Poll Day - Is it Canon or Fanon?

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

The last Thursday of each month is Poll Day.  Let's talk about canon.

[Poll #1899268]

Comments

[the-wretching.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I think the very definition of "canon" is at issue here. Or, I should say, it is for me. I don't really know how to answer....

It seems like.... just using the characters (even without the same setting) is relying on canon. If Illya makes a sarcastic retort, or Napoleon can't stop himself from smiling at the waitress....isn't that canon?

Or do you mean something like...purposefully inserting into a story UNCLE trivia or specific references to characters/episodes etc. directly from the show?

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

From the Fan Fiction Dictionary:
Canon - All of the events which *expressly* happen in the fandom. Meaning, everything, person, event, statement, that happens in the show, movie, or book is canon. For example, Megabyte's real name being Marmaduke is canon because it expressly says in Origin Story that it is. Everything that happens in the show is canon. This is sort of used like a law for fan fiction. alternate universes are where an author deliberately ignores, goes against, or stop paying attention to canon in order to create their own canon.
This page has a lot of interesting definitions. http://expressions.populli.net/dictionary.html

[the-wretching.livejournal.com]

Meaning, everything, person, event, statement, that happens in the show... is canon.

That's what I was taking it to mean.

In which case, it isn't fanfiction if it doesn't use canon.
Even in an AU, if fundamental aspects of character are retained ---and if they weren't than the characters wouldn't be recognisable-- then the writer is using canon:

Even if you wrote a story about UNCLE-Zarblat on the planet Zarblat in the year 6930 with all different characters and no one remembered that New York or any of their agents existed, so long as it's an UNCLE adventure---defeating wily bad guys at great personal peril, then it's canon.

Or if you took Mr. Waverly and wrote a complex AU drama about him doing missionary work in the jungle and falling in love with a chess master....It's Waverly, so it's canon.

At least, that's my understanding of the word.
I feel like you must have a more rigid definition in mind in these poll questions otherwise I don't understand them. Hence my query. I'm curious what specifically you mean by canon. My interpretation is clearly too broad.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Coming into fanfiction, I knew nothing - had never even heard of this genre until three years ago. The idea of canon being at the core of the fiction indicated to me that the story should be recognizable by including those elements by which we define MFU.
Obvious things would be Napoleon as a wallflower with low self-esteem and Illya a tireless womanizer. To me, that is non-canon.
The organization, the setting and the people within that setting are canon, as are the recognizable villains or at least facsimiles of them that fit within the description of who UNCLE goes to battle with.
Apparently everyone who voted has some idea of canon, and their preferences concerning it. I would go so far as to say that slash is non-canon, and therefore without appeal for me, much as if it were making Illya an American or a woman. The same for Napoleon. When you change who they are, then it isn't canon, for me.
Others have different descriptions, perhaps, but some things are truly written in MFU stone, like the organization, the jobs they do and world in which they live. In any event, as this little experiment shows, people do have some construct in mind of what canon is and how it affects them as both reader and writer. How broad that interpretation is will ultimately be up to the individual on some level, although I believe St. Crispins might disagree slightly.
In the end, it's all entertainment and POV.

[the-wretching.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this clarification, Glenna. Good examples.
Certainly there seems to be a little wiggle room for subjectivity, but I do feel clearer on what you're getting at.

And the poll answers are quite interesting. I wonder how much the poll-takers would differ on their definitions of canon....what examples of stories/elements they might use to demonstrate canon/not...

A thought-provoking poll.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it can be considered thought provoking. We'll try and make the polls of interest and value to all of us.