On A New Approach To Canon

                                                                On A New Approach to Canon

I.                     Introduction

Fiction, in a variety of forms of genres and mediums, relies on several elements to immerse the reader/viewer in the story; plot, characterization, and the setting, to name a few.  While stories can use different combinations of these elements, for series (whether chronological sequences, or stories within a shared universe) a major component tends to a setting that remains essentially consistent over the works within the series – generally known as continuity.  The more details (or lore) within the stories lends itself to creating a background that allows for good storytelling.  To the casual reader/viewer, this is simply a component of an enjoyable story.  However, for some fans there is a stronger interest in the lore of the story universe; especially what is ‘true’ (in the sense of a fictional universe).  This is usually referred to as canon.

Canon has always been a topic of conversation, and much debate, among fans for a variety of story universes.  Which stories are actually ‘canonical’, what happens when lore in canonical works contradict each other, and trying to fill in the blanks where there is missing or incomplete lore.   This has been complicated recently, however, with larger, corporate-owned franchises stepping in to designate what is ‘official canon’ and what is ‘non-canon’, with the definitions changing with time, or sometimes even contradicting their own pronouncements.

With all that being said, the purpose of this essay is to put forth a new approach to the idea of canon.  In order to do so, let’s look at the concept of ‘canon’ over the years.

II.                   Historical Canon

The term ‘canon’ originated from Christianity, as a term for the accepted books of the Bible – and using the term ‘apocrypha’ for the Christian scriptures that were decided were not.  The first usage for fiction, however, was for the Sherlock Holmes stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Arguably the first fictional world to attract a regular fan base, they engaged in a playful, tongue-in-cheek scholarly examination of the stories, often from the standpoint that they were historical records rather than mere fiction.  The term ‘canonical’ was used to differentiate his stories from those Holmes stories written by other authors – for the most part.  It is important to note that the terminology was invented by fans, not the writer nor publisher.  In addition, some fans would argue that some of Doyle’s stories (mostly later ones) should be excluded from canon, for a variety of reasons.

While Doyle himself did develop some overlap between his stories – reoccuring characters, references to prior stories, etc. – he did not create a ‘story universe’ apart from what appeared in the stories themselves; he also would contradict himself, or use improper dates, and so forth.  Many of the scholarly debates of Holmes fans revolve around explaining some of this material.

One of the earliest examples of a ‘shared story universe’ is what is now termed the “Cthulhu Mythos” stories of HP Lovecraft and his fellow authors.  Lovecraft started forming connections between his various stories over the years, and his friends began making reference to his stories as well; he followed in turn.  Each author had their own take, and stories would just as often contradict as complement each other.  The term ‘canon’ is hard to apply overall to the shared universe, as various streams of elements would diverge, multiply and recombine through various channels.

Moving forward takes us to Marvel Comics.  From the earliest days of their signature publishing in the early 1960s, there was a concerted effort to make sure that readers were aware that their comics – and their characters – actively shared the same fictional universe.  After a couple of decades, the Marvel Universe had built up a large amount of lore; however, as a result of the various comics and authors, lore could be lost or unwittingly overwritten by other authors.  Mark Grunewald, a Marvel fan who had a strong scholarly interest in comic lore, eventually was able to turn his talents to professionally catalog Marvel Comics lore, producing the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (OHMU).  Other fans were also encouraged to send in corrections or additional information if they noticed something that the OHMU staff had missed, something known as ‘crowdsourcing’ these days.

This was not the only innovation, however.  Marvel came up with an idea on incorporating all Marvel Comics stories, even those that were not part of the main continuity; by creating a multiverse of alternate realities, all Marvel Comics stories could be included, even if they were not part of the ‘main’ Marvel Universe.

In the case of Frank Herbert’s Dune series, we have an interesting phenomenon.  The original Dune universe is straight forward; Frank Herbert wrote a total of six novels and a short story, and apart from drafts or alternate texts, these are all we have from the him.  During his lifetime, however, a reference book written by fans of Dune called the Dune Encyclopedia was published.  While Herbert did not contribute to it, it was written with his blessing; in fact, he wrote a forward where he indicated “As the first ‘Dune fan’, I give this encyclopedia my delighted approval, although I hold my own counsel on some of the issues still to be explored as the Chronicles unfold.”  The volume was dense with information, expanding upon many of the concepts explored by Herbert (including a entire list of Emperors over a 12,000 year period); however, after Frank Herbert’s death, his son Brian Herbert decided to continue the series.  Despite his father’s endorsement of the Dune Encyclopedia, he has completely ignored the book (which is long out of print, for obvious reasons).

