It is known from psychology that xenophilia is a person’s craving for unfamiliar things, places, actions, feelings and people in the broadest sense. In contrast to this term, there is another word - xenophobia, which means rejection of everything alien and unknown.
Both of these states of the human mind can lead to unpleasant consequences that are dangerous both for the bearer of these beliefs and for the people around him. And in order to maintain the integrity of your life and be in harmony with your environment, you need to find a balance between these two extremes.
Who are XENOPHILES?
Xenophilia can be defined as pathological love for someone else's (from the Greek xenos - stranger and phileo - love). Accordingly, xenophiles are people with such pathological love. The state of mind of a xenophile is inevitably associated with some neuroticism and an inferiority complex. Their excess of love for others stems from a lack of love for their own, but nevertheless not from a lack of self-love, since their neurotic egoism, the anxiety of their personality is an excess of this self-love. Their psyche relieves their personality from the feeling of inferiority by projecting this inferiority onto others. In them, they begin, with or without reason, to see and feel inferiority and imperfection, as well as their own - projected egoism and aggression. Simply put, they judge people by themselves, freeing themselves from such assessments. The mentality of xenophiles is this: everything that is around them is felt by them as bad, negative; everything they have is never enough. But, on the other hand, their object of love is someone else’s and strangers, as it should be, are always overestimated by them. Everything foreign to them is alluring and attractive. This results in their tendency to envy, acquisitiveness, and consumerism. The consequence of their selfishness is a lack of love for their neighbor. Their conscience, empathy, compassion for others is weak, if not degenerate at all. But, on the other hand, they are filled with an excess of sympathy for any strangers, naturally, until these strangers become their own. Their selfishness and sometimes hidden aggressiveness likens them to animals, like any egoist. Their dissatisfaction with the surrounding world forms their feeling: it is good where we are not. But the worst thing happens when xenophiles penetrate into politics, into power, since all their intellectual ideas and arguments are naturally based on their xenophilic feeling, and this feeling is initially anti-patriotic and treacherous. Here, their exorbitant love for the alien and others leads to the praise and revaluation of everything alien and strangers and, on the contrary, to the humiliation of everything that is theirs and theirs, everything that is around them. Their “black”-depressive eyes see everything around them exclusively as negative. Someone else’s way of life, someone else’s ideas always turn out better than their own: they will always find dirt in their own, and if they don’t find it, they will throw it at you. Xenophiles easily pit their own peoples, those close to them, against others, strangers, under various pretexts and justifications. And in this process, their strangers will always be right, and their own will be felt and, therefore, presented as aggressors. But, in fact, xenophiles will support external aggression against their neighbors, as a continuation of their personal aggression. In line with this, by the way, any problems of interethnic intolerance, including those created by xenophiles, will be replaced by them with the problem of “xenophobia,” that is, fear and dislike for strangers, as an initially imputed guilt to one’s own. In addition, xenophiles will easily divide the peoples of one state into “us” and “strangers” and pit them against each other. Moreover, they will divide them in the way that is beneficial for them to satisfy their personal aggression: on their favorite side - the “stranger” - there will always be that side that will act as the aggressor. Thus, instead of eliminating the basis for interethnic intolerance and instead of pursuing a competent interethnic policy, they will engage in showdowns between “theirs” and “theirs”: not in favor of “theirs,” of course, but ultimately not even in favor of the “outsiders,” but in favor of their own selfish-aggressive little soul.
When xenophiles gain access to information resources, they begin to spread their inner world, their perception of the world, dressing it in various “artistic” and “informational” images. Thus, under the influence of informational indoctrination and propaganda, the real world around us is filled with aggression, misanthropy, consumerism, and envy. Their guts become reality, their animal-egoistic passions begin to dominate. They complement all this with their conclusion about human imperfection, which, on the one hand, is based on their own inferiority complex, on the other, is based on real facts emerging from their inner world.
RedFire
Copying of materials is permitted only with reference to the source (www.trudoros.narod.ru)
| Labor Russia and AKM-TR @ 2006 |
Features and varieties
As sad as it is to realize, money still rules the world, although even with it you can’t buy everything. As for fan fiction, unlike ordinary original literature, this type most often does not bring profit to its creators.
