~~teh unpopular meme, omg!
Oct. 12th, 2004 01:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaMaybe it's just me, but I find it harder to write about people I really like. It's like, I could go on about the things I love for -ages- and never really feel like I've hit upon why I love it-- especially if it's a person. I don't often -question- love, because it's so omnipresent-- the very thought of the beloved makes me glow, and I think, 'that's love'. And yet if I try to pin it down, it either seems to overwhelm me and leave me mute or turn shallow and slips through my fingers like smoke-- the things I say seem either overly intellectual or overly shallow. The feeling appears to transcend the source-- the love utilizes my self as much as the subject, and to explain my love (of Harry, say), I would have to explain all of my self, and more besides.
On the other hand, it's easy to talk about the things I can't stand-- the people or characters that annoy me, though there's not nearly so much pleasure in it. It's like-- if I dislike it, I can usually break my dislike into neat little rows, or at least make lots of jokes at its expense. I also find that if I write about characters I dislike, I grow to understand them and thus love them in my way, because they've become a part of me. They're an alien growth, but one grows quite used to it, and would miss it if it were gone. Family's like that, too.
Anyway, I found it ridiculously easy to write the 10-Unpopular-Fannish-Opinions meme, even though I don't sit around hating things all the time or anything. It's just easy to list things one can't stand, possibly 'cause they're more shallow.
1. It's not whether it's canon or fanon-- it's whether you can write about human beings and make them sound like human beings rather than cardboard cut-outs of your schoolgirl fantasies.
2. Draco is not a supermodel. Neither is Harry. Post-Azkaban Sirius isn't much more handsome than a starved dog (...I dunno, maybe some people like that sort of thing), and Remus is all grey-streaked and worn and -shabby-. His knees probably creak. Also, think about it: Snape's appearance scares small children. I'm sorry, does that hurt you? I hear Fleur's all right, though, so there's no need to despair.
3. Using icons of gorgeous models for HP characters is just really lame, especially if you excuse it by saying it's "your vision". Right, then. Y'mean, it's "your porn", and that's fine. 'Vision of canon'... not so much.
4. On account of people with frizzy (and sometimes oily) hair everywhere: it's not the end of the world! Why must you fix it?? I like my frizzy hair, okay?? It's cute! Cute, I'm telling you, -cute-!! ...And so is Hermione's. Ahem. What is this tyranny of conditioner and straightening shampoo?? I PROTEST.
5. Every character has their bastard and/or pathetic asshole loser side and their cute and/or admirable side. And once you start saying one character's cute side is objectively cuter/brighter/shinier than another's, and therefore that other character sucks ass, you become a Grade A Wanker. Welcome, it's a big club.
6. Draco is neither "just" good (ohhh, misunderstood little baby! he's young yet! he'll learn! besides, check out that ass!!) or bad (he's bound to kill Muggles/Mudbloods/the President, let's kill him first! and he's not funny! we must destroy the unfunny ones!!) or ugly (ferrets! who likes ferrets?!) He's "just" human like anybody else. That makes him good -and- bad -and- ugly. Complexity-- oddly, realistically speaking, everyone does have it.
7. Porn is Good (or God, what have you), but kink doesn't equal hot. Therefore, I have no kinks except talent, baby. Well-written dynamic PLUS kink equals hot. This is something that very rarely occurs, and by that I mean that most people's porn is... not any better than most people's fic in general. All the kink in the world could never be as satisfying as someone who can write a really believable vanilla scene. With spirit, people! Spirit! (Or in other words: good porn is more talent for writing than kink.)
8. Purple prose is never good. Not under any circumstances. It is the Unforgivable. And yet I love IP. I am not always consistent, but then, consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, etcetc.
9. Lucius Malfoy is a loser-- otherwise known as a pathetic creep (and so is every Slytherin currently living... and a good portion of the rest of the HP characters, but let's not go into that). I mean, he's not some sexier version of Darth Vader. He's not any hotter/cooler/sexier/elegant-and-charming-and-brilliantly-icy than Snape. And please, please, please someone write him without the long-ass hair and the cane. Just once. I BLOODY HATE THE CANE, OKAY?
