One Hundred and Four Thousand Words
You remember I said that I thought Buffy fans had unanimously accepted the new Buffy comic as canonical?
http://whedonesque.com/comments/12455
I feel like I infected them with some terrible virus that causes rows about canonicity. Someone over there glanced at this blog, doubtless chuckled wryly (all Joss fans are wry) at our fandom’s internal strife over such matters, then turned to his neighbour (also wry) and said ‘goodness, it’s just as well we don’t have such canonicity conundrums within our own fandom!’ ‘Indeed,’ said his neighbour, wryly, ‘although… no, it’s nothing, forget I spoke. But, if you think about it…’
And now they’ve rowing about everything up to and including whether or not Pluto’s a planet. (No, don’t you lot join in.)
I’m really terribly sorry. And might I add that I’m going to be the first in line for said Buffy comic, because it’s going to be brilliant. (And probably quite wry.) And Pluto is not a planet.
Meanwhile, at an outpost of SF fandom…
http://thebookblogger.com/sfbc/2007/02/paul_cornell_on_doctor_who_con.html
There are no comments yet. It’s probably going to be fine. After all, there aren’t that many canonicity issues for those in mainstream SF to fight over. Apart from the ones concerning Frank Herbert. What? No, it’s nothing, forget I spoke.
It’s like I’m the Borg of anti-canonicity. I show up with a big sign saying ‘please don’t do this’. It turns out they never thought about doing it until I arrived with the sign. Although, that's not what the Borg do really. As I've said before, I'm not really a writer after a certain point in the afternoon.
If Legion of Superheroes or Casualty fans start getting involved, I’m going to just shut down the blog, sell my computer, and become a hermit on Rockall.
I popped in to blog mostly because I hit 104,000 words of the new novel today. I always said I was going to talk about it when I got to 100,000 (1MB of memory!) but when I got there, I found there wasn’t a lot to say. Yet I felt, two days later, that I should have marked the moment somehow. I have a superstitious dread of going on too much about the subject of a book before it’s finished. It’s like if I tell you that stuff here, I can’t tell it to you in the novel. I always thought to myself ‘no, there’ll be anecdotes, I won’t have to talk about the book itself.’ But as it turns out, I just wrote 2000 words a day for quite a long time and here we are. I know it sounds pretentious, but it’s been a bit tough on me emotionally. The subject is a very personal one: the horrors of bullying at school. I’ve become quite a lot harder to live with during the process. I really should make sure I get out of the house every day. Anyhow, I’ll let you know when I’m finished, which should be at around 140,000 words if I’ve paced the remainder of my plot right. You see? It’s not exciting. But it's pretty much my whole life at the moment.
I could definitely do with a few days in L.A.. Speaking of which:
Announcements:
ITEM!!! Simon Guerrier, the executive in charge of my character Bernice Summerfield at Big Finish Productions, passes this message on to me:
‘This weekend's Gallifrey convention will see the first celebrations of the Fifteenth anniversary of Bernice Summerfield’s first appearance. A special panel takes place at the convention on Saturday 17th February at 11 am, featuring Paul Cornell, Jason Haigh-Ellery, Steven Moffat, Gary Russell, Mike Tucker and, er, me. As well as discussing with them just why Benny is cool, I'll have some exciting gossip about things happening later this year. Bwah ha ha, etc.. Ben Aaronovitch will also be at Gallifrey, as will myriad other Benny folk. And you'll get to see me playing cricket for the first time since I was at school. There was a reason I used to get picked last. Do come and say hello. Well, maybe not right in the middle of batting.’
I’d add that, if we turn out to be on opposing teams in Monday’s cricket match, talking to Simon while he’s batting would really be fine.
ITEM!!! My friend and fellow Doctor Who fan Will Howells is, as we speak, on my television, on Channel 4’s teatime game show Countdown. If he wins, he’ll carry on appearing for several shows, all at 3.30pm. He’s already declared his love for cult TV: The West Wing; Blake’s 7, etc. and fended off Des O’Connor’s suggestion that that includes Red Dwarf, but he’s yet to use the DW words…
ITEM!!! We've all wanted to see the characters from the new Battlestar Galactica drawn as if they were in The Simpsons, haven't we? What I love about Dylan Meconis' versions is how characterful they are. I love the Chief!
http://community.livejournal.com/pantsketch/99256.html
Until I blog from the first day of Gallifrey, thanks for all the kind messages about the canonicity article, up and down the net, and Cheerio.
posted by Paul Cornell @ 3:45 PM
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12 Comments:
My friend and fellow Doctor Who fan Will Howells is, as we speak, on my television, on Channel 4’s teatime game show Countdown.
**** I forgot to set the video!
C'mon over to whedonesque and joint the fun- talk about reader repsonse theory, astronomical categorization, authroial intent vs. reader interpretation, metaphysics, religion and a lot more.
In fact, it's been a very entertaining discussion, and I'd recommend a visit if for no other reason that to assure yourself you are not alone. :-)
Dana5140
Simon, I could tell you how he did if you don't mind being spoilered. Or spoiled, if you want me to tell you really nicely. Dana, I tried to join to apologise in person (and because I've always heard good things about the board courtesy of The Week in Whedon), but they have membership application window dates, and we're not in one right now. When they declare themselves open again, I'll hop in and take part.
Hi Paul,
we're hardly rowing, we're having a heated debate. Or rather, our users are having a heated debate.
You are welcome to join us. Drop us a line at:
http://whedonesque.com/contact.html
...and I'll sign you up.
I've just done that, and thanks very much. I just like the word 'row'. It's funnier than 'heated debate'. Ta!
Is this the start of a rampage across internet fandoms? Haha!
