Talk:OpEd:Fanon Vs. Fan Fiction

This article is written in response to OpEd:Fanon Vs. Fan Fiction.

I respectfully disagree greatly with the direction of focus and lack of determinism of the conclusion of that otherwise well-articulated article. Fanon is not a belief system, nor is it something that "is or is not" Fan Fiction. It is a word coined by humans with a meaning, and humans need to agree (at least to an extent) on what certain terms mean, or communication breaks down.

Fanon is not the same as Fan Fiction. Fanon is also not the opposite of Fan Fiction. The treatment in the previous article only gives 3 options, and none of them are correct.

In the world outside of Wikia, this is what Fanon means (emphasis mine): "'Sometimes... events or characterizations portrayed in fan fiction can become so influential that they are respected in fiction written by many different authors, and may be mistaken for canonical facts by fans. This is referred to as 'fanon'.'"

"'Fanon, a portmanteau of fan and canon, is a fact or ongoing situation related to a work of fiction that has been used so much by fan writers or among the fandom that it has been established as having happened in the fictional world, but which does not appear in any official work from the original authors, scriptwriters or producers.'"

"'a term used in fanfiction to describe commonly accepted ideas among authors even if they are not actually expressed in the canon work.'"

"'Those conventions and extrapolations from canon which become so popular and widespread in a fannish community, that they turn up in much fan fiction, and often people cannot remember where the idea originally came from."

"'Information or characterization that has never been confirmed in canon but is accepted as such by fans'"

Their definition differ in the exact wording, but share enough common elements: Fanon is something not in the canon but is widely accepted by fans. Some fanon are fan fiction, some fanon are not fan fiction (nobody wrote it, everyone simply accepted it). Some fan fiction are fanon, some fan fiction are not fanon.

Some best-selling books are novels, some best-selling books are not novels. Some novels are best selling books, some novels are not best-selling books. To try and argue "are novels and best-selling-books separate, the same, or both because you can't tell what is really the truth?" makes no sense. All sides of the controversy are wrong.

This is not a belief system. At least when you step outside of the confines of Wikia and face the rest of the fan fiction communities in the world.

Respectfully yours.