~~ the incarnation of non-duality, fanfic genre demands, etc?

[reenka]

Yet another thing I find difficult to quite accept about fandom is the notion of knowingly writing OOC characterizations because it "fits with the story". I've seen this said by all levels of writers, quality-wise, so it doesn't seem to be related to how experienced one is.

I mean, I understand drawing upon different things within the range of behavior for any particular character for a story, but the idea of consciously inventing new traits just because it makes it easier-- that falls into dishonest writing practices, no matter if you're a plot-driven or a characterization-driven writer. That is, I see this explained away with "plot is my forte" or what have you, but I can't help but think that if you simply can't see a way to execute that plot in the HP universe, say, you should put it on the back burner & not write it, possibly waiting for new inspiration or new canon. Is that so... difficult?

Besides everything else, it just seems counterproductive to write fanfiction that is intended to focus on plot at the expense of characterization, because the characterization is what makes it derivative, makes it fanfiction rather than an original fic with your original plot. Much as plot is always important, in fanfiction as a genre, it can only be subordinate to the demands of full plausibility in characterization as far as I'm concerned.

This is one of those things that makes me feel rather stymied. It's not like I can force people to realize this and write accordingly, but. I'm not even saying anyone -has- to write in-character because clearly everyone has different notions of what IC -means- for any one character, it's just that I can't imagine a justification for purposefully abandoning that for plot.

Sometimes it seems like there should be a fanfiction/canon school for beginning fan-writers or something. One learns what not to do (until you're Really Good), what the different threads of meta opinion in a given fandom are, the different ways of seeing a particular character. I'm not being pompous, man, just... er... frustrated & puzzled. If people -know- they're writing OOC Draco, for instance, why do they do it?? It's one of the Great Questions of fandom, methinks.
~~

Well, last night I was finally dragged to a group circle discussion on 'enlightened' topics like uh... the urge to become conscious & such, and though more than half the time I was repressing the urge to laugh since they were all rediscovering the wheel as far as I'm concerned, it got me thinking (...about Draco). These were all over-30 job-having people sitting in a basement in the Village, talking about how they needed to listen to the murmurings of their Higher Self, of a consciousness that's beyond their everyday awareness. Mind you, they'd apparently all gotten this far in their lives without really figuring out they weren't totally pre-programmed robots all by themselves, but how much can you expect from people, I guess?


For some reason this whole metaphysical mumbo-jumbo crap ties into my ideas about Draco, since I always want him to become conscious, to escape his mundane reality and see the Truth about himself, the universe and everything. I mean, it's not that he's a likely candidate for spiritual enlightenment or anything, but that sort of proves my point-- there's no such thing as a 'likely' candidate. Everyone's a Jungian Fool, Draco included. I think one of the (few) good points raised in the talk was that there's really no hierarchy, no scale of intrinsic worth when it comes to degrees of consciousness-- they're all just as valuable, since the smallest speck reflects (contains?) the fathomless ocean, etcetera.

Snape, for instance, seemed to change but superficially, in affiliation, not in his emotional make-up, and the same could be said of Sirius-- and weren't they both the poorer for it?
    The question of 'should Draco change' persistently defines my fandom experience, it seems like. As in, it's not only about 'should he', but can he, and also, naturally, how can he?

And it's not that a person isn't -enough- as they are, or that people really -can- change, so much as become more of who they already are. But who people are isn't something most people are fully aware of in themselves, that's all. It's that thing where we all contain multitudes.

So what is the difference between growth as an individual-- becoming oneself-- and just being that individual, not changing one's nature so much as being truly oneself no matter what?

The more I think about it, the more it seems like the difference is an illusion-- meaning, being is a process of becoming. While we retain a constancy of self at the conscious level (basically, our memories and awareness of the self as "I" remain mostly constant), at the same time identity is a fluid thing, responsive to and shaped by different stimuli to a significant enough degree. It seems like if one believes in free will or even just Will, one believes in this basic unity of being and becoming; meaning, we are not static creatures. We can reach for something beyond us, even if we can never quite attain any real transformation of self-- the whisper of Otherness within us remains.

