~~bad news, batman.

[reenka]

In the Bad News Dept: this wank is making me wibble like mad, but perhaps because of this the most:
    It astounds me how anyone can find Harry falling in LOVE with Draco Malfoy isn't OOC.

It also astounds me how anyone can find Draco falling in LOVE with Potter isn't OOC as well.
    ...Mostly because I always fall for that 'rationalize your faith' straw man argument, nearly always made not by pairing agnostics (so to speak), whom I respect greatly and want to be somehow validated by, but by people with their own hidden agenda. It just really annoys me that people question concepts which -should- be questioned, but nearly always in the service of opposing bias. It's just one of those things which erodes my respect for people in general.


    However, I have to say that's at least 70% of why I ship them so hard. I mean, there are other reasons, obviously, but the sheer impossibility is what I adore the most. So it hits really close to home when someone says 'why does Harry bother loving Draco' when he already does and Draco's already lovable, because, well, we're always going to go back to Harry's base disgust with Draco, and being way too in touch with my Harry muse, this sort of attitude drives me up the wall. And makes it really hard to write plausible H/D. And yet my desire to do it remains. It's like... a catch 22. Can't succeed; can't stop trying. Argh.

Still, though, if there's anything I've learned, it's that you can't keep on judging H/D fics on the basis of 'does it prove H/D' & retain your sanity equilibrium (in my personal experience... ahem), because if that's my criteria (and I often slip & let it be), then there -is- no H/D fic I find 'in character' in that sense. No H/D fic fully satisfies the 'prove that canon Harry can 100% plausibly love Draco' requirement. I mean... it's still the ideal, but it can't be the point of reading H/D. Or if you want to read that, there's a very limited scope available to you, mostly pre-slash and fics which are dysfunctional and dystopic in some way. Among the more optimistic/brighter scenarios that are fully plausible in terms of remaining emotional baggage... well.... Basically, why pick on UL when you can pick on (nearly) every single other H/D fic out there?

I think my problem is that ideally, I want to write (and read) H/D for the non-believers. I started out in fandom (pre-OoTP!) wanting to write a novel called `One Good Reason'-- and that's one good reason for Harry to love Draco. And obviously I haven't even come close after 3 years, and yeah, that really gets to me sometimes.
    I mean, bottom line, love is irrational. Any attempt to make it totally 'plausible' and 'rational' is necessarily going to fail. I mean, the whole thing was basically doomed from the start (kind of like Harry & Draco).

In a way, it's sort of a philosophical conundrum on the level of 'prove to me that we exist'. I mean, you can strongly suggest that we do, and even why we do, but in the end we'll always come to those basic givens, those axioms which cannot be broken down or analyzed further, only believed. One = 1. Either you believe it or you don't. And I think pretty much all love is as impossible and axiomatic as Harry♥Draco, and that's why I both yearn to see them 'proven' to the non-believers and why I think it's no different from any other love-story.

Anyway, little to nothing about this really has to do with UL, which I love while acknowledging its flaws, which it shares with probably 97% of even the best H/D fanfic. It should probably tell me all I need to know that the person making the above claim about H/D itself being OOC describes himself as being 'sworn to defend Lucius Malfoy' from anything at all. It's these sort of people that make me wary of rah-rah-Slytherin fans, I swear. I guess that goes for the coo-coo population in any sub-fandom.
   Perhaps my whole quest to write H/D for the non-believers was flawed to start with because a lot of times it's not that people are waiting to believe a good enough reason, it's that they'd usually refuse to acknowledge a good reason if that means they were wrong.

And of course I want to somehow reach those people, 'cause I'm pretty sure both Harry & Draco are closed-minded like that, at least about each other. Hello, dysfunction! Settle in, why don't you.
~~

In the Good News Dept: I saw Batman Begins last night, and it was just as good as everyone's been implying.


Christian Bale was startling and the whole thing was wonderfully psychological and plausible, as well as totally thrillerish. The only weird thing was the Doctor/Scarecrow, who was way too pretty & gay for me to buy into his evil ways or whatever. He was such a red herring, and just... I kept staring at his lips (well, he kept pursing them!) It was distracting, dammit.
    Anyway, all the small roles were wonderfully realized, and the only one I was really annoyed by to any significant degree was the Love Interest DA Lady, mostly 'cause... well, Mary Suish much? Man. Grow a flaw, girl.

I really liked all the different shadings of grey (truly amazing for a superhero movie, though particularly fitting for Batman-- finally). The 'lawful good becomes equivalent to lawful evil' thing is pretty common in anime, but in America it's ridiculously rare, and I just eat it right up. I love the idea of there -having- to be an 'anti' to the 'hero' for the hero to be really 'pure', contradictory as it sounds, because it encompasses the whole Eastern idea of balance I think is so essential for healthy ethics. Come to think of it, it'd be interesting to see Japanese commentary on the Batman phenomenon in general.

Upon reflection & some consultation, I realized the head evil-guy (reeeally bad with names) is Oh So Gay (even moreso than Scarecrow, who's... well), which amuses me. Though I am now pondering whethere you can -always- say the Head Villain Guy is gay for the Hero is some meta sense at least (I'm serious!) Like, I wouldn't necessarily say Main Sidekick Guy has to be gay for the Hero 'cause... I refuse to diss friendship like dat, man, but.... I really think hateful obsession can be a form of... uh, sexual attraction if not love (well, definitely not love). Maybe this takes a certain slant/vision of attraction/love. That said, name me the heroic 'verse where there's no halfway plausible Hero/Villain slash-- go on, I dare ya. I can't think of any, I really can't.

