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reenkaThe thing is, basically-- the thing is that I constantly feel the need to somehow defend what amounts to my bitchy elitism, maybe. Or, not defend defend it, but make it sound reasonable and okay, whereas really I'm just ridiculously picky, I mean. I know that, but. My mom says I should embrace my inner elitist bitch (but my mom is your typical Jewish mother in that sense). My mom also says internet culture is a 'virus' and telling online people about your life is a sign of mental disturbance, but let's not go into that. Um.
It's just that the more I know certain characters, right, the more I want to see them in their context in fics I read. AUs are actually much better than OOC same-universe stuff for this reason-- the better ones recreate an equivalent context that sort of gets the same results through different methods (so like, we try to explain away Hermione's need to prove herself in some other way than her being Muggle-born in a school of wizards, say).
Like, okay, with Hermione: I would say that her analytical intelligence, her way of solving problems through research is her individual 'text', so to speak. Her admiration of Harry for his bravery and skill outside of 'books and cleverness' is her context, and to me, very much as important as the fact of her intelligence/braininess/etc. Therefore, when pairing her in fanon with another 'brainy' character, I'd think it's important to remember she doesn't actually seem to value her own type of intelligence that much on its own but only in terms of how it can be applied.
But yeah, context and intact relationships of all sorts are key to my finding something 'IC' (and often just 'readable' and 'remotely enjoyable' these days). It's really not about overall 'realism' as much as the pretty limited realism of, to start off with, keeping people connected to the people they're connected to, in the negative and positive ways. Keeping that web of relationships afloat is actually separate, I think, from the larger context of Canon with a capital C, too, which is why in certain fandoms especially, AUs are so very possible and enjoyable. It's because the characters' relationships with each other are a universe all their own, and damned-- damned if I don't get tetchy every time someone makes a glaring misrepresentation of that universe.
Man, I don't care if you get your 'hard' facts wrong as long as you get your relationships right. That is really the source of my fic-reading woes, methinks. Well, that and the character-bashing.
Meaning, it's almost like I care more that Harry still likes Ginny (or to be more specific, still liked Ginny in sixth year, still enjoyed her personality and thought she was witty/cool/etc, still was possessive of her and at least bisexual thanks to the 'monster' in his, uh, chest, kthnx)-- all this is nearly more important to me than the 'fact' that his last name is actually Potter and he's got to kill Voldemort (I mean, he does, but that's important to me because of his relationship to Voldy as much as anything). And, like, if it's some time later and now he doesn't give a damn about her and will bitch about her freely to his former school nemesis-- I want to know why, and it shouldn't be because he realized he never 'really' loved her (so, are they friends? what about the fact that he still only 'likes' her as of HBP?), or because she's just such a manipulative bitch (seems pretty Gryffindor in her confrontational straightforwardness-- once over her shyness-- to me). And it really shouldn't be because she betrayed him in order to sleep with Voldemort, unless you back this up with plot, 'cause she -is- vulnerable to Tom (though I bet less so than she was before) and Harry isn't real forgiving of betrayal.
Actually, I could even see forgoing the bisexuality and having Harry 'wake up gay' because you could say he never got very far with Ginny in sixth year and then it just 'didn't work'. Y'know. Uh. Though that's unlikely considering just how jealous he was and how physical his liking of her seemed, so. I dunno, man.
In other words, it should make sense without making Ginny any more of a bitch than she already is, and remembering that she's a bitch, sure, to anyone but Harry, and well-- he seems to like that about her, judging from how he reacted to her snarking at Ron, say; c'mon, can't be -too- hard.
I was just trying to decide why it's so offensive to me to read a fic that basically rewrites historical context like that-- like, suddenly Harry only noticed Ginny 'cause she's obsessed (uh, no, sorry, he noticed her once she stopped, thank you), or where Draco suddenly doesn't care anymore about his father's approval or Harry noticing him (though that last is actually only pre-HBP canon, meaning it's the reverse that concerns me now, since basically his family concerns overwhelmed any great need he had to taunt Harry 24/7-- it became something of an on-the-spot hazard, didn't it).
It seems worse than 'he woke up gay one day, whatdya know'. Though, I mean, that actually happens. The point is that this change, while seemingly convenient for a given story, changes all sorts of things for me in my head, in terms of how I perceive the character-- it's like a chain reaction.
Ding, ding, ding, you changed this one facet of their life and now a million other things wouldn't have happened quite that way, or wouldn't have happened at all (like, if Draco didn't obsessively need to prove himself, -or- wasn't also deeply loyal to his family and if Harry's irrational, deeply-set suspicion of Draco's motives wasn't soooo entrenched, all of book 6 wouldn't have happened the way it did-- and this does apply to fanfic as well).