I love the idea that there is a true, unshakeable truth about ourselves that merely exists, there for us to make our peace with.... But I really wonder if a static identity is -possible- in the first place. I mean, are we a product of our memories (which constantly change in clarity and sometimes content) or of the moment (which is ephemeral) or of our genes-- or some ever-unpredictable mixture of all these?

The idea that true satisfaction with life & self-realization lies not in journeying somewhere in search of one's heart's desire but in merely looking deeper within oneself for the answers definitely appeals to me. However, 'becoming' doesn't necessarily imply a journey or a struggle of some sort-- it can merely mean an opening, a sort of broadening of one's perspective. What I mean is, the 'becoming' isn't always a function of an individual's journey through space or dependent on one's active participation; it can be a function of time... an accumulation of experience that becomes insight in a mutation of sorts.

In the end, can we truly forever avoid growth or at least change within ourselves (not necessarily positive or enriching) as time goes on? Of course, certain character traits do remain constant, but is it actually desirable to keep the same range of beliefs & reactions to a variety of circumstances as time goes on?

At the moment, I believe that a higher, more... fully realized 'being' is contained as a constant murmur within our everyday mundane consciousness. The change you can make is thusly intrinsic within your 'unawakened' potential self which is basically the Ego. The smallest growth in awareness is then a crucial reflection of the whole range of possibility out there; the universe of being is basically contained within the individual in this view.

So... the goal isn't the negation of one's current (limited) self so much as the beginning of its expression.

Comments

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

I think it's not exactly inventing new traits as much as "This is how I'd like Character X to be." There's a connection to him all right, but it's like the result at the end of a game of Chinese Whispers.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I do understand that sort of OOCness... it's just when the writer seems to imply they're -forced- by their own plot to write a character a certain way that it gets weird, 'cause it's like, they don't even want it but feel constrained to do it that way. But I see cellia's point that it's basically bodyfic, which makes more sense if you read RPS meta stuff :>

[cellia.livejournal.com]

*agrees w/ lasultrix*

Might be totally wrong since I'm imagining the insides of other people's heads, but... it seems to me that its a view the characters as actors. That they exist outside the limitations of the text (not just its implications about morality and whatever, but its events as well). That JKR has forced them to act out a play that doesn't use them to their full potential. The OOCness allows that potential to become reality.

Like another step down the path that allows someone to write/read fanfic--you have to be able to divorce the characters and the universe from the author's vision and authority, but when have you gone "too far?"

[malafede.livejournal.com]

I think you have gone to far when disbelief is unsuspendable? I'm thinking that depends on the reader a lot, too, because I'm much more intolerant than a lot of people on what I perceive as OOC-ness, which yet again boils down to the question on what fanfiction is supposed to be about and how people disagree on that.

Me, I think enlightened Draco is mostly going to be OOC unless your fic is about proving that enlightenment is for everybody. Slightly different point if you're working on enlightening Harry, which is what I dig.

Um, how does that relate to favourite characters? Maybe one doesn't want to change their favourites? Or the changing of the Other means more to me than the changing of Self, and I am a big internet spoiled whiner?

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

The self, methinks, is all you can ever change. Like... to me, Draco is not the Other... maybe that's just how I write though, because I never write about the Other-- I always write about the Self and then from its point of view, the others it perceives. There's something to the idea that one doesn't want to change one's favorites, but that bothers me. While I don't want to change Harry, I admit Harry should grow up-- it's like, he's doing that in canon anyway. I like people as they are and want them to change in a positive way, both-- that's the non-duality.

As long as the 'change' isn't merely intended to make the person more palatable to whoever else, it's fine. If you want to change someone so they'd 'fit' someone else better or interact with them better, that's when you run into problems. First of all, all attempts to change the other person in a relationship inevitably fail. Sometimes people change and sometimes they don't, but it seems unrelated to what (romantic) relationship they're in, at least in the short-term.

