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

[meira_q <mb2910@hotmail.com>]

ER:
> "bel" wrote -

ME:
I'm usually known as Meira, thankyouverymuch...


ME: 
> > IMO, this is leading up to making a point that every person might 
> find something different to get offended by. Personally, I would be 
> very offended if JKR would write the Slytherins (any of them) as 
> smokers, or as addicted to drugs, or alcoholics. It just doesn't 
add up.

ER: 
> Strange, if you'd asked me I'd have said that was just _their_ sort 
> of thing! You're a Slytherin fan, right?

ME:
Yes I am. I like them. Probably fanon is interfering here, but you 
know how Ron says that "all bad witches came from Slytherin"?

OK, just spent about 10 minutes leafing through PS (wouldn't want to 
have a movie contamination here *g*)

Anyway, Hagrid says to Harry when they're in Diagon Alley buying 
Harry's school stuff (and *not* Ron, while waiting to be sorted - 
TCTMNBN: "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who 
wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one." (p. 62 in the Bloomsbury 
edition)

That doesn't mean that ALL those who went to Slytherin went bad. And 
the same way that it's not technology that is bad, but the people who 
use it, same thing could be applied to magic, I assume. The magic 
isn't bad, the people who use it are.

And probably my aversion from punk, drug-addicted Slytherins come 
from terrible fanfiction characterizations.

I can't hear Lucius (for example) saying "Bumblebore". Somehow, I 
think it's "beneath" him. I know that there are occasions in which 
Draco says "Potty and the Weasel", but that is just childish 
behavior. I would like to see him grow out of it.

And remember Peter Pettigrew? I bet 10 imaginary Galleons that he 
wasn't the only Gryffindor who went bad.

ME:
> >And another thing that would offend me is if Blaize turned out to 
be 
> a girl. (there are many other things, but these are just my 
> conceptions of the characters, and I would go on reading the series 
> regardless, just cos I like it :)).

ER: 
> Blaize???
> 

ME:
Sorry, misspelled his/her name (I can never remember if it's with 
a 's' or with a 'z').
I meant Blaise Zabini

ER:
> > I agree. Warnings are in place, to avoid something that ickles 
you. 
> Nothing wrong with that.
> 
> I agree too!

Me:
But some people pointed out here, that there are people who are 
ickled by Het. So shouldn't there be warnings in those too?
a rating for amounts of sex and/or violence, and which pairing. It's 
not difficult to figure out what it's all about when it 
says "Hermione/Krum", or "Hermione/Ginny" or "Snape/Harry" etc, etc.
Another very helpful thing, would be to write the whole name, and not 
just the initials (Harry/Draco instead of H/D).

ER: 
> >>JK's books are designed to be read by children and I think 
> the "violence" is pantomime stuff.

ME: 
> > No it isn't! The violence there is very real.

ER: 
> I guess this is just a question of how one reads it. Maybe I'm just 
> jaded, but to me there are no _nasty_ death scenes or maimings in 
the 
> book. Harry gets stabbed with a basilisks fang or whatever and hey-
> presto there's a ruddy bird on his shoulder giving CPR :) But 
> obviously everybody reacts differently. I think "Heidi Tandy" said 
> earlier that when they brought Cedric's body back, that made her 
cry. 
> This is simply something I can't understand :( But, I still love 
the 
> books!

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.
> 

ER:
> Not sure it was pointless, JK probably put it there for a reason, 
> it's just that it didn't give me goosebumps. Honest.
> 

ME:
> >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?

ER: 
> I know nothing of him, so I can't really comment. But his death 
> didn't upset me. Did it move you? I'm sure you must think I'm a 
> heartless old bastard, but, really, I'm not :) It just that none of 
> these death scenes has anything to grab at me inner vitals.