For the last example, we turn to Star Wars.  Pen and paper roleplaying games (RPGs) gained prominence with the rise of Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s, and RPG companies began licensing franchises (including both the Marvel Universe and the Cthulhu Mythos from prior examples).  West End Games managed to procure the RPG license for the much-coveted Star Wars franchise; even in the late 1980s, as interest in Star Wars was waning.  The only problem they encountered was that there wasn’t much of a ‘universe’ for their game to draw from; little to nothing had been developed for the Star Wars universe beyond what appeared in the movies.  Extraneous material – like the handful of novels, the Marvel comic series, the TV specials and cartoons – made little to no attempt to refer to anything other than the movies themselves.  The RPG writers were left with the task to essentially create lore for their game out of whole cloth; names for alien races, planets, spaceships, and so forth.

A few years later, Timothy Zahn was hired to write the first new Star Wars stories in years, a trilogy of novels that would be set after the events of the movie trilogy.  However, he faced the same problem that West End Games faced; the lack of Star Wars lore to draw from.  Instead of creating everything from scratch, he was introduced to the RPG, which had put out a number of works by that time; realizing that they had already created much of what he needed, he decided to avoid reinventing the proverbial wheel and just used the material from the RPG.  Soon afterwards, the RPG followed suit by publishing roleplaying guides drawn from the novels written by Zahn.  From there, a new ongoing continuity was born called the Star Wars Expanded Universe, which grew to include not only further novels, but also the new comics published by Dark Horse, and the video games published by LucasArts.  Much like with Marvel, as the body of lore grew, companion reference works started to be published.  This culminated with the publication of the Essential Atlas in the 2000s, which not only charted the Star Wars universe but was written as an ‘in-universe’ document that qualified itself as its own fictional work in addition to being a reference guide.

During this time period, LucasFilm Licensing made the declaration that the Expanded Universe was ‘canon’, although broken into tiers of importance; these tiers really just roughly indicated which sources were considered to be a ‘higher level’ than others, for the purposes of determining what was canon when there was a contradiction, but even this was not strictly adhered to.

In the end, however, with the Disney buyout of LucasFilm, the Expanded Universe was declared to be ‘non-canon’, and only the new books, comics, TV shows and movies as ‘official canon’.  Reprints of older comics and books were given the designation “Legends”, but this was solely a marketing term; there was no distinction made, for example, between stories within the Expanded Universe canon and other ‘what if’ or simply humorous stories.

III.                  The New Approach to Canon

What lessons can we take from the history of canon?  First and foremost, that the concept of canon originated from fandom.  Often it would follow a logical, agreed-upon designation (such as all the works of a particular author in a story universe); however, with room for interpretation.  Secondly, canon can have different definitions within a story universe, even if there may be a shared core of works between different takes of a story universe.  Thirdly, with a relative definition of canon, all lore should be considered or at least acknowledged in a particular story universe.

Let’s start with the last proposition, by defining a Mythos as the entire body of all works associated with a story universe.  Every story, every reference guide, every piece of fiction published, all would fall under this category.

Within a Mythos we can desginate a core canon; this is a central body of works that would include all reasonable variations of canon.  For example, one could define the core canon of the Star Wars universe as the original trilogy of movies; all Star Wars stories, even if they are not continuous with other Star Wars stories, derive from them.  (However, like many of these concepts, these definitions are not rigid and are open to interpretation).

From there, we have a continuity; this is a set of stories and reference materials that are reasonably consistent with each other and builds on each other.  This does not mandate that they are 100% consistent on all details; reality can rarely be explained without contradictions.  The lore within this continuity is its canon.

