reenka

I suppose my head just starts to feel bloated when a major aspect of how I perceive a character starts being how their author perceives them within the story, and their meta-function as some Anti-Sue of the author. If I like the character, they just -exist-, completely outside of their author & to some degree their actual story/plot. Dwelling too much on their 'function' within the narrative seems to interfere with my ability to suspend my disbelief in some way-- like, Draco becomes a device; I can't both see him as a 'person' and see him as a coping strategy method of some sort by his author. To me, it's one or the other; if he's a 'strategy', he's not human; if he's human, he's not a strategy. I realize maybe this is my own limitation, but there is that split in my mind, regardless.

I mean, there is meta where you analyze the characters and their context & subtext within the narrative, and I really enjoy that. Then there is meta where the narrative is 'naked', so to speak, and you look at it not as a reader -or- a writer, but as some sort of outside entity that is there to monitor its adherence to the 'rules of fair engagement' or something. There is always going to be 'the bad guy' or 'the whipping boy' in a certain type of (simplistic) story, I think-- if it's not Draco, it's someone else. I think in every narrative I can think of, some character gets to wear the 'dunce' cap. Some stories (more sophisticated ones, which HP is not one of) don't have dunces, but so what? It's not like this is a serious text by any means; the fact that Draco is an abused, silly little dunce means little or nothing (to me personally) in the larger scheme of things, and I really like the bugger, unlike JKR. But I don't know what my point is anymore.

I think a certain type (social??) of lit-crit will never be natural to me, and clearly I'm not cut out to be an English major 'cause I like -my- lit-crit and not some others. When the story gets too 'naked' and obvious and transparently shown to be a tool of the author, I lose my interest. None of it means anything when you can see the cogs and wheels too clearly; it's like-- just one woman's little fantasy, who cares? I know I don't. So Draco-- what? who? Why does anyone care again?
I only care when it's 'Draco Malfoy, Pureblood wizard and Potter's self-proclaimed nemesis' and not, 'Draco Malfoy, JKR's whipping boy'-- does that make sense?

I know... people often sully the thing they argue in the 'name' of; I just get pissed. I can't help but think they have Issues, anyway. Then it becomes less like lit-crit and more like some pointless ethical quagmire where no one's ever going to budge and no one really listens. Did I mention that people suck today? :>