And the Joker bit at the end just made me squeal, I swear to god. That was such beautiful foreshadowing/fan-service, I just can't take it. So cute. Wheeee!

...I'm sure I had other thoughts, but....

Oh yeah, heheh. Baby!Bruce was way too adorable for words. I sort of squealed when I first saw him. Heeee!

Though I really didn't like Batman!Bruce so much. Like, I liked Bruce's thinking 'as' Batman, but not his actual hijinks-- the voice (too low/croaky), the car (those tires are -really- distracting & the whole submarine/rocket feel wasn't... I dunno, elegant enough for me), the moves (not really natural-seeming)-- while they seemed to 'fit' in the movie, they didn't seem Batman-cool and/or graceful or something. Not that most Batmans really gave me that impression. Maybe comic!Batman is really too cool for any actor's britches. I mean, he -is- a Legend. *smirks*

In 'other' news, when I saw the GoF movie promo poster in the theater, I just squealed and cooed and had to touch it. Repeatedly.

OMG HARRY!!!1 Looking all heroic and woobie and... *cries, is dork*

Comments

[malafede.livejournal.com]

:)) I knew you meant that. I was just saying, there is no emotional argument that works for everyone. I remember that time you said this Snarry fic convinced you completely, and then this other girl broke it down and made it look entirely unconvincing... there is no fictional emotion that works for everyone. This is why there is a concept like the suspension of disbelief, because without that, no story works.

and i like this comment on f_w: http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/751597.html?thread=69412845#t69412845

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Hm... well, I do know there's no fictional emotion that works for -everyone-. I don't think I want to 'convert' everyone by any means-- just sort of be satisfactory to myself, y'know, and -some- readers who weren't going into the story with preconceived notions. Suspension of disbelief is not only inevitable but desireable, but preconceived notions kind of frustrate me. They make people read stories (-my- stories) for kink a lot of the time, and that annoys me. I don't want to hear that I wrote/told something that was -exactly- what some people (including myself) wanted to hear. That's not what writing is about to me; I mean, I write things -because- they're difficult and I need to work through them-- like, I couldn't stand the idea of Harry in the context of Ron/Draco & I hate Ron/Draco & someone said Ron was a bigger dom than Harry & Draco would beg more and not still whine like he could with Harry(!!!!!!) so I wrote it! And I didn't even satisfy myself by making it H/D and/or making Ron or Draco die a horrible death. I'm just saying I'm serious about non-masturbatory (in the pleasure) sense writing-- just emotionally-driven writing (though sometimes it's a thin distinction). I just want to explore things honestly & have some readers do that with me.

[malafede.livejournal.com]

Okay, but what's that to do with people outright challenging you to convert them? They're the ones I was talking about, and the false argument that is "I don't get it, make me get it". That sort of thing. ;)

What? Ron's a dom? Well, that's interesting.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Well, I haven't really encountered any people challenging me, that just sounds like they're being obnoxious anyway. Mostly this is all self-motivated. I tend not to read stuff that squicks me, however(!) I often get 'epiphanies' about pairings I'd just not thought about before (like, um, recently there was that Draco/Luna fic by memorycharm I read that worked for me even though the idea of D/L is just ridiculous to me). So yeah, I've had my eyes opened to lots of pairings I'd never have believed plausible (Tom/Hagrid, Harry/Snape... I've even read plausible Lucius/Draco but perhaps that's not too surprising). But anyway, I may be squicked, but personally I'm never actually closed-minded once I actually start reading a fic, and maybe not all people are like that.

And yeah. Um. Well, it's not like Draco'd be the dom ^^;; Ron, boyish though he is, just doesn't strike me as 'manly' (say, in regards to Hermione, whom he'd so submit to) or even more, manlier than Harry. That just... freaks me out, man.

[malafede.livejournal.com]

Well, half the...ur, "debate" at godawful was like that, what with people demanding that other people give them logical arguments for why h/d works. i think i've read once too many clumsy rants at the "h/d fangirls" where the ranter assumed that since she didn't get it and nobody couldn't make her get it then it sucked. that's demanding logical arguments or else.

oh well. i understand your fanfic angle, i was pointing out how much the debate angle is "meh" to me.

ahaha, you should know that my first phrasing choice was "ahah, ron's a dom? um, that's interesting." i don't think he's a dom, i think he's just rough and lots less twisted than harry. i mean, if i had to imagine him having sex with draco. or a lot of other boys. he'd definitely sub with girls though. except not hermione cos i'm repressing r/hr.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I would never ever say the words 'rational' in relation to anything I want/expect out of stories. Um. Maybe I shouldn't say that like it's a good thing ^^;


...Even now, having written that fic & gotten it out of my system, I still wanna go, 'hold me', remembering that bit about Draco not being a wiseass with Ron like he'd be with Harry & just begging for it :(( Ahhhhh :((
........I THINK I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT H/R AHAHAHHAHLKJFslakjaklfjdf;lakjsfj

[malafede.livejournal.com]

:D :D I like Ron/Draco but the only reason Draco wouldn't be such a wiseass to Ron is that he's not out of his way to piss him off.

But whyyyyyy would you write H/D, you uneducated monsterrrr. Better write a JKR approved ship, like Harry/Zacharias.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

is that he's not out of his way to piss him off
man. you know just how to fan the flames of my OTP loff <3<3<3<3

Harry wuvs it when Draco is feisty, hehe. ♥

[malafede.livejournal.com]

hey, where are you? i want you to get on aim, i had an awesome idea for a post hpb fic that i plotted without knowing the plot of hpb. plus, i just squicked myself badly and need support.