K responded to this by saying:
I don't think that's what she meant by pointless. (I could be wrong, 
but that's not how I read it) I think she meant it in the sense of a 
senseless death - Voldemort had no real reason to kill him other than 
the fact that he had no reason *not* to.
He wasn't a threat but Voldemort killed him because he could.
In the sense of the book of course it wasn't pointless - it very 
quickly and very simply showed us what kind of an evil Voldemort 
really was. It showed us that he doesn't just kill because he needs 
to or because someone's a threat but because he can. That the act 
itself was committed so casually showed us his character far more 
easily than pages of talking could have done. A very nice exampl of 
show don't tell. IMHO a good author is one who can write one short 
scene about a character and leave you *knowing* so much about them 
that it would have taken pages for him/her to describe that character.

ME:
Yes, thank you, that is exactly what I meant.

ME: 
> > Maybe except History of Magic ;).

ER: 
> Yeah, you're right there. Goblin Revolutions must be about as 
> interesting as the Corn Laws, especially at age 14 or so. A little 
> like being made to read Jane Eyre at that age too! And this just 
> reminds of something I thought of once (sad or what) - do the 
> Hogwarts' pupils have English or Maths lessons? Or are they just 
> expect to write literate yard-long essays without any teaching on 
the 
> subject of grammar and wotnot?

ME: 
What are Corn Laws?
Urgh... next semester one of the things we're supposed to read *is* 
Jane Eyre. I've avoided that book my whole life as if I were roaming 
around after lights out trying not to run into Mrs. Norris ^-^.

Me:  
> >We have no way of knowing that [re bullying]. What about the 
> Marauders tormenting Snape? 
> or Draco and his cronies tormenting Neville?

ER: 
> I'd argue (again) that it's not sustained, and that an occasional 
bit 
> of roughing up is all part of learning to cope with life and some 
of 
> the unpleasant people that populate it, but I suppose we just don't 
> know. And I suppose on those grounds, now I think about it, that 
> might mean that there is bullying since there would be in a real 
> school. Strange in a way that JK hasn't tackled this more, her 
being 
> an ex-school-teacher and all that. But (he suddenly thinks), she 
> didn't to upset some of her younger readers who are being bullied?

ME:
Didn't JKR say in one of her interviews that she didn't write stuff 
based on what would upset people and what wouldn't?


ME:
> >Well, just the fact that it's *fanfic* makes it non-canon, doesn't 
> it? No one but JKR can write exactly what JKR has in mind. 
Everything 
> else is just personal interpretation, even TCTMNBN.
> 
ER:
> Taken to the nth-degree, no doubt, but I think more generally 
people 
> can abide by what canon is available and try and write the 
characters 
> as in-character as they can. Perhaps we need a FanFriction category!

ME:
You've never read Snitch!, have you? *g*
Excellently and brilliantly in-character and totally AU (Alternate 
Universe), and just wuvly and wonderful, and very slashy and nothing 
like what JKR probably had in mind.

If people were to write only the way JKR meant us to, then we'd only 
get Harry's POV. a sizeable chunk of fanfics, methinks, definitely do 
not apply to this.

What would be the fun of reading only JKR style fanfic?
that would be as much fun as looking at fanart only if it's exact 
portrayals of the actors in the movies. Blergh...
(Or, like Weird Al says "about as much fun as watching paint dry" 
in "I Can't Watch This" ;))

ME: 
> > I never lost a good night's sleep.

ER: 
> Give it twenty years or so ...

ME:
Amazing what snipping does, isn't it *g*? you make me sound like I 
*never ever* went through the night roaming the house bleary eyed in 
my pj's, trying everything from drinking milk to watching the "snow" 
on TV to try sleeping.
I meant that fanfic is not something that I'd lose a night's sleep 
over.

ME:
> > But now I'm determined to write a fic exploring that particular 
> ship [Harry/Neville] *g*)

ER:
> Do let us now when you're finished. Just tag a "warning" on the 
> front ;)

ME:
Why, of course.

Meira (who hopes no one will call her "bel" again)