Analysis and HP4GU (was Re: On Respect and Kindness)

[Ebony AKA AngieJ]

No: HPFGUIDX 23439

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., caliburncy at y... wrote:
> 
> Ebony's post and all its subsequent responses represent to me a 
call 
> of our attention to a tragedy occuring in our midst.  Although I do 
> not know Ebony at all, I admire her courage in bringing up this 
issue 
> when she might just as well felt stifled enough to remain mute.  I 
> admire the courage of those who have voiced agreement with her 
> sentiments.  


What a nice post, Luke.  However, my feelings were less hurt than you 
might think... I've been on this list long enough to know the cycles 
of such debates, the personalities of the veteran debaters (just as 
they know that I'm extremely sensitive and volatile--occupational 
hazard and heredity), and the fact that there are those who just like 
to disagree for disagreement's sake.  So it wasn't courage at all, 
because I feel like I know these people... I just get nervous about 
posting lately because of the way that things have changed.

For example, David's response to my post was one that I thoroughly 
enjoyed--although we are of differing opinions on the issue--and I 
was going to respond to his post, but I felt rather cut-off in 
midsentence by others.  Now, you will not find a poster who is more 
careful with canon than L.O.O.N. David... but he doesn't brush the 
R.E.S.T. of us aside.

Again, I do not mind nitpicking, having coming up with a Few Good 
Ones myself in my day.  (Even we right brain dominant folks can pull 
a couple of tricks out of that left side from time to time.  :-D)

This is what I think has happened here, and judging from the number 
of e-mails I've gotten off list over the past 24 hours, I don't think 
I'm alone.  I just feel brave enough to say it because it has not 
been addressed yet, but it is a concern that many of those who are 
too intimidated to post have.

Perhaps I can compare canon to a chicken leg (apologies to all 
vegetarians--think of it as tofu!) to explain what I'm thinking 
of.  ;-)

At first, when GoF came out last July, there was plenty of meat on 
the leg for everyone.  Every new post and thread seemed fresh and fun 
and new.  There wasn't a lot of friction at all... because GoF was a 
big book with a lot in it and nothing had been discussed at length 
yet.

After a while, there was less meat on this leg.  Veterans began to 
snap at new members because they came on list asking questions we'd 
already discussed at length before.  This practice continues even 
now... I got chided by three posters for bringing up something a 
month ago that has been discussed before.  This annoyed me for two 
reasons:  1) it hadn't been discussed in MONTHS and 2) we have never 
come to a consensus about it since I've been a member... and for a 
project Heidi and I worked on this spring I had to read all the 
archived posts, so I basically have an idea of every single thread 
that's ever come up here and I *knew* for a fact that it was OK to 
discuss.  I am sure that at least one of the people in question 
hasn't done *that*.  

IMHO, if consensus has not been reached on an issue, then it has 
effectively been tabled and is open for debate at a later time.  I 
have said this for MONTHS on end--why in the world get upset with a 
newbie or a veteran when they rehash if the post is OK according to 
the guidelines?  There are other newbies who just may want to discuss 
the issue but are afraid of the backlash--WHY should people feel as 
if they have to apologize all over their induction post?  "I'm so 
sorry if this has been discussed before, but... (some point about 
wand order/Dumbledore's gleam/number of students)."  SO WHAT?  Let 
them say what they want!  Some of the same people who regularly "tsk 
tsk" at rehash have absolutely no problem when THEIR pet threads are 
rehashed. 

What I think has happened now--and this is just my opinion--is that 
many of us who have been around for a while feel that we have picked 
the chicken bone that is Books 1-4 clean.  Even the gristle is gone.  
So half of us are full... and the other half are busily cracking into 
the marrow.

I'm on a couple of literary discussion lists where canon is actually 
closed... the writers are dead and the books are classics.  But you 
don't have the same feeling of "picking bones".  And indeed, you have 
several levels of posting on those lists, from lighthearted teen 
musings about why they love a certain character or scene to 
scholars/archivists who specialize in that particular author.  Rather 
than the disdain for the "less sophisticated" that I've seen here 
(and don't SAY that it doesn't exist here--it does!), the learned are 
tolerant of the foibles of children and the "foolish".

Believe me when I say that I DO appreciate analysis and logic.  I 
teach Advanced Placement Composition.  I'm entering my second year as 
an English grad in rhetoric and composition studies (minor in 
creative writing)... which means I am actually planning to study and 
analyze how people write for a living.  So analysis is really my 
bread and butter... but a bit of what I've observed here while mainly 
lurking this spring and summer is IMHO utterly and absolutely 
ridiculous.  My grad school colleagues and I have a term for such 
practices.

As I've said, to each their own.  But I think I'll pass on day-to-day 
viewing of the list and wait until the movie comes out.  Although 
judging from the subtle undertone I've picked up from following the 
preliminary discussions about it, I suppose we'll just hack that to 
death too, won't we?

Ah.  Love you guys anyway.

--Ebony AKA AngieJ