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reenkaI think I've figured it out. Well, nothing much, really. I've figured out why I look at someone's writing in gestalt moreso than not. I was going to like, 'cause some outcry and make a list of fics I considered Really Really Bad (or maybe just one really... or just bad).... But well. I think most fics out there are just... bad. They are! My god! I'm not excluding myself. I'm just saying. Coming from the supposition that 90% of everything is crap, what's the point?
The question arises: why is it all crap?
I'm not talking characterization or pacing or plot-- I'm just saying that most people can't seem to write, that's all. It's either overwrought or awkward or completely unbelievable juvenilia or entirely mired in some sort of fluffy-or-depressive ouvre where the author bias overwhelms everything the characters can possibly do. As soon as I want to make my oh-so-shocking List of Doom, I can't, because it's not that I hate everything, it's that I can't honestly single out certain fics and imply that there's not another 100 fics just like it out there.
That said, I actually enjoy most things I read by judicious use of suspension of disbelief, desire to have my kinks worked and a certain amount of blind obsession with certain tropes.
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chresimos said that maybe reccing is a pointless endeavor because emotional-impact works will of necessity not be able to be guarranteed success and a brilliantly-done piece will do nothing for the reader without some sort of emotional connection involved. Personally, I don't rec in order to set up some sort of... er... elite club(?) I just rec to keep track of things. It's compulsive. My dislike for hyperbole in others' recs is simply a part of my dislike for hyperbole in general.
But anyway. I realized that the thing that makes writing -work- for me is the basic competence of the writer-- which is why I tend to like writers in general more than any particular work. Competence is a stable thing, generally. I might even call it talent. Any particular work is iffy, whether it's effective for any particular person at any particular moment-- but you can still separate the ff.net-style clunky wooden shoes of literature and the more soft eel-skin boots which feel soft and nice even if they're not "your thing".
I think the problem is that in fanfiction, there's an even wider range of writing ability than in what's studied and recommended in terms of "real literature". There's a lot less of a divide between Dickens and Maupassant and Tolstoy and Fitzgerald than between... say... Hpgryffin and Rhysenn or Olympia, even if you really really dislike IP and `The Tale of the Shining Prince' (both of which I consider beautiful but have severe problems with also). You still see how they're worlds better than "Artificial Passion", right. Or, to be blunt and antagonistic, than oh... "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" (heh) or Resolution. Bleh. Though Resolution is in its beginning stages whereas IP is done, so I can't really judge entirely... even so... as fiction, the writing itself is much tighter (even though not to everyone's taste) and more vivid in IP. Both of their characterizations are questionable of course, which brings me to my other point. (That said, I don't "hate" Resolution simply 'cause nothing about it emotionally pings me one way or the other. I like some of the smut though, and it's readable, certainly, and enjoyable on a surface level.)
The other thing is that you can more easily take "original" fiction on its own merits (style and writing talent is thus considered more important, I guess), whereas fanfiction has to also work as fanfiction, which is a tricky, tricky bitch of a standard 'cause unlike basic writing quality, it's so dependent on subjective reader judgement of canon.
A lot of the fanfics that annoyed me or got a strong negative reaction ("Perfect Imperfection", "Ruses", "All Torn Down", "Checkmate", the Weather trilogy) aren't so much badly written (indeed, Shalott's writing is brilliant) as er... questionably characterized without back-up, based on my admittedly biased judgement. I realize a lot of people dislike some fics I like based on characterization reasons (it ranges from `Lustre' to the Draco Trilogy). I get to feel a bit smug because I realize the characterization issues being referenced are real, it's just that in my estimation, the other factors outweigh any harm incurred. Those factors are almost always: 1) the writing itself is stellar; 2) I -like- and was convinced of this Draco and/or Harry, Ginny, Ron, etc. for the duration of the fic, whether they're "canonically likely" versions or not. So basically, those fics-- `Checkmate', say-- make no headway in the conviction department. Of course, this `conviction' is just painfully subjective by definition.
So it seems that while bad writing is everywhere, it's much more painful as a fanfic reader to read acceptably-written awful rapes of the characters. And I'm rather liberal, especially since I started with fanon before canon. In the end, I -will- take the writing itself over characterization because I've found good writing (in all its multiple facets) lends itself to psychologically interesting characters that I can respond to as Harry or whomever if I felt like it.
