Preference versus prediction (was Couplethinking)

[David <dfrankiswork@netscape.net>]

I wrote, massively deploying angle brackets for destraction:
 
> > > > There's also the tricky question of what you think is 'true' 
> > > > or will happen versus what you want to be true - not that 
I've 
> > > > come across anyone with beliefs that strongly contradict 
their 
> > > > references (e.g. "I think canon is firmly R/H but I feel 
Harry 
> > > > is the right person for Hermione").

Elkins wasn't fooled and asked:

> > > Do you mean just when it comes to shipping, David? Or to 
> > > speculations in general? 

The supply of angle brackets running low, I managed:

> > I meant primarily shipping, and then other issues that seem to 
> > animate the fandom generally, such as redeemable Draco. 

Elkins still had some shots in her locker:

> Redeemable Draco?  Really?
> 
> That's odd, because Draco seems to me to be one of the subjects
> on which people *most* frequently cite the discrepancy between 
> how they read the character and how they suspect that JKR actually
> intended them to be reading him.  I've always thought redeemable
> Draco one of the topics about which that discrepancy is the most
> often cited, actually.

OK, I'm out of ammo, so now is the time to withdraw gracefully.  
Dozens of main list posts say Elkins is a more attentive reader than 
I am, so I'm sure the above is true.  I just can't remember it, and 
have to confess I don't know which way round she means.  Who thinks 
Draco is an abominable little tick who deserves the Dementor's Kiss 
but just knows that softie JKR is going to have him throw himself in 
front of the AK intended for Harry?  Who feels Draco is really a 
complex misunderstood and tortured soul who will never be allowed to 
do more than lose Quidditch matches and fail to get the last taunt?

> I've also seen a number of rather pessimistic statements from
> H/H shippers.

Yes to be fair, in my >>>> quote above, I had forgotten that Ebony 
says something similar to what I wrote.

> And of course, I myself desperately dislike
> LOLLIPOPS, while still finding it exceptionally canonically
> plausible.

Now, I do think most LOLLIPOPS sailors like their ship.  Personally, 
I never thought it very plausible, and once Elkins suggested the 
*Pettigrew/Lily* possibility LOLLIPOPS took a hit below the 
waterline as far as my own estimation was concerned.  I mean, how 
*many* life-courses are going to be reversed by desire for her?

> And I think that Snape's task really *is* likely to turn out to
> be the most boring and obvious one of going back to Voldemort, 
> you know -- in spite of the fact that, as all obsessed fans know, 
> this would really be a very foolish and nonsensical and 
unsatisfying 
> thing for it to turn out to be.  ;-)

Well, that's the thing - it seems to me that most fans simply take 
it for granted that that's how it will be, and a minority find it 
unsatisfying, as well as something so obviously signalled that it 
must be a red herring.

David, pursuing his latest ulterior agenda of blurring the 
distinction between on-topic and off-topic

Oh, and BTW, read about LOLLIPOPS in 
www.hpfgu.org.uk/hypotheticalley
if you don't know what it is