However, at what point does that re-invisioning process become so different from the original cannon that one should consider it more of a parody/alternate reality rather than fanfic?
Ah, well, there's a school of thought that all fanfic is alternate reality. It's not on your television screen between 8 and 9 pm on Wednesdays, therefore it's not canonical, therefore it's AU (alternate universe).
However most of the time what happens is that stories that really challenge the underlying premises of the show are labelled AU. Something like Tauvo Crais being brought onto Moya in the pilot of Farscape instead of Aeryn Sun; Benton Fraser being born a woman instead of a man (DueSouth); Scully never joining the FBI at all.
You can go even farther AU, of course, and write a story in which the recognizeable personalities are living in, say, 13th-Century Wales. (I'm not much fond of those, since part of the appeal of the fic is the characters' personal histories. But people do write them.) Those last ones, where the characters' personal histories are changed, are the ones that for me fall outside the realm of fanfiction, because without either the framework of the basic premise or the specific personal history established by canon what you have is an original novel whose characters physically resemble the actors but not much else is recognizable.
However to answer your question, even in those circumstances, the writer is generally relying on the reader's knowledge and familiarity with the source canon to make her point. The emotional responses and the logical connections often require the reader to know what was said or done in canon. The amount of this riffing or cross-referencing, of course, depends on the writer and the story.
(Similar to, say, a mainstream novel about a family squabbling about an inheritance in which one of three sisters is named Cordelia. That reference to King Lear casts a shadow and a certain level of understanding over the entire story, even if the characters themselves never acknowledge it.)
So, to get back to your question, when the story becomes alternate reality depends who you ask. Some stories are obviously alternate reality (Mulder is a girl!); some are AU because they start at a set point in canon and spin off into their own examination of what might have happened (Buffy never comes back from the dead after Prophecy Girl); some are completely wacky (like the Professionals stories in which the characters are, well, Faeries).
Other than that, the dividing line is very blurry. It depends on the specific community in question. There are even people who say that all slash is AU if there's no indication of same-sex preferences established in canon. Thankfully, this is not a commonly-held belief. *grin*
Sorry to go on so long, but it's an interesting question.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-10-21 10:38 am (UTC)Ah, well, there's a school of thought that all fanfic is alternate reality. It's not on your television screen between 8 and 9 pm on Wednesdays, therefore it's not canonical, therefore it's AU (alternate universe).
However most of the time what happens is that stories that really challenge the underlying premises of the show are labelled AU. Something like Tauvo Crais being brought onto Moya in the pilot of Farscape instead of Aeryn Sun; Benton Fraser being born a woman instead of a man (DueSouth); Scully never joining the FBI at all.
You can go even farther AU, of course, and write a story in which the recognizeable personalities are living in, say, 13th-Century Wales. (I'm not much fond of those, since part of the appeal of the fic is the characters' personal histories. But people do write them.) Those last ones, where the characters' personal histories are changed, are the ones that for me fall outside the realm of fanfiction, because without either the framework of the basic premise or the specific personal history established by canon what you have is an original novel whose characters physically resemble the actors but not much else is recognizable.
However to answer your question, even in those circumstances, the writer is generally relying on the reader's knowledge and familiarity with the source canon to make her point. The emotional responses and the logical connections often require the reader to know what was said or done in canon. The amount of this riffing or cross-referencing, of course, depends on the writer and the story.
(Similar to, say, a mainstream novel about a family squabbling about an inheritance in which one of three sisters is named Cordelia. That reference to King Lear casts a shadow and a certain level of understanding over the entire story, even if the characters themselves never acknowledge it.)
So, to get back to your question, when the story becomes alternate reality depends who you ask. Some stories are obviously alternate reality (Mulder is a girl!); some are AU because they start at a set point in canon and spin off into their own examination of what might have happened (Buffy never comes back from the dead after Prophecy Girl); some are completely wacky (like the Professionals stories in which the characters are, well, Faeries).
Other than that, the dividing line is very blurry. It depends on the specific community in question. There are even people who say that all slash is AU if there's no indication of same-sex preferences established in canon. Thankfully, this is not a commonly-held belief. *grin*
Sorry to go on so long, but it's an interesting question.