(het issues; move along)
Jun. 15th, 2004 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaI think, if anything, I have an anti-self-insertion issue, when it comes to het in HP: meaning maybe I take it too far. I mean, the boy I "like" the most is Harry, right, and pairing either of the two girls I might possibly identify with-- Hermione and Luna-- just feels wrong to me. Then again, I've only ever wanted Harry with whatever girl struck his fancy (i.e., Cho), but I never really felt like I myself supported a Harry-het pairing. It's like... I can see Harry being friends with a girl (obviously), but he's just so... stunted, I guess? In regards to emotionality and mushy stuff and like... yeah.
I guess I want to deal with his rage issues and insecurities and the martyr complex as well as the need for companionship & understanding he would supposedly get from a balanced, reasonable girl (like Hermione & Luna in different ways). I want Harry to be with whoever he really wants and has chemistry/sparkage with-- and he just doesn't have sparkage with Hermione (or Luna).
Still, I also think it's got something to do with them being "like" me, at least insofar as I feel like people ship these pairings in part because they -do- identify with Hermione, say. She's like... a "good girl", and shouldn't be wasted. She's also right there and Harry can -talk- to her. And... it's like the male/femaleness provides that essential -distance- between people I'd talked about (that seems necessary for romance). It's like, well, of -course- they could have sexual tension, too-- they're a boy and girl, aren't they?
I know it's immature-- I know-- but I will laugh after Ron & Hermione get together and the shipping debates all end (at last!). No more ship debates!! No more angst!! Oh, that hallowed day.
I could totally see a modern, 20-something romance between a girl "like" Hermione (overworking herself all the time at the office) and a boy "like" Harry (lost and somewhat directionless, but determined and sincere). It seems like an English sort of thing, too, actually-- to have people who'd stay together not out of some Grand Passion but because it's -comfortable- and it -works- and why go through the bother of messing with a good thing? Ron could be seen as an unstable character-- someone who could easily succumb to bitterness and drown under the expectations of the world, unlike the prodigious achieving of Harry (through luck and wild talent) and Hermione (through prodigious effort and will). Arthur Weasley is probably doing a lot better in the Potterverse than he "should", as poor as he is.
I think I also dislike the idea of couples that "work"-- that "make sense". Maybe it's some sort of latent resentment or something (in that I both often ship and fall for implausible characters myself). I mean, if you don't drive each other mad, where's the fun of it? Like, if everything falls into place and you make sense together for whatever reason-- what is it that makes you -have- to do it, to take it to the next level? Why do the two of you -need- to have dirty monkey sex, right now?
I think what's obvious here is that I'm stuck on a certain ideal of love and am being unreasonable-- I'm priviledging romantic passionate love over companionate love or the other zillion or so types. I'm sure plenty of people have temperaments that don't -work- with the idea of having to tear someone's clothes off right this second (thus, you could say all H/D fic is really meta-equivalent to veela!Draco fic, being so centered on passion and the magnetic animal attraction of it all). Most people probably aren't as focused on these pre-teen ideals as I am-- a good thing. Sometimes it puzzles me as to how one could both ship H/D and H/Hr, since they're nearly completely opposite types of relationships-- but maybe it's just that I'm being rather more single-minded.
I would say, for example, that Hermione's temperament doesn't work (necessarily) with wild-eyed passionate love, while Luna's does, but not with Harry (who needs someone to light his fire, at least in my head). I kind of like Hermione with Ron because I see Hermione resisting, and this intrigues me. I think it would be unusual for Hermione to have someone push -her- in some way, and have her give in-- 'cause it's almost certain that Ron is the one who'd initiate a relationship. Hermione is bossy, yes, but in love... I think she'd be rather conservative-- the type to hedge her bets. So what we have is a classic Victorian-type romance, except Hermione is being "the man"-- rational and emotionally repressed and domineering-- while Ron is being "the woman"-- wildly emotional and enthusiastic and a bit clumsy, sort of heroic in a bumbling, self-sacrificing way. It's like Jane Eyre, except... not.
And in this scenario, the H/Hr is the relationship that gets thrown over, because of course Hermione (the man) is generally in a comfortable, non-emotionally-demanding relationship to start with, which keeps them content but hardly happy. Harry is the beautiful, also emotionally repressed "other woman" (ahem) who needs to find someone brilliant to light her fire. Someone... unpredictable. Someone destabilizing in a magical sort of way that's actually stabilizing. Yes.
Clearly I've read one too many romance novel in my day. Woe.
~~
Also. Um. Is it like, the next step of bottom!Draco lurv to write H/D with female!Draco? The wrongness mostly comes from it -not- bothering me. Too much. ^^;
I guess I want to deal with his rage issues and insecurities and the martyr complex as well as the need for companionship & understanding he would supposedly get from a balanced, reasonable girl (like Hermione & Luna in different ways). I want Harry to be with whoever he really wants and has chemistry/sparkage with-- and he just doesn't have sparkage with Hermione (or Luna).
Still, I also think it's got something to do with them being "like" me, at least insofar as I feel like people ship these pairings in part because they -do- identify with Hermione, say. She's like... a "good girl", and shouldn't be wasted. She's also right there and Harry can -talk- to her. And... it's like the male/femaleness provides that essential -distance- between people I'd talked about (that seems necessary for romance). It's like, well, of -course- they could have sexual tension, too-- they're a boy and girl, aren't they?