10. As far as HP meta goes: it's all been said before and now virtually every instance of it is wank. Was it ever not wank??? I DON'T KNOW. Perhaps all meta everywhere is really wank (i.e., self-indulgent, obvious yet overly obscure, and really entirely about kink, though I hope not). Yeah, yeah, someone shut me up already.
~~
On a happy-shiny note, things I really loved recently:
Firstly,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pir8fancier's inspiring, boyish Draco in `Lettered'.
Secondly,stellabelle's hilarious `Draco Malfoy and the Supersonic Super Sexy Mind-Rays of Destiny', because with a title like that, it's got to be good-- & `The Binary System', because it's true. It's Draco, and it's true.
Thirdly, my Fantasy & Folklore class, which showed a clip from the first LoTR movie today, and reminded me why I adore Frodo and Merry and Pippin and JRRT <33333
Fourthly, Macaulay Culkin as Draco = ♥
And last but not least, Resonant's `Transfigurations', which owns me like whoah. Bathroom sex + plot + canonish!Harry = everything I need for complete bliss. That is all.
On the other hand, it's easy to talk about the things I can't stand-- the people or characters that annoy me, though there's not nearly so much pleasure in it. It's like-- if I dislike it, I can usually break my dislike into neat little rows, or at least make lots of jokes at its expense. I also find that if I write about characters I dislike, I grow to understand them and thus love them in my way, because they've become a part of me. They're an alien growth, but one grows quite used to it, and would miss it if it were gone. Family's like that, too.
Anyway, I found it ridiculously easy to write the 10-Unpopular-Fannish-Opinions meme, even though I don't sit around hating things all the time or anything. It's just easy to list things one can't stand, possibly 'cause they're more shallow.
1. It's not whether it's canon or fanon-- it's whether you can write about human beings and make them sound like human beings rather than cardboard cut-outs of your schoolgirl fantasies.
2. Draco is not a supermodel. Neither is Harry. Post-Azkaban Sirius isn't much more handsome than a starved dog (...I dunno, maybe some people like that sort of thing), and Remus is all grey-streaked and worn and -shabby-. His knees probably creak. Also, think about it: Snape's appearance scares small children. I'm sorry, does that hurt you? I hear Fleur's all right, though, so there's no need to despair.
3. Using icons of gorgeous models for HP characters is just really lame, especially if you excuse it by saying it's "your vision". Right, then. Y'mean, it's "your porn", and that's fine. 'Vision of canon'... not so much.
4. On account of people with frizzy (and sometimes oily) hair everywhere: it's not the end of the world! Why must you fix it?? I like my frizzy hair, okay?? It's cute! Cute, I'm telling you, -cute-!! ...And so is Hermione's. Ahem. What is this tyranny of conditioner and straightening shampoo?? I PROTEST.
5. Every character has their bastard and/or pathetic asshole loser side and their cute and/or admirable side. And once you start saying one character's cute side is objectively cuter/brighter/shinier than another's, and therefore that other character sucks ass, you become a Grade A Wanker. Welcome, it's a big club.
6. Draco is neither "just" good (ohhh, misunderstood little baby! he's young yet! he'll learn! besides, check out that ass!!) or bad (he's bound to kill Muggles/Mudbloods/the President, let's kill him first! and he's not funny! we must destroy the unfunny ones!!) or ugly (ferrets! who likes ferrets?!) He's "just" human like anybody else. That makes him good -and- bad -and- ugly. Complexity-- oddly, realistically speaking, everyone does have it.
7. Porn is Good (or God, what have you), but kink doesn't equal hot. Therefore, I have no kinks except talent, baby. Well-written dynamic PLUS kink equals hot. This is something that very rarely occurs, and by that I mean that most people's porn is... not any better than most people's fic in general. All the kink in the world could never be as satisfying as someone who can write a really believable vanilla scene. With spirit, people! Spirit! (Or in other words: good porn is more talent for writing than kink.)
8. Purple prose is never good. Not under any circumstances. It is the Unforgivable. And yet I love IP. I am not always consistent, but then, consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, etcetc.
9. Lucius Malfoy is a loser-- otherwise known as a pathetic creep (and so is every Slytherin currently living... and a good portion of the rest of the HP characters, but let's not go into that). I mean, he's not some sexier version of Darth Vader. He's not any hotter/cooler/sexier/elegant-and-charming-and-brilliantly-icy than Snape. And please, please, please someone write him without the long-ass hair and the cane. Just once. I BLOODY HATE THE CANE, OKAY?
