Apocrypha Now

[lobelia321]

Leafing through Jacobus de Voragine's 13th C. Legenda Aurea (as one does -- well, if Homer, why not Jacobus? Although, of course, I may be influenced by an upcoming movie starring someone like Orlando as Saint Sebastian and Bernard Hill as John the Baptist.... ok, where was my track?)

Right: Leafing through the Golden Legend, it occurred to me that fanfic is a kind of apocryphal writing.



Okay, no, I lied for rhetorical effect. I had the thought first and then went to the Legend to look for an example.

The Golden Legend and all other apocryphal writings fill in gaps in the Bible. They are called apocryphal because they are not officially approved as God's truth by the Catholic authorities (i.e. they are not canon). But people wrote them because they were fans of the Holy Stories and wanted to know what happened in between the lines.

E.g. they asked themselves: Okay, in the New Testament it says that Jesus was dead for 3 days and then rose on the 3rd. So what did he do while away? Answer: went down to Hell, of course, liberated Adam, Eve, Abraham and other righteous souls and deposited them up above (thus creating the proverbial bosom of Abraham). There are loads of pics of this in Byzantine churches, for example. It's called the Harrowing of Hell.

Now this apocryphal Harrowing of Hell is not so much different from fanfic. Is it?

Fps writer fill in the gaps left in the narrative. Tolkien: The Fellowship took several weeks to reach the Mountains. Fan writers: Hm, what exactly were they doing during all those days and especially nights? Result:
Pure apocrypha.

Except, possibly, that spinning tales about Jesus is more rps than fps. Or isn't it?

So, what I'm saying is, that on one level we are not doing anything radically new or weird at all. Fanfic is everywhere. Another example: When my son was younger, I used to tell him a long and convoluted Odyssee-like story in the car; it went on for years and at intervals I had to incorporate his favourite characters into the plot: Batman, James Bond, Pikachu. What else is this but oral fanfic?

We swim in the interstices of canonic masterplots and weave our own subversive narratives with the silken threads unravelling from their frayed edges.

Comments

[viva-gloria.livejournal.com]

Fan writers: Hm, what exactly were they doing during all those days and especially nights? Result: Pure apocrypha.

Nononono. Result: Hot Hobbit Lovin'. (Ewwwww)

Weaving characters from other narratives into our own stories is how most fanfic writers claim they started. I suspect that nearly everyone does this; it was certainly a popular play-technique in my school. Depends, of course, on the level of subversion one achieves.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

(Ewwwww)

This is as in 'Ewwwwwan', of course -- I take it??? *winks*

[tvillingar.livejournal.com]

I don't have anything intelligent to add to this, but yeah: I like the idea of apocryphal fanfiction. It's like taking your favourite fairy tale and weaving yourself into it either as an already existing character or a completely new one who will change the course of events. Except that's a Mary Sue, now that I think about it.

I'm confusing myself.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Well. I guess Mary Sue *is* a type of fanfic. Just a rather bad badfic, *g*.

When I was six, I had long imaginary conversations with Hanuman the monkey god from the Ramayana, bossing him around. Mary Sue or what!!!

[blithesea.livejournal.com]

I suggest you write a book about all your fanfiction musings, right now. If nothing else convinces my prof that there is academically worthy literature to be researched on the subject, that would.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I can't write a book about it. Because I have, as they say in Australia, gone bush. I have pondered an article but I am too bush even for that, I fear. I may collate all my musings into one LJ essay one of these days. But not if it stops me from writing the pretty. *gg*

And I am also writing a book in my actual discipline. Ahem. Yes. I am!!

Btw, photocopies on their way! I got them made today and will send tomorrow!

[msilverstar]

Oh, Iove it! (Is the Tomas A Becket stuff RPS?)

Tons of those stories in manuscript illumination and other paintings. Susanna and the Elders. Tobias and the Angel. I learned so much weird Christian theology, weird me being Jewish-agnostic, and so were both my favorite art history professors...

And how about that Shakespeare guy, appropriating plots and characters right and left, playing with them and making them all new again.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Hm. Shakespeare as fanfic writer.

Now I want to sit down and think about the difference between appropriating and borrowing and fanfic. Because Shakespeare's not really creating apocrypha: he's not really taking an existing universe and inserting bits and pieces into it, he's rewriting a whole new universe.

Hm. *ponders*

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Ooh, this is interesting. So where does Shakey's RPF fit into all this?

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I have to say I baulk at the notion of Shakespeare as fanfic writer, that doesn't seem to fit at all. But am still pondering the actual arguments for my baulkage.

[giglet.livejournal.com]

Well yeah. Although... I mean, until fairly recently "canon" was a rare thing. The Bible, yeah, had an organization saying "this is approved, that isn't" but mostly people just told stories and retold stories and dragged in elements from wherever was handy. So, yes, fanfic is the apocrypha of TV/movie/occasional-book/popstar canon, but more, I think it is folk tales, made to suit the storyteller's needs using convenient characters and situations.

