Hating characters / Owing fans / Eco

[catlady_de_los_angeles]

Happy Birthdays to Witch Wanda, Laura animalsbaby, and Mary Ann's son.

Anna St Bacchus wrote:

> Why do Fudge and the Dursleys inspire so much anger compared to 
> Voldemort the genocidal maniac? 

I possibly hate Karkaroff the worst, worse even than Pettigrew, and 
there is NO REASON to think that Karkaroff did the worst things! I 
hate Karkaroff more than Lucius even tho' I believe that Lucius is 
far more evil than Karkaroff. Fudge is distasteful but the Dursleys 
aren't worth my attention.

Pippin wrote:

> I don't really understand the "obligation to the fans" thing. The
> only thing I've paid for is the merchandise I've already received.
> I don't feel like any one owes me anything in exchange for whatever
> contributions I've made to the hype and the hoopla.

I don't think it has anything to do with anyone owing us anything for 
us having increased sales by joining in the hype and hoopla. What JKR 
owes to the fan is not because the fans did something for her (except 
exist -- if Book 1 had sunk like a lead balloon so there were never 
any more volumes, i.e. there were too few readers to count, she would 
not owe the readers the rest of the series).

JKR owes the readers the rest of the series. She has set up this 
seven-volume plot full of mysteries, AND given interviews in which 
she says she can't reveal this or that information now because it's 
important in a future book. IE She PROMISED us the whole story. So 
she must try to keep her promise by giving us the whole story. She 
should have a notebook with the answers and leave it to a literary 
executor to publish if, God(s) forbid, she dies before finishing 
writing all the books.

Barb wrote:

> (but William of Baskerville is VERY derivative of Holmes),

That's not 'derivative', it's 'hommage'. In fanfic, it's a fannish 
in-joke. In literative, it's some kind of philosophical statement on 
self-referentiality. I enjoyed the book NAME OF THE ROSE, but had 
this feeling that the Library was a game world invented by a grown-up 
frpg gamemaster... The stuff us low-brows do for childish fun is 
Great Art when high-brows do it.