Based?

[derannimer]

David wrote: 

>My question - I would particularly like authors of fiction to share 
>their own experience here - is: Is this a valid form of reasoning? 
>In the particular case where a character is assumed based on the 
>author (I have seen Hermione described as 'JKR's avatar'), is it 
>valid to deduce that future plot developments will follow the 
>supposed wishes of the author, or avoid her supposed mistakes ("X is 
>based on Arantes so Hermione will never get together with *him*!")?

>I always feel these sorts of arguments come perilously close to 
>accusing JKR of Mary-Sue-ism myself, but I would like to know.

Well, I'm not an author, but I'll have a whack at it. 

I agree mostly with what you're saying--JKR is not writing Hermione 
as wish fulfillment, the character has an identity and a validity of 
her own, and JKR isn't writing the series to parallel her own life. 

However. 

Since Hermione is so very close to JKR--in one interview, JKR says 
that, although many characters end up far from their "bases," that 
hasn't happened with Hermione--I think that, to *some* extent, we may 
be able to predict some things about Hermione's character, tastes, 
and *identity* based on what we know of JKR. I don't think for one 
minute that we can predict what's going to *happen* to Hermione based 
on what's happened to JKR; but I think we may be able to predict--
*somewhat*--how Hermione will react *to* what happens to her, based 
on how JKR would react, in similar circumstances. 

To take your specific example, no, I don't think we can 
say: "Hermione is JKR, Ron is Sean, Hermione's life parallels JKR's, 
so we can make a prediction of what's going to happen."

But, and, as a confirmed H/Her, I'm going to try to step carefully 
here, it *may*--may--be possible to say "Hermione is JKR, Ron is 
Sean, Hermione's tastes parallel JKR's, so we can make a prediction 
of what Hermione would *like* to have happen." 

In other words, I think we cannot use it to predict plot points; but 
I think we might be able to use it as an aid to a character study. 

The example used is kind of a tricky one, though, because SHIPping 
plot points largely *grow out of* the characters of characters; the 
two questions become basically the same question. I would be 
interested in taking a different plot example, and one more 
independent of Hermione's basic personality, to answer the question 
for. 

But I can't think of one. Also my computer is doing some very weird 
things, and I suspect that it might send me offline again in a 
minute. Consider yourselves lucky--or not, of course--if you even get 
this. 

Oh, well. 

I agree though--it is an interesting question to think about. 



Derannimer (who wonders why all the down arrows on Internet Explorer 
have been replaced by 6's. And why she can't open Word.)