[doooorrrkkk]
Dec. 7th, 2004 01:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaMan, listening to the Fruits Basket soundtrack just brings back all sorts of happy-glowy feelings, and I don't want to write about fanon!Draco, but Aja set me off, so I shall persevere, ahahah.
I was wondering what was it that made me tolerate some fanon!Draco fics and not others-- like, whether there was some method to my madness.
And I realized that these days, while I say I'm a style-whore above all else, I seem to care less about the quality of the writing if the ideas being expressed about the characters just don't work for me-- or perhaps the way they're expressed, which seems separate from style. Maybe it's just that I'm tired and jaded, having read so much fic, and want to read something new-- and if it's something old, then at least it could work harder at pleasing me. Or something. Because it's all about me.
Anyway, I usually can't stand even well-written fanon!Draco these days (at least, the mature!ice-prince!poised!sophisticated!Draco variety) unless it serves either of two purposes in that fic: escapism or minimalism.
By 'escapism', I mean the fluffy-angsty-porn like![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
the_leaky's H/D-- where I go with the flow because it feels good to kick back, relax, and turn on a soap opera. And by 'minimalism', I mean a style: the story is so imagistic and 'surface' that it allows me to do the vital step for appreciation of fanon-- suspend my disbelief when a character changes. Any rationalization/justification used just calls attention to Hello! Questionable characterization right here!, which is what happened with Ginny's change in canon, too. When I'm just handed things 'as is', I can almost get away with imagining my own characterization/background for people's behavior; as in, Draco's an interesting enigma at least partly because the fic just doesn't tell you enough-- which I enjoy in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
circe_tigana's writing in particular, and in zahra5's to some extent. I mean, if the writing is porny, minimalist and in character, then I'm just on cloud 9, but then Silvia left fandom :P
This seems like a good time to mention that I think my greatest achievement in fandom has been getting Silvia to write `And I Get By' (which might actually be something like the closest anyone's ever come to writing My Perfect H/D Fic). I get a little glow of pride every time someone recs that fic. I'm like, awwww and I was its midwife <3<3<3
The thing that gets me is when people try to write ice-prince!fanon!Draco rationally, as if it's a valid, perfectly fine interpretation. It's one thing to be going for the pretty (either stylistically or emotionally)-- it's quite another to write an involved, plotty fic where a central character makes no bloody sense. It's especially torturous when a fic's 'rationality' shows itself by explicitly telling the reader things about Draco which just aren't plausible (or, more importantly, justified) in perfectly well-written, respectable prose. It just stands out like a sore thumb. If it was badly written porn, I'd just ignore that part and skip on to the good stuff, but when the writing is smooth, it focuses one's attention as a reader, making me apply that much more scrutiny to it. I think I'm just a lot tougher on well-written fics that try to pull silly characterization tricks than I am on your average kink-fic.
And what I really want right now is an Avril Lavigne songfic :O
I was wondering what was it that made me tolerate some fanon!Draco fics and not others-- like, whether there was some method to my madness.
And I realized that these days, while I say I'm a style-whore above all else, I seem to care less about the quality of the writing if the ideas being expressed about the characters just don't work for me-- or perhaps the way they're expressed, which seems separate from style. Maybe it's just that I'm tired and jaded, having read so much fic, and want to read something new-- and if it's something old, then at least it could work harder at pleasing me. Or something. Because it's all about me.
Anyway, I usually can't stand even well-written fanon!Draco these days (at least, the mature!ice-prince!poised!sophisticated!Draco variety) unless it serves either of two purposes in that fic: escapism or minimalism.
By 'escapism', I mean the fluffy-angsty-porn like
the_leaky's H/D-- where I go with the flow because it feels good to kick back, relax, and turn on a soap opera. And by 'minimalism', I mean a style: the story is so imagistic and 'surface' that it allows me to do the vital step for appreciation of fanon-- suspend my disbelief when a character changes. Any rationalization/justification used just calls attention to Hello! Questionable characterization right here!, which is what happened with Ginny's change in canon, too. When I'm just handed things 'as is', I can almost get away with imagining my own characterization/background for people's behavior; as in, Draco's an interesting enigma at least partly because the fic just doesn't tell you enough-- which I enjoy in circe_tigana's writing in particular, and in zahra5's to some extent. I mean, if the writing is porny, minimalist and in character, then I'm just on cloud 9, but then Silvia left fandom :P This seems like a good time to mention that I think my greatest achievement in fandom has been getting Silvia to write `And I Get By' (which might actually be something like the closest anyone's ever come to writing My Perfect H/D Fic). I get a little glow of pride every time someone recs that fic. I'm like, awwww and I was its midwife <3<3<3
The thing that gets me is when people try to write ice-prince!fanon!Draco rationally, as if it's a valid, perfectly fine interpretation. It's one thing to be going for the pretty (either stylistically or emotionally)-- it's quite another to write an involved, plotty fic where a central character makes no bloody sense. It's especially torturous when a fic's 'rationality' shows itself by explicitly telling the reader things about Draco which just aren't plausible (or, more importantly, justified) in perfectly well-written, respectable prose. It just stands out like a sore thumb. If it was badly written porn, I'd just ignore that part and skip on to the good stuff, but when the writing is smooth, it focuses one's attention as a reader, making me apply that much more scrutiny to it. I think I'm just a lot tougher on well-written fics that try to pull silly characterization tricks than I am on your average kink-fic.
And what I really want right now is an Avril Lavigne songfic :O
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 01:34 pm (UTC)Lyrically pretty is enigmatic enough!!
SG wants to make some comment about that last, but I'm gagging him.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 01:49 pm (UTC)*hides behind back*
yeah, he can't separate either, sometimes. alas.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-07 02:00 pm (UTC)