Ship-Fanon-Cho/Character-Person/Rhetoric/'trash' (1 of 5)

[Petra Pan]

No: HPFGUIDX 51452

Wow.  An avalanche of verbiage.

I may be breaking my own record for 
lateness of reply but I haven't been 
able to give these posts due attention 
until now.  I beg your pardon for this 
fact and for being still days and days 
behind...

Both Amy and I had noticed something 
untoward about the fandom lately.  
Purely by coincidence we ended up 
posting extremely closely to each 
other's lamentations.  My admittedly 
harsh criticisms of those arguments 
conducted by fans who are utterly 
unable to come to conclusion or 
consensus (not even agree to disagree 
and call a stalemate) became confused 
with Amy's metaphor comparing our deep 
desire to return to Hogwarts to our 
inescapable need for sustenance.  
Though parts of our opinions read like 
variations on the same theme, Amy 
should not have to answer to any 
objections provoked by my posts.  For 
not having pointed this out earlier, I 
am sorry.

     *

The feeling that I have not addressed 
in the below all of the concerns is 
nagging at me...I invite you to let me 
know if I've missed anything vital to 
this issue, as detailed thus:

Why I find few insights from arguments 
conducted in simplistic terms between 
warring opinions about a complex 
canon.  Why such debates generate so 
much frustration all around...in those 
witnessing them and those 
participating in them.

One (very lonely) insight: the more 
one side seeks to win the argument 
over its rivals without actually 
gaining any ground, the more convinced 
I am that NONE of them are more valid 
than the others...that in order to see 
JKR's complexity, I will have to NOT 
hold one closer to my heart and mind 
than the others at this point in the 
story.

There are more books to come and 
surely we should seek to read them 
with understanding broadened by having 
participated in discussions...rather 
than read them in search for can(n)ons 
whose usage, in either defense or 
attack, would support a reading of 
JKR's tale that is derived from only 4 
out of a seven-book cycle.

In other words, have we fostered an 
environment that encourages 
reassessment in the face of 
discovering new information as well as 
new insights into familiar territory?  
The next date for the refinement of 
our readings of canon has now been 
officially set for June 21st.

Besides my tardiness in addressing the 
reactions to my posts, I am also 
guilty of being too general.  Let me 
be specific: I am referring to the 
shipping debate and the shipping bias 
that has come into being.  With 
opinions potentially drawn from 5k+ 
members, this list is rarely in true 
danger of preferring dogma to canon.  
Not so in the world of fanfics, where 
the shipping bias is not up for 
discussion.  No need to look up 
passages in canon - just fashion one 
of your own devising.  If you can type 
it, it can become fanon...and even 
fanon has its dogmas.  This is at the 
root of my disquiet.

EvilInFanon!Cho is the best example of 
giving free and unchecked rein to the 
desire for wind in the sail.  Firstly, 
nothing in canon characterizes Cho as 
being unworthy of Harry's attention; 
the emergence of Fanon!Cho has no 
roots whatsoever in canon.  Not in PoA 
and definitely not in GoF.  Is there?

Secondly, though we know only benign 
things about Cho, we barely know her 
better than we know Hedwig!  Any 
unequivocal judgments of Cho is by 
definition a prejudgment.  A positive 
portrayal in fanon has at least some 
basis in canon...but negative ones?

How can such a negative prejudgment be 
so pervasive?  (I'm leaving prejudice 
based on race off the table because I 
can't remember any fanfics uploaded 
into cyberspace that has managed to 
elude even that self-censor.  Are they 
out there?)

If the strongly negative portrayal in 
fanon stems not from Cho the character 
as JKR has delineated so far, then 
perhaps it stems from her narrative 
function as the current focus of 
Harry's romantic interest.  In order 
to develop an alternate relationSHIP, 
many fanfic authors felt obliged to 
address the issue of shifting Harry's 
focus since his reactions to Cho in 
PoA are a drag to the dynamics of 
nautical speed.

To develop an arc to take this 
character into an alternate universe 
where Harry's rejection of someone 
unworthy of his crush can then leave 
him free to be hooked up with someone 
else is perfectly valid.  This goes 
against the barely established but 
uniformly benign direction this 
character is going in canon...but 
proposing alternate character arcs or 
plot points is an AU's reason for 
existence after all.

