What if. . .What if it's a dud?

[Ebony <selah_1977@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51944

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Debbie <debmclain at y...>" 
<debmclain at y...> wrote:
> Hmmmm...however, my guess though, is that for people it did spoil 
it 
> for, would have left the group. The ones it didn't, will still be 
> here. So even if Grey Wolf or Cindy or Flying Ford Anglia or one of 
> the many versions of PipSqueak!/Pippin/Pip64 answered, I assume 
they 
> would say it either only made it more enjoyable or didn't change 
> anything. Not that I would EVER think to speak for any of 
them....in 
> fact, I would love to hear what they really think.


Well, although I wasn't mentioned in the post, I precede a couple of 
those who were mentioned, and want to chime in.

Neil is right when he says a lot of us who were around then have 
retreated to lurkdom.  Not because GoF was spoiled, but because 
nearly three years have elasped and we're pretty much all discussed 
out.

Some oldbies discussed to their heart's content and then unsubbed or 
proceeded to ignore the list.  Many said they'd be back when Book 
Five came around (and you've got to realize that the date kept 
changing... none of us would have ever dreamed it would have taken so 
long!).

Then other olbies became part of the ADMIN/Mod team here on the list 
once our numbers expanded.  When I joined in July 2000, there were a 
few hundred people here.  I remember thinking it'd be an awesome 
miracle to get to even 1000.  *laughs*

Still other oldbies retreated to the far-flung Outer Rim of the 
fandom.  Many of us began writing fanfic.  Some started Harry Potter 
fanon and canon websites like FictionAlley and the SugarQuill.  
Others are pushing the envelope in the "Knockturn Alley" spaces of 
the fandom, writing, drawing, and chatting about some of the edgier 
and darker aspects of fanon.

But mostly everyone I first met in July 2000 is still around these 
parts in some capacity.  We're quiet because the conversations that 
excite you now excited us 2-3 years ago, and we're all talked out.  
We'd rather go play in fanon or concoct elaborate theoretical 
deconstructions of the book to sustain our interest than to spoil 
your fun.

Yes, there are some oldbies that still post and keep up with the 
list.  This is because some of us are sprinters and others are long-
distance runners, I suppose.

So.  

What are my thoughts on this issue?

I'll tackle the easier, secondary question first.

I don't think I'm unduly worried about HP4GU spoiling my enjoyment of 
OotP.  This is because I'm on the fanon side of things and have a 
very high "canon-contamination" tolerance.  I am a fanfiction reader 
and writer, and I've seen these characters in just about every 
imaginable situation possible.  But nothing I've ever read bothered 
my view of canon because I always can "hear" an author's voice as 
they write.  No one in fanon's voice is at all close to JKR's.  

So I can read Cassie's Draco Trilogy or Heidi's Surfeit of Curses and 
adore Draco... and then get in my car, pop in PoA on tape, and 
absolutely despise him.  I can be intrigued by Viola's Tom Riddle in 
Dreamwalk Blue... and then disgusted by Voldemort at the beginning 
and end of GoF.  I can sigh and swoon over Lori's Harry in Hero With 
a Thousand Faces... and then re-read PS/SS and want to mother him.  I 
can write about the Hogwarts kids all grown-up, with very grown-up 
problems and issues and conversations, even with kids of their own, 
and then re-read canon and laugh and feel like I'm twelve again.  
Same with the movies, which occupy yet *another* space in my mind 
distinct and separate from canon.

To me, fanfiction is like borrowing the characters and dressing them 
up and putting them in a fun play for you and your friends' benefit.  
Good fanfiction constantly asks "What if?"  The online aspect of it 
has made it a collective act of homage and entertainment.  

But in the end, these are JKR's kids, and I cannot wait to retreat 
into my private book-world this June... where the story is being told 
for just me.  When I read a good book, the book almost becomes like 
Tom Riddle's diary in CoS or Dumbledore's pensieve in GoF... I'm 
there, standing beside the characters, watching, taking it in, 
breathing in their world.

So yes, if fanfiction hasn't tainted canon for me, I don't see where 
talking about the books and theorizing about them would.  The 
greatest thing about fanfiction is that to me it *is* the ultimate 
theorizing, when it is done well... for instance, I can't imagine how 
many HP4GU posts it would have taken Barb to explain all the many 
canon-plausible theories that form the basis of the Psychic Serpent 
trilogy in regular essay or TBAY format.  The SHIP discussions here 
of two winters hence are what made me start writing fanfiction, 
having the mind that "I can show them better than I can tell them."  
Different strokes, folks.

I think I'm lucky because I can draw the line between fanon and 
canon.  I realize that there are some people in the fandom who can't.

To answer Cindy's question... "What if it's a dud?"

For me, that's impossible.

Harry is the central focus of my reading the series.  He is my 
favorite character, the one through whom I focalize the text, the one 
whose concerns I care about, the one whose friends I like and whose 
enemies I despise.  He's the one I've loved watching grow up in the 
narrative, evolve, and change through the experiences he has.

Everything else for me is sort of peripheral.  So is every other 
character, even my favorites.  So what if Dumbledore is a spy?  So 
what if certain ones of the kids date?  So what if Sirius is caught 
by the Ministry and Remus is somehow stuck in wolf form?  So what if 
we never get much Snape onscreen time?  

The magic of this series for me isn't the supporting cast, as great 
and wonderful as they are... as much as it'll be like reuniting with 
old friends... as much as I'm looking forward to seeing the gang back.

It's all about Harry.

As one of my students says, "Most of the time, I don't always care 
about the main character or hero of a story.  But I really care about 
what happens to Harry.  I want him to be okay."  Amen.

I guess it's because GoF was already a disappointment for me on a few 
levels.  I adored the books, but it raised more questions than gave 
answers for the questions I'd generated in PoA.  The ending felt 
incomplete to me.  And there were a lot of plot threads I frowned 
over:  Ron's character development.  Harry being a Triwizard Champ in 
the first place.  Crouch-as-Moody.  So yes, I can critique JKR and 
still... still that first reading of GoF was like a rush.  I can 
remember it like it was yesterday.  I don't think OotP will be any 
different.

And in the end, that's why I'm still here.  Three years ago I joined 
the group two weeks after the GoF UK and North American release.  
When we were first compiling the FAQs, part of my assignment was to 
add the postings from that weekend.  And it was so awesome to read 
the excitement of everyone who was around then... awesome to read of 
their bookstore parties and first impressions and fun.

The online Harry Potter fandom (that part of it that consists of 
older teens and adults, at least) was a tiny place back then.  At a 
few hundred folks, it seemed as if everyone knew everyone, and even 
when I joined, there wasn't a sense of historicism at all.  
Everything was new and exciting.

Now, HP fandom is older, and more layered, and more complex and 
balkanized.  Where we once counted folks in a few hundreds, we now 
count them in the many tens of thousands fandomwide (and by year's 
end, if OotP is at least fair to middling as far as critical acclaim 
goes, I wouldn't blink at us edging towards an insane high watermark 
of approaching 50,000).  So it's a very different ballgame.

But it's one that is very exciting... and very fun to anticipate.

So OotP, a dud?

Not on your life.


--Ebony AKA AngieJ