[Sell your cleverness and purchase bewilderment.]

[reenka]

Man, I just read a quote somewhere about how when you come back & reread your favorite stories [or just good stories], they're always different. You always learn something new from them, or see something you didn't before, or feel things differently because you are at a different place in life & different things ping you. And I was like... yeah. That's why ideas or stories stay interesting to me at all; it's certainly surprising even to me, but I still see new things in like, Harry/Draco all the time or I really -would- have stopped by now. (Honest!) It's weird how that's also especially relevant to me as a writer [who also reads fanfic besides writing it].

    What's actually -more- weird is the concept that other [most?] people -don't- do that... that they have this constant stable response to a fic, or a type of fic, or a pairing, and then they either stop (liking or reading that fic/pairing) or they have a singular revolution, like the person in sistermagpie's latest H/D post who said they only started liking Draco post-HBP [when he went through an abrupt change so it was a shock to the system], whereas he was just "the nasty Slytherin" before. And, I mean... I can't look at a story I like and say any character is "just like that". I mean... really, that's a pretty big insult to JKR, if you think about it. o_0
    Any halfway decent character is going to have at least several faces or facets, and a really good story will have dozens, maybe hundreds. I mean, if you're talkin' Darth Maul or whatever, okay (he's just a nasty Sith lord! yep! fer sure!), but.... Yeah. :>

Okay, so like, I don't have a point, really. :/ But... it's just something I noticed being important for me to enjoy a story or an idea, even. That constant dynamic motion, you know? The sense of discovering myself along with the characters-- having them mean something to me, and not just about my ideals/projections but my emotional realities. I don't want love or stories or anything I spend emotional energy on to be like... too certain, too much like bedrock, maybe.
    Like, there are people who say they like a pairing [or a character] 'because they represent X', and they're fully certain they like X, so they're following some party line & liking whatever little 'x' reminds them of the big 'X', whether or not little 'x' even objectively exists in the narrative [and here we have Harmonians, ladies & gentlemen]. Isn't that just bloody SCARY? (Well, to me anyway.) That's cookie-cutter thinking, right there (even though I'm an idealist so I have to be careful or I'll slip into that sort of thing myself... which is prolly why it's so disturbing to me).
    Possibly it's why I'm so avoidant of fan-think like 'I like X character therefore I shall like any and all fics which mention/contain X character in a starring or positive role', etcetc. I can just feel my brain grinding to a halt & stumbling sloooowly, slowly into a deep dark RUT right there. :/

Right, so I have to disclaimer this & say that I realize that 'purchasing bewilderment' (as per that quote by Rumi) is something that's heavily dependent on one's personality preferences. Some people are 'judgers' & some 'perceivers' (according to the Myers-Briggs Jungian typology thing, anyway), and the judgers will be much more likely to make a snap decision and stick to it, while the perceiver will keep on keeping on gathering new information to use in decision-making till the cows come home. So like... I'm being very typical, saying 'I can never have too much new information!! :O!' while most 'J' types will be like 'just shut up & produce something already!! :O!' hehe :D (Especially considering that yeah, my post-HBP Death Eater!Draco novella keeps on changing depending on every new thought/insight I have about his characterization & H/D... so at this point, it may go on being written like, FOREVER, ahahaha... ha... *coughs*)

Comments

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

I think a 'P' preference alone probably isn't enough to um, account for much except its narrow area of one's response to information-->action... but that -is- a lot, and yeah, I think Js predominate (just as Es and Ss do, with the field being otherwise split between Fs & Ts). I like to think you agree with me because I'm right (haha) but I do think that people who think more alike/along similar pathways can understand each other better & this leads to agreement more often than not. Like, the biggest cause of disagreement is probably misunderstanding based on using different premises (making wide generalizations, but yeah).

I do think it's interesting, 'cause like-- um, I'm drawn to archetypes [like, essences, fairy-tales, manifestations of patterns/ideas like the Endless in Sandman] as well as complexity. I think people -like- complexity but only complexity that's compact-- able to be reduced in resolution without losing necessary definition [...like a jpg! heh] Doing that successfully takes more talent than writing complexly (is that a word--?) -or- stereotypically, so most people settle for stereotypes, yeah :> I do have to say that I'd have to make a conscious effort to write in stereotypes, and I've been trying to train myself to think more like that 'cause I know it'd appeal to readers more & might move the actual -plot- along faster if I didn't spend all my time on character-building & introspection! heh. But I'm weird :> I think judging people in RL based on stereotypes is more precisely related to SJs than just Js... N*Js, especially NTJs, are quite perceptive/aware 'cause of the iNtuition aspect of things :>

But a gift for creating complex/subtle characterizations is definitely rare. For me, it may not be as difficult as for a T (or more precisely, it's difficult but in follow-through rather than conception/beginning) because I write so intuitively and impulsively/emotionally-- it just pours out. Because a lot of my writing is so... subconscious-driven, it ends up sort of soaking up the innate complexity of my unconscious mind. If you consciously, laboriously create things, it's probably a lot harder to be at all unique/subtle, y'know :> Especially if you're trying to project some 'moral message' or some meta 'point' like a J would :> Heh :>

It's true that the HP characters used to be not that well-fleshed-out in terms of romance [though that changed for Harry in OoTP & HBP, which is a lot of the basis I use for his interaction with Draco... and Ron&Hermione always had their romantic dynamic rather constantly from year one or so]. I do freely admit that my insistence against top!Draco isn't so much based on canon as on the prevalence of bad, horrid, awful fanfic with top!Draco being equivalent to smooth-icy-sex-god!Draco and starry-eyed-wibbly-sidekick!Harry. I've yet to read one where they didn't butcher Harry through and through, seriously ^^;;; Well, but most fanfic does that, so really I shouldn't single out top!Draco fics :>

And you're free to friend! :D! Most people lurk rather than comment anyway >.> hehe.

[edido.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I've friended you.

Yeah, I'm with you on the top!Draco fics and for the same reason, though I can think of some exceptions, but they are few. And I won't even click on the ones labeled D/H. *snorfle*

For me, it may not be as difficult as for a T ...because I write so intuitively and impulsively/emotionally-- it just pours out. Because a lot of my writing is so... subconscious-driven, it ends up sort of soaking up the innate complexity of my unconscious mind.

I think you're right about this, speaking as a T. I can't just sit and write like that, I need the whole thing worked and re-worked in my head before I can put it down and I don't write linearly, it sort of comes in scenes. I plot stuff out on paper too! 8) Stuff kind of comes to me in--I think themes would be the right word--characters have themes for me, rather than be types. It's usually how I read too.

Love the Myers-Briggs stuff. What do you think Harry & Draco would be? I'm thinking... INFJ & ESTP?

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I haven't thought of it as themes before! I do think I have a 'feeling' or a vision/idea-feeling hybrid I tend to have characters represent [at least, the pov character]. It also builds on itself-- like, since I don't write linearly either [I suspect that's a 'P' thing!], but the disconnected scenes do evolve naturally, like a slowly developing ecosystem. Well, unless it sputters & dies-- 'cause my fics do that a lot :>

And I think Draco's an ESTP but I agree with the HP character test which said Harry's an ISFP-- besides, I know too many INFJs & he's not like that at all :> Dumbledore's actually much closer to a typical INFJ, ahahahah. And Snape's a typical INTJ, and Remus is the INFP :) I think Voldy was supposed to be the INTP, ahahahah, I can totally see it :D