This is a tricky subject; while seemingly, "canon" should be more of an objectively-present entity than "talent", people's desires and interpretations of canon are -so- wide-ranging that it's hard to use "canonicity" as a predictor of whether people will like it. And in fact, I didn't dislike those fics because they were uncanonical, per se. I disliked them because an inexplicably fluffy or dark characterization of a character I'd like to see as complex (I get annoyed at both) sort of rubs me the wrong way, personally. But it's not enough to say that I dislike those fics because their characterizations are too blatantly skewed-- no, I also have a personal bias against abusive!Harry or abusive!Draco or crying!Draco or sweet-fluffy-gentle!H/D. I like funny, cute fluff which is ridiculous and bouncy and doesn't take itself seriously and hopefully contains liberal doses of smut (mmmm, Dahlia, Silvia, Eddy, etc). Serious fluff ("Checkmate" and a horde of others which make me retch awfully) is just... an offense of some sort. A lie, basically.
So yeah, I tend to hate the fics that I feel -lie- to me on some level. It's insiduous like that. On the other hand, I think this is merely a type of badfic. Lots more fic is just written badly, I find boring in premise, uninspiring, dull, full of shoddy workmanship and un-thought-through characterizations. "Bleh", basically.
Usually, this "bleh" response can be overcome by sparkly writing. For instance, some of my at-one-point-favorite fics are really kind of hard to believe and fluffy in parts. But they have personality. The first few chapters of Love Under Will, for instance, have personality even though I don't think they have high canonical plausibility~:) Even though the canonicity or characterization of `The Untold Want' is questionable, it has this... aesthetic that's peculiar to itself which I'm tempted to call charm, which is more the -writer's- overall aesthetic than anything else. `Resolution' doesn't. Most things don't.
Basically.... What works for people in practice depends on who they are and thus are receptive to (intellectually, aesthetically, emotionally) and what they expect from fanfic and from fiction in general, and also what they can comprehend. I suspect Olympia's fics are beyond most people on a number of levels, as are the subtleties in Silvia's fics, maybe. That said, I don't mean that makes either author somehow "superior" because they have less blatant mass appeal-- I just mean that it's a consideration in terms of projecting reader response and constructing some sort of HP fanfic hierarchy.
Plenty of people, especially those of a more intellectual bent, want canonicity above all else-- not just the general believability of the character's behavior but some sort of strict adherence to (their) view of canon. This usually isn't so prevalent with the H/D-reading segment since really, first you have to get over the imaginative hurdle of envisioning H/D as relating to canon in the first place. The whole pairing is a subversion of canon in some ways while an expansion of it in others. In this sense, I would say almost no H/D fic measures up. I think... maybe `Red' by Miss Breed, `Sins of the Father' by Ali (mostly for pre-OoTP Harry) and eh... Origins for pre-OoTP Harry. Possibly I'd say Silvia's fics, Dee's `The More Things Change' & `Underwater Light' for Draco, but that's a very specific view on Draco. On the other hand, aren't they all?
Eh, to hell with it. Usually, the glaring hatreds for particular fics that people keep hidden play on their own ideas of the characters being betrayed somehow, and then lo! Look, the fandom's lapping it up. It's annoying. It's like somehow, they're saying that this other conception of the character isn't as real when they celebrate this stupid conception of him, I suppose.
To me personally, it doesn't matter how popular a fic I like or dislike is, simply because I think -most- fics get something wrong and I realize the large role my bias plays in my perception of this wrongness. Ideally, I want a fic to -prove- to me whatever view of the characters it has, simply by use of slow-and-steady characterization and plotting and such. Usually, good writing is necessary to make the medicine go down easier. For instance, I rather disagree with Olympia's takes on Harry & Draco in `The Tale of the Shining Prince' and sequels, but it doesn't matter-- they're so self-contained, so smooth that it says what it wants to say and draws you into that world. It presents a bubble, a mini-universe-- it exemplifies the idea of fanfic-as-AU that I'd mentioned in another post. It wouldn't have been able to do so if it wasn't written as gorgeously as it is, I think.
