Fic vs. Spec, Lucius, backstories

[ssk7882]

No: HPFGUIDX 35583

Gwen wrote:

> Now, you do realize that all the bouncing back and forth you, 
> Elkins, Eileen, and Tabouli have been indulging in lately is 
> fanfic, right?

<small smile>

Oh, bite your tongue.  It's *speculation.*

No, but seriously, I do see a distinction, albeit a very hazy one.
Both fanfic and fanspec may be seen as attempts to impose ones own
imaginative extrapolations from the original material on others, to
colonize not only the canon itself, but also other people's readings
of the canon.

The rules of engagement, however, are very different.  Fanfic 'defends
its thesis,' so to speak, by seducing its readers through compelling
characterization, polished prose, a riveting plot...in short, through
all of the tools of story-telling as a craft.  Fanspec, OTOH, uses 
the tools of literary analysis in its attempts to convert and sway its
readers.

Of course, the weapons in fiction's arsenal are just plain *better* 
than those at literary analysis' disposal -- they are more convincing,
more compelling, more seductive; they are altogether more effective.
This is one of the major reasons, I suspect, that so many people who 
avoid fanfic altogether out of the fear that it might "sully" the 
canon for them are nonetheless perfectly happy not only to read, but 
even to engage in 'loose canon' speculation.  It is also likely the 
reason that so many people give way to the temptation to enlist some 
of the weapons of fiction, even when they are writing a 
supposedly 'speculative' defense.

There's obviously significant overlap.  Popular speculations often 
seem to me to owe their popularity far less to their canonical 
plausibility as to their fictive appeal.  Neville Has A Memory Charm, 
for example, is certainly canonically defensible -- but is that 
really why people love it so much?  I don't know.  I rather suspect 
that people love it mainly because they think that it makes for a 
rousing good *story.*  We don't love certain speculations because we 
believe them to be true.  Rather, we desperately want them to be 
true, because we love them.

Looking at my own, er, contributions to these undoubtedly infuriating-
to-many threads, I see...complication.  The basic rock-bottom premise
of my Avery fixation, for example -- that Avery has been quite 
consciously and deliberately primed by the author to serve a more 
major role in future volumes -- is dead solid canonical speculation.  
The basic premise of Fourth Man is far less plausible, but still 
canon-based.  But all of the baggage surrounding the theory?  The 
accrual of variations on the theme (Fourth Man With Imperius, Fourth 
Man With SHIP, With Remorse, With Guilt, and so forth)?  The 
discussions of which branch of the MoM Avery should work in and why?  
The actual *depictions* of NervelessHysteric!Avery?

Getting pretty shady, I do agree.

Even poor NervelessHysteric!Avery, though, is really far more an in-
joke than he is a character.  He's not a character at all, really: 
he's a ludicrous caricature of a broken man.  Even in a piece of 
humorous writing, even in a *parody,* he still wouldn't really make 
the fictive grade.  Avery's really more commentary than character.  
He stands in as my personification of an entire collection of genres 
of fannish speculation: Sympathy For the Devil, Redeemable Villain, 
Guilt 'n' Angst, Reader Adoption of Minor Characters, and so forth.

Cupid's Snitch, OTOH, is a far trickier case, because it *is* parody, 
and parody is indeed a type of fiction.  What makes it an odd case, 
though, is that it isn't really parodying the original source 
material at *all* -- it is not a parody of the Harry Potter books in 
the least --  but rather a specific type of backstory speculation 
about the source material.  It's commentary on the commentary, and 
outside of the context of the discussions on this list, it is not 
only utterly unfunny but purely and simply bewildering (as my 
husband's evident puzzlement when I tried to explain it to him made 
abundantly clear).

So I'm not sure *what* to call this sort of thing.  It's really 
neither fanfic nor fanspec, IMO, but (like the silly SHIPping role-
play) some other form of play.  

The Ludic Activity That Dare Not Speak Its Name?  

Perhaps we should just call it "messing about with the props in the 
fictive wreckage while we wait for Book Five comes out," and leave it 
at that. 

So on to a few brief comments on your Malfoy backstory (which I 
absolutely adore, by the way).

On the Plot To Kill Grindlewald:

> I also time this conveniently just before the fall of Grindlewald in
> 1945. . . .Riddle and Malfoy were among a small group who tried to 
> assassinate their erstwhile lord. But before they could do the job, 
> Dumbledore and his merry band arrived on the scene and stopped him 
> for them. 

<nods>

1945.  Grindlewald.  An assassination plot.  And...

Hey!  Gwen, where's the Time-Turner?  You *know* that there has to be 
a Time-Turner involved here somehow, don't you?  How can there be 
impassioned ends-means arguments over the wisdom or the justification 
of going back in time to assassinate Grindlewald without a Time-
Turner?

Please tell me that Dumbledore and his crew are using a Time-Turner, 
Gwen.  Please?  Please?


On the Imperius Defense:

> Oh, yes, in my version, he went to the Ministry within 48 hours to 
> "confess" his involvement (under Imperius, of course). . . .I think 
> that in the wake of the tumultuous and shocking events of 31 
> October 1981, many of the DE's scattered. I think that might have 
> been part of a plan--in case anything should happen. I have a 
> feeling many of the DE's "covered their tracks" on 1-2 November and 
> set their stories straight before they could accidentally 
> incriminate one another. 

Actually, all loose-canon snarkiness aside, that's *precisely* how 
I've been imagining all that going down as well.  It certainly seems 
consistent with Hagrid's description of all of these wizards 
stumbling around confused, as if they'd just come out of trances.  I 
think that if you wanted to make the Imperius defense stick, then 
you'd really *have* to turn yourself in to the Ministry and confess --
and do so before not too much time had passed.  The fact that so 
many of the DEs got away with it has always rather implied to my 
mind, as well, that they must have had a contingency plan already
laid in place.


On Lucius Malfoy's Job:

> Interestingly, the trading cards list him as "underminister," or
> something like it, according to report, but I don't see him being a
> civil servant, even if wizard politics is more like American, with
> campaigning and general elections to top jobs (and of course 
> [corrupt] businessmen going into politics). 

It could be a sinecure that came with the family name and estate.  If 
there was once a wizarding aristocracy, or a wizarding equivalent of 
the House of Lords, then those old families could well have retained 
perks of that sort even once the system as a whole had been 
dismantled.


> Gwen (who refuses point-blank to participate in the list's ongoing
> cyber-action role playing game, but you kids have fun.)


Gwen's words slowly echo away.  The young mermaid on the smaller rock
pushes her scuba mask up onto her forehead and looks around, eyes 
wide.

"But..." she whispers. "But I don't understand.  Where was she 
*speaking* from?"

"I don't know."  Elkins hugs herself hard, shivering.  "That
was...really kind of creepy, wasn't it?"



-- Elkins