However, this is rarely (ever?) done 
in this fandom.  Surely I am not the 
only person to find this troubling?  
An astounding proportion of fanfics 
with a strong shipping preference in 
regards to Harry's romantic plotlines 
that mentions Cho do so in Rita 
Skeeter fashion: type what is 
convenient, not what has basis in 
canon or even in what has been 
established as 'previously...in this 
AU...'  Even not addressing Cho as the 
drag on a fanfic author's ship of 
choice would be preferable to 
conducting what equates to a smear 
campaign, y'know.

The inconvenience that is Cho's 
narrative function to shipping has led 
to poor characterization of her in 
fanfics in general.  Poor in terms of 
character development, an absolutely 
essential component in building AU's.  
Poor in terms of canon basis if you're 
more interested in writing companion 
pieces to canon as opposed to AU's.  
Poor in the pragmatic terms of 
remaining topical as the story 
continues to unfold at the hands of 
JKR.

     *

This is really where this thread came 
from.  The subject of 'disliking' Cho, 
a character we barely know in canon 
who gets trashed in fanon.

I should never have jumped into Amy 
and Eileen's thread and posted my 
thoughts on the idea of trashing 
characters without making it 
absolutely clear that I am going off 
on a tangent in expressing my 
suspicions in fingering the tolerance 
for trashing characters to be part of 
how EvilInFanon!Cho came into 
existence.  After Eileen replied, I 
realized that not only do we have very 
different ideas of what 'trashing' 
connotes, but also that I was too 
general.

     *

as Marianne puts it:
> And that makes me wonder if, in our
> minds, we've already designated a
> character to the dustbin, will canon
> evidence in OoP, or later books,
> cause a reassessment? Or, will
> strong canon evidence supporting a
> character's good side be down-played
> in favor of weaker canon evidence
> supporting that disliked character's
> imperfect qualities?
> 
> Maybe we should all take a pledge.
> "I swear that if I find evidence
> that(fill in the blank with the
> character you most love to trash) is
> really an okay person, I will post
> something positive about her/him.

Hear!  Hear!  I would only add sharing 
finding negative thoughts on favorite 
characters too.

I would be very interested to see 
whether people are open to 
reassessment in this fandom.  On this 
list, I would guess we will be.  But 
compared to overhauling a long-form 
fanfic novel, reassessing opinions is 
easy, no?

Have those of you who write fanfics 
given any thoughts as to what you will 
be doing about your labors of love 
right after you finish OotP?  
<seriously evil grin>  You've got 5 
months to prep for that fateful day!  
See, it had occurred to me that as 
much as I am dying to read OotP, if I 
had personally written a fanfic, I 
would feel as much anticipation as 
dread.

For example, if getting the Quidditch 
Cup is as important to me as 'getting' 
Harry, and prior to GoF's debut I had 
written a fanfic trashing Ced from the 
same perspective as the Gryffindor 
boys in terms of seeing Cedric as 
being the evil that beat Harry to the 
Snitch, then I would probably cringe 
when re-reading this in GoF, knowing 
that there shall be no telling of 
story to said grandchildren:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ US HB 72/734

'Ced's talked about you, of course,' 
said Amos Diggory.  'Told us all about 
playing against you last year...I said 
to him, I said -- Ced, that'll be 
something to tell your grandchildren, 
that will...You beat Harry Potter!'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UK PB 68/636

Anyone reading that (non-existing) 
fanfic would cringe too.  Their 
concept of Cedric has been 'tainted' 
by reading canon, see?  Writing 
fanfics for an ongoing series as full 
of complex surprises as the HP series 
has unique pitfalls.  However, letting 
a bias influence one to write 
convenient but OOC characters (as 
opposed to full-blown AU) is a pit of 
a fanfic author's own digging.

I can't even begin to imagine what it 
would be like to invest time and 
effort, blood and tears into stories 
that would have to compete against 
JKR's canon for fans' credence.  I am 
not just talking about EvilInFanon!Cho 
either; she's just the clearest 
example.

(continued)

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