This may not seem too different from how most story universes are perceived; however, it is important to note that under this approach, within a mythos there can be multiple canons; in the case of the Dune universe, for example, you can desginate Frank Herbert’s original novels as the core canon, and the Dune Encyclopedia and Brian Herbert novels as two separate canons.  With Star Wars, the Expanded Universe represents one canon and the post-Disney material as another canon.  Canon becomes a point of reference, in these cases.

Note that terms like ‘official canon’, ‘non-canon’, ‘fanon’, ‘head canon’, etc. have not been addressed so far.  In the case of ‘official canon’, this is mainly a marketing term by a corporate entity or publishing firm to designate the canon that is currently being supported with new works.  However, the term is fluid and often they will generate works for other canons if they decide to do so.  ‘Non-canon’ is simply anything that is not ‘official canon’.  The definition of ‘fanon’ isn’t consistent, but generally it would seem to refer to a uniquely personal definition of what lies within a specific canon.  ‘Head canon’ is simply interpreting canon, which we’ll discuss in the next section.  In any case, from a fan perspective, the designation of ‘official canon’ often feels like any ‘non-canon’ work is depreciated, especially those once considered ‘official canon’ prior.  However, regardless of the ‘official’ designation, any prior connections of continuity still exists; therefore, there is no reason to disregard any canon because it lost or never possessed an ‘official’ status.

Finally, there is subject of fan fiction.   For most modern story universes that are commercial properties, one can make the argument that only officially licensed (but not necessarily ‘officially canon’) publications should be considered.  It becomes something of a gray area where the story universe is openly shared between authors, in which case the boundaries of ‘fan fiction’ begin to blur.  In any case, they are still considered part of the overall mythos.

IV.                 Using the New Canon Approach

Marvel’s approach of embracing each variation of Marvel Comics as ‘alternate realities’ is the blueprint for the relationships between various canon.  Any particular continuity is a valid point of view with other continuities being ‘alternate’.  ‘Official canon’ is relegated to the particular continuity that is being currently supported by a publishing company or author; its only special feature is that most new canon being generated in that particular story universe is for the official canon’s continuity.  Existing continuities, of course, are not affected in the slightest; novels, comics, et al that form a particular set of canon continue to do so regardless of other publications.

Here I would like to define the word apopcrypha in relation to fictional universes, borrowing the term but not the definition from the same source of the word ‘canon’.  In this case, from the perspective of a particular canon, this would be defined as lore that exists only in a different canon but can be potentially applied to the chosen canon.  For example, for Star Wars you could have a new planet in the post-Disney canon that was never mentioned in the Expanded Universe canon; it is a reasonable assumption to make that it might also ‘exist’ in EU lore.

One can derive new concepts within a particular canon either through examination of that canon’s lore, or by the usage of apopcrypha. While this can be shared with others via pseudo-scholarly texts (similar to this particular essay), fan fiction is a valid form of this expression as well; they often present arguments or propositions on subject matter within a continuity in the form of a story.  By discussing and either rejecting or accepting story elements from across different continuities, or derived from deductions from existing works, even those continuities whose generation of new canon is moribund due to a lack of licensed publications by the IP holder can continue to expand.

V.                   Purpose and Conclusion

Why come up with a new approach to canon in the first place?

For one, to encourage exploring all the aspects of a mythos, even outside a particular canon.   Even if something doesn’t falls within a particular ‘canon’, you can compare and contrast different takes on canon.  Further, you can derive apopcrypha even try a synthesis of different canons to try to make them fit – sometimes people relish a challenge!

Second, to level the playing field.  Nobody likes to be told that a novel, comic or game within a mythos ‘doesn’t count’.  These are fictional universes; ‘what really happened’ is a relative term.  

Third, to enjoy the exploration and discussion of story universes.  Going back to the beginning, the earliest fans engaged in playful debates and animated discussions about the details of the Sherlock Holmes stories.  Combining the first and second points, people who are fans of a mythos overall shouldn’t view someone who follows one particular canon over their own as a rival or someone to dismiss.  They can share their relative knowledge and develop new ideas, or at worst pass like ships in the night, acknowledging their fellow fans as equals.

Ultimately, enjoying researching and discussing the multiple facets of a story universe is just that – an enjoyment.  Let’s encourage ourselves and others to remember this.