Where People Like Us Exist 1
By AlchemistDoctor
Canon is great. Canon is amazing, even; something we use as a foundation for everything else.
Y’know what’s also the lowest point of any building? The foundation. Foundations are important! They’re great. But they’re not the pyramid we strive for; foundations don’t take you to great heights. They’re solid but unusable for shelter.
That’s how I tend to think of canon in the sense of fandom. We build on it, make it grow, add support and structure and head canons. Soon there’s a whole building, with artwork on the walls and fic on the bookshelves and fans living inside. Fandom becomes a shelter for those who otherwise might not be safe out in the elements.
Others have commented on the subversive nature of fan fiction and fan art: how those who are commonly portrayed in media (often white and cis and straight and male), are those who feel most comfortable being curators of it. If you’re a white straight cis man, there’s no need for protection from media’s ‘elements’: by your very nature, you’re safe. You could live happily on a foundation alone, with no need for a building atop.
But for the rest of us, who struggle with the winds of misogyny or queerphobia or racism (or all of the above), fandom becomes a shelter, a community where we’re allowed to say things like “I think Luke Skywalker was absolutely a disaster bi, and in this essay I will…”. We’re allowed to create galleries of art and libraries of stories where people like us exist.
I love canon. Canon is great. But I love fanon better.
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This essay was originally published in Spark! newsletter, Volume 56, on 2019-01-10.