disagreeing != disregarding, and why agenda!wank needs to DIE.

[reenka]

Am I the only one that sort of... laughs when I see posts about how someone can't like a character anymore after they acted in a way they disapproved of or wouldn't have been expected in canon? Or weren't paid enough attention to? Or were made out to be less than sympathetic? Or were too dumb, slow, unimportant, ugly, pretty, morally ambiguous, good/evil, hormonal, asexual, immature or cranky? Because god knows, if someone's hard to like all of a sudden as a teenager, they're doomed, doomed for life. Hello, my name is Reena, and I was doomed to hell and back when I was at the tender age of 13. Possibly earlier. I was a bitch at that age, lemme tell ya. Ooh yeah. They had to put up quarantine signs on me. Yep.

    No, I lie-- I don't laugh, I cringe and want to escape, escape far, far away to a land where most people can separate personal bias (like, 'oh noes, I didn't want character X to die/become a bitch/start shagging sheep, ahhhh!!1') and some sort of sane objective evaluation of a story like 'oh, I see, character X didn't have this sort of role in this scenario but he had -this- role and I can see how that works into this theme and this subplot, even though I feel it wasn't tied in well with his previous behavior patterns'. I just boggle, because it's like people don't even notice a subplot if they don't want to acknowledge it or it's not obviously part of a piss-point they're making (even though the explanation-- were one to look for that sort of thing-- often lies just beyond the things one notices in one's frantic sweep of Things That Sucked).

I don't even want to bring up anything specific (say, Hermione, Ron, R/Hr, H/G, Ginny, Snape, lessee who else can we wank today) 'cause then people will jump on me and ignore my general point. (And that's my point, anyway.) Actually, that's what bothers me the most-- it's not people's opinions diverging from mine or whatever (naturally they would), but the way so many people in HP fandom, at least, express those opinions-- by basically steamrolling over anything in their way. I don't even know where to start with the whole 'well, this is how I thought the canon was, and now it's different in a way that doesn't satisfy my agenda for character/pairing X, therefore it sucks'. I don't even know what to say. 'Wake up and smell the coffee!!' doesn't really cover it. What can I say?


I think it would be okay if the person wanking complaining acknowledged the canonical context for the characterization they're complaining about. 'It makes no sense' or 'there was no point' or 'it was done because the writer sucks' doesn't cut it, sorry. There is nearly always a point for something to happen a certain way, even when the writer sucks-- you can always assume there's a reason things happen the way they do and not another way, because even if the writer sucks and didn't intend it, there was still some sort of logical progression in their heads. It exists! No, really. You simply have to look at the overall picture and follow the threads backwards, rather than looking for something specific in terms of a scenario or behavior type and noticing 'oh, that's not how it is' and starting to cry foul as loud as possible.

Then... then, you could make a coherent argument that includes the actual context you're drawing your issues from. Because without the original context, and with blatant focus on your own personal attachment to a specific event/characterization/etc, you will never get to the truth.
    Basically, I just want to say that I'm really tired of people not disagreeing but rather disregarding aspects of an issue they don't find 'relevant' in order to make their measly point on the agenda. It makes meta-discussion so not-fun as to be nauseating. And wanky. Very, very wanky.
    In other words, I really should stop reading HP meta, when seeing someone go 'omg NO, my favorite character acted STUPID, what shall I DO?!?!' makes me... uh... act stupid -.- Or possibly this is fodder for a post about how people are obsessed with idealizing their most loved characters... I mean, not that this is anything new or weird, but it still drives me up the wall. I really wonder if they always knew no one could live up to such unrealistic standards, if half of humanity would like... self-destruct or something (like, 'omg, we're NOT PERFECT, THEREFORE WE MUST DIE'). But then this reminds me of some religions -.-

Actually, this is related to that whole frustrating discourse of '-I- wouldn't have acted like this and/or liked this, so why would MY FAVORITE CHARACTER OMG like this/act like this?? Why, if it was me I'd have... [blahblahblah]'.
    Hello, a) blatant self-insertion; b) disregard for the inner logic of the character; c) any admission of the fact that people don't always do the best thing, the most reasonable thing, the most correct thing. Oh yes, and why? Because they're people, yes thank you, have we met? Here's you, here's the rest of humanity over there-- and making stupid mistakes?? Is what makes us who we are. Funny, that.

