Hurt/Comfort, Fictional Men and the Women Who Love Them, Including Writers

[A. Vulgarweed]

No: HPFGUIDX 39266

oh, a subject embarrassingly close to my heart.
Elkins posits:

>
>Why don't all characters partaking of the hurt-comfort dynamic appeal
>equally to all readers?

For all the excellent reasons mentioned, and I would like to underline that
just getting kicked around a lot doesn't suffice. The character in question
I think must be someone who is _powerful_, even a bit _intimidating_, who
has more than a bit of Edge, when he isn't getting kicked around--it's the
*contrast* between power and vulnerability that does it, not just the
vulnerability by itself. I'd say the most archetypal example of this in
fiction that I know of is the relationship between Jane Eyre and Mr.
Rochester. It's not the most politically-correct love story ever, is it?
She's a very young orphan with grim prospects; he's much older than her,
much richer, much more powerful...he's her _employer_! But then, he is
revealed to have a Terrible Secret, to be Lonely and Guilty...and then
there is a FIRE! and his Terrible Secret is revealed and destroyed, and he
himself, who was Almost Snatched Away Into Death and Narrowly Escaped, is
now Shamefully Relieved But Grieving Terribly as well as _physically
handicapped_. And reader, she married him! They're _still_ swooning over
this one.

A really Dead Sexy fictional character, methinks, is one whom
Reader-as-heroine might feel a little bit _afraid of_ *and* protective of
at once, or at different times. To me Snape, Sirius, and Lupin could all
easily fit this criterion (so, I say, could Moody, but I need to get to
know him a little better); Ron does not 'cause he's a *kid*. No Edgey
frisson there--no 14-year-old is commanding enough or has enough of a Past.
(Though  Ron _does_ have a large crush-following among girls near his age
group, almost as big as Draco's--all the Weasley boys do).
>

And Ana suggests:
>
>I always thought something went awry with Snape's characterization.
>

>
And then Porphyria says, damning the torpedoes:

>
>Ha! See I have my own theory, which is basically that JKR is more hot
>for Snape than she wants to admit, but that might be a rather
>idiosyncratic interpretation. :-)

Hee hee heee, see, I think so too! And I think it snuck up on her. Pretty
much everyone who's ever written a decent amount of fiction, decent fiction
or otherwise, has had something like this happen to them (and I'm gonna use
the male pronoun here 'cause that's who we mean, but of course female
characters can do it too): You create a character to fill a plot function.
You carefully choose his archetype/stereotype and have every plan in mind
for him to be a shadowy, possibly very unlikable caricature. And, like
Milton's Lucifer, he dramatically rebels. You find yourself thinking about
him nearly as much as your protagonist. He steals scenes. He schemes in
your ear and behind your back. He does things you *never* intended for him
to do, and yet when you try to change the scenes to fit your original
master plan, to tone him down and keep him in his place, you eventually
have to admit it's not as good as when you let the character do it _his_
way. I'm not saying for _sure_ something like this is happening to Rowling,
I really have no idea...but some of the signs are there. (One good sign is
the way readers react--do they seem fascinated by this supposedly-minor
character beyond all reason?) I do have faith in her ability to ball-gag
him when she needs to: I don't think we'll be reading _Severus Snape and
the Order of the Phoenix_ next year....but y'know, it certainly is a common
and potent phenomenon.

I also wanna throw in for fun, extra-canonical as it is, that....have you
seen any of the stories about, or by, a certain gifted but
rather...acerbic...science teacher who once terrorized little Jo
Rowling,widely acknowledged to be one of the predominant models for Snape?
(There've been a few of these at Leaky Cauldon, I think) Seen any
*pictures* of him? He's really quite...um...Dead Sexy....in a sort of
distinguished gothic
mad-scientist-who-would-probably-be-played-by-Jeremy-Irons-or-(yes!)-Alan-Rickma
n sort of way. Terrorized little Jo might not pick up on this, but the deep
and weird writers-mind of grownup J.K. who's getting her revenge very well
might.

>
>My evidence for this is exactly what you specify here: Snape is
>depicted, especially in anger or extreme emotion, so much more
>*viscerally* than most of the other characters. While consciously we
>ought to regard Snape's profusion of blood, spit and sebum as
>disgusting, there really is something sneakily erotic about it, since
>these are inherently private as well as tactile bodily fluids. For a
>character who is so deliberately enigmatic and guards his privacy so
>fiercely, his body is strangely porous, with stuff that's supposed to
>remain inside leaking outside, or as with the blushing and vein
>throbbing, making an unwelcome appearance, whenever he's in a
>vulnerable situation.

Ooooh. You've read some theory on penetration and the abject, haven't you?
I hear the perverse veracity, the absolute you-know-it's-true of this
statement, even though I don't know what sebum is and am not sure I want to.
>
>OK, lets move on to Lupin, Marina said:
>
><<<
>I'm *extremely* Bent, see, and the problem with Lupin for me is that
>he handles his suffering too well. <...> Lupin goes along through
>life, being kind to everyone who needs his kindness and forgiving to
>everyone who needs his forgiveness, giving out chocolate at the
>appropriate moments. I admire the heck out of him, but he's just too
>darn *sane* for me to crush on, Edge or no Edge.

Oh, but is he? He says very scary things, "lazily." He's certainly
powerful. As has been pointed out repeatedly, he sure can't remember the
potion (needs a Wolfsbane skin patch)...which I take to possibly mean there
might be something deep and dark in there that doesn't _want_ to be in
control. I have no doubt he'd have cheerfully eaten that crunchy-rat and
not even gotten heartburn. Oh, sure, the exhaustion part's kinda dull, but
think about *why* he's tired. Sometimes a man _does_ just need to roll over
and go to sleep, I don't always hold it against him. Imagine the fluids
that werewolves spew.

And what I want to know is--where has he been? He's the only Marauder whose
whereabouts for the past 12 or so years aren't completely accounted for.
How will the werewolf survive? On the streets? Doing what? In the woods?
Hmmmmmm.

working on a case for DeadSexy! Moody now,
scaring myself,
AV
whose boyfriend is nothing like any of these guys--fantasy's a *totally*
different animal.