The fact is that, due to the distinctive features of fan fiction, ficwriters use in their works plots and characters that are already an object in someone else's intellectual property. That is why making money from them is illegal and subject to prosecution.
Although there are lucky ficwriters who succeed. Thus, in 2001, a spin-off of the cult American novel Gone with the Wind was published. It was called The Wind Done Gone and was dedicated to Scarlett's fictional black sister Sinara.
Margaret Mitchell's heirs sued Alice Randall, who wrote the fan fiction. However, the writer had more clever lawyers, and the court decided the case in her favor. So the book was published, and brought its creator a good profit.
Another lucky guy is Seth Grahame-Smith. This author made a name for himself by writing fan fiction based on classic works of world literature, adding fantastic events to them.
Most of all, he went through Jane Austen, writing the FF “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” and “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.” By the way, this type of fan fiction (mashup) is becoming increasingly popular today, since in this case you can bypass copyright law (due to the statute of limitations) and even publish your own works.
As for the types of fan fiction, there are a great many of them, and many fic writers even come up with their own. Therefore, it is pointless to list them; it is easier to mention the main categories:
- By the nature of the relationship.
- According to the method of creation.
- According to the plot.
- To size.
- According to the original.
- By age rating.
Disadvantages of xenophilia
A pathological commitment to everything foreign can significantly complicate a person’s life. For example, if a favorite brand of cheese disappears from supermarkets, this can plunge a person into depression.
Xenophilia in its hypertrophied form can lead to demographic decline. If the majority of the country's citizens are committed to the idea that foreign is better, this will lead to a total outflow (emigration) of the population. Pathological rejection of one's own culture and traditions of one's people can lead to the disappearance of nations as such over time.
The global liberal democratic movement does not deny its intention to mix nations and cultures under its banners. Rejection of national culture will inevitably lead to the rejection of state sovereignty, which is fraught with the disappearance of countries and states from the map of the globe. Instead of individual governments, liberal democracy proposes a single world government.
Xenophilia is not limited to love for new things and countries, it can manifest itself in relation to people. When the question concerns expanding your circle of friends, this is normal. But when a person begins to expand the circle of lovers and mistresses, this develops into a pathological attraction to sexual diversity - paraphilia. In other words, paraphilia is a sexual perversion.
What is canon and non-canon
So, above we carefully analyzed what it is - fan fiction. However, when choosing or discussing any fanfic you like with friends and acquaintances, you can hear a phrase like “the content does not correspond to the canon” or, conversely, corresponds to it. What does it mean?
In order to answer the question formed in the title of the current paragraph, you should remember your native language. In particular, the interpretation of such a word as “canon”. After all, it can be heard not only when it comes to fan fiction, but also in conversations on other topics. If you can’t remember the meaning of a given noun, you should turn to a Russian-language explanatory dictionary.
And then we will find out that the word “canon” is of Greek origin; it means something historically established, indestructible, traditional and not subject to change.
When describing fan fiction, the term “canon” is used to assess whether the plot of a given amateur work corresponds to the original on which it was written. That is, if in the Harry Potter book Ron and the boy who lived are friends, then the description of their hostility towards each other will not be canon, and vice versa.
Xenophobia in Russia
Director of the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights Alexander Brod said that, according to surveys, xenophobia is widespread among 50% of the population of the Russian Federation. According to the head of the analytical department of VTsIOM, Leonty Byzov, xenophobic sentiments have always been provoked by the weakening of state power. The head of the center for the study of xenophobia at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Emil Pain, noted that social disadvantage plays a significant role in the formation of xenophobia. In his opinion, this is only due to a significantly lower level of hostility towards migrants of other nationalities among entrepreneurs. However, this may be explained by the fact that entrepreneurs only benefit from migrants due to cheaper labor, when for ordinary working people migrants mainly represent only competition for jobs who are willing to accept worse working conditions for lower pay.
The triumph of xenophobiai
Only the last decades in the life of mankind can be called to some extent free from prejudice and hatred towards everything that differs from traditional things and concepts. Just a couple of centuries ago, there was still an era that was known for its actions, unforgivable by today’s standards, against people and phenomena that were different from everyone else.
