/Hurt/comfort/Elkins post about Draco

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 156270

> >>Alla:
> <snip>
> What I was trying to say to Betsy is that I don't see 
> **hurt/comfort** as a technique ( but again, I am ready to stay 
> corrected on it).
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I don't think it's a specific *literary* technique (all you English 
teachers and editors out there, feel free to correct me <g>) but 
it's definitely a *story-telling* technique.  And it's one that's as 
old as the hills.  You show how macho and manly your hero is by 
showing his grace under pressure; his strength and endurance under 
tough physical strain or crushing psychological strain.

(I believe the "hurt/comfort" moniker came around with fanfic, to 
help designate the sort of fiction that *really* turned the screws 
on the hero.)

Here's Elkins defining "hurt/comfort", so we know exactly what she 
was referring to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/39083
> <snip>
> What "Hurt-Comfort" comes down to is the fact that women are just
> plain Bent, and adolescent girls even more so. They *like* to see
> male characters suffer, so long as they do so with some degree of
> manly dignity, because it turns them on. Male vulnerability garners
> their sympathy, and it also kind of excites them. They like
> it. No one ever wants to 'fess up to this, but it's true. Just look
> at the characters most often fixated upon as drool-worthy by JKR's
> adult female readers, will you? Lupin. Sirius. Snape.

> We all know what's *really* going on there, don't we? Are we all
> grown-up enough to admit it? All three of those characters have
> erotic appeal primarily because they all *suffer* so much.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Harking back to my Feminist Literature course in college, part of 
the requirement for the hero in Romance novels (which are *highly* 
formulaic) is that the hero suffer.  For the above reason.  It 
helped insure that the reader found him attractive.

Whether JKR instinctually realizes it, or whether she intellectually 
realizes it, she *does* put her heroes through hurt/comfort type 
scenes.  And if the person being tortured is *not* supposed to come 
across well, JKR (as Elkins pointed out) carefully undercuts them.  
She doesn't do that with Draco.  And pointing that out is an 
intellectual form of analysis, since it comes down to word choice 
and character reaction.  All of which an author has complete control 
over.

> >>Alla:
> It **may** match the description as you said, but I am not sure    
> that writer consciously uses it, but more like us fans see the    
> **choice of words** where we want to see it,where we want to 
> accept the character as sympathetic. 
> That is where IMO our emotions may come in too, to make us         
> **look** for something in the text to justify us seeing the       
> character as sympathetic, where the author may or may not intend   
> it.

Betsy Hp:
I concede that it's the emotional reading that can send someone 
looking for intellectual backup.  i.e. "I like Draco.  Am I supposed 
to like Draco? On the surface it seems like I shouldn't, but let's 
take a closer look."  But it's an intellectual analysis that points 
out the places where JKR is ambiguous. i.e. "Ooh, *this* is 
interesting.  Why doesn't JKR have Draco behaving like a big giant 
sissy when he's under extreme duress?  Could she be playing a game 
with the reader, that clever little minx?"  And then you post your 
findings to HPfGU's and massive discussions occur. <g>

> >>Magpie:
> The fans may or may not react a certain way to certain words, but 
> the author is always choosing the words she wants to choose. It's 
> true that we all are going to lean towards our own instinctive     
> reaction to a character, but whether the words are there are not   
> is objective. 
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
And honestly, I think it's *because* JKR chooses to take an 
ambiguous path that we have so much fodder for intellectual 
discussion.  If, for example, Dudley shoved Harry into the wall and 
tore a package of ton-tongue toffees out of Harry's hand, it would 
be a lot harder to argue the muggle-baiting side.  That we have 
Dudley slinking about in fear makes such discussions possible.  (On 
the flip side, if Dudley had apologized to Harry and tried very hard 
to make Harry's life easier, it would be harder to argue the "he 
derserved it" line.)

That JKR has been ambiguous with Draco (giving him hurt/comfort 
scenes usually reserved for the hero, for example) is right there in 
the text.  So it's very possible to analyze it, intellectually.

Betsy Hp