~~ because it's all about the shiny.
Jun. 2nd, 2004 02:32 amIt's hard not to be flippant, especially while talking about charm & humor (which are both rather important to me). I mean, the very subject seems wanky, in some hard-to-define way.
The problem is, while I hate and despise seeming hypocritical, my rational self is always arguing with my responsive (dominant) emotive self. I sort of want it both ways, but often enough how I feel gets lost in the translation. I suppose most people have a preference for what kind of story they'd like to see, and my preferences are particularly contradictory. Let's see... I generally want to read a realistic, charming, funny, awkward, intense sort of fairy-tale. Yeah, that'd hit the spot. I want it to be believably dream-like and casually intense and perversely subtle. I want the characters to be both sympathetic and frightening, both mythic and real, funny and alive. I want to be surprised and I need to recognize old friends. I want to believe but I need to be invited to question: that sort of thing.
It's not so much about (characterization or plot) logic so much as believability-- vividness. The less I have to suspend my disbelief the better, right? I mean, if you're writing about a -boy- and he's not acting like one at all-- how can that be fun, really? That feeling of fakeness reminds me that this is a -story-, artificial and plodding somehow. Shouldn't a good story make me forget it's a story? In a way, this is how "realism" sustains (my) fantasy.
I realize that my most extreme & passionate love is ignited by things I consider to be "well-written" or "well-said"-- and that very art of conversation & sharp thought implies humor (and thus charm) to me. So I sort of automatically love characters/stories that are ironic or witty or amusing-- just sparkling somehow-- and automatically groan and wince when a character-- or writer-- takes themselves too seriously without any sort of irony whatsoever.
I just realized that when I think of the "dark" side of fanon, I'm thinking of a lack of charm. I'm thinking of a so-serious "I think I'm cool but I'm just the limp cock of Slytherin" Draco. You know, he's so unfunny, even -he- doesn't think he's funny. It's like, when a boy acts like a too-good-to-be-true absurdly mature grown-up, he cannot mock anything, because he himself becomes a mockery. I mean, I'm not even sure if one can be charming or funny (or some low-grade word like "engaging") if one is 100% mature.
Sometimes I believe I don't hate fanon!Draco per se-- it just depends how you define him. Even superstars have warts somewhere, don't they?
( Do I smell a dead horse? No? )
The thing that really bothers me is that all this meta is unfunny & repetitive. Which is just... not sexy in the slightest, really. Kinda depressing. *sniff*
The problem is, while I hate and despise seeming hypocritical, my rational self is always arguing with my responsive (dominant) emotive self. I sort of want it both ways, but often enough how I feel gets lost in the translation. I suppose most people have a preference for what kind of story they'd like to see, and my preferences are particularly contradictory. Let's see... I generally want to read a realistic, charming, funny, awkward, intense sort of fairy-tale. Yeah, that'd hit the spot. I want it to be believably dream-like and casually intense and perversely subtle. I want the characters to be both sympathetic and frightening, both mythic and real, funny and alive. I want to be surprised and I need to recognize old friends. I want to believe but I need to be invited to question: that sort of thing.
It's not so much about (characterization or plot) logic so much as believability-- vividness. The less I have to suspend my disbelief the better, right? I mean, if you're writing about a -boy- and he's not acting like one at all-- how can that be fun, really? That feeling of fakeness reminds me that this is a -story-, artificial and plodding somehow. Shouldn't a good story make me forget it's a story? In a way, this is how "realism" sustains (my) fantasy.
I realize that my most extreme & passionate love is ignited by things I consider to be "well-written" or "well-said"-- and that very art of conversation & sharp thought implies humor (and thus charm) to me. So I sort of automatically love characters/stories that are ironic or witty or amusing-- just sparkling somehow-- and automatically groan and wince when a character-- or writer-- takes themselves too seriously without any sort of irony whatsoever.
I just realized that when I think of the "dark" side of fanon, I'm thinking of a lack of charm. I'm thinking of a so-serious "I think I'm cool but I'm just the limp cock of Slytherin" Draco. You know, he's so unfunny, even -he- doesn't think he's funny. It's like, when a boy acts like a too-good-to-be-true absurdly mature grown-up, he cannot mock anything, because he himself becomes a mockery. I mean, I'm not even sure if one can be charming or funny (or some low-grade word like "engaging") if one is 100% mature.
Sometimes I believe I don't hate fanon!Draco per se-- it just depends how you define him. Even superstars have warts somewhere, don't they?
( Do I smell a dead horse? No? )
The thing that really bothers me is that all this meta is unfunny & repetitive. Which is just... not sexy in the slightest, really. Kinda depressing. *sniff*
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