I have been waiting for a big rambly rant like this because, some of the reasons you stated? Are why I’ve been so hesitant to go crazy in the Narnia fandom for so long.
the fandom that write fics based on the books and their fics are nice and pretty sugary. With straight off battles and the good people are good and the bad people are bad, and there are not many grey-zones. There’s no… meta in their fics. Here, Peter is a nice guy, and Lucy has never been drunk in her life. You get my drift.
Then there is the fandom that sprung up after the movies came out, on LJ. They talk and interpret and are not satisfied with the Narnia C.S Lewis wrote about.
In my experience with the latter fandom I’ll say that there aren’t just two groups. Far as I know, there are people in the bookverse crowd who are also brilliant in world-building, based on the books alone. I myself devoured a lot of the movieverse fics that sprung up after LWW came out, and…I still prefer the bookverse, thinking in it, writing in it. Not because I am feeling like I’m sticking to “just what CS Lewis wanted”(an attitude that irks me about some elitist fans) but because it’s closer to my heart.
Just as an example, I’m one of those who didn’t like Peter’s characterization in the PC movie because I love how in the book, he can be a good-natured 50’s schoolboy one moment and then be issuing orders and cutting off people’s heads the next.(Hee. I had to emphasize that because I was so awed/horrorstruck/fascinated as a child when I read that scene) I missed that Peter in the movie. That’s not to say that I’m completely horrified at the idea of him drinking excessively, or flirting, or liking men, in fanfic, because what I think is, we have what CS Lewis gave us and we are so free to extrapolate on that.
Just tag it with movieverse and avoid it if it annoys you so much. True. Actually, that’s why I’m having a tricky time of thinking up my fic for LJ—my personal thoughts on the characters, while not making anyone the perfect angels that some elitists want everyone to be, spring off the bookverse. And I know most fanon is movieverse and I just can’t meld—my Edmund is mellow and mostly even-tempered, for instance. Maybe I should just stop thinking in terms of “FF.net” and “LJ” and just write :p
One thing that annoys me supremely from the first set is, for a fic to be considered “a proper Narnia fic”, it has to conform exactly to their religious standards. I’ve seen an extraordinarily well-written slash fic condemned unnecessarily just because it deals with homosexuality. Meanwhile, some fics about characters discovering religion get lauded just for that, even though there’s zero characterization and heart in them. *shrugs* I don’t know about them but I just see the story in a story—there are other places to have religious debates.
no subject
the fandom that write fics based on the books and their fics are nice and pretty sugary. With straight off battles and the good people are good and the bad people are bad, and there are not many grey-zones. There’s no… meta in their fics. Here, Peter is a nice guy, and Lucy has never been drunk in her life. You get my drift.
Then there is the fandom that sprung up after the movies came out, on LJ. They talk and interpret and are not satisfied with the Narnia C.S Lewis wrote about.
In my experience with the latter fandom I’ll say that there aren’t just two groups. Far as I know, there are people in the bookverse crowd who are also brilliant in world-building, based on the books alone. I myself devoured a lot of the movieverse fics that sprung up after LWW came out, and…I still prefer the bookverse, thinking in it, writing in it. Not because I am feeling like I’m sticking to “just what CS Lewis wanted”(an attitude that irks me about some elitist fans) but because it’s closer to my heart.
Just as an example, I’m one of those who didn’t like Peter’s characterization in the PC movie because I love how in the book, he can be a good-natured 50’s schoolboy one moment and then be issuing orders and cutting off people’s heads the next.(Hee. I had to emphasize that because I was so awed/horrorstruck/fascinated as a child when I read that scene) I missed that Peter in the movie. That’s not to say that I’m completely horrified at the idea of him drinking excessively, or flirting, or liking men, in fanfic, because what I think is, we have what CS Lewis gave us and we are so free to extrapolate on that.
Just tag it with movieverse and avoid it if it annoys you so much.
True. Actually, that’s why I’m having a tricky time of thinking up my fic for LJ—my personal thoughts on the characters, while not making anyone the perfect angels that some elitists want everyone to be, spring off the bookverse. And I know most fanon is movieverse and I just can’t meld—my Edmund is mellow and mostly even-tempered, for instance. Maybe I should just stop thinking in terms of “FF.net” and “LJ” and just write :p
One thing that annoys me supremely from the first set is, for a fic to be considered “a proper Narnia fic”, it has to conform exactly to their religious standards. I’ve seen an extraordinarily well-written slash fic condemned unnecessarily just because it deals with homosexuality. Meanwhile, some fics about characters discovering religion get lauded just for that, even though there’s zero characterization and heart in them. *shrugs* I don’t know about them but I just see the story in a story—there are other places to have religious debates.