The story you told your son -- I do the same thing with my son. Some of the characters and situations are made up but fairly iconic, others come from books, from shows, from games he's made up that day... whatever is at hand, whatever suits the purpose. I think sharing stories is intensely human, and fanfic is just one incarnation of the overall trend.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! You're absolutely right! Narrative is everywhere. We seem to be story generating machines.

And the folk tales thing is interesting. I'm not sure that fanfic *is* folktales. Each fic has a definite author for one, and folktales are (strictly speaking) anonymous or have a kind of collective author. Fanfic also uses more of the conventions of modern short stories and novels than those of folk tales.

*ponders*

And you tell your child stories, too! Wheee!

[giglet.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that fanfic *is* folktales.

I don't think it is, entirely, either, but I think I could make an argument for it. Example: Robin Hood. There is no canonical version of the Robin Hood stories, but there's a zillion variations and most touch on common themes of economic and legal fairness, civil disobedience/rebellion/outlaws, and brotherhood in adversity. And, I mean, all the different ways that Marion can be portrayed: as a Virgin Mary figure, damsel in distress, May Queen, Wendy-to-the-Lost-Boys, the woman who follows her man into danger rather than playing it safe and living apart...

Similarly, a lot of fanfic stories are retellings of a few themes -- romance (especially forbidden romance, which has spawned a zillion slashfics) and hurt/comfort are the ones that come to mind most. (I'm not even going to get into the weird little subgenres like MPreg or Genderbender fics.) I mean... Frodo/Sam stories tend to be variations on the theme of romance and class inequality and fierce loyalty and duty. A Legolas/Gimli story suggests slightly different themes.

If the themes and characters appeal, we write them and read them, and create endless variations of the same stories. The only difference between Frodo/Sam fic and Robin/Marion fic is the source of the characters.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I see your point. But I'm not sure I agree with your very last line:

The only difference between Frodo/Sam fic and Robin/Marion fic is the source of the characters.

Because Sam/Frodo takes the characters from one named author and one copyrighted published book. They make fanon out of canon. While Robin/Marion versions *constitute* the canon themselves. Hm. Unless it's Kevin Costner. Then it's badfic.

There is a difference. I *know* there is! But it's late and I can't think clearly.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

This morning in the car I thought of it: I think fanfic *needs* canon. It is entirely dependent on some form of canon to weave its own fanon out of. If there is no canon, as with Robin Hood, there is not really any fanfic.

Unless it's Kevin Costner fanfic, of course. And the movie is treated as a canon.

[ios-pillow-book.livejournal.com]

We swim in the interstices of canonic masterplots and weave our own subversive narratives with the silken threads unravelling from their frayed edges.

Yay, that's by far the spaciest interpretation of fanfic I've ever read. Apocryphal *snorts* - indeed. Brilliant!

But you shouldn't have mentioned Saint Sebastian!Orlando. Awwwww, I've always had a weakness for Saint Sebastian. The mere idea is killing me!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

the spaciest interpretation of fanfic I,/i>
What other interpretations have you read?? Gimme, gimme!

And spacey; I love it! Looking back at it, I do seem to have been rather zoned out. *g* Can you imagine? The writhing, the delicate rivulets of blood against skin, the curls curling across his shoulders, the eyes heavenward, the *ropes* cutting into the flesh on his forearms.... *has heart attack*

And when I cast Orlando as St Sebastian, I nearly had a seizure myself! God!! I'll have to write that now! What are you doing to me????

[ios-pillow-book.livejournal.com]

What other interpretations have you read?? Gimme, gimme!

*sighs* I only wish my bookmarks were as neatly organised as my pics. But I'll have a look.

Looking back at it, I do seem to have been rather zoned out. *g*

Awww, but that's pardonable. It's the curls you know. And yes, I was imagining exactly those images you described *falls into an ecstatic trance*

God!! I'll have to write that now! YESSSSS!!!

What are you doing to me????

Sending you a curled muse, prettily tied up.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thus endeth the erudition.

Ah yes, sigh, this is always the way. I start out scholarly and end up in a puddle of drool.

[ios-pillow-book.livejournal.com]

Nevertheless it's a very scholarly puddle of drool. If that's any comfort to you.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Scholarly puddle of drool!

*laughs helplessly*

*checks exact composition of drool under microscope: oh good, all the little saliva components are wearing specs and cheeseboards*

[rinsbane.livejournal.com]

We swim in the interstices of canonic masterplots and weave our own subversive narratives with the silken threads unravelling from their frayed edges. What a gorgeous way to put it. Subversive might be key here...*g*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I like that swimming bit, I've used it before when I said something like 'we swim in the interstices of capitalism'. Yes, we are just so *interstitial*!! Hah! Subversively, of course!

Thank you. :)

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

We swim in the interstices of canonic masterplots and weave our own subversive narratives with the silken threads unravelling from their frayed edges.

I want this on an icon. Credited to you, of course. :)

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Big icon.

Or tiny font.

Read the slogan, buy the T-shirt. Walk the walk and talk the talk and drool the drool.