This is what's good about a late lunch--I check lj and find stuff like this!
Needless to say, ITA.:-) Sometimes I really think people lose sight of the fact that fiction is...fiction. Like when JKR is accused of writing her own characters OOC and other people thinking that's impossible. For me it's like...of course it's possible! If JKR changes her characters could morph just as easily as a writer of fanfiction's could. Writers talk about having characters write themselves and that's often very true, but the author is still a powerful presence there. The author can shut a character up or she can start wishing a character was different and then see her differently and so write her that way. Or just fail to communicate all the steps she went through in her head to get the character into the form we now see. I never understand the idea that just because JKR wrote something it's IC. If I thought that way I'd never get so attached to fictional characters. I really do believe they all "exist" somewhere out there in the ether, in all their incarnations, independent of their creator.:-)
Then there's this "looking for pairings" in canon. I've never really gotten that easier. I just usually get a vibe about two characters that makes me think I'd *like* to read about them in fanfic. Is it based on canon? Sure it is! These are the guys I want to see, after all. But if I see those vibes then as far as I'm concerned they're already there. They're there in the story I have in my head when I read canon, therefore they are canon. If somebody else doesn't see the same ones then they're not there for them. Knowing the author is dropping them in on purpose honestly doesn't make me feel one way or the other about it--in fact, if the author's intrusive about it the whole thing falls apart for me. The Mulder/Krycek kiss in TRTB was slashy because I believed it when I saw it, not because I thought, "Oh ho, CC is giving a little metawink about M/K."
Also, something I've noticed in shippy-obsessed fandoms (which would be all of them), sometimes you just miss so much when you only look for that. I hated the way CoS the movie pretended that Hermione was hurt and sad at Muggleborn prejudice but I accept it was there. On FAP there were D/Hr shippers wildly proclaiming the movie was all about D/Hr, just as they'd also claimed the Potions scene in PS/SS was slashy for D/S. Ditto Remus and Sirius giving joint Xmas presents. "There's nothing else it could be!" they say.
Of course there's something else it could be! In fact, there's something else it's clearly MEANT to be, primarily. Draco and Hermione keep "looking" each other in the movie because they are Pureblood/Mudblood. They actually only look at each other when that subject comes up. Snape and Draco "look that way" in the Potions scene to show us Draco thinks Potions is as cool as Snape does. Sirius and Remus...well, where to start? Sirius is falling apart. He can't go out. He's drinking. Remus isn't much better off as a penniless werewolf. But they're the last of the Marauders, sticking together to present a gift to James' son. It's more poignant for them to give a gift together, highlights their bond in isolation and makes the scene cleaner with less gifts. Even if they are lovers (which they certainly could be--this isn't a refutation of slash there) their main concern when it comes to Xmas is hardly going to be gay ettiquette on gift-giving.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2003-09-26 12:21 pm (UTC)Needless to say, ITA.:-) Sometimes I really think people lose sight of the fact that fiction is...fiction. Like when JKR is accused of writing her own characters OOC and other people thinking that's impossible. For me it's like...of course it's possible! If JKR changes her characters could morph just as easily as a writer of fanfiction's could. Writers talk about having characters write themselves and that's often very true, but the author is still a powerful presence there. The author can shut a character up or she can start wishing a character was different and then see her differently and so write her that way. Or just fail to communicate all the steps she went through in her head to get the character into the form we now see. I never understand the idea that just because JKR wrote something it's IC. If I thought that way I'd never get so attached to fictional characters. I really do believe they all "exist" somewhere out there in the ether, in all their incarnations, independent of their creator.:-)
Then there's this "looking for pairings" in canon. I've never really gotten that easier. I just usually get a vibe about two characters that makes me think I'd *like* to read about them in fanfic. Is it based on canon? Sure it is! These are the guys I want to see, after all. But if I see those vibes then as far as I'm concerned they're already there. They're there in the story I have in my head when I read canon, therefore they are canon. If somebody else doesn't see the same ones then they're not there for them. Knowing the author is dropping them in on purpose honestly doesn't make me feel one way or the other about it--in fact, if the author's intrusive about it the whole thing falls apart for me. The Mulder/Krycek kiss in TRTB was slashy because I believed it when I saw it, not because I thought, "Oh ho, CC is giving a little metawink about M/K."
Also, something I've noticed in shippy-obsessed fandoms (which would be all of them), sometimes you just miss so much when you only look for that. I hated the way CoS the movie pretended that Hermione was hurt and sad at Muggleborn prejudice but I accept it was there. On FAP there were D/Hr shippers wildly proclaiming the movie was all about D/Hr, just as they'd also claimed the Potions scene in PS/SS was slashy for D/S. Ditto Remus and Sirius giving joint Xmas presents. "There's nothing else it could be!" they say.
Of course there's something else it could be! In fact, there's something else it's clearly MEANT to be, primarily. Draco and Hermione keep "looking" each other in the movie because they are Pureblood/Mudblood. They actually only look at each other when that subject comes up. Snape and Draco "look that way" in the Potions scene to show us Draco thinks Potions is as cool as Snape does. Sirius and Remus...well, where to start? Sirius is falling apart. He can't go out. He's drinking. Remus isn't much better off as a penniless werewolf. But they're the last of the Marauders, sticking together to present a gift to James' son. It's more poignant for them to give a gift together, highlights their bond in isolation and makes the scene cleaner with less gifts. Even if they are lovers (which they certainly could be--this isn't a refutation of slash there) their main concern when it comes to Xmas is hardly going to be gay ettiquette on gift-giving.