It just seems like an axiom to me that all change has to come from inside oneself-- and as a writer, it follows that a character's changed trajectory has to be seen from the 'inside', so to speak, in order to be effective, otherwise you risk falling into the trap of demanding various things to please or serve the Self's ego. It's this very word-- the Other-- that implies a Self as a starting point of view to me. And if the Self is Draco, then any attempt to change Harry from that standpoint will inevitably fail.

[malafede.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know. It's just so tempting, in a fictional world you have control over, to just straighten up all the little wrongs you feel people are doing each other. But I'm working on being less passive-aggressive, I swear. :)

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

This is reminding me of this style-of-authority-figure quiz where I got... uh, Kirk, I think? And Sister Magpie got Spock? 'Cause one of the questions was whether you'd want to do questionable things to fix people/society 'for their own good' or whatever. And I said no, people have to attain enlightenment themselves or it's worthless. The Prime Directive (Star Trek) states that we must not, for any reason, interfere with the natural development of a less advanced culture, and that we must also not interfere with the internal affairs of any government outside of the Federation... though of course Jim Kirk broke that rule more than anyone. However :>

I think this is completely a question of ethics for me, actually :>

[malafede.livejournal.com]

NERD.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

IT'S A BADGE OF PRIDE.

[cellia.livejournal.com]

<33333333333333333

(you know it makes no sense to get Kirk if you answered that question no, but aaannyyyway)

[cellia.livejournal.com]

and I am a big internet spoiled whiner?

no comment XD

But yeah, I think we're all different in how far our disbelief will suspend in different directions. Like, my disbelief is a fucking acrobat when it comes to bottom!Harry fics.

[malafede.livejournal.com]

You can comment, you know. :D I am trying to prove that I can take it as a part of my Internet maturation.

[cellia.livejournal.com]

hee, it won't be half as amusing without your angriness, but maybe I just dislike change :DDD

[malafede.livejournal.com]

Imagine unangry Draco. He'd be like Neville or something.

*SPINS AND SPITS FIRE*

btw, this makes me think about the deeply-ingrained bias I have against Ravenclaw Draco. The only other House I can see him in is Hufflepuff.

Can you see Harry in Slytherin, or are you in the camp of the Slytherin!Harry haters?

[cellia.livejournal.com]

Unangry Draco hmmm... well there's smug!Draco, obedient!Draco, or scared!Draco

I'm one of those people who think Draco could have been in Gryff (all these passionate, unconsidered actions that he does *even* though he's a total wimp=brave) and Harry could have been in Slyth (chimeral, damaged, little respect/understanding for social rules).

But then, I don't think Snape would have been good to Harry or McGonagall to Draco, so...

Hufflepuff is totally the coolest house. You know they'd have the best parties. I also read a good argument once that it'd be where all the true Brit upper-crusts would be (loyal, stolid, secure with nothing to prove). Can't quite see Draco there as he has too much too prove somehow.

I like Harry in everything :D

The only Harry I hate is randomlyevilplotdevice!Harry. I can understand your hatred of retardweepyuke!Harry, but I have a higher tolerance for that somehow... /shame

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

...now I just randomly imagined a sort of insane manga where both Harry & Draco are weepy ukes (because Draco is just a-- yes-- LOSER no matter what, see).
"MY MUMMY DIED FOR ME, DWAKO. WOE."
"MY DADDY DOESN'T EVER REASSURE ME OR PET MY HEAD. WAH."
*WEEP*
"LET'S CUDDLE AND HIDE FROM THE SCARY PEOPLE... TOGETHER."
"LET'S."

And I just remembered this bad fic where Harry & Draco fucked because Harry was stalking Draco in order to kill him-- this is in Hogwarts. I'm not sure, it might have been meant to be kinda funny. Of course Draco was heard to be stalking Harry to kill him first. Harry was like, "I'm bored. Why don't I kill Malfoy?"