In terms of -my- response... I greatly admire it but have no deep emotional investment in it, post-reading. UL, which is more of a canon-based fic, I have an investment in, but I don't think it's -because- it's extrapolative but rather because I simply like that Draco more, that's all. (I wouldn't be able to -begin- to compare Maya's and Olympia's writing talent in general... I think this where it sort of levels out and becomes comparable and yet deeply incomparable at the same time).
Thus there are two things that remain semi-constant: the overall success of whatever aesthetic or idea the author had been trying to portray-- regardless of its degree of relationship to canon-- based on the writing itself; that is to say, the writer. And secondly, a particular reader, who has the same biases and desires from fic to fic. Er. All of which is entirely unhelpful, I know :/
Dude. You can tell I haven't eaten yet. I could've said all this in like, one paragraph, I'm sure. But whenever I'm out of it, I get progressively more verbose. Fear me.
EDIT - also. MY GOD, WHY CAN'T I STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS; SOMEONE GAG ME!!1 >:O
The question arises: why is it all crap?
I'm not talking characterization or pacing or plot-- I'm just saying that most people can't seem to write, that's all. It's either overwrought or awkward or completely unbelievable juvenilia or entirely mired in some sort of fluffy-or-depressive ouvre where the author bias overwhelms everything the characters can possibly do. As soon as I want to make my oh-so-shocking List of Doom, I can't, because it's not that I hate everything, it's that I can't honestly single out certain fics and imply that there's not another 100 fics just like it out there.
That said, I actually enjoy most things I read by judicious use of suspension of disbelief, desire to have my kinks worked and a certain amount of blind obsession with certain tropes.
chresimos said that maybe reccing is a pointless endeavor because emotional-impact works will of necessity not be able to be guarranteed success and a brilliantly-done piece will do nothing for the reader without some sort of emotional connection involved. Personally, I don't rec in order to set up some sort of... er... elite club(?) I just rec to keep track of things. It's compulsive. My dislike for hyperbole in others' recs is simply a part of my dislike for hyperbole in general. But anyway. I realized that the thing that makes writing -work- for me is the basic competence of the writer-- which is why I tend to like writers in general more than any particular work. Competence is a stable thing, generally. I might even call it talent. Any particular work is iffy, whether it's effective for any particular person at any particular moment-- but you can still separate the ff.net-style clunky wooden shoes of literature and the more soft eel-skin boots which feel soft and nice even if they're not "your thing".
I think the problem is that in fanfiction, there's an even wider range of writing ability than in what's studied and recommended in terms of "real literature". There's a lot less of a divide between Dickens and Maupassant and Tolstoy and Fitzgerald than between... say... Hpgryffin and Rhysenn or Olympia, even if you really really dislike IP and `The Tale of the Shining Prince' (both of which I consider beautiful but have severe problems with also). You still see how they're worlds better than "Artificial Passion", right. Or, to be blunt and antagonistic, than oh... "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" (heh) or Resolution. Bleh. Though Resolution is in its beginning stages whereas IP is done, so I can't really judge entirely... even so... as fiction, the writing itself is much tighter (even though not to everyone's taste) and more vivid in IP. Both of their characterizations are questionable of course, which brings me to my other point. (That said, I don't "hate" Resolution simply 'cause nothing about it emotionally pings me one way or the other. I like some of the smut though, and it's readable, certainly, and enjoyable on a surface level.)
The other thing is that you can more easily take "original" fiction on its own merits (style and writing talent is thus considered more important, I guess), whereas fanfiction has to also work as fanfiction, which is a tricky, tricky bitch of a standard 'cause unlike basic writing quality, it's so dependent on subjective reader judgement of canon.
A lot of the fanfics that annoyed me or got a strong negative reaction ("Perfect Imperfection", "Ruses", "All Torn Down", "Checkmate", the Weather trilogy) aren't so much badly written (indeed, Shalott's writing is brilliant) as er... questionably characterized without back-up, based on my admittedly biased judgement. I realize a lot of people dislike some fics I like based on characterization reasons (it ranges from `Lustre' to the Draco Trilogy). I get to feel a bit smug because I realize the characterization issues being referenced are real, it's just that in my estimation, the other factors outweigh any harm incurred. Those factors are almost always: 1) the writing itself is stellar; 2) I -like- and was convinced of this Draco and/or Harry, Ginny, Ron, etc. for the duration of the fic, whether they're "canonically likely" versions or not. So basically, those fics-- `Checkmate', say-- make no headway in the conviction department. Of course, this `conviction' is just painfully subjective by definition.