I know it's immature-- I know-- but I will laugh after Ron & Hermione get together and the shipping debates all end (at last!). No more ship debates!! No more angst!! Oh, that hallowed day.
I could totally see a modern, 20-something romance between a girl "like" Hermione (overworking herself all the time at the office) and a boy "like" Harry (lost and somewhat directionless, but determined and sincere). It seems like an English sort of thing, too, actually-- to have people who'd stay together not out of some Grand Passion but because it's -comfortable- and it -works- and why go through the bother of messing with a good thing? Ron could be seen as an unstable character-- someone who could easily succumb to bitterness and drown under the expectations of the world, unlike the prodigious achieving of Harry (through luck and wild talent) and Hermione (through prodigious effort and will). Arthur Weasley is probably doing a lot better in the Potterverse than he "should", as poor as he is.
I think I also dislike the idea of couples that "work"-- that "make sense". Maybe it's some sort of latent resentment or something (in that I both often ship and fall for implausible characters myself). I mean, if you don't drive each other mad, where's the fun of it? Like, if everything falls into place and you make sense together for whatever reason-- what is it that makes you -have- to do it, to take it to the next level? Why do the two of you -need- to have dirty monkey sex, right now?
I think what's obvious here is that I'm stuck on a certain ideal of love and am being unreasonable-- I'm priviledging romantic passionate love over companionate love or the other zillion or so types. I'm sure plenty of people have temperaments that don't -work- with the idea of having to tear someone's clothes off right this second (thus, you could say all H/D fic is really meta-equivalent to veela!Draco fic, being so centered on passion and the magnetic animal attraction of it all). Most people probably aren't as focused on these pre-teen ideals as I am-- a good thing. Sometimes it puzzles me as to how one could both ship H/D and H/Hr, since they're nearly completely opposite types of relationships-- but maybe it's just that I'm being rather more single-minded.
I would say, for example, that Hermione's temperament doesn't work (necessarily) with wild-eyed passionate love, while Luna's does, but not with Harry (who needs someone to light his fire, at least in my head). I kind of like Hermione with Ron because I see Hermione resisting, and this intrigues me. I think it would be unusual for Hermione to have someone push -her- in some way, and have her give in-- 'cause it's almost certain that Ron is the one who'd initiate a relationship. Hermione is bossy, yes, but in love... I think she'd be rather conservative-- the type to hedge her bets. So what we have is a classic Victorian-type romance, except Hermione is being "the man"-- rational and emotionally repressed and domineering-- while Ron is being "the woman"-- wildly emotional and enthusiastic and a bit clumsy, sort of heroic in a bumbling, self-sacrificing way. It's like Jane Eyre, except... not.
And in this scenario, the H/Hr is the relationship that gets thrown over, because of course Hermione (the man) is generally in a comfortable, non-emotionally-demanding relationship to start with, which keeps them content but hardly happy. Harry is the beautiful, also emotionally repressed "other woman" (ahem) who needs to find someone brilliant to light her fire. Someone... unpredictable. Someone destabilizing in a magical sort of way that's actually stabilizing. Yes.
Clearly I've read one too many romance novel in my day. Woe.
~~
Also. Um. Is it like, the next step of bottom!Draco lurv to write H/D with female!Draco? The wrongness mostly comes from it -not- bothering me. Too much. ^^;
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 10:22 am (UTC)I mean, personally I may or may not dislike 'comfortable romance' or whatever, but as I said in the post-- as far as I can see, -Harry- (not to mention Hermione) needs someone to light her fire. They have understanding already-- as friends. Why take it to the next level? There needs to be a reason, in terms of story if nothing else. These are -characters-. Why should they have sex? They already have a comfortable understanding and they'll already be around for one another for the rest of their lives (one guesses).
Does Harry need Hermione's easy-going comfort? I always thought Harry needed someone to challenge him; someone who could/would stand up to him; someone who -needed- him. I think his most intense emotional bonds at this point are to Sirius & Ron-- both of whom really need Harry (in different ways). Anyway, there's no set answer here, I'm just saying it doesn't work for me to think of it in totally abstract definition-of-romance terms or, even more so, in personal terms.
Everything I've seen coming from JKR implied she's -getting- to the R/Hr-- they're like... obvious, while H/Hr is subtext. JKR's always said the pairing she has in mind was pretty much blatant. Not that I think one 'should' ship the Obvious Thing (being a slasher), but... I'm just saying, this probably means Ron is getting to being more aggressive. He's got to build up his confidence, and that's been happening in OoTP.
Anyway, Harry's no prize. He's got Issues with a capital 'I' up the wazoo; rage issues and abandonment issues and martyr issues and emotional basketcase issues of every kind. It's hard to just see him as a normal, "nice" boy where Ron is an immature basketcase, 'cause compared to Harry, Ron's the picture of even-handedness and responsibility, man. Then again, my Harry is rather... uh... more volatile than most people's, though I think OoTP backs me up on this one >:D And as always, I can only operate by thinking what's best for Harry~:)