I was like, OMG VOLDEMORT MUCH, HARRY? :>

[malafede.livejournal.com]

All those Draco work for me because I know that in the next scene he's going to throw a fit. :D Plus, obedient Draco (with his Dad) is counter-balanced by YOU'LL NEVER HAVE MY PRIDE (melodrama intended) Draco with Harry.

That's actually one of the big reasons why I love Draco.

I like Harry in everything

Eh.

Aside, can you see him in Ravenclaw? I think I like more Slyth!Harry because then his badness would be more emotional, whereas Ravenclaw!Harry would be one of those cold Tom Riddle types calmly planning death and destruction for all.

Randomly evil plot device doesn't give me satisfaction because he never gets rabid enough.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

The actor thing totally makes sense, and I've heard of it before so I feel like I should've thought of it... it just doesn't sit well with me anyway. I understand that sometimes people want to write using characters' physical attributes & names (and sometimes the names get shortened weirdly and the physical attributes exaggerrated or glorified), but... it huuuurttss usss, precioussss. Like, I get the potential idea (I do that too to some extent), but if the writer admits to only writing a character a certain way 'cause a scene demands it... that just seems sloppy all over, no matter -what- characterization lives in your head. I guess the whole plot-guiding-characterization thing always seemed off to me, especially in any for of fanfiction.

Like, in a way, any fanfic tries to broaden a character's potential, and a lot are, broadly speaking, IC while ignoring certain bothersome events (hello, OoTP), but... I feel like you go too far when you force a character to do something just because the plot would go easier that way, or something. I just feel it's cheating and that's it :>

As far as having your own vision separate from canon-- if it's an internally consistent, believable-as-human-behavior sort of vision-- then yeah, the line of what's plausible is rather fuzzy :>

[cellia.livejournal.com]

Well, depending on the story, it may just be that, in the end, some people just don't take it that seriously? Like, well, Malfoy probably wouldn't ever dress like Sailor Moon, but, dammit, it just must be done!

But yeah, if they're really doing something "serious" and changing character so that it fits the plot... well they've just started to write an original fic that steals JKRs idea heavily. (and I actually have read 1 or 2 stories that were so strong and well-written they got away w/ it, but most fanfics... I want canon re-seen, not the person's own story with borrowed elements)

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Ahahah I just remembered I wanted to write about Draco surfing, and then there's one about him chopping wood in the winter without his shirt, and then there's all the ones (in my head) where he's wearing a dress and liking it, etc >:D :D

[cellia.livejournal.com]

I will be bitterly, bitterly disappointed if Draco is kept firmly IC in these stories. :D

Isn't it that we dislike most in others the flaws we see in ourselves?

(I totally want to read about Draco surfing. 1 word: sunburn)

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

YOU ARE THE ONE WHO TOLD ME THE SURFING ONE WAS STUPID :P :P :P Anyway, that's not the point of that fic, but. Eh. :>
It'd be difficult for me to have the 'must-fit-characterization-to-plot' flaw since I, you know, barely ever have any plot to start with :>

[cellia.livejournal.com]

IT CAN BE STUPID IF IT IS FUN

This is how I survived reading SlamDunk fics. And veela fics.

Somehow you built up my expectations for a surfing!Draco fic. Shameful, but there it is ;_;

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Hehe so now you feel my pain >:D I just keep hearing Draco go on about how he's waiting to catch the killer whale wave :> And Harry is an ignoramus who needs to chill out & grok the finer points of relaxation & sunburn :D

Ahahah man. I can see the appeal of bottom!Harry but...I'm starting to think Draco would sooner surf, skateboard AND be a Veela than top anyone. I think my opinion of him is not at a high point right now ;)) He's too much of a looooo-SER. It's like, impossible to really get over being that much of a loser. Unless Draco's alone from all the things that trigger him being pathetic (like Harry) and um, is alone with the AWESOME wAVES, man >:D

[malafede.livejournal.com]

*is fun*

:D