Canon vs. Mythos/Subs vs. dubs
Oct. 20th, 2009 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrixrefugee(Based on a post which I previously made on the blog on my page at MyAnimeList.com and inspired by a lovely post by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
metisbutterfly
I'm an admitted recovering "canon fascist", though I'm getting over the fascism (aside from slinging the axe at horribly warped characterization) and even using the term "canon" entirely After a discussion with a friend, I've started to stop using the term "canon" when I'm talking about a series or whatnot that intrigues me and use the word "mythos" instead (hey, it worked for H.P.Lovecraft...). I've gotten a bad taste in my mouth at the word "canon", since it smacks of treating a series like a religious text and woe betide the person with a different than the majority's POV on what it means. Case in point some of the screaming bile-fests I've witnessed over minutiae in Evangelion. It's as bad as watching people get into froth at the mouth bitch-fests about the minutiae of religion. It's taking something that's supposed to give meaning to one's life (in the case of religion) or to provide a little entertainment and food for thought (in the case of fandom) and turning it into yet another weapon to bash the next person with.
I've said it before in a voice post: One of the things that galls me the most about the Evangelion fandom are the hard-core "keepers of the canon", who slam any newcomer to the fandom who has some out of the ordinary take on the meaning of :: Insert minutiae of choice:: and points to some evidence from a document that's generally available only in Japanese. There are times I have to walk away from the Eva Geeks board when some of the old-timers start going on about the "glaring inaccuracies" in the commentary on some of the DVDs (Okay, some of the statements I don't agree with, but I'm not about to get my shirt in a knot over it) or when they start taking pot-shots at the producers' up to an including comments about their intelligence level, mental health or appearances (all right, yeah, Matt Greenfield [the producer for the Englush dub version] could stand to lose some weight, but we're not all exactly going to model statues of Greek deities, either). I swear that there are so many different continuities in Evangelion because Hideaki Anno gets a jag out of yanking the "canon keepers'" chains (and hey, after he got the death-threats over the way the TV anime ended, he has every right to a few well-aimed Take That's, starting with End of Evangelion's clip with the flashing screenshots of the death threat emails/threatening graffiti in the entryway of Gainax's main office). I swear the man agreed to having so many continuities on one series just to defy the "WUN TWOO CANNON!1111" mentality, and if/when he hears the screaming bitch-fests over what's canon and what isn't, he starts laughing his toushe off (that and I think he comes up with unsettling pairings just to twit the 'shippers: the fic I wrote where Ritsuko puts the moves on Fuyutsuki was not an original idea of mine...).
But the one fandom bile-inducer that bugs me the most, at least among anime fandoms: the subs vs. dubs debate. I made the mistake of putting my foot into one discussion, and I swear I would have had my leg bitten off and gotten beaten senseless with it if I hadn't backpedaled out of it pronto. Riffing from my icon, it reminds me, as a cradle Catholic who's attended Masses in Latin and in English, of the verbal brawls raged over whether the Mass should be offered in Latin or in the vernacular of the country where the Mass is being offered. Personally, I'm a dub-fan, either way, though I do appreciate the stateliness of the Mass in Latin, and I agree, something does tend to get lost in translation, whether it's the Mass or an anime. I took a little Latin in high school, so I'm able to get the gist of the Mass in Latin, but I know only about five to eight in words in Japanese, plus, I get dizzy trying to follow the text on screen as well as what's going on (especially if it's a very kinetic series). I think I could watch a subbed series only if it was something I was familiar with (and at this point, that would have to be Evangelion, since I've watched the dub about... three or four times).
metisbutterflyI'm an admitted recovering "canon fascist", though I'm getting over the fascism (aside from slinging the axe at horribly warped characterization) and even using the term "canon" entirely After a discussion with a friend, I've started to stop using the term "canon" when I'm talking about a series or whatnot that intrigues me and use the word "mythos" instead (hey, it worked for H.P.Lovecraft...). I've gotten a bad taste in my mouth at the word "canon", since it smacks of treating a series like a religious text and woe betide the person with a different than the majority's POV on what it means. Case in point some of the screaming bile-fests I've witnessed over minutiae in Evangelion. It's as bad as watching people get into froth at the mouth bitch-fests about the minutiae of religion. It's taking something that's supposed to give meaning to one's life (in the case of religion) or to provide a little entertainment and food for thought (in the case of fandom) and turning it into yet another weapon to bash the next person with.
I've said it before in a voice post: One of the things that galls me the most about the Evangelion fandom are the hard-core "keepers of the canon", who slam any newcomer to the fandom who has some out of the ordinary take on the meaning of :: Insert minutiae of choice:: and points to some evidence from a document that's generally available only in Japanese. There are times I have to walk away from the Eva Geeks board when some of the old-timers start going on about the "glaring inaccuracies" in the commentary on some of the DVDs (Okay, some of the statements I don't agree with, but I'm not about to get my shirt in a knot over it) or when they start taking pot-shots at the producers' up to an including comments about their intelligence level, mental health or appearances (all right, yeah, Matt Greenfield [the producer for the Englush dub version] could stand to lose some weight, but we're not all exactly going to model statues of Greek deities, either). I swear that there are so many different continuities in Evangelion because Hideaki Anno gets a jag out of yanking the "canon keepers'" chains (and hey, after he got the death-threats over the way the TV anime ended, he has every right to a few well-aimed Take That's, starting with End of Evangelion's clip with the flashing screenshots of the death threat emails/threatening graffiti in the entryway of Gainax's main office). I swear the man agreed to having so many continuities on one series just to defy the "WUN TWOO CANNON!1111" mentality, and if/when he hears the screaming bitch-fests over what's canon and what isn't, he starts laughing his toushe off (that and I think he comes up with unsettling pairings just to twit the 'shippers: the fic I wrote where Ritsuko puts the moves on Fuyutsuki was not an original idea of mine...).
But the one fandom bile-inducer that bugs me the most, at least among anime fandoms: the subs vs. dubs debate. I made the mistake of putting my foot into one discussion, and I swear I would have had my leg bitten off and gotten beaten senseless with it if I hadn't backpedaled out of it pronto. Riffing from my icon, it reminds me, as a cradle Catholic who's attended Masses in Latin and in English, of the verbal brawls raged over whether the Mass should be offered in Latin or in the vernacular of the country where the Mass is being offered. Personally, I'm a dub-fan, either way, though I do appreciate the stateliness of the Mass in Latin, and I agree, something does tend to get lost in translation, whether it's the Mass or an anime. I took a little Latin in high school, so I'm able to get the gist of the Mass in Latin, but I know only about five to eight in words in Japanese, plus, I get dizzy trying to follow the text on screen as well as what's going on (especially if it's a very kinetic series). I think I could watch a subbed series only if it was something I was familiar with (and at this point, that would have to be Evangelion, since I've watched the dub about... three or four times).