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Retcon - Dictionary Definition and Overview |
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Retcon :
/ret'kon/ retroactive continuity.
The common situation in fiction where a new story "reveals"
things about events in previous stories, usually leaving the
"facts" the same (thus preserving continuity) while completely
changing their interpretation. For example, revealing that a
whole season of "Dallas" was a dream was a retcon.
This term was once thought to have originated on the Usenet
newsgroup news:rec.arts.comics but is now believed to have
been used earlier in comic fandom.
[{Jargon File]
(1994-12-08)
Based on the Online Dictionary of Computing [Computer_Dictionary]:
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Retcon : /ret'kon/ [short for `retroactive continuity', from the Usenet
newsgroup rec.arts.comics] 1. n. The common situation in pulp fiction
(esp. comics or soap operas) where a new story `reveals' things about
events in previous stories, usually leaving the `facts' the same (thus
preserving continuity) while completely changing their interpretation.
For example, revealing that a whole season of "Dallas" was a dream was a
retcon. 2. vt. To write such a story about a character or fictitious
object. "Byrne has retconned Superman's cape so that it is no longer
unbreakable." "Marvelman's old adventures were retconned into synthetic
dreams." "Swamp Thing was retconned from a transformed person into a
sentient vegetable."
[This term is included because it is a good example of hackish
linguistic innovation in a field completely unrelated to computers. The
word `retcon' will probably spread through comics fandom and lose its
association with hackerdom within a couple of years; for the record, it
started here. --ESR]
[1993 update: some comics fans on the net now claim that retcon was
independently in use in comics fandom before rec.arts.comics. In
lexicography, nothing is ever simple. --ESR]
Based on the Online Dictionary of Computing [Computer_Dictionary]:
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