So it seems that while bad writing is everywhere, it's much more painful as a fanfic reader to read acceptably-written awful rapes of the characters. And I'm rather liberal, especially since I started with fanon before canon. In the end, I -will- take the writing itself over characterization because I've found good writing (in all its multiple facets) lends itself to psychologically interesting characters that I can respond to as Harry or whomever if I felt like it.
This is a tricky subject; while seemingly, "canon" should be more of an objectively-present entity than "talent", people's desires and interpretations of canon are -so- wide-ranging that it's hard to use "canonicity" as a predictor of whether people will like it. And in fact, I didn't dislike those fics because they were uncanonical, per se. I disliked them because an inexplicably fluffy or dark characterization of a character I'd like to see as complex (I get annoyed at both) sort of rubs me the wrong way, personally. But it's not enough to say that I dislike those fics because their characterizations are too blatantly skewed-- no, I also have a personal bias against abusive!Harry or abusive!Draco or crying!Draco or sweet-fluffy-gentle!H/D. I like funny, cute fluff which is ridiculous and bouncy and doesn't take itself seriously and hopefully contains liberal doses of smut (mmmm, Dahlia, Silvia, Eddy, etc). Serious fluff ("Checkmate" and a horde of others which make me retch awfully) is just... an offense of some sort. A lie, basically.
So yeah, I tend to hate the fics that I feel -lie- to me on some level. It's insiduous like that. On the other hand, I think this is merely a type of badfic. Lots more fic is just written badly, I find boring in premise, uninspiring, dull, full of shoddy workmanship and un-thought-through characterizations. "Bleh", basically.
Usually, this "bleh" response can be overcome by sparkly writing. For instance, some of my at-one-point-favorite fics are really kind of hard to believe and fluffy in parts. But they have personality. The first few chapters of Love Under Will, for instance, have personality even though I don't think they have high canonical plausibility~:) Even though the canonicity or characterization of `The Untold Want' is questionable, it has this... aesthetic that's peculiar to itself which I'm tempted to call charm, which is more the -writer's- overall aesthetic than anything else. `Resolution' doesn't. Most things don't.
Basically.... What works for people in practice depends on who they are and thus are receptive to (intellectually, aesthetically, emotionally) and what they expect from fanfic and from fiction in general, and also what they can comprehend. I suspect Olympia's fics are beyond most people on a number of levels, as are the subtleties in Silvia's fics, maybe. That said, I don't mean that makes either author somehow "superior" because they have less blatant mass appeal-- I just mean that it's a consideration in terms of projecting reader response and constructing some sort of HP fanfic hierarchy.
Plenty of people, especially those of a more intellectual bent, want canonicity above all else-- not just the general believability of the character's behavior but some sort of strict adherence to (their) view of canon. This usually isn't so prevalent with the H/D-reading segment since really, first you have to get over the imaginative hurdle of envisioning H/D as relating to canon in the first place. The whole pairing is a subversion of canon in some ways while an expansion of it in others. In this sense, I would say almost no H/D fic measures up. I think... maybe `Red' by Miss Breed, `Sins of the Father' by Ali (mostly for pre-OoTP Harry) and eh... Origins for pre-OoTP Harry. Possibly I'd say Silvia's fics, Dee's `The More Things Change' & `Underwater Light' for Draco, but that's a very specific view on Draco. On the other hand, aren't they all?
Eh, to hell with it. Usually, the glaring hatreds for particular fics that people keep hidden play on their own ideas of the characters being betrayed somehow, and then lo! Look, the fandom's lapping it up. It's annoying. It's like somehow, they're saying that this other conception of the character isn't as real when they celebrate this stupid conception of him, I suppose.
