My attitude toward spin-off novels varies a lot. Basically, I'll treat things as canon if I like them and think they make sense with the primary canon.
Part of it is that some of these fandoms are so sprawling that nobody can follow all the details. That means that everybody has to do some picking and choosing. Part of it is that I've wandered through fandoms where pieces of canon actively contradict each other (anime continuity versus manga continuity or any long running superhero fandom). In those cases, all fans have to choose what to accept.
I tend to think that 'canon' is fluid once a particular source becomes very popular. For some fandoms, at least those that endure, decades from now, some fanfic may end up being seen as part of the canon in as much as it will be a part of what everybody knows about the overall story or of what people need to know in order to understand how people interact with the story.
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mmmag
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Date: 2009-04-23 06:37 pm (UTC)Part of it is that some of these fandoms are so sprawling that nobody can follow all the details. That means that everybody has to do some picking and choosing. Part of it is that I've wandered through fandoms where pieces of canon actively contradict each other (anime continuity versus manga continuity or any long running superhero fandom). In those cases, all fans have to choose what to accept.
I tend to think that 'canon' is fluid once a particular source becomes very popular. For some fandoms, at least those that endure, decades from now, some fanfic may end up being seen as part of the canon in as much as it will be a part of what everybody knows about the overall story or of what people need to know in order to understand how people interact with the story.