Men used women as servants. They captured strangers of a different skin color into slavery. Europeans despised foreign cultures and traditions, and those whom they hated responded to them with the same strong hatred. Severe xenophobia caused a huge amount of death and destruction.
In recent years, there has been an active promotion of the ideas of xenophilia and tolerance into the consciousness of society. Of course, these actions have some success, but it is still very early to talk about living in harmony on the scale of all humanity. Even among modern society, ideas and views that rely on xenophobia are still strong. Everyone knows about them - racism, homophobia, fascism, anti-Semitism and many others.
Some forms of patriotism and nationalism that exist in Russia are also perverted to such a state that they promote not love for the homeland, but hatred of representatives of other countries.
The international community places the fight against various types of intolerance on national and other grounds at the top of its action priorities. A massive number of events, charity and peacekeeping missions are being carried out throughout the planet, the purpose of which is to save people who are subject to violence and bullying from aggressive xenophobes.
In almost all developed countries, there are social and political mechanisms that are designed to help everyone suffering from some kind of oppression.
Unfortunately, in Russia there are still groups of people who experience unreasonable hatred towards those who are not like them. Here you can write down all the ardent homophobes, for whom it would not be something criminal to subject a person of non-traditional (in their opinion) orientation to violence.
We must not forget about the ardent racists who hate everyone except “their Russian people.” In particular, migrants from Central and East Asia. Recent events with the neighboring state, Ukraine, have led to the development in Russia of a certain intolerance and hatred towards the citizens of this country.
Xenophobia versus xenophilia
Previously, few people knew about the existence of such a word as xenophilia. But recently, due to the activity of the liberal-democratic movement, xenophilia has raised its head and become noticeable to all citizens of our country. And it is expressed in the exaltation of everything foreign. Liberal Democrats and people who join this movement actively extol the benefits of living abroad and deliberately downplay the merits of their own country. Why has xenophilia struck our society, and how dangerous is it?
What is xenophilia, and does it relate to mental pathologies? This is simply a special approach to the value judgment of the level and quality of life of different countries and peoples, in contrast to xenomania. The opposite of xenophilia is xenophobia - excessive love for everything that is one's own. The xenophobe openly denies everything foreign and extols what is domestic. In modern Russia, two social groups have collided in the information field - xenophiles and xenophobes. From a psychological point of view, these two psychological states are abnormal, but not pathological.
How does xenophilia arise, what is the trigger for hatred of everything native? The roots of deviation most often need to be sought in family relationships - in the betrayal of a person by relatives. When the soul experiences pain from the deceit and betrayal of those whom it unconditionally trusted, fear and hatred of everything dear to oneself appears.
The same can be said about xenophobia: a person has experienced disappointment or pain from communicating with strangers or representatives of a different nationality, country or nationality. It is these unpleasant memories that direct a person’s thoughts in a certain direction - love or hatred for someone else’s/other.
In the light of the modern understanding of the problem, a patriot of his homeland is called a xenophobe, and a xenophile is a traitor to national culture and traditions. To solve this complex issue, you should start from the golden mean and get rid of the feeling of hatred. You can be interested in foreign culture and customs, but at the same time do not neglect the achievements of your own people.
In the modern world, xenophilia has acquired the features of propaganda for everything Western, which causes a wave of indignation among xenophobes. In response to the active propaganda of the Western way of thinking and lifestyle, the priority of domestic culture and way of life is being promoted
In this situation, it is important to realize that bigotry on both sides will not benefit anyone
What is fanfiction
Before finding the answer to the question: “What is the canon in fan fiction?”, it is worth studying this type of literature in more detail.
The term “fan fiction” comes from the English phrase fan fiction (fan fiction).
Despite its growing popularity, it is still not officially recognized in serious literary circles. It is considered the lot of irrepressible graphomaniacs, although this is not always a fair opinion.
By the way, fan fiction is amateur writings dedicated not only to books, films and television series, but also to comic books and video games.
Chronologically, they can be not only sequels, but also prequels, spin-offs, crossovers, reboots, etc.
Often their creators take the universe of the original work as a basis and come up with their own characters.