To me personally, it doesn't matter how popular a fic I like or dislike is, simply because I think -most- fics get something wrong and I realize the large role my bias plays in my perception of this wrongness. Ideally, I want a fic to -prove- to me whatever view of the characters it has, simply by use of slow-and-steady characterization and plotting and such. Usually, good writing is necessary to make the medicine go down easier. For instance, I rather disagree with Olympia's takes on Harry & Draco in `The Tale of the Shining Prince' and sequels, but it doesn't matter-- they're so self-contained, so smooth that it says what it wants to say and draws you into that world. It presents a bubble, a mini-universe-- it exemplifies the idea of fanfic-as-AU that I'd mentioned in another post. It wouldn't have been able to do so if it wasn't written as gorgeously as it is, I think.
In terms of -my- response... I greatly admire it but have no deep emotional investment in it, post-reading. UL, which is more of a canon-based fic, I have an investment in, but I don't think it's -because- it's extrapolative but rather because I simply like that Draco more, that's all. (I wouldn't be able to -begin- to compare Maya's and Olympia's writing talent in general... I think this where it sort of levels out and becomes comparable and yet deeply incomparable at the same time).
Thus there are two things that remain semi-constant: the overall success of whatever aesthetic or idea the author had been trying to portray-- regardless of its degree of relationship to canon-- based on the writing itself; that is to say, the writer. And secondly, a particular reader, who has the same biases and desires from fic to fic. Er. All of which is entirely unhelpful, I know :/
Dude. You can tell I haven't eaten yet. I could've said all this in like, one paragraph, I'm sure. But whenever I'm out of it, I get progressively more verbose. Fear me.
EDIT - also. MY GOD, WHY CAN'T I STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS; SOMEONE GAG ME!!1 >:O
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no subject
Date: 2003-10-02 03:47 pm (UTC)Actually, I think this also matches up nicely with the idea of OTPness influencing your reading of canon, which
My experience in HP with regards to characterization has been unique to my time in fandom. While there are fandoms in which I want the characterizations as canonical as possible, and fandoms where I'm willing to see the characterization fudged in a certain direction to get the story I want, HP is the one fandom where my taste for a canonical Draco is about paralleled by my taste for a certain breed of fanonical Draco. Every other character I want as canonical as possible, but I'm not as resistant to wittysensualist!Draco as my usual pattern would indicate I should be. It's partly because I'm so averse to He'stheRealHero!Draco or misunderstoodabused!Draco that just about anything is better. It's also partly because Draco feels very static to me in the source material, and while it's true we often outgrow childhood rivalries and I can see JKR setting things up that way, I do feel a bit too much time and effort has been focused on Draco up to this point to have him merely shrugged aside as Harry "grows up."
Of course, I'm also very fond of darkseducer!Draco, and with the setup at the end of OotP, I think he actually has a bit of a canonical basis now. If Lucius goes to Azkaban, I don't think it's inconceivable that Draco will start seriously nursing vengeance over the summer, and he may well decide to pursue more adult means of getting it than he has thus far. We've already seen he doesn't appreciate falling off Harry's radar. How far will he go to get back on it?
And now that I've wandered so far off topic *G*, I'll go back to addressing what you said. I've actually found there are times when I dislike a characterization that is actually more canonical than another characterization I prefer. Often, that's because I can see how the author has arrived at that characterization, and it involves a reading of certain events that is just a bit askew of how I read them. For instance, I think IP is arguably more canonical in characterization than, say, "The Tale of the Shining Prince." Yet I prefer "The Tale of the Shining Prince" in part because it doesn't require I twist my own views of canon the way IP does. So even though IP Draco is closer to how I think he's portrayed in canon, TSP Draco sits more comfortably in my head. That, and I prefer Olympia's writing style. Never underestimate the importance of style preference in determining what does or doesn't work for you as a reader.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-02 08:01 pm (UTC)It also reassured me about my troubling squick at Kirk/Spock, considering how much I adore their dynamic in the show & in the commercial gen novels I'd read so much of. It really hit home when you said that about wanting it to remain a "deep, unspoken something". It's a great way of putting it. Sometimes it feels like what's already there is so intense and so meaningful, that to define it further for be to break it somehow. I dunno. I've heard a few arguments as to how Kirk & Spock are so obviously into each other, and funny thing is, I agree. But if it became actual rather than sublimated, I think the story would just -change- irrevocably. It would totally go AU, and that's just kinda painful for some reason.
