oh my god, this *cannot* be my life

[bedlamsbard]

So my big drama of the moment is...whether it's all right to write for movie canon rather book canon, because (wait for it) I like the Narnia movie canon better than the book canon.

*beats head into wall*

Because it's not the same story! It's not the same story at all. I mean, it is - but it's not. And the thing is that the movie canon makes so much more sense to me than the book canon, and it's telling a story that's not supported by the books at all. Only, it's like blasphemy to go off movie canon rather than book canon. (God, back in HP we mocked people who used movie canon rather than book canon.)

*is torn, really just torn*

This should not be such a big deal as it is. I mean -- look at, say, Superman. You have comics canon (all fifteen or so), and you've got movie canon (which probably contradicts itself too), and then you have Smallville canon, and unless I'm mistaken, you've probably got cartoon canon too. But comic-based fandoms are different because it's understood there are a number of different canons. When it comes to books and movie adaptations, as far as I have understood it (again, basis comes from HP; I don't remember if there was really any kerfuffle in LotR, but I never read a lot of LotR fic), the books are canon and the movies are, like, eye candy. They're not fic or meta material. Except this time it is, but...

ARGH. *beats head into wall*

I don't know what's worse, that I'm having this problem or that I'm thinking of it as a moral quandary. God, I have been in fandom far too long.

Comments

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

I don't see any problem with differentiating between movie and book canon, and liking one more than the other. Liking either more than the other. And though I am not really of having an opinion in this instance (and have seen or read Prince Caspian yet) I probably prefer movie to book for a variety of nuances in LW&W that I infinitely preferred the movie version of (see under: Aslan is a bad Christ figure, no biscuit).

The mockery, I think, comes in when (as is so often the case in HP fandom) people haven't even read the books, that's why they use movie canon.

My two cents. Stress ye not. Write moar fic/meta/whatever. *G*

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Logically I know this is true. In my lizard hindbrain...well. This upsets my carefully ordered universe, because movie adaptations should never be better than the books. They should seek to accompany the books. Instead, well. The movies seem like the real story, the books seem like the story Lewis is telling years later (and his constant asides don't help), because some of the stuff in there just seems...messy. I mean, I know I'm trying to make the world of Narnia make sense, but the movies make sense and the books don't.

Oh my God, this is not that big a deal. Okay, this is ridiculous, I know you're right, I decided this yesterday. Clearly this is evidence that HP fandom mutates your brain. (Of course, I was very young when I started out, and in HP, too.)

I think you will really like Prince Caspian, if you go to see it. Lots of action. Hostility issues. Very pretty boys. Making sense.

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am going to go and see it, hell yes. But it only opens here this coming Thursday.

I keep thinking about The Prestige, probably because the Male's reading it at the moment. The book and movie aren't very much like each other. They have the same characters and roughly the same major plot points and vaguely the same themes. But both are awesome, in their different ways. And I possibly prefer the movie. But the point is, it can be done well, the updating/reinterpretation of story for a new medium.

And, of course, I've always agreed with those who believe that when a story is translated to a new medium, it should be altered to fit that medium. Otherwise, there's just no point.

Ramble ramble blah blah blah. I need coffee. *G* But yes, HP totally warps your brain.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Totally awesome! I want to see it again, and then hug it and pet it and call it George.

I've been thinking about that as well (for, um, the past week or so since I saw the movie) because there's so many ways that you can look at a story, and still tell the same story -- only different. And sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. (Comics, I think, make a good example just because there are so many different variations within the medium itself, and then where comics have branched out into movies, and tv shows, and animated cartoons, and radio shows and whatnot.)

Right, of course. And I'm one of those people that usually goes and sees movies and says, "Well, yes, I understand why they did this instead of that, although this added to the original story in such a way," but with Narnia... Here's the thing. Here's the crazy, crazy thing. With Narnia -- Prince Caspian specifically -- it did one of the things that I always felt the books were lacking. And it did it spectacularly. It filled in a book emotional plothole. And here's the thing: that's what I've always thought of as fanfic's job. So now I'm not only torn between, "Oh my god the movie is better than the book what do I do now?", but also, "Oh my god, the movie did what fanfic does, is it legitimate and/or acceptable?"

Fandom has screwed with my brain so much.

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

What in particular are you having trouble with? Is it characterization or plot details?

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Neither. It was whether it was morally right to use movie canon over book canon. Fandom turns you into a raving lunatic. (Hell, I've mocked people -- quietly, to myself; I think I held back from actually doing it on the Internet -- for using movie canon over book canon, back in my HP days.)

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

I see. That's an issue that doesn't bother me too much-what I worry about is if they get the *personalities* right. Change the events if it makes a good story, but don't change the characterization from who the person *is*. I do have a problem with PC on that, just a little.

Yes, fandom DOES turn you into a nutjob, no matter how stable you start out. *laughs*

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

And fandom got me young, too. And the craziest fandom of them all...