In my understanding of people, basically, you can't summarily separate their personalities (probably what the average fan finds attractive, together with appearance) from their allegiances, their biases, their histories. Draco is no longer 'Draco' to me if he is no longer extremely loyal to his father & his father's beliefs/etc, even though that's not a part of his 'personality' per se; Harry is no longer 'Harry' if he can really make his relationship with Draco truly more important to him than his friendship with Ron and Hermione.
You can't still say you like Harry, can't say you're really writing Harry, at least, if you don't like it that he likes certain qualities of Ginny's, of Hagrid's, of Dumbledore's, of Ron's, and dislikes certain other qualities in Draco, say. What I mean is, you're free to like or dislike whatever, naturally, it's just that Harry feels what he does: he just does, and that is a part of him as much as his childhood at the Dursleys and his love for Quidditch. Ignoring that in a fic makes me feel like you're talking about some other character even if most of his personality remains the same, I just can't help it!
Basically, I -wish- I was like the people who say they'd like anything as long as it was decently well-written and bearably recognizable (and had hot exciting boy-on-boy action, of course). I wish it was so easy, but when I know enough about the characters, it just can't be, it seems to me. Especially with Harry, even though there's an extreme amount of information about him in canon, there's certain things that are central to him, like. He's pretty defensive/insecure about himself ever since the Dursleys, right, so anyone who acts all holier-than-thou and vain and super-elite is going to just instinctively piss him off. He's not going to think it's 'cute' or endearing anytime soon, y'know, 'cause it's a major issue for him even if -you- think that makes Draco cute.
Argh, I dunno. It's just that I can't help but notice these things. I don't really con-crit people and I don't actually have anything useful to offer anyone, but. People who have the attitude of 'it's just fanfic' or 'why do you even care, just have fun' or 'well, other people love it'-- I mean, yeah, so? Other people love it, but other people think Mercedes Lackey is the best fantasy writer ever, too.
In conclusion... man.
Ginny-bashing coming from Harry in otherwise enjoyable H/D just -really- throws me out of the fic. o_0 Yeah, and next he'll bash Molly and Ron to Draco; then he'll say Slytherins are superior, Purebloods forever and down with everything Dumbledore stood for. All it would take is some sweet sweet lovin' from Draco: they're on a first-name basis, y'know. -.-
It's just that the more I know certain characters, right, the more I want to see them in their context in fics I read. AUs are actually much better than OOC same-universe stuff for this reason-- the better ones recreate an equivalent context that sort of gets the same results through different methods (so like, we try to explain away Hermione's need to prove herself in some other way than her being Muggle-born in a school of wizards, say).
Like, okay, with Hermione: I would say that her analytical intelligence, her way of solving problems through research is her individual 'text', so to speak. Her admiration of Harry for his bravery and skill outside of 'books and cleverness' is her context, and to me, very much as important as the fact of her intelligence/braininess/etc. Therefore, when pairing her in fanon with another 'brainy' character, I'd think it's important to remember she doesn't actually seem to value her own type of intelligence that much on its own but only in terms of how it can be applied.
But yeah, context and intact relationships of all sorts are key to my finding something 'IC' (and often just 'readable' and 'remotely enjoyable' these days). It's really not about overall 'realism' as much as the pretty limited realism of, to start off with, keeping people connected to the people they're connected to, in the negative and positive ways. Keeping that web of relationships afloat is actually separate, I think, from the larger context of Canon with a capital C, too, which is why in certain fandoms especially, AUs are so very possible and enjoyable. It's because the characters' relationships with each other are a universe all their own, and damned-- damned if I don't get tetchy every time someone makes a glaring misrepresentation of that universe.
Man, I don't care if you get your 'hard' facts wrong as long as you get your relationships right. That is really the source of my fic-reading woes, methinks. Well, that and the character-bashing.
Meaning, it's almost like I care more that Harry still likes Ginny (or to be more specific, still liked Ginny in sixth year, still enjoyed her personality and thought she was witty/cool/etc, still was possessive of her and at least bisexual thanks to the 'monster' in his, uh, chest, kthnx)-- all this is nearly more important to me than the 'fact' that his last name is actually Potter and he's got to kill Voldemort (I mean, he does, but that's important to me because of his relationship to Voldy as much as anything). And, like, if it's some time later and now he doesn't give a damn about her and will bitch about her freely to his former school nemesis-- I want to know why, and it shouldn't be because he realized he never 'really' loved her (so, are they friends? what about the fact that he still only 'likes' her as of HBP?), or because she's just such a manipulative bitch (seems pretty Gryffindor in her confrontational straightforwardness-- once over her shyness-- to me). And it really shouldn't be because she betrayed him in order to sleep with Voldemort, unless you back this up with plot, 'cause she -is- vulnerable to Tom (though I bet less so than she was before) and Harry isn't real forgiving of betrayal.
