| Epilogue? Who Cares. |
[29 Jan 2008|10:46pm] |
I've read several posts over the last few months about the Harry Potter Book Seven Epilogue. (I don't know if it's because all the people I'm reading are more or less monofannish or what, but any identifying information seems to be mostly lost in translation, because it's usually just called the Epilogue and left at that.)
Most of these comments express dissatisfaction with the Epilogue, because it's canon and thus icky (I may be parsing a little bit wrongly here).
This response does not reflect my experience.
Yes, canon is important. Despite the fact that Hermione/Ron is canon and has been since Book One, I much prefer to read about either Hermione or Ron with Pansy than with each other. I don't have to deal with the fact that they got married any more than I have to deal with the fact that Pansy wanted to sell Harry out to Voldemort to save her own skin.
If I wanted to, I could, but I don't have to. (And I will eventually write the story of Pansy's complete ostracization from the wizarding world for that stupid 17-year-old thing to say, and it will certainly feature either Pansy/Ron or Pansy/Hermione, but it will probably not feature Hermione/Ron.)
I can hold multiple contradictory thoughts in my head at once.
This is actually one of the reasons I like fandom so much — I can read 100 or 1000 stories about a character, and believe all of them to be true at the same time, no matter what differences they may suggest about that character. I can write multiple stories at a time, and selectively choose my canon, and I can remember what Rowling has said and I can also imagine ten or twelve different backstories for any character — and they can all be true at the same time.
Does this make my story AU? Well, that kind of depends on your definition of AU. According to my definition — anything goes so long as it is mostly recognizable as the accordant universe to the casual fan — it doesn't. But then, I'm not a fan of labels for fanfiction.
This is not to say that my multiple versions should bear the same weight as "canon"; what Rowling said is what Rowling said. But I don't have to listen.
(I did not like the Epilogue. I didn't like an awful lot about all seven books. I don't like much of what Rowling has said in any of her interviews, those since Book Seven was published and those that came before. But I am capable of using my imagination, and I don't always have to think about things that I don't want to think about.)
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| Recs, stories written for me in 2007 |
[31 Dec 2007|09:53pm] |
Beginnings by Imitates Fiction (Bend It Like Beckham; Jess/Jules): dorm room parties and drunken kisses and misunderstandings (and run-on sentences). Everything that is good and strange and confusing about college, in fact, plus happy endings.
V. Dance like Fighting by Ari (Buffy/Stargate: Atlantis; Faith/Teyla): this was actually written for me in 2006, but I neglected in include it in the 2006 round-up. Oops; sorry, Ari. And also: sorry, readers, because this is a tiny little thing, and yet it packs so much into it. Absolutely awesome (and Teyla would so top in that relationship).
Beautiful by Second Silk (Firefly; Inara/Kaylee) and Misdirection (Firefly; Mal/Simon): first kisses. I really like the larger hits of the story behind the Mal/Simon one. And also the Kaylee/Inara, because Kaylee/Inara is just one of those pairings that I adore, and Kaylee! Engineer! Girl! Seriously better than even Buffy, Joss.
Here Comes the Sun by Lorraine (Stargate: Atlantis; Elizabeth/Teyla): I really like Lorraine's Elizabeths in general, and the one here is insecure in very nicely canonical ways. I'm not sure what it means that I like women who are professionally incredibly successful and together and personally a hidden, tell absolutely no one mess, but I'm glad Lorraine can put it into such perfect words.
Victory, Snatched by Ari (Harry Potter; Hermione/Minerva): Minerva might be better than 40, but that doesn't make her not hot. It's a good thing Ari and I share a fair few kinks, too, because this is really hot. Wrong, and bad, and dirty, of course (underage Hermione and better than 80 McGonagall, doing wonderfully dirty things), but hot. (Plus Quidditch! I am easy, I admit it.)
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| Oh dear, their at it again. |
[30 Dec 2007|05:16pm] |
There is a funny set of icons regarding commonly made errors in writing, and they are funny. Did I say that part already?
For instance:
Dear Fandom, Please stop saying could care less when you mean couldn't care less. Yours sincerely, A Concerned Reader.
(Do you see what I mean about the funny? Very funny.)