My attitude is, well, 'who cares how admirable/good/sexy you/your favorite character/your dog are?' but I realize I'm in the minority in my little corner over here. Also, this makes me wonder if this close association with the admirability of one's favorites implies people judge themselves by the behavior of the ones they love, even fictional o_0. I mean, on first glance, I'm like, noooo, too insane, but. Well. Fandom.
~~

EDIT - With the caveat that this is mpreg (...yeah), that it's an AU that basically rewrites canon (though it slashifies it and enriches it believably in equal parts), and with the additional caveat that I could only skim certain parts because of the above, I have to say I've finally found a post-HBP H/D fic I could like, and it's `Genesis' by akahannah. Mostly, I lovelove the Harry characterization. It's got that all-important selling point of him not being suddenly reasonable (quite the opposite... oh, I think I'm going to cry), and Draco being both sympathetic and a little prick (see! see!) and. Yeah. ♥
    And now, for somebody to do all this and with no mpreg, canon-rewriting or... yeah, that's pretty much it....

...Though, um, I liked this GW 1x2 fic way more than I'd liked any H/D fic in ages... and ages....

Comments

[akahannah.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to say thanks for the shoutout. I'm really glad you liked the parts of the fic you were able to read. I occasionally read posts on your journal and know how particular you are about characterization, so this means a lot to me.

As an aside, I'm rather intrigued to know what led you to read the fic when there was so much about it you knew you weren't going to like.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Oh man, now I'm a bit chagrined for being so... um...upfront? ^^; Most of the reason for the skimming is that I generally skim these days unless it's all porn or all dialogue or something, and then, sometimes after 5 chapters I'd be like 'oooh, this is too interesting not to go back and read it all'. That's what happened with my favorite H/D fic currently, Eclipse :>

But yeah, I loved your Harry, omg! :D He was like a breath of fresh air :> Though it's not like I have issues with mpreg per se, so it wouldn't -necessarily- stop me from reading something... one of my favorite RPGs is H/D mpreg, and it's silly and snarky and lovable. I think I tend to really enjoy it in a crackfic sort of way. But your fic was so, um, canon-plausible and serious in terms of overall approach and flavor that I couldn't get over wanting it to be... well, fully believable, I think? Its premise was treated so thoroughly and realistically, it was actually more difficult than usual for me to suspend my disbelief, if that makes sense~:) Mostly because it made me -want-to think, and remember canon, and take it seriously, y'know.

Heheh and though it's selfish of me, I hope you'd consider writing for big_bang_hd-- I think you'd do great :D

[akahannah.livejournal.com]

Please don't be chagrined - I really appreciated your honesty. I must say I'm a bit of a skimmer at the moment too, particularly with chaptered fics, though I tend to follow recs and they generally see me right. I had a similar experience with Eclipse. The first few chapters were quite slow, but once Harry and Draco were on the run I stopped skimming and began reading every word. And loving it. Damn but that cliffhanger is killing me!

So you're a dracolicious/boywholives fan as well, then? I hadn't heard of them until a couple of months ago - either they're fandom's best kept secret, or I just don't pay enough attention.

I have been considering writing for big_bang_hd. I read the last lot and adored them, and would love to be a part of the next round. Is there any requirement for the fic to be written from Harry's pov? I noticed that the last round of big bang fics all were. Or would it be possible to write it from Draco's perspective? That is my main sticking point at this juncture.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Man, I don't know whose recs to follow anymore, but then I'm really -really- picky and I've liked HBP canon too much to want to read much fic for it. I am really enjoying Eclipse, though, probably in large part because I'm hanging on to the promise in the first author's note that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Plus there's no deathfic warning, so I think we're fine. In a way, I'd be sad 'cause the next one's the last chapter before the epilogue, and there goes the last H/D WIP I'm following with it.

Yeah, I found dracolicious & boywholives ages ago, but then I do lots of surfing around for H/D and follow up on links a lot. I haven't read it for a while, though... They were so adorable while Draco was still pregnant the most, I think :>

And, re: Big Bang-- I totally have no idea where anyone got the idea about it having to be Harry pov, since that's not anywhere in the rules. I'm not sure whether to make a post about it or not, but-- well, my own Big Bang fic (if I finish) will be Draco's pov. We're not trying to reproduce canon, just try to remember it exists. That seems to be a problem for most H/D fics, which is why the challenge started-- not really to go for similar style or parallel content so much as simply to acknowledge facts and plausibility. But then when you put it that way I guess more people would get offended, I'm not sure :>