Fanfics with slash & sex...I don't get it

[Anne <urbana@charter.net>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Meira B" <mb2910 at h...> wrote:
> ER wrote:
> Maybe upsetting to very young children, but otherwise just part of 
a fairly 
> gentle story. Cedric was killed (very cleanly and painlessly as far 
as the 
> reader is concerned), but big deal. Who cared about him? 

> Me:
> *gags, spluttering her tea all over the keyboard*
> Excuse me??
> "big deal"? "Who cared about him?"???
> Maybe the "little we did know was ... popped into GoF just to make 
him 
> slightly less of a minor-character when he did get killed" but he 
*did* get 
> killed. And he was harmless. And his death was pointless and 
stupid. And 
> ruthless.
> Tell me, ER, when you read about that high cold voice saying "kill 
the 
> spare", didn't you feel the itsy-bitiest tiny bit of goosebumps and 
chills 
> up your spine? I stared at that particular passage for who-knows-
how-long 
> before I managed to go on reading. And the suddenness is just... so 
sudden.

I've only read GoF once (so far) but I read it aloud to my daughter. 
And when I came to that part, I thought I was going to throw up. I 
think I must have paused for close to a minute (while trying to get 
my voice back so I wouldn't be sobbing) before I went on with the 
story.

> If you feel "big-deal" and "who cares about him" in regards to 
Cedric, how 
> do you feel about the Riddle's Gardener, Frank? was he 
insubstantial and 
> meaningless too?

I don't think the death of *any* character in the Potterverse 
(especially on the Light Side) is or will be insubstantial or 
meaningless. JKR plans her books too carefully to do that to us, and 
as we've discovered throughout the books, details and characters that 
may seem inconsequential at first reading often turn about to be 
crucially important later (e.g. the Weasleys-in-Egypt photo that 
shows Scabbers with a toe missing).


> and when CoS turns up in VCR, and when the PoA movie premiers...
> *waves the Ralph Fiennes for Lupin flag*


 ME TOO!! ME TOO! :-) I hope I won't be disappointed, but I won't 
hold my breath waiting for it to happen either.
> 

Back to the slash & sex discussion (which has been very interesting). 
I haven't really read much slash fic yet because ... well, hmmm... I 
guess I'm just not particularly interested in slash. Stacy Hart's 
Darkly Inclined series has some slash in it, but it's between adult 
characters and the sexual relationship is not graphic. Personally I 
don't like graphic sexuality (e.g. "soft porn" or more) among any of 
the HP characters, *especially* not the teenagers -- but that's just 
my preference. However, IMO the synopsis of the story, and especially 
the "rating", ought to be descriptive enough to help me decide 
whether I'm likely to feel squicked. I started reading one fan fic 
that had *NO* rating on it, foolishly thinking (based on the title) 
that it was PG13 at worst, and discovered that it was filled with 
extremely graphic (I'd say NC17, not just R) sexuality between 
teenage HP characters, which seriously squicked me. It was a multi-
chapter story and I stopped reading in the middle of the second 
chapter, when it seemed to me that the frequency and explicitness of 
the sex was probably going to increase through the rest of the story. 
(If anyone wants to know what story I'm referring to, I'd be glad to 
tell you offline, rather than possibly embarrass the author here in 
case s/he is a member of this group.)

Sorry, I guess I've rambled a bit. I *prefer* fan fics that are "in 
the style" of JKR in terms of both the writing and the storyline. I 
also *prefer* to know the level of sexual explicitness before I start 
reading. But that's just me. 

Anne U
(de gustibus non disputandum est)