I understand you not wanting others to set canon in your universe. I feel that a writer doesn't really have control over that, and more importantly, doesn't need control over that to be the sole provider of canon. For example, I love the original Dragonlance trilogy written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Many, many authors wrote many, many stories in the same universe, with the same publisher, using some of the same characters. Basically, its professional fanfic. Some of it I really enjoyed, and some I didn't (just as there were some Weis/Hickman Dragonlance works that I didn't like). That doesn't change my opinion about the first Weis/Hickman Dragonlance trilogy. In film, many actors played James Bond or Batman; another good or bad actor in the universe didn't dilute the performace of the previous actors.
As an analogy, companies worry about and protect their brands from dilution by imitators. Authors are their own brands. Their books are products under that brand. Someone can make similar products with similar parts or ingredients, but they're not originals. Michelle West (tm) brand characters will never have the same content or context as Elvis Impersonator (tm) brand versions of the same characters and universe. Fanfic can be anything from treasured to reviled to ignored. If it were possible for people to publish works in your universe, even against your wishes, their works would stand or fall on their own merit. Works that stand would enhance your universe. Works that fall would, by comparison, push your work that much higher. But I don't think they would affect your brand.
Assuming it were even possible for someone to duplicate your style to the point where a given reader wouldn't be able to tell whether or not you wrote the derivative work, authorship (your "brand") implies a safety and comfort in a universe. Anything you write, I know you intended. If someone else writes in your universe, I have no guarantee that you include their treatment of your universe as part of your universe. Regardless of whether or not I think it's cool that one of your characters gets abducted by the Tribe of Snuffleupagus in someone's fanfic, only you can give me the opportunity to get to know and grow with your characters and your universe in the way you choose. Other authors can give me their vision within their version of your universe, but that's within their "brand". That's why I don't think authors really need control over their universes to set canon. By default, I think readers assume each author owns and defines their own canon, regardless of whoever else may write within an author's universe.
Now, I probably have an unusual perspective; I study interactive games. One of the great challenges that story-based games face is that, by default, the author has little control of the main character (the player). Authors (i.e. game designers) create the universe in such a way as to make it inviting for players to "write their own fanfic", as it were. To be sure, most video games aren't story-based. But it's interesting that all video games face the same "active audience" issues that books, movies, and other media have. In that sense, fanfic is merely a way of making a story a little more interactive.
This is all in my head, and maybe I've separated myself too far from Real Life. Do you think readers tend to assume that different authors share the canon of a universe if the authors write in the same universe? Or for a character? If you read a series of books done by multiple authors, and you read a book you don't like, would you tend to avoid the series, the author, ...both?
This thread really has really made me think hard about author and reader roles. ...Thanks everyone!
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-10-22 10:59 am (UTC)As an analogy, companies worry about and protect their brands from dilution by imitators. Authors are their own brands. Their books are products under that brand. Someone can make similar products with similar parts or ingredients, but they're not originals. Michelle West (tm) brand characters will never have the same content or context as Elvis Impersonator (tm) brand versions of the same characters and universe. Fanfic can be anything from treasured to reviled to ignored. If it were possible for people to publish works in your universe, even against your wishes, their works would stand or fall on their own merit. Works that stand would enhance your universe. Works that fall would, by comparison, push your work that much higher. But I don't think they would affect your brand.
Assuming it were even possible for someone to duplicate your style to the point where a given reader wouldn't be able to tell whether or not you wrote the derivative work, authorship (your "brand") implies a safety and comfort in a universe. Anything you write, I know you intended. If someone else writes in your universe, I have no guarantee that you include their treatment of your universe as part of your universe. Regardless of whether or not I think it's cool that one of your characters gets abducted by the Tribe of Snuffleupagus in someone's fanfic, only you can give me the opportunity to get to know and grow with your characters and your universe in the way you choose. Other authors can give me their vision within their version of your universe, but that's within their "brand". That's why I don't think authors really need control over their universes to set canon. By default, I think readers assume each author owns and defines their own canon, regardless of whoever else may write within an author's universe.
Now, I probably have an unusual perspective; I study interactive games. One of the great challenges that story-based games face is that, by default, the author has little control of the main character (the player). Authors (i.e. game designers) create the universe in such a way as to make it inviting for players to "write their own fanfic", as it were. To be sure, most video games aren't story-based. But it's interesting that all video games face the same "active audience" issues that books, movies, and other media have. In that sense, fanfic is merely a way of making a story a little more interactive.
This is all in my head, and maybe I've separated myself too far from Real Life. Do you think readers tend to assume that different authors share the canon of a universe if the authors write in the same universe? Or for a character? If you read a series of books done by multiple authors, and you read a book you don't like, would you tend to avoid the series, the author, ...both?
This thread really has really made me think hard about author and reader roles. ...Thanks everyone!