SHIP: Why Mo Has the Right Idea (veering OT)

[Ebony AKA AngieJ]

No: HPFGUIDX 13936

Good evening, list...

Mo wrote:

"Thanks AmyZ! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one and that it's not 
just the R/H-ers. :)  That said, perhaps we could be a little less 
harsh?  I know it gets tedious when you feel you're repeating 
yourself (I teach middle school, I AM a broken record! <g>)"

AMEN!  :::hugs Mo with understanding:::  We middle school teachers, 
IMHO, deserve to be canonized.  Won't make up for the paltry pay and 
the lack of societal respect that accompany the job, but it's a 
start.  :-)

Anyway, I came home from a great day at school (Ancient Egypt is 
FASCINATING, and my kids are loving this unit... more about that on 
the Chatter group, I think) and was looking forward to a sensible 
online discussion on canon ship formation and text vs. subtext.  Last 
night I tried my best to explain my position clearly, thumbing 
through a slew of old posts and straining my brain to save myself a 
flip-through of over 1500 pages of canon.

Instead, I'm reading posts decrying alleged foul play, red cards 
flashing, and rhetoric that contradicts itself within the same post, 
and then goes back to the original reasoning.

The thing that bothers me most about the shipping debates on this 
list is that so many participants won't abide by the rules they 
themselves have requested.  

For the record--if I was an R/H shipper, I was a very reluctant one.  
R/H was never a ship preference for me--it was based upon a number of 
things.  And I'm sure my ship preference was always H/H... because I 
mentally argued with JKR even after coming to a post-GoF, R/H 
conclusion.  Kathy and Elizabeth, I'm intrigued... can you really say 
that H/H was a real preference for you?  Or were you as disquieted on 
the SS H/H as I was on the Good Ship R/H?

If my gut wasn't H/H, there is no way that a bunch of adolescents 
could have persuaded me to their side.  My students have tried to 
persuade me on the merits of everything from anime to Lil' Bow Wow, 
and usually I just stare at them blankly.  And I'm sure I would have 
rejected the inner tube Penny tossed me in July if I hadn't had H/H 
leanings.  

But... so what?  That's why I became a shipper... but then again, I 
ship absolutely *everything*--movies, books, television shows.  So 
this doesn't generate into another round of "How I Became a Fill-in-
the-Blank Shipper", I'll get to the point.

I'm taking the white flag away from Mo, and waving it myself.

I had a list of a half dozen posts that I was going to respond to.  
But this is ceasing to be fun.  I consider redlining argumentative 
essays for consistency in rhetoric work, not recreation.  That isn't 
meant to come across as anything but honest.  When I get to the point 
where I have to delete paragraph in which I e-lecture about the 
difference between facts/inferences/opinions or QARs before I can 
hit "send", it's time for me to be quiet for a while.

Although I love debating in forums online and in real life, I see 
nothing further that I can contribute based on canon to the shipping 
debates on this list.  There are no new books, and I've laid all my 
cards out on the table.  After the 12th, ship posts that have nothing 
to do with canon will be deemed OT and banished to the Chatter group--
and I say it's a Good Thing.  Lately I'm envying the no-shippers--and 
wishing their U-Boat was a real option.  Fandom life seems so easy in 
their submarine.  And none of them are half as misunderstood.  :-)

It's really gotten to the point where I have nothing left to say.

I wrote:
"This is why we don't cluster and only talk to one another all the  
time in places where disparate PoVs are not encouraged.  It gets 
boring talking about how right we are and how much Harry and Hermione 
are meant to be with other like-minded souls.  Not to mention "time 
consuming."  

Mo replied: 
"Now, now Ebony!  I don't think that's fair!  We may have our ship in 
common, but it's hardly an "I sooo agree with you- you're so right-
kiss-kiss-Love Fest."  We enjoy discussing and arguing the books as 
much as anyone. :)"

<vbg> -- I'll leave it at that.  :) 

Mo also said:
"Speaking for myself, I enjoy hearing and discussing other POV's.  
That's why I belong to this list.  I also enjoy a plethora of fanfic, 
which includes several authors that subscribe to this list. :)"

An emphatic "me too"!  Some of my *favorite* people are R/Hers--Kathy 
is a great one for fanfic recommends, B Bennett is one of my Top 20 
fandom writers, and I visit the SugarQuill on a regular basis.  Two 
of my betas are R/H, and one is D/Ha.  The fanfic writers who are 
featured on the list I moderate run the shipping gamut.  The majority 
of fellow HP fans that I chat with on a regular basis (cough!daily!
cough) via IM are *not* H/H.  I'm neither an R/Her nor a slasher, but 
I enjoy visiting their online forums.  That's not shipping--that's 
just being a well-rounded HP obsessive.  :-)  

You see, when HP fandom grows to the point in which we have real 
conventions (don't you dare laugh!  It's coming sooner than you guys 
think!), I want to have dinner with all these people, attend the 
lookalike/costuming contests with them, enter the virtual Quidditch 
tourneys, and engage in a CM filksing with the best of them.  No 
matter *what* their ship or slash preference.

And Mo, I'm sure you'll beat me at chess.  :-)  But that's OK--you 
know that we teachers can talk shop all day, so it'll still be a 
blast!

--Ebony AKA AngieJ

Overheard from one teacher to another:  "They call this a PAYCHECK?  
Well, I call it a tip... and not even fifteen percent, either."