In addition to the name fanfic, this concept is also called FF, fanfiction, fanfiction, or simply fic.
In the modern world, there are numerous websites for FF authors where they can publish their works absolutely free, discuss them, and also read the works of colleagues. By the way, there is a special name for the authors of such literature - ficwriters.
Prerequisites
Biological basis of xenophobia
V. R. Dolnik pointed out that animals have the phenomenon of ethological isolation - aggression or hostility shown by them towards similar species and subspecies. According to Dolnik, for humans, a wary reaction to dissimilar people is inevitable and biologically normal. Also, in a person, differences associated with language, tradition, culture, clothing, hairstyle, religion can create an external impression of a different appearance and turn on this mechanism. Thus, according to ethologists, racial and national rejection is based on the failure of a behavioral program designed for a different case - species and subspecies differences.
According to V. R. Dolnik, xenophobia is a failure of the genetic mechanism, which explains its irrationality and insusceptibility to rational arguments. The self-faulty functioning of a genetic program can also be genetically determined.
Xenophobia could have arisen as an adaptation tool during evolution, which contributed to survival and the transmission of genes to descendants. Thus, the fear of strangers could be, among other things, based on the observation that strangers can be carriers of new, and therefore very dangerous (due to the lack of necessary antibodies) pathogens for indigenous residents.
Fan fiction based on the epic "Harry Potter"
In addition to anime, FFs are often based on books. Thus, almost 62 thousand essays are devoted to the above-mentioned “Harry Potter” series on Fikbook, and the events of many of them are concentrated on minor characters, thanks to which they remain canonical.
For example, about the friendship of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin (Reciprocity) or the relationship between Lily Potter and Severus Snape (The Daughter of an Ordinary Potions Master). The latter, by the way, is non-canonical, since in the original book the professor does not have a daughter.
However, perhaps the most popular theme for Harry Potter fanfiction is the relationship between various canonical characters and the outsiders, in whom their authors, to a certain extent, see themselves. FFs of this kind, despite the presence of original characters, are non-canonical.
Benefits of xenophilia
The desire for the new and unknown has many positive aspects, if it is not aggravated by fanaticism. In a good sense, xenophilia is the engine of progress, renewal and improvement of the old. Xenophiles are inquisitive people who are interested in everything new and unusual. Among them there may be excellent designers and fashion designers, constructors and scientists. These people are haunted by the search for something that no one else knows about.
Xenophiles are not content with the achieved level, but constantly strive for renewal and growth. They are constantly looking for something new, trying to introduce innovations into production and their own life. Xenophiles are not afraid to destroy the old in order to build a new one in its place. Xenophobes are afraid of new things because they are afraid of destroying what they already have. Therefore, mutual understanding will never be achieved between these groups of people.
Within reasonable limits, xenophilia is inherent in all people: we love to update our wardrobe, enjoy gifts and love to buy new things. If this quality does not acquire hypertrophied (pathological) features, then it is useful and productive.
Xenophobia, within reasonable limits, is also useful: we get used to things, take care of them and don’t break them. Thus, careful handling of household appliances prolongs their operation. An update is useful when it is justified and reasonable. Otherwise, it’s just destruction for the sake of destruction.
Naruto fanfiction
Having learned in more detail about fan fiction and their canons, it is worth considering practical examples of such works.
A few years ago, one of the most popular anime was Naruto, based on the manga of the same name. He talked about the adventures of the boy Naruto (who aspires to become a ninja) and his comrades: Sasuke Uchiha and the beautiful Sakura Haruno.
Although the story is more about friendship and struggle, it was the love part that excited many fans of the story. Therefore, many fans debated about Sakura's heart preferences. And since neither the manga nor the anime gave a clear answer to this question, it is still unknown today which pair is canonical: Naruto/Sakura or Sasuke/Sakura.
In any case, a lot of FF is devoted to each of the couples. The first of them is described in such works as “Any Place. And the bathhouse too...”, “A guy for rent”, “I believe in you”, “Love me through barriers”, “Prospects”, etc. It is worth noting that such writings often describe not only friendly or romantic, but also sexual relationships between Sakura and Naruto.