Actually, I could even see forgoing the bisexuality and having Harry 'wake up gay' because you could say he never got very far with Ginny in sixth year and then it just 'didn't work'. Y'know. Uh. Though that's unlikely considering just how jealous he was and how physical his liking of her seemed, so. I dunno, man.
In other words, it should make sense without making Ginny any more of a bitch than she already is, and remembering that she's a bitch, sure, to anyone but Harry, and well-- he seems to like that about her, judging from how he reacted to her snarking at Ron, say; c'mon, can't be -too- hard.
I was just trying to decide why it's so offensive to me to read a fic that basically rewrites historical context like that-- like, suddenly Harry only noticed Ginny 'cause she's obsessed (uh, no, sorry, he noticed her once she stopped, thank you), or where Draco suddenly doesn't care anymore about his father's approval or Harry noticing him (though that last is actually only pre-HBP canon, meaning it's the reverse that concerns me now, since basically his family concerns overwhelmed any great need he had to taunt Harry 24/7-- it became something of an on-the-spot hazard, didn't it).
It seems worse than 'he woke up gay one day, whatdya know'. Though, I mean, that actually happens. The point is that this change, while seemingly convenient for a given story, changes all sorts of things for me in my head, in terms of how I perceive the character-- it's like a chain reaction.
Ding, ding, ding, you changed this one facet of their life and now a million other things wouldn't have happened quite that way, or wouldn't have happened at all (like, if Draco didn't obsessively need to prove himself, -or- wasn't also deeply loyal to his family and if Harry's irrational, deeply-set suspicion of Draco's motives wasn't soooo entrenched, all of book 6 wouldn't have happened the way it did-- and this does apply to fanfic as well).
In my understanding of people, basically, you can't summarily separate their personalities (probably what the average fan finds attractive, together with appearance) from their allegiances, their biases, their histories. Draco is no longer 'Draco' to me if he is no longer extremely loyal to his father & his father's beliefs/etc, even though that's not a part of his 'personality' per se; Harry is no longer 'Harry' if he can really make his relationship with Draco truly more important to him than his friendship with Ron and Hermione.
You can't still say you like Harry, can't say you're really writing Harry, at least, if you don't like it that he likes certain qualities of Ginny's, of Hagrid's, of Dumbledore's, of Ron's, and dislikes certain other qualities in Draco, say. What I mean is, you're free to like or dislike whatever, naturally, it's just that Harry feels what he does: he just does, and that is a part of him as much as his childhood at the Dursleys and his love for Quidditch. Ignoring that in a fic makes me feel like you're talking about some other character even if most of his personality remains the same, I just can't help it!
Basically, I -wish- I was like the people who say they'd like anything as long as it was decently well-written and bearably recognizable (and had hot exciting boy-on-boy action, of course). I wish it was so easy, but when I know enough about the characters, it just can't be, it seems to me. Especially with Harry, even though there's an extreme amount of information about him in canon, there's certain things that are central to him, like. He's pretty defensive/insecure about himself ever since the Dursleys, right, so anyone who acts all holier-than-thou and vain and super-elite is going to just instinctively piss him off. He's not going to think it's 'cute' or endearing anytime soon, y'know, 'cause it's a major issue for him even if -you- think that makes Draco cute.
Argh, I dunno. It's just that I can't help but notice these things. I don't really con-crit people and I don't actually have anything useful to offer anyone, but. People who have the attitude of 'it's just fanfic' or 'why do you even care, just have fun' or 'well, other people love it'-- I mean, yeah, so? Other people love it, but other people think Mercedes Lackey is the best fantasy writer ever, too.
In conclusion... man.
Ginny-bashing coming from Harry in otherwise enjoyable H/D just -really- throws me out of the fic. o_0 Yeah, and next he'll bash Molly and Ron to Draco; then he'll say Slytherins are superior, Purebloods forever and down with everything Dumbledore stood for. All it would take is some sweet sweet lovin' from Draco: they're on a first-name basis, y'know. -.-
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Date: 2006-02-23 08:28 am (UTC)...Though I'd actually be pretty damn amused if there was actually one where he was a political theorist who read Machiavelli and possibly Kant, and possibly modeled on the side. I mean, that would actually make him a whole 'nother brand of stuck-up asshole :>