's SECOND Law of Fanfic (formerly the First)

[athelind]

From FurryMUCK, this morning:

normanrafferty tries to remember the review he read of 'Torchwood'. "I think it said, 'Is it possible for something to be new material and fan-fiction at the same time?'"

Oh, you betcha. Let's codify this, in fact:

Snark's First Second Law of Fanfic (a.k.a. "Running the Asylum"):
A sufficiently established franchise is indistinguishable from fanfic.

When a fictional franchise has lasted long enough to induct its fandom into the ranks of its professional creators, the distinction between Canon and Fan Fic erodes. The new wave of creators start sneaking Fanon into official sources. Ret Cons abound. Writers will revisit old stories, instilling far more self-indulgent detail into the retellings than ever appeared in the original.

In short, the Inmates are Running The Asylum.

Sometimes, this can bring fresh, new life to the franchise. Other times, the same kind of in-fighting that erupts in fannish circles will play out between creative teams -- but now, the factions are all armed with Canon.

Comments

[athelind.livejournal.com]

I'd add Star Trek to that list: it has a long history of fanzines, licensed novels*, RPG supplements treated as source material by later novelists and series writers, and even "official source material" of debatable canon status.

Just as one example, The Animated Series officially Doesn't Count, but references to it continually show up not only in licensed novels, but in the "real" shows itself. When they did the (brilliant) digital remastering of "Amok Time", they added the Vulcan city from the TAS episode "Yesteryear" in the background.

Meanwhile, nobody acknowledges the fifth movie.

---

*Thinking about it, "Running the Asylum" is really Snark's Second Law of Fanfic. The first dates back thirty years: "Star Trek novels exist because Paramount realized they weren't making any money on fanzines."

[ceruleanst.livejournal.com]

The Muppets.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

The Muppets?

[ceruleanst.livejournal.com]

Everyone who joined the troupe post-Henson was a fan, and each got to impose their own new characters into the canon. Each writer hired for a new feature essentially got to take whatever they'd wanted to see the Muppets do and bring it to life. The retcon of Gonzo's origin in Muppets From Space was pretty well done, but it's the sort of hole that Henson would have happily left unfilled. Eventually, in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, we got the Alternate Universe With Cage-Dancing Scooter, which you must admit has that certain flavor about it.

[shdragon.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't Star Wars be like this as well? There's a pile and a half of books for SW that are all supposedly "official" as well. Plus those animated shorts that happened between two of the prequels.

Though I guess it would be harder to say since Star Wars isn't an ongoing thing, so there can't be any "new" and "definitely official" stuff that could possibly refer back to any "fan" stuff to bump it up to "possibly official"

[athelind.livejournal.com]

It happens to ANY sufficiently established franchise.

Star Wars is an EXCELLENT example, really. For quite a while now, I've harbored the suspicion that it is popular not so much for the stories that Lucas decided to tell, but for the stories that COULD be told in the wider setting.

Certainly, I've read about Star Wars RPG campaigns that sounded FAR better than Episodes 1-3.