There are quite a few fanfictions based on the canon about Sakura and Sasuke. The most famous of them are: “A Dangerous Liaison”, “This strange thing is love!”, “I will teach you”, “Love, pain, hope”, “Cherry blossoms and the Dark Prince”, etc.
However, FFs based on this anime are not only dedicated to love relationships. Thus, among the most successful Russian-language works is the Naruto fanfic “Such a different canon...”. Its author is someone under the pseudonym Kozyr. His story is not focused on love relationships, but directly on adventures.
A Naruto fanfic, “Such a different canon...” is published on Fikbook (a popular Russian-language site where all the different ficwriters can post and discuss their creations).
What is this story about? About a stranger (a hero from another reality, dimension, time, etc.) from the human world into the universe of a Japanese mangaka.
At the moment, the fanfic “Such a different canon...” is not finished yet. As of January 13, 2022, 90 chapters out of the announced 91 have been written.
By the way, this FF was created based on the anime canon, not the manga. This story is not canon due to the presence of a new character who is not in either the anime or manga.
Bottom line
Xenophilia is the love of the unknown or unfamiliar. The roots of xenophilia lie in a lack of awareness and awareness of life abroad. Belief in the milk rivers and jelly banks of foreign countries subconsciously forces a person to worship the foreign, even to the point of deification.
However, within a healthy approach, xenophilia is beneficial because it is a desire for renewal and innovation. Nature itself shows us an example of constant renewal every spring: the old must go away, and the new comes to replace it. But the renewal of nature does not require destruction, as radical xenophiles are trying to convince humanity.
What are fanfictions?
Based on the definition presented above, it is clear that fan fiction is nothing more than a work of an amateur nature, written by a fan of a film, book, cartoon, TV series, etc. and based on its plot and main characters.
For example, there are many Harry Potter fanfictions. Moreover, the events in them do not always unfold according to the plot presented by the author of the original work, JK Rowling.
The most famous fan fiction in this category belongs to Cassandra Clare, who wrote a trilogy about Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter's blond opponent, who always bothers him and tries with all his might to ruin his life. In this case, the work of an amateur nature turned out to be so interesting and popular that it even became independent books in three parts.
Canon and fanon
Having learned the answer to the question, what is canon in fan fiction, it is worth considering such an important concept as fanon. This is the so-called fan canon
That is, a set of information about a fictional world that its fans consider correct, but it is not always true, according to the author.
Fanons are often attempts to explain away various plot holes or innuendoes. By the way, it happens that fanons can become canons.
For example, when the book “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” was published, in its finale Professor Snape kills Dumbledore and joins Voldemort.
However, fans of this character considered his act a clever intrigue to destroy the Dark Magician. This has become fanon for most of them. And when the next novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published, this theory and this fanon became canon. Harry Potter fanfiction (dedicated to this topic) after that also became canonical.
In recent years, when working on sequels or prequels, screenwriters often use fanons established by ficwriters.
One of the most recent examples is the HBO television series Game of Thrones. As you know, George Martin (based on whose books this project is based) has released only 5 volumes so far. And, working on the script for the next seasons (6 and 7), the creators of the television project had to figure out how the plot would develop further. To make this task easier, the script used ideas from many fan fiction stories. Additionally, some fanon has been turned into series canon (while remaining fanon for George R. R. Martin's books).
So, despite the fact that official literary criticism and cinematography treats fan fiction and the fanons they create as a second-rate phenomenon, they do not hesitate to use their best developments for their own interests, and free of charge.
What is the original? Using the example of one similar work
Genres of originals, like genres of fan fiction, are different. Although works on teenage themes are especially in demand and read, where still inexperienced boys and girls learn to explore life, cope with the abundance of their own problems and get out of all sorts of difficult situations.
One of these quite famous and discussed originals on the Internet is a story written by a girl named Stace Kramer. The work is called “50 days before my suicide.” This original, the debut of the young writer Nastya Kholova, was even published and managed to win the love of fans not only on the Internet, but also in reality.
The plot of the story revolves around a sixteen-year-old girl, Gloria, who suddenly realizes that she cannot cope with all her problems and gives herself fifty days to play an interesting game with her destiny and evaluate whether she should continue living.
