Yes, I read "turn their characters, the relationships and plots upside down" in the literal sense, not just related to shipping or even One True Shipping. Part of the fun is doing exactly that sort of thing in fanfic, but when folks think their fanfic world should be reflected in the rest of fandom, and better yet, the show itself... um, no. Just... no.
Don't worry about the mix-up in meanings. It's often difficult to get across exact meanings sometimes, even within the same fandom. You often have a particular example in mind, but without taking up pages to explain it, the meaning it gives to your post doesn't always carry the same weight.
It gets especially fun when you use one show to illustrate something done well and another to illustrate something done poorly, but don't use specific show names and people think you're talking out of both sides of your mouth (i.e. lying or trying to say two different things are true when by default they can't be). That happened to me recently and no matter what I said to clarify, all that mattered was the original post I made that was misunderstood.
I've been in fandom for over 20 years, and I've always managed to keep the canon and fanon lines clear, even when TPTB themselves are feeding the fanon quite nicely. There's even a few shows now where I don't really follow canon at all (no longer watch the show because I don't like how it's going), but enjoy the fanfic view of things.
I also think sometimes it's often difficult to understand "in-jokes" within a fandom, which can make things seem off in a discussion. I make jokes about slashy scenes and the like, but that doesn't mean I think TPTB are deliberately trying to put slash into a show, or that they should. Usually, it's more likely they're trying to make a gay joke and it backfired into pure slashy goodness. *g*
"Textual Poachers" can get a bit academic at times, because, well, that was the intent, but I think there are a lot of excerpts online that get the idea across.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-09-04 05:01 pm (UTC)Don't worry about the mix-up in meanings. It's often difficult to get across exact meanings sometimes, even within the same fandom. You often have a particular example in mind, but without taking up pages to explain it, the meaning it gives to your post doesn't always carry the same weight.
It gets especially fun when you use one show to illustrate something done well and another to illustrate something done poorly, but don't use specific show names and people think you're talking out of both sides of your mouth (i.e. lying or trying to say two different things are true when by default they can't be). That happened to me recently and no matter what I said to clarify, all that mattered was the original post I made that was misunderstood.
I've been in fandom for over 20 years, and I've always managed to keep the canon and fanon lines clear, even when TPTB themselves are feeding the fanon quite nicely. There's even a few shows now where I don't really follow canon at all (no longer watch the show because I don't like how it's going), but enjoy the fanfic view of things.
I also think sometimes it's often difficult to understand "in-jokes" within a fandom, which can make things seem off in a discussion. I make jokes about slashy scenes and the like, but that doesn't mean I think TPTB are deliberately trying to put slash into a show, or that they should. Usually, it's more likely they're trying to make a gay joke and it backfired into pure slashy goodness. *g*
"Textual Poachers" can get a bit academic at times, because, well, that was the intent, but I think there are a lot of excerpts online that get the idea across.