See if you can start fisticuffs between Lennon and McCartney fans next...go on....8-)
Just joshing, obviously.
Hi Paul - at your suggestion I reread the section of your blog referring to the "NONE of it happened" issue.
"That’s something else of a bullying nature that people on fan forums say. ‘None of it’s real, you know.’ Like the other person thought it was. They’re deliberately confusing the game of ‘it happened’ with the reality of something that actually did."
It's looks likely that I've been guilty of jumping in with a comment heard many times during fan debates I wasn't part of, a comment that usually enduces groans and smacking of foreheads. Of course, most of us know that it's all a glorious fiction. I guess it was a seperate issue to the canonicity debate, but somewhere else in the jumble of thoughts I posted, I referred to a concern that sometimes the SF world is all too real to the certain fans who so passionately debate these issues. Experience has shown me that to some fans (a minority), it's not a "game of what happened" at all, but there is a real blurring of the boundaries between our world and the fantasy world. Did you hear about the guy who starved to death playing a character in an online virtual reality game? Debate, discussion, is fun. There's a point, however, where the direction of one's energies into somthing that, as you seemed to suggest, cannot be determined with real finality due to the absence of a necessary authority, becomes pointless. To those who want to chat about the canonicity issue as an entertaining topic of debate, let's go for it. To those, however, who seek victory in the debate by claiming the power to decide what is and what is not canonical... well, that's where my comment was directed. To the rest of you... no offence intended! And certainly, no bullying. After all, I'm the nerd who's posting my second comment on the matter - don't think the irony of THAT isn't lost on me...
I may have already done that, thanks to Wisdom! Ross, that was big and lovely of you. Great stuff.
You know what the real bugger is - 'Dallas'. Wotsername wakes up, Bobby's in the shower - what's canon after *that*? Tut, tut.
Since you raised the topic of Pluto the "dwarf planet", I have a new idea for reclassifying DW assistants (or "companions" as we used to call them before 'Firefly' made the word synonymous with prostitution).
See, I've never thought that Katarina or Sara Kingdom, one-shot characters who only lasted a few short episodes, ought to have been considered DW assistants in the authoritative-reference-book-list sense, while many other fans seem reluctant to count Captain Jack and Mickey as assistants in the new series (mainly because they don't get title sequence credits, I think - but then Catherine Tate *would* be on the list, and she's another one-shot character).
So I propose the new classification of "dwarf assistant". This will allow me to demote Katarina, Sara Kingdom and Donna The Bride (and probably Kamelion, for what it's worth) from an undeserved position of assistantdom, while also allowing, um, me to promote assistant-sized lesser characters such as Jack, Mickey, Jackie (that'll drive 'em nuts, heheh), uniformed members of the UNIT family, and Will Chandler (who was robbed, robbed I tell you!). A double win for me there.
I liked your comment about Casualty because I don't think this issue of canon is restricted to sci-fi/fantasy, I think there'll always be divisions amongst fans of any show, those who like the new stuff, those who prefer the earlier episodes and those who wonder why we can't all just get along.
For what it's worth there are fans of The Bill who don't count anything from 2002 onwards as part of the same show (The period when it stopped being one off episodes and became a soap opera with lip service played to the fact that all the characters were police officers). And of course there are those who love it now and think it's less boring when all the old episodes were about counting paper clips (!)
And there's the old argument of whether the pilot Woodentop counts as part of the same Sun Hill universe as characters are renamed and actors recast. But surely it must count because the events of the pilot are referenced in the first series (Although ironically referenced by characters who weren't present in the pilot!)
Oh well it keeps us talking!
Ohh and hurrah, happy birthday to Benny.
A-M: That happened about a year and a half ago when Joss Whedon, kind of in a drunken state, I think, or at least faking it, decided to spam Warren Ellis's comments. It was one of the best things I have ever seen anywhere.
Hey Paul! Long time no see! I thought I should drop by and see how you're doing since Gallifrey is this weekns.end (or today...) I won't be going until Saturday. Rather sad about that, but I have to work through today and Sunday.
I think you make an intriguing argument about canon. That's one claim I haven't seen. People seem to prize canon because it lets us know what has happened...but when you're dealing with a project that has had hundreds of stories, it's difficult to keep up with everything. I come from a long history of reading X-Men and nearly every X-title up until the mid-1990s, so I understand and have witnessed how many stories can be told where not everything lines up. But Doctor Who really...I haven't seen anything quite like the history of Doctor Who. There are two fan pages where the webmasters traced back the Doctor's history, tying in everything from the books, audios, television episodes, and everything else...and frankly, the whole thing gives me a splitting headache (perhaps this is in part to how the webmasters decided to colour code everything?) It may just be better to let everything be and accept everything is up to be changed. It's the way time travel works, after all.
Here's my corny question of the day: while you're on Wisdom, will you be dropping any Doctor Who humerous bits? In addition to that incredible history the Doctor has, he's appeared on numerous occasions in various Marvel books, be it Marvel UK books, or otherwise. The TARDIS, according to Wikipedia, even made an appearance in Doctor Strange's lab, in an issue of Marvel Mangaverse.
I also get the feeling that certain writers who are currently working on Doctor Who have previously read Ellis's stint on Stormwatch, who likely watched Doctor Who, too, if this and this are indications. Some rather interesting coincdences here. :D
I love Dwarf Assistant. I want to have it put somewhere in the credits to a movie. Interesting to hear that about The Bill. Good to meet you Jen, and sorry I fell asleep in the lobby rather than being sociable last night. I'm not going to drop any Who injokes in Wisdom, because I don't do injokes these days (they're so rarely actually jokes), but X-continuity has loads of Who links anyway.
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