Polemic, "cannibalism," and Common Wisdom

[Amy Z <lupinesque@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50463

Elkins wrote:

> Yes, okay.  Fair enough, and I'm sorry if I misunderstood your
> intent.  I hadn't understood that you were attempting to
> pick up on one aspect of the discussion and focus solely
> on that aspect.  From where I was sitting, I guess that 
> it looked more like a "shaddup" then like a "let's talk
> about this other thing for a while," probably because last
> August's Twins thread has left me unduly sensitive to
> "shaddups."  I'm sorry that I mischaracterized your intent.

Thank you.
 
> But as to the actual topic that you wanted to discuss: 

And thank you for getting to this, which is starting to interest me 
more and more!

(Me:)

> > Why then is cannibalism on the rise, if indeed it is?

Elkins:
 
> If it is on the rise, then my guess is that it is because
> the purpose of a strongly-stated polemic attack on a
> character or position is to provoke the reader into 
> questioning long-cherished assumptions about specific 
> aspects of the text.
> 
> "Long-cherished" is the relevant term here.  It takes
> a while for the "common wisdom" about characters within 
> a fandom to be established in the first place.  Absent
> that sort of consensus, there is little incentive for
> anyone to write a polemic, because there is no weight
> of "common wisdom" against which one is aware of having
> to push.
> 
> Pippin, for example, writes about Remus Lupin in such
> harsh terms in part, I imagine, because she is aware 
> that there is already a long-standing consensus within 
> the fandom about this character, one which stands in 
> opposition to her own reading.  What the HELL: Hey, 
> Everybody Loves Lupin.  Right?  

Right!  You may or may not remember that I invented that acronym, and 
even though I do love Lupin, in inventing it I was deliberately 
poking fun at his easy lovability.  It's much more interesting to 
talk about Lupin with Pippin's argument in the mix.

I think you have put your finger on the reason behind *some* of the 
character-bashing.  Not all of the posts are so interesting as your 
Twins-as-bullies posts or Pippin's Lupin posts.  I like the ones that 
do question the common wisdom, always with the caveat that they can't 
just be contrary ("Dudley is a kind, thoughtful and sensitive boy!") 
and ought to make some kind of case for themselves, in whatever 
interpretive framework.

Amy Z