Multiple Canons (Resisting..the..urge...to make...Pirate...Jokes)
I don't know what it is about The Losers that makes it so easy to hold multiple, equally valid canons for it in my head.
Possibly the distinctly different tones between the comics and the film - one has a nebulous villain trafficking cocaine and motivated by greed and a lust for power, while the other features a villain who aims to perpetuate the war on terror by purchasing a weapon called a SNUKE.
One of these things is slightly more believable than the other.
Weirdly, I think the film is much closer to the feeling I associate with 'comic book' than the comic book itself. Jock's art is so active, so full of movement, it is very much like reading an action movie. Apparently Sylvain White even used some of Jock's panels for his storyboards when he was making his pitch to direct the film, and it's not surprising that the action sequences that really stand out are all drawn from the comics.
The film universe feels a lot, I don't know, brighter? More cartoon-ish? I believe in happy endings and characters who aren't necessarily deeply traumatised by their experiences more easily in the film 'verse, whereas the comics 'verse feels a lot darker, more realistic to me (which is not to say I'm not holding out for a happy ending in the comics, not that I'm likely to find out any time soon since the 5th volume is currently at least 130 dollars wherever I look and I am avoiding spoilers like they will cut me).
Fic has introduced me to all sorts of interpretations too which I just never even considered during my (many, many, many) viewings of the film, which has me thinking about how I usually think about fic in relation to canon material.
Like, on first viewing, I assumed Aisha and Clay were over, no possibility of relapse, at the end of the film.
Or rather, since on first viewing, Clay was mostly a non-entity to me, I didn't consider the possibilities which would get them to the point where she would willingly sit next to him at a soccer game (I was more interested in the fact that she was making bets with other members of the Team). He killed her Dad; for me, that meant they were done.
It was only after reading fic that I reconsidered and started looking at Clay's characterisation, and realised I found him interesting after all, and paid more attention to Aisha's relationship with him on subsequent viewings.
Or how, on first (and okay, every single successive) viewing, I loved the brief moments of interaction between Cougar and Aisha, the moments where they covered each other during the fire-fight at the Port, the little moment of shared humour after Jensen's unsuccessful attempt at flirtation. I came out of the film wanting to write Cougar & Aisha (or Cougar/Aisha if I ever learn how to write anything vaguely sexy).
I also came out with the impression that Pooch and Jensen were super-tight, and that Jolene knew from the first that Pooch and the Losers weren't really dead. So when I considered slash potential, I focussed on Jensen and Pooch (with Jolene) first, and Clay and Roque second, rather than with what I now know is the more popular Cougar/Jensen (which hadn't even occurred to me).
What's really interesting to me is that these impressions don't necessarily mesh with the comic canon, and certainly don't fit with most fic that's being posted, and yet I'm reacting to all those multiple universes slightly differently than I do with other sources I've read fic for.
I think it's because through reading comics I've already gotten used to having multiple canon versions of characters that are radically different (Batman comics, Batman animated series, Batman the Burton films, Batman Joel Silver etc.).
Because of comics, I can get into that head-space already, of holding multiple canons side-by-side in my imagination. Each Losers fic is creating its own separate universe in my head in a way that I'm more aware of and more open to than when I read, say, a Buffy fic.
Because unlike The Losers fic, I'm far more likely to need the Buffy fic to 'fit' with my interpretation of what is canon, because despite AU episodes like 'Superstar', I still think of Buffy as a single canon source, with accompanying fanon existing alongside it (subordinate to it? Spatial metaphors are not my strength).
I'm not explaining this well. Here is an example:
In one of my canon's, Cougar is quiet because English is his second language and he is more comfortable speaking in Spanish (see: the part where he reassures the little girl in Spanish at the start of the film [pardon me while my ovaries explode - which when I think about it, is a horrible image. How did that become shorthand for hot like burning? Anyway, consider me combusted.]).