Of course, my standard for funny involves laughing because both phrases mean the same thing (in spoken English, as commonly used in both the American and British vernacular). Moreover, using the handy dandy Lagnauge Log not-patented Google-relevance search, could care less comes up with twice as many hits as couldn't care less. And while I'm prepared to accept that some large proportion are of people railing about the same mistaken claim of a mistake as ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mctabby, I doubt it's a high enough proportion to account for all 2 million extra hits.
Not that sheer numbers make right, except that in language, they do rather. See also Could care less" occurs more, Caring less with stress, Most of the people in the world could care less, Caring less all the time: A variant of the etymological fallacy, and some cautions about the pragmatics-phonetics connection, and The care less train has left the station. Also see my favorite use of "could care less", which is from Bend It Like Beckham. I don't recall offhand where the usage is, so you'll just have to watch the entire movie to find it.
I'm also amused by Dear Fandom, Please learn how to use punctuation in dialogue. Yours sincerely, A Concerned Reader, because anyone who is versed in both British English and American English knows the two are punctuated differently (n.b.: British usage employed in the previous paragraph). (They are also spelt differently, and even spelled differently.) The punctuation problem is not true of commas or stops in direct speech, but it is true of quotation marks, and, most especially, it is true of quoted material. Not that many people run into this problem, but it does exist, and I'd just as soon we not all learn how to punctuate dialogue in multiple countries.
I'd prefer an icon for Harry Potter fandom that read, Dear Fandom, Please learn the difference between a boot and a trunk, a lift and an elevator, a fanny and a fanny, etc, etc. Yours sincerely, A Fairly Unconcerned Reader. But that could just be me.
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| Recs, Harry Potter |
[17 Dec 2007|09:02pm] |
Defying Gravity, or, Two Weasleys Walk Into a Burrow by Anon (Fred): Christmas during wartime; I still love Book Seven. And Fred trying to make Molly feel better is so sweet; I'm glad she had that, at least.
Complete by Heather (Harry/Hermione/Ron): "Everywhere he looked he saw families reunited, and finally, he saw the two whose company he craved most." Turns out, Hermione craves Harry and Ron as much as Harry craves them; Ron, of course, just goes with the flow.
Carry On by Lionille (Snape, Neville): have I mentioned that my favorite part of Book Seven is Neville? And have I mentioned that Neville is awesome? Snape finds out just how awesome Neville is, and Neville convinces Snape that he's an okay guy, too. I have discovered a strong fondness for tales of Snape's angst that are solved by the discovery that he's not as nasty as he'd like to think he is.
An Elegy for Myself by Voleuse (Hermione, George): oh, George. He is rather saintlike. And Hermione is completely wasted on the Ministry. (Can you tell nothing happens in this story?)
Rosemary and Blue Heliotrope by Anon (Snape/Tonks): so evidently in this fandom, I really like random pairings. And Tonks/Snape makes so much more sense than, well, a lot of things. Rich Rodriguez at Michigan. Amazon spending £2 million on a book. Stuff like that. I'm not so sure about the hand-waviness to explain away Deathly Hallows, but I like this Snape, and I like this Tonks, and I really think they both deserve it.
Pickled Egg by Anon (Harry/Ron): let's ignore the whole egg thing, because thinking about that kind of makes my stomach turn (the hazards of reading about kinks that are not your own, I suppose. I really don't like hard-boiled eggs. Or pickled eggs). I like Seamus in this story, and the irreverent tone. Also, peanuts have never been so erotic.
A Season in Aberdaron by Anon (Lupin/Snape): I have no words to describe how awesome and wonderful and fantastic and wonderful this story is. You can't go to heaven until you get rid of all your luggage -- literally. Your suitcases and trunks and bags follow you around until you get rid of them. It's lovely and wonderful, and really, really, wizardy.
Magical Malady, 2, 3 by Moze and Sahiya (Harry Potter/House; Hermione, Draco, House): House is the patient, Snape is House, Hermione is Cameron but is not sleeping with Chase, which I think is a good thing, especially as Draco is Chase. Harry is Foreman, and I rather think that Harry/Foreman needs to be better represented in fandom.
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| The Ends and the Means (Harry Potter; Minerva/Pomona) |
[02 Dec 2007|04:09pm] |
Rating: explicit sex; implied violence.
Summary: Pomona will supply the means so that Minerva can worry about everything else.
Notes: takes place during Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Written for Ari for the Forty or Better ficathon.
( The Ends and the Means )
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