With HP, on the other hand, especially the H/D pairing, it's all about the potential, since in canon they have less than nothing-- they have a negative. Change is the order of the day. So basically, it comes down to what sort of change and how much change and how believable of a change it is~:)
Strangely enough, I never really found fanfic in the fandoms I wanted "more" in. I wanted more of several anime that ended badly, but there really wasn't anything. It seems like the "fill in the blanks" fandoms are just... bigger.
And yeah, the OTP thing is like the well-needed oil for the process of reading H/D fic and other not-really-all-that-realistic-of-a-pairing fic. I wanted to believe it even before it was my OTP, because of the -sort- of dynamic it is, and me being a sucker for that sort of thing. As soon as I had the merest hint of its posibility, I was like, OMG! THIS! THIS!
I was the same way when I first saw Buffy/Spike in the fake-marriage episode. I was totally bowled over with revelation, heh. Although that was before I -knew- about online fanfic, sadly. I'm a bit scared thinking of having a het heyday of some sort, though.
Canon visions reminds me of
I know what you mean. I too, am split between liking Draco to be as bratty and bitchy and whiny and pathetic as possible and liking him to be snarky and witty too (I'm only human). And yeah, I think it's because in canon, there's only so far to take him without changing him, and within the range of choices, one picks the one most attractive. Canon!Draco seems... rather caricaturish too, but at least it's not painful the way a Gary-Stu!Draco is painful. Then again, almost no one -writes- canon!Draco, anyway, so it's not like I have a lot of lee-way if I want to read more than one fic a year.
Heehehe, DarkSeducer!Harry is more canonical as well. They're both more angry and desperate and likely to do "bad things", eheheh. Which is definitely all right with me~:) I don't think he'd seduce Harry... if anything, the problem is that I don't think of Harry as seducible (Draco would have to actually be -cool- and -sexy- for that to work)... wheareas I think of -Draco- as plenty seducible, possibly by Harry being mean to him or beating him up or just getting in his face or... well :D
no subject
Date: 2003-10-02 08:04 pm (UTC)I've never found a fic to be "too canonical" so far, ahahah. Well, unless by "too canonical" you'd mean "no slash" :D
Really, I have way too many problems with most chaptered fics to stand behind any one fic all the way. It's depressing. Which is why I sometimes fall back to sailing on my old one-night-stand infatuation with IP and `Brief Interval Before the Resumption of Play'. Otherwise I'd come back to my initial stance of "Oh God, It's All Crap!!" heh~:)
no subject
Date: 2003-10-05 09:34 pm (UTC)That is definitely a difficulty I had with the story. I just can't see Harry being promiscuous when he had the opportunity for monogamy. It doesn't strike me as quite in-character. Still, it worked within the story and as I said, I love Olympia's style. *G*
I've never found a fic to be "too canonical" so far, ahahah. Well, unless by "too canonical" you'd mean "no slash" :D
No, especially since I'm not inclined to say slash of certain pairings isn't as canonical as, say, Ron/Hermione (still not officially together in the books) or Harry/Ginny (merely a bit of foreshadowing on the horizon as yet). *G* What I meant was simply that I occasionally encounter a story where it's clear how the author got the characterization she did, and it's well-supported in canon, but it's very different from my interpretation of canon (usually also well-supported, I should add), and so I don't like it as much as another story in which the characterization is not quite as well-founded. Does that make more sense?
Really, I have way too many problems with most chaptered fics to stand behind any one fic all the way. It's depressing. Which is why I sometimes fall back to sailing on my old one-night-stand infatuation with IP and `Brief Interval Before the Resumption of Play'. Otherwise I'd come back to my initial stance of "Oh God, It's All Crap!!" heh~:)
*snicker* It's true of most fandoms I've run across that the longer a story is, the more it becomes dependent on its own canon as opposed to the source material. I'm not sure if that's because it fits less easily in the cracks of the source material, or if it's that the author lives so long with that version of the characters in her heads, they overwrite the source versions, or if it's that most chaptered stories tend to be of the types that are most likely to bend canon, i.e. fixits, resurrection stories, futurefic, focused romances, etc. It's something to ponder, at any rate.
