This is interesting. Let me make sure I'm on the same page as you when you say "safe." You're talking about the reader contract, yes? Fanfiction is less likely to shock or upset us because we can better predict where the author is going because we know them socially. And even if it does, we can tell ourselves, "Well, it wasn't the real story anyway; it was just fanfic."
I think much of that has to do with genre and convention. Fandom loves 'ships and loves announcing their shippy intentions right up in the headers, whereas Joss has well-documented issues with happy endings for happy couples. Fans usually aren't all that interested in shocking each other, even in the good, reader contract-maintaining way.
I'm finding an interesting distinction in my own head between fandoms, though. Some canons feel less...canonical than others. I don't know if this is going to make much sense, or be true for anybody but me, but -- Joss's canon feels real. It's good, it's considered, it's hella smart. I care about the story he wants to tell. My other fandom right now is Stargate. Stargate is, honestly, a crap show. The writers haven't the slightest clue when it comes to concepts such as "character arc" or "motivation" or "consequences". They can barely keep their action plots on the rails.
So I find myself thinking of that canon as raw clay. I don't much care how they botch it, because I'm only going to reshape it anyway. Where the real stories are being told, where the real work is being done, is fandom. The realest City of Atlantis is a Platonic one, and, for all practical purposes, I think of the canon and fandom stories as equally valid reflections. Therefore, the SGA and SG-1 stories I read don't feel any safer. In several novel series and shared universes I'm reading, I care more about my textual characters, and would feel more betrayed if the reader contract got broken. It helps that those authors have serious chops, and know more about plot and suspense than the entire MGM writing stable combined.
I guess safety, in my mind, is a matter of investment. Really good fan writers have made me fall deep into their worlds and then grabbed me by the throat in ways the show runners only wish they could.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2009-01-03 06:07 pm (UTC)I think much of that has to do with genre and convention. Fandom loves 'ships and loves announcing their shippy intentions right up in the headers, whereas Joss has well-documented issues with happy endings for happy couples. Fans usually aren't all that interested in shocking each other, even in the good, reader contract-maintaining way.
I'm finding an interesting distinction in my own head between fandoms, though. Some canons feel less...canonical than others. I don't know if this is going to make much sense, or be true for anybody but me, but -- Joss's canon feels real. It's good, it's considered, it's hella smart. I care about the story he wants to tell. My other fandom right now is Stargate. Stargate is, honestly, a crap show. The writers haven't the slightest clue when it comes to concepts such as "character arc" or "motivation" or "consequences". They can barely keep their action plots on the rails.
So I find myself thinking of that canon as raw clay. I don't much care how they botch it, because I'm only going to reshape it anyway. Where the real stories are being told, where the real work is being done, is fandom. The realest City of Atlantis is a Platonic one, and, for all practical purposes, I think of the canon and fandom stories as equally valid reflections. Therefore, the SGA and SG-1 stories I read don't feel any safer. In several novel series and shared universes I'm reading, I care more about my textual characters, and would feel more betrayed if the reader contract got broken. It helps that those authors have serious chops, and know more about plot and suspense than the entire MGM writing stable combined.
I guess safety, in my mind, is a matter of investment. Really good fan writers have made me fall deep into their worlds and then grabbed me by the throat in ways the show runners only wish they could.