In another, Cougar is quiet because he has seen some effed-up traumatic stuff, and not speaking is simply his way of dealing with that. The Team is aware of his coping mechanism, and respectful of it, and his not speaking never interferes with his communicating, off-mission or on, and so Cougar doesn't talk that much even though he used to (which is pretty much the comic).
In another, Cougar speaks English just fine, and simply chooses not to speak, not because he is particularly traumatised (although that's part of it) but mostly because everyone else on the Team talks so damn much he figures the best way to be heard is to make sure his words have weight, and because he's always been a pretty reserved guy to begin with.
All of these scenarios work for me as canon, whereas the Buffy movie doesn't work for me as canon because it doesn't 'really' fit with the TV 'verse. I can't hold it and the TV verse in my head in the same way - I have to discount one (place them in a hierarchy?).
I can't think of another film/TV franchise I've been fannish about that lends itself to producing so many different interpretations that still feel simultaneously 'canon' to me.
When that whole conversation came about recently on why we write fic, I couldn't really articulate an answer for myself beyond 'because it's fun'.
But I think the ways in which fic has opened up The Losers canon for me (expanding Aisha's past, playing with the appeal of Cougar/Jensen, exploring ways in which Aisha and Clay might work/not-work/end-in-Clay's-bloody-demise, articulating Roque's motivations) has made more explicit what should be the very obvious function of fic as literary analysis.
It's as if The Losers fandom has functioned as a microcosm of fandom as a whole to reinforce/clarify my understanding of how fic works to draw out or critique elements of a text, and so participate in a critical discourse.
But I'm still jiggering with this in my brain, so I am not quite articulating what I mean. It is still brain-batter, rather than fully baked banana-date loaf theory (which incidentally I made today, huzzah.)
How do you think about fic in relation to its canon? Is it an alternate universe? Does it blend itself into canon? Would you perhaps use the term 'canon' differently?
**
ETA: More and more, as I try to edit this into coherence, I'm thinking 'canon' isn't quite the word I'm looking for. But I don't know what it is I mean exactly - argh defining terms!
Now would be an appropriate time to sleep.
Possibly the distinctly different tones between the comics and the film - one has a nebulous villain trafficking cocaine and motivated by greed and a lust for power, while the other features a villain who aims to perpetuate the war on terror by purchasing a weapon called a SNUKE.
One of these things is slightly more believable than the other.
Weirdly, I think the film is much closer to the feeling I associate with 'comic book' than the comic book itself. Jock's art is so active, so full of movement, it is very much like reading an action movie. Apparently Sylvain White even used some of Jock's panels for his storyboards when he was making his pitch to direct the film, and it's not surprising that the action sequences that really stand out are all drawn from the comics.
The film universe feels a lot, I don't know, brighter? More cartoon-ish? I believe in happy endings and characters who aren't necessarily deeply traumatised by their experiences more easily in the film 'verse, whereas the comics 'verse feels a lot darker, more realistic to me (which is not to say I'm not holding out for a happy ending in the comics, not that I'm likely to find out any time soon since the 5th volume is currently at least 130 dollars wherever I look and I am avoiding spoilers like they will cut me).
Fic has introduced me to all sorts of interpretations too which I just never even considered during my (many, many, many) viewings of the film, which has me thinking about how I usually think about fic in relation to canon material.
Like, on first viewing, I assumed Aisha and Clay were over, no possibility of relapse, at the end of the film.
Or rather, since on first viewing, Clay was mostly a non-entity to me, I didn't consider the possibilities which would get them to the point where she would willingly sit next to him at a soccer game (I was more interested in the fact that she was making bets with other members of the Team). He killed her Dad; for me, that meant they were done.
It was only after reading fic that I reconsidered and started looking at Clay's characterisation, and realised I found him interesting after all, and paid more attention to Aisha's relationship with him on subsequent viewings.