10. As far as HP meta goes: it's all been said before and now virtually every instance of it is wank. Was it ever not wank??? I DON'T KNOW. Perhaps all meta everywhere is really wank (i.e., self-indulgent, obvious yet overly obscure, and really entirely about kink, though I hope not). Yeah, yeah, someone shut me up already.
~~
On a happy-shiny note, things I really loved recently:
Firstly,
pir8fancier's inspiring, boyish Draco in `Lettered'.Secondly,
stellabelle's hilarious `Draco Malfoy and the Supersonic Super Sexy Mind-Rays of Destiny', because with a title like that, it's got to be good-- & `The Binary System', because it's true. It's Draco, and it's true.Thirdly, my Fantasy & Folklore class, which showed a clip from the first LoTR movie today, and reminded me why I adore Frodo and Merry and Pippin and JRRT <33333
Fourthly, Macaulay Culkin as Draco = ♥
And last but not least, Resonant's `Transfigurations', which owns me like whoah. Bathroom sex + plot + canonish!Harry = everything I need for complete bliss. That is all.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-10-12 01:09 pm (UTC)I'm not stalking your journal or anything, but I remember
Don't read Transfigurations -- not because I didn't like it personally whereas a lot of other folks did, but because I think it will bother you for the same reasons it bothered me. Basically, Draco changes his entire personality before the story begins. He is friends with Hermione and Ron, teaches Muggle Studies, calls McGonagall "Kitty," etc. Harry has also come out of the closet and has a former Native American boyfriend named Sunday Conesky.
So I'm really curious - now that you have read it, what do you think?
no subject
Date: 2004-10-12 01:21 pm (UTC)It's true, ahahah, about the 'Kitty' bit and the teaching Muggle studies, though actually... maybe it'd be worse if it wasn't Harry's pov, but it is. So I let a lot of things slide 'cause he's clearly an unreliable narrator and doesn't -notice- things about Draco and he wasn't there for 5 years, but.... I actually thought that Draco was much more recognizable than he is in a -lot- of fic (and that says something about my opinion of a lot of H/D fics, to be sure). He still made nasty snarky comments, he was still vain and pompous and self-serving and obsessed with Slytherin and rather unrepentant about it, still wanted to be on top (he'll be Headmaster! MUWAHAHAH, etc). He was still putty in Harry's hands (hey! canon! ahahah) and was rather submissive-yet-whiny, which worked for me.
Yeah, I know, it was a big jump with the friendship, but I think it's -possible- than such rationally minded, fair women like McGonagall & Hermione would come around, moreso than a lot of other people. I often entertain the idea of Hermione paving the way for H/D in -school- even, though I vacillate on the likelihood of that and on the subject of just how fair-minded Hermione is. Still... it's no greater hubris than a lot of other H/D fics have, and I think in terms of sheer writing ability, it sustains its own premises better than the usual run of fic would.
As far as the openly-gay Harry-- he doesn't seem to be that open. In fact, he'd lied about Sunday's gender (I think) and just generally didn't tell anyone much of anything about his life in America. Sure, the Indian coven thing was far out, but it was inventive and fun. The names were silly, but that doesn't turn me off -that- much. I think it's possible that Draco would have a complete turn-around if he had a turn-around at all-- he's a person of extremes, and would probably be enthusiastically 'for' whatever direction his ideology took him after something happened to turn him off Lucius. I think he coped all right-- still totally focused on Purebloods/Slytherins/The Agenda and yet... having decided that to be really Slytherin or whatever, he should be 'well informed', he went after that. It's... possible.
I mean, given that Draco changes, it's still a better done change than 95% of the time it's done, and it's done almost all the time in H/D fic. The question isn't -whether- people change Draco, but -how well- they go about doing it. Jaded, but realistic, methinks. Since it's Harry's pov, I thought the whole gradual growth of his perceptions and greater understanding of Draco were handled with a good amount of subtlety & basic skill.
When you list all those things, they sound pretty bad, but it just makes it more impressive that they -work- within the context of the story and the pov chosen, y'know?