Characterizations: Rowling vs. Steele

[Cassandra Claire]

No: HPFGUIDX 8039

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, Penny & Bryce Linsenmayer 
<pennylin at s...> wrote:
Ebony wrote: Soapbox unrelated to Jim's post:  A common misconception 
is that Paradigm of Uncertainty (as one R/H shipper termed it, "the 
H/H Bible") is purely or primarily romance.  But it, its prequel ASA,
and  its sequel STNE are classified as *mysteries*!  If these stories
were made into movies, they wouldn't be shelved between the Jane
Austen movies and the Meg Ryan flicks.  They would go into the
action/adventure or drama category.
> 
Penny wrote: "Bravo, Ebony!  Thanks.  Carole & I did classify ASA as 
a romance, simply because we perceived our action plot wasn't nearly 
as central to the fic we were planning as it is in PoU.  PoU is 
correctly classified as  mystery (could also go under action or drama 
easily enough).  It has a strong romance subplot, no question about 
that.  But, it is primarily a mystery in my mind."

Oh, I'll go ahead and 'me too' that...why not. (*grins about the 'H/H 
Bible' term...I think I remember seeing that.*) While the romance 
subplot is central to both PoU and ASA neither one of them is *only* 
romance and I think PoU is correctly classified as a mystery. While 
ASA has both romance and a mystery plotlines, I would probably 
characterize it as drama since it deals with all sorts of 
relationships, not just romantic ones...although as Ebony pointed out 
there are all sorts of love and a story lacking in any sort of love 
at all would be pretty tedious. There might not be much in the way of 
romantic love in the canon at this point, but there's plenty of other 
kinds of love to keep it interesting...Harry's mother's love for him, 
Sirius' love for his friends and for Harry, Harry and Hermione and 
Ron's friendship for each other approaches love IMHO.

Ebony wrote: Cassie classified her Draco Dormiens series as 
romance... but it's  more romantic comedy, and DS would be 
action/adventure also IMO.
> 
Penny wrote: I would agree with that as well.

Yes...I had a hard time deciding how to classify DD, since it was 
meant to be humor primarily, then romance and mystery, but I finally 
classified it as  romance so as to avoid the rage of those who hate 
seeing *any*  romance in their HP fics -- I figured they might as 
well be warned. I  also agree about DS being action/adventure and 
have changed its  categorization on ff.net to reflect that. (If only 
they had a  romantic comedy adventure category, but alas...)
  
Ebony wrote: I've seen a few knock these ladies and other popular 
writers in the fandom for the "shippiness" (I tend to think it's sour
 grapes... if I don't like something I just don't recommend it, 
instead of going around ranting).
 
Thanks Ebony. <g> Hey, I'm happy just to be insulted in the same 
category as Lori, Penny and Carole. But it's nice to be defended. I 
guess I have two Patronuses now, a Heidi-shaped one and an Ebony-
shaped one...

Cassie