Or how, on first (and okay, every single successive) viewing, I loved the brief moments of interaction between Cougar and Aisha, the moments where they covered each other during the fire-fight at the Port, the little moment of shared humour after Jensen's unsuccessful attempt at flirtation. I came out of the film wanting to write Cougar & Aisha (or Cougar/Aisha if I ever learn how to write anything vaguely sexy).
I also came out with the impression that Pooch and Jensen were super-tight, and that Jolene knew from the first that Pooch and the Losers weren't really dead. So when I considered slash potential, I focussed on Jensen and Pooch (with Jolene) first, and Clay and Roque second, rather than with what I now know is the more popular Cougar/Jensen (which hadn't even occurred to me).
What's really interesting to me is that these impressions don't necessarily mesh with the comic canon, and certainly don't fit with most fic that's being posted, and yet I'm reacting to all those multiple universes slightly differently than I do with other sources I've read fic for.
I think it's because through reading comics I've already gotten used to having multiple canon versions of characters that are radically different (Batman comics, Batman animated series, Batman the Burton films, Batman Joel Silver etc.).
Because of comics, I can get into that head-space already, of holding multiple canons side-by-side in my imagination. Each Losers fic is creating its own separate universe in my head in a way that I'm more aware of and more open to than when I read, say, a Buffy fic.
Because unlike The Losers fic, I'm far more likely to need the Buffy fic to 'fit' with my interpretation of what is canon, because despite AU episodes like 'Superstar', I still think of Buffy as a single canon source, with accompanying fanon existing alongside it (subordinate to it? Spatial metaphors are not my strength).
I'm not explaining this well. Here is an example:
In one of my canon's, Cougar is quiet because English is his second language and he is more comfortable speaking in Spanish (see: the part where he reassures the little girl in Spanish at the start of the film [pardon me while my ovaries explode - which when I think about it, is a horrible image. How did that become shorthand for hot like burning? Anyway, consider me combusted.]).
In another, Cougar is quiet because he has seen some effed-up traumatic stuff, and not speaking is simply his way of dealing with that. The Team is aware of his coping mechanism, and respectful of it, and his not speaking never interferes with his communicating, off-mission or on, and so Cougar doesn't talk that much even though he used to (which is pretty much the comic).
In another, Cougar speaks English just fine, and simply chooses not to speak, not because he is particularly traumatised (although that's part of it) but mostly because everyone else on the Team talks so damn much he figures the best way to be heard is to make sure his words have weight, and because he's always been a pretty reserved guy to begin with.
All of these scenarios work for me as canon, whereas the Buffy movie doesn't work for me as canon because it doesn't 'really' fit with the TV 'verse. I can't hold it and the TV verse in my head in the same way - I have to discount one (place them in a hierarchy?).
I can't think of another film/TV franchise I've been fannish about that lends itself to producing so many different interpretations that still feel simultaneously 'canon' to me.
When that whole conversation came about recently on why we write fic, I couldn't really articulate an answer for myself beyond 'because it's fun'.
But I think the ways in which fic has opened up The Losers canon for me (expanding Aisha's past, playing with the appeal of Cougar/Jensen, exploring ways in which Aisha and Clay might work/not-work/end-in-Clay's-bloody-demise, articulating Roque's motivations) has made more explicit what should be the very obvious function of fic as literary analysis.
It's as if The Losers fandom has functioned as a microcosm of fandom as a whole to reinforce/clarify my understanding of how fic works to draw out or critique elements of a text, and so participate in a critical discourse.
But I'm still jiggering with this in my brain, so I am not quite articulating what I mean. It is still brain-batter, rather than fully baked banana-date loaf theory (which incidentally I made today, huzzah.)
How do you think about fic in relation to its canon? Is it an alternate universe? Does it blend itself into canon? Would you perhaps use the term 'canon' differently?
**
ETA: More and more, as I try to edit this into coherence, I'm thinking 'canon' isn't quite the word I'm looking for. But I don't know what it is I mean exactly - argh defining terms!
Now would be an appropriate time to sleep.