[stormy seas above the submarine of lurrrve]

[reenka]

It's only been a few days, and I'm already having HBP fandom moodswings, I think. Avoid, Reena. Avoid. And yet, so hard to constantly remain vigilant.


Okay, what I'm talking about is the unavoidable bitching about the latest canon & the renewed shipping wars and so on; I realize I've actually done some gloating myself at points, and now I sort of feel sickened of literally all ships (besides ones me & addictedkitten made up yesterday-- that's sacred) and tired already. Meh.

There's only this icon to make me feel better:
    R/Hr? If -sexual tension- was canon, Harry and Ron would be snogging by book 4. Snape and McGonagall would have four kids, and Voldemort would be -shagging Dumbledore-. Get over it.

Man. I LOVE MY FANON SHIP.
    I like subtext. As subtext.

I mean, while there are H/D vibes in the latest book, there are also Snape/Draco vibes, Harry/Snape vibes, Dumbledore/Voldemort vibes, Harry/Ron/Hermione vibes-- even Harry/Blaise & Blaise/Ginny vibes if you squint. None of these I consider to be 'really there' outside hints built upon by the reader's imagination, nothing close to being likely to happen. Just because there is subtext in the mind of a particular group of readers, it doesn't mean it's at all objective. There are many possible readings of any text, and god, I'm now tempted to make the obvious post where I show how there's nothing sexual about Harry's feelings about Draco or vice versa. Obsession doesn't have to be sexual; I mean, it often is, but even so, that connection in one's subconscious has a dramatic and storytelling use staying in the dark unconscious mind. We are driven as much by the things we're unaware of within us as the things that are obvious, that are conscious desires.

Suddenly, I kind of like the idea of all the possibilities for attraction that we never do realize within us... That's where the Oedipal stuff comes from, isn't it; it's very much what's most formative and driving within us, right?

I don't even think the archetypal roots behind Harry/Ginny (canon) and Harry/Draco (fanon) are that different; they both play on the complementary yin-yang attraction thing, but they serve different functions for Harry. I could make the case that his reactions to Draco are much more tangled up with all sorts of things he doesn't admit to himself, that's the flipside to his reaction to and attraction to the Weasleys, say. Harry can't look away from what disturbs and discomforts him. He can't look away, he has to -investigate-. He wants to figure out what Draco's doing so that he knows what to expect; so that he's not jumping at shadows even more than he is.

This is really not most people's idea of what romantic attraction feels like, in real life, so no wonder Harry doesn't want to kiss Draco in book 6 instead of Ginny. His relationship with his own repressed fears and worries and dark obsessions is much deeper, more conflicted, much much less consciously sexual.

I now know how the Remus/Sirius shippers who had people accusing them of believing it's canon feel :(( H/D is not canon :(( I like it that way :(( H/Hr was never canon either, whether or not R/Hr was; throwing a shitfit that it's not just makes me wanna never talk to another HP fan again :((

Fandom is apparently bad for my health. I should just hole up & write my poor fic (in which Draco's not a DE till after 6th year, interview canon bedamned) & dabble in Blaise/Ginny, which is omgsohot, and also indulge my newfound affection for Theodore & Zacharias (together). Man. So easy to lose sight of my priorities. Wah.
~~

On a happy note, this photo is proof every blond teenage boy that looks remotely haughty makes me think of Draco. What am I saying, every blond boy makes me think of Draco, period. ><;;



~~

EDIT - H/D really is the submarine of lurve. Wow. All my rambling for nothing.
    EDIT #2 -
...Having read this, as well as every single comment every H/Hr-er has made on the petition to JKR (...), I've decided-- who cares?

To gloat is to be human. I'm gonna gloat away, if y'all don't mind.

Comments

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I only talked about my reactions to show why I think they're not at all viable/plausible pairings, so if you meant you ship other people with Harry in a positive way, I was saying, yeah-- you don't. I noticed that about liking to annoy him.

I like to annoy Draco, and that's why I ship him with Harry. No one else could possibly drive him more insane. It's beautiful, in a way.

[malafede.livejournal.com]

No, actually I REALLY like the concept of Harry/fangirl, even though you don't believe me. On the side, I like to annoy him too, but if that was my only driving motivation I would be shipping Snarry now.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I believe you, it's just that it freaks me out & also I find it implausible; Ginny was sorta Harry's fangirl but he didn't notice her 'til she stopped & became popular in her own right. Then again, I think I have rather rigid views when it comes to how I think Harry reacts to things, I guess. I dunno. My mind goes 'IMPLAUSIBLE!! IMPLAUSIBLE, ABORT, ABORT!!' when I try to think about it seriously.

I don't find Snarry plausible or anything, it's just more of an explosion & there are more deep emotional issues, so even if I don't quite hit slash or a relationship or love, there's still lots there.

[malafede.livejournal.com]

Ginny was sorta Harry's fangirl but he didn't notice her 'til she stopped & became popular in her own right.

Which is why I feel it sucked. I guess we should just stop having these conversations. Romantic tastes are very personal and since when you can only pair characters off if you don't have to work on it?

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I agree, of course, that romantic tastes are v. personal; that's not my point, see. I think this is where my divergence is not only with you but with more than half the fandom, actually. Especially the fanon!shippers.

I have many romantic ideals, but I only go for pairings I find plausible for the characters. For me, the character's emotional motivations and tastes as far as I can gather from canon interactions are more important than whatever I want for them in terms of romance. That's really my big point of contention against H/Hr shippers-- not that their ideal of friendship-to-love is bad somehow (sometimes I adore it!) but that for Harry, it's deeply implausible & there are no clues he likes that sort of thing (friendship-to-love) in canon.

He likes Teh Pretteh, he likes people who stand up to him, who argue with him but back him up when it counts, who listen to him without nagging, who'd follow him while retaining near-complete independence. That's Harry's -type-. It's what he missed in Cho & was pleasantly surprised to find in Ginny, though the major attraction was physical in both cases.

Now -Ron-, on the other hand, is different than Harry & has a different type of friendship with Hermione. They have a totally different chemistry & totally different needs. They see different things in each other than Harry sees in them.

So for me, it's not a question of -my- romantic preferences; I don't deny I love pairings I identify with most, but they have to make sense to the character first and foremost, and then I pick which plausible pairing from the character's do I like best identify with the most in a meta sense. So my whole approach to shipping or writing/reading romance fic is different.