Part the First
Date: 2003-10-05 09:19 pm (UTC)Thanks! *G*
With HP, on the other hand, especially the H/D pairing, it's all about the potential, since in canon they have less than nothing-- they have a negative. Change is the order of the day. So basically, it comes down to what sort of change and how much change and how believable of a change it is~:) Strangely enough, I never really found fanfic in the fandoms I wanted "more" in. I wanted more of several anime that ended badly, but there really wasn't anything. It seems like the "fill in the blanks" fandoms are just... bigger.
Well, my theory is that the source material that attracts the most people walks a fine line between just good enough and just flawed enough, so that supports the hypothesis. And I don't really see negative potential in H/D, but rather adversarial potential. It's still passion and obsession and desire, but rooted in rivalry rather than friendship.
And yeah, the OTP thing is like the well-needed oil for the process of reading H/D fic and other not-really-all-that-realistic-of-a-pairing fic. I wanted to believe it even before it was my OTP, because of the -sort- of dynamic it is, and me being a sucker for that sort of thing. As soon as I had the merest hint of its posibility, I was like, OMG! THIS! THIS!
Yes, that's it exactly, though if I were forced to name an OTP in HP fandom, it would actually be Sirius/Remus. Hmm, I wonder if one can be OTP about multiple pairings so long as they are mutually exclusive. Hmm.
Canon visions reminds me of thamiris's post on A-template vs. B-template and how we all have a version of "reality" in our heads that we compare everything to, which was presumably formed at the initial brush with canon.
I remember that essay, though I can't remember the specifics. I do remember it had some great points similar to what I said in my essay, only much more eloquent. *G* I also think that which "version" you're exposed to initially affects your template, and this is borne out, I believe, in arenas outside of fandom. Often there are other reasons to prefer one version of something over another, but it does seem that initial exposure has something to do with it.
This is so weird for me in the HP fandom 'cause I came in contact with fanon first (unless you count the movie and like, 10 pages of book 1). It all rode on my instinctive preferences and the sorts of archetypes I like~:) It still does. I'll accept anything that is "attractive" yet believable to me, for lack of a better word.
I started to read the first book in the bookstore, lost interest and put it down. Then I saw the first movie, liked it, read some fanfic, saw the second movie and liked it, and went ahead and bought the books. Once I made it past the first chapter of book one, I was hooked. Still, I have often wondered if that isn't one reason my readings of the characters are more "fluid." I tend to only like a movie based on a book if I see the movie first. If I read the book first, I almost inevitably prefer it. As it is, I love both books and movies in HP, and I do think there are some significant differences in characterization.
(tbc)
Part the Second
Date: 2003-10-05 09:20 pm (UTC)Particularly when writing het or slash, you pick the one you believe will be most attractive to the potential partner, which usually means the one most attractive to you. Also, most of the H/D I've read ages the boys up, and I don't think it's unreasonable to believe that a more mature Draco who would appeal to Harry would have grown out of whiny and into witty, out of bratty and into snarky. The other choice is that he goes the route of his father, who may have his own appeal to fans, but who I cannot see as attractive to Harry. And therein, I think, lies part of the reason I can accept a certain fanon!Draco. I need someone I can believe Harry falling for. That said, I still do want to see the roots of canon!Draco from which the characer sprang.
Heehehe, DarkSeducer!Harry is more canonical as well. They're both more angry and desperate and likely to do "bad things", eheheh. Which is definitely all right with me~:) I don't think he'd seduce Harry... if anything, the problem is that I don't think of Harry as seducible (Draco would have to actually be -cool- and -sexy- for that to work)... wheareas I think of -Draco- as plenty seducible, possibly by Harry being mean to him or beating him up or just getting in his face or... well :D
While I think Dark!Harry is canonical (and close to canon on a few occasions), I don't think Seducer!Harry is. Seduction, to my mind, requires a certain amount of deliberate thought and channelling of passion. Harry's learning some control over his passion, yes, but I don't know that I can ever see him focusing it into seduction. I can't even see him really flirting. Of course, I also believe someone can allow himself to be seduced even if the seducer isn't actually doing anything. That's part of what obsession is, I think. And that is very, very Draco, to my mind. Part of the reason I can see darkseducer!Draco is I can see him getting fed up with Harry not even being aware, and deciding to make him aware. Which is a pretty, pretty picture, to my mind. *G*