Key Principle
Creative authority in imaginary worlds distributes across concentric circles of authorship: the originator at the core, then estates and heirs, employees and freelancers, licensed derivative products, and fan productions at the outermost ring. Canonicity is not binary but a graduated spectrum shaped by proximity to the originator, institutional authority, and audience reception. "For a work to be canonical requires that it be declared as such by someone with the authority to do so; authorship alone is not sufficient to determine the work's status" (Chapter 7). This reframes world-building as inherently collaborative rather than solitary, directly challenging the Romantic myth of the sole genius.
Why This Matters
The originator's most consequential decision is whether the world remains open (canonical material still being added) or closed (declared finished). Open worlds can retcon, accumulate canon, and arrange authorial succession. Closed worlds generate income through licensing but add no new canon. Even in public domain, a world remains canonically closed if no additions are accepted as authoritative. Tolkien intended to "leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama" but meant transmedial interpretation, not new canonical stories (Chapter 7).
The stakes are economic as well as creative. "Sharecropping" -- commissioning writers to produce authorized works in another author's world -- reveals world-building's labor economics. The IP owner receives large advances for minimal work; the sharecropper receives less compensation but gains prestige. SF/fantasy readers invest in the world itself rather than individual characters, creating demand for stories in a particular universe regardless of authorship (Chapter 7). This economic dynamic is a direct corollary of the thesis that imaginary worlds are autonomous cultural artifacts.
Good Examples
- Star Wars Holocron: Codifies canonicity into five explicit tiers -- G-canon (films, scripts, Lucas' statements), T-canon (Clone Wars TV), C-canon (Expanded Universe), S-canon (secondary materials), N-canon (noncanonical). Noncanonical material can be produced by the world's own author (Darth Vader in an Energizer commercial), and an author can absorb unauthorized material into canon (Chapter 7).
- Tolkien's retcon of The Hobbit: The revision that aligned the riddle scene with LOTR made both versions canonical within the diegesis -- the original as Bilbo's self-serving distortion, the revision as "the story as it really was." This transforms a continuity problem into world-deepening characterization (Chapter 7).
- Oz as the longest officially open world: Ruth Plumly Thompson wrote 19 canonical Oz novels as "Royal Historian of Oz," exceeding Baum's own 14. Canonical additions ran from 1900 to 2006 -- over a century of sustained collaborative subcreation (Chapter 7).
- Canon permeability: "Coruscant" moved from C-canon (Timothy Zahn's EU novel) to G-canon when Lucas adopted it in The Phantom Menace. Fan popularity expanded Boba Fett's backstory in Attack of the Clones; negative fan reaction to Jar Jar Binks reduced his role in subsequent films (Chapter 7).
Counterpoints
- Posthumous works exist in canonical limbo: Works lacking the author's final approval occupy uncertain ground. Tolkien's posthumous output ranges from the relatively polished Silmarillion to fragmentary sketches across 12 volumes. "Incompleteness is not absence -- it is a spectrum of authorial finality" (Chapter 7). Tom Shippey identified at least nine versions of "The Legend of Beren and Luthien" ranging from two pages to two hundred.
- Individual works can enter public domain while the world remains canonically controlled: A legal asymmetry with profound implications for world longevity -- anyone can republish a specific Oz book, but canonical control over what "counts" as Oz remains concentrated (Chapter 7).
- Participatory worlds collapse the circles entirely: In worlds like Second Life and A Tale in the Desert, users make permanent canonical additions. The outermost ring (fans) collapses inward toward the core (authorship), and the world becomes a collectively authored artifact. The economic consequences are real: Anshe Chung became a millionaire from a US$9.95 investment; the Second Life economy reached US$567 million in 2009 (Chapter 7).
Key Quotes
"Imaginary worlds are often not only transmedial and transnarrative, but transauthorial as well." -- Mark J. P. Wolf, Chapter 7
"The culture of an on-line world can be suggested by the makers of the world, but it is the citizens of the world, the players and their avatars, who will either accept or reject cultural elements, becoming co-creators along with the makers of the world." -- Mark J. P. Wolf, Chapter 7
"The encyclopedic ambitions of transmedia texts often results in what might be seen as gaps or excesses in the unfolding of the story... Readers, thus, have a strong incentive to continue to elaborate on these story elements, working them over through their speculations, until they take on a life of their own." -- Henry Jenkins, quoted in Chapter 7
"authors tend not to begin with Grand Designs which they then slowly flesh out, but with scenes and visions, for which they may eventually find intellectual justification." -- Tom Shippey, quoted in Chapter 7
Rules of Thumb
- Decide early whether the world is open or closed; the decision governs every subsequent authorial and economic choice
- Canonicity is conferred by institutional authority, not by authorship alone -- design governance structures accordingly
- Diegetic retcons (making both old and new versions true within the story) are more elegant than simple overwriting
- Fan production is the deliberate form of the automatic gap-filling (world gestalten) that all audiences perform; channel it rather than suppress it
- As worlds exceed single-author capacity, the world bible becomes the primary consistency tool -- it is how subcreators manage complexity beyond what narrative alone can hold
Related References
- Transmedial Growth and Adaptation - transmediality is what makes worlds transauthorial in the first place
- Subcreation within Subcreated Worlds - participatory worlds are the endpoint of the diegetic subcreation trajectory
- A 3,000-Year History of Imaginary Worlds - the historical shift from character-based to world-based franchises