A bit frustrated with fandom at the moment - DH spoilers

[anne_t_squires]

No: HPFGUIDX 172894

 "Lisa" <seuferer at ...> wrote:
>
> > va32h here:
> >
> > I have seen this attitude in several forums and quite frankly, it's
> > infuriating to me that we are expected to treat Deathly Hallows with
> > nothing less than reverence, as if JKR had descended from the mount
> > with the text inscribed upon slabs, instead of selling it to us at
> > $35 a pop. <snip the rest>
> 
> This is not at all what I said.  I agree that we have every right to
> criticise and explore the holes in the story and the missing
> information that we'd wished she'd put in/explained/etc.
> 
> There is a difference between critiquing the WRITING and flaming the
> WRITER.
> 
> To say - as I have seen mulitple times in the various fandom
> communities now - that JKR should not have done a 'battle at Hogwarts'
> or an 'Epilogue at the train station with sappy
> children-named-after-the-dead' because it was sappy and overdone,
> already in FANFICTION is to rob JKR of the right and ownership of her
> characters and her story.
> 
> My frustration and concern is the people who want to flame the whole
> series, in general and the author specifically, rather than rationally
> discuss and explore the text of the story and the characters involved.
> 
> No one made anyone pay any money for these books.  If we didn't like
> them, we didn't have to buy them, read them, absorb them.
> 
> Critique is good and constructive.
> 
> Personal attack of the author is unnecessary.
> 
> Lisa
>
Anne Squires:

I agree with every single word that Lisa wrote.  I remember after HBP
that people had similar reactions. It shocked me because I had only
been in the fandom since 2004.  I think a couple of things are gong on.

Excuse the following rant please.


  Some (not all) readers of fanfic are very immersed in the fanfic
portion of the fandom and have read literally hundreds and hundreds,
maybe even thousands of stories. (I know I have.) They don't seem to
realize that  it would be impossible for JKR not to repeat some scenes
that appear in fanfic.  They also don't seem to acknowledge that many
(no, make that all) writers of fanfic are picking up on themes that
JKR laid out herself.  It's true that in many instances JKR many have
hidden her themes and eventual story lines; but she has been
telegraphing certain messages in her books from the very beginning. 
Fanfic writers simply picked up the threads that JKR had laid down and
ran with them.  What I find laughably inconsistent is that some people
complain that what they were expecting and/or hoping didn't occur and
in practically the next breath they complain that what did happen had
already been done. Read enough fanfic and everything had been done.

Why can't people realize that the stories and the series follow clear
archetypal patterns.  Of course the ideas have been done before.  It's
the unique universe and the spectacular ways in which JKR has woven
this very archetypal tale that makes it so fantastic.

Bottom line many people in the fanfic section of the fandom need to
get over themselves.  It's an archetypal epic story which follows
prescribed patterns.  JKR was copying fanfics.  That's ludicrous in
the extreme.  She was copying the collective unconscious in a very
unique, and I find surprising way.

I also think that some writers/readers of fanfic are just plain
jealous of JKR's success.  I believe that many are immature
teens/early twenties.  I remember after HBP that many fans said they
would boycott future films and books because they didn't get the ships
they wanted.  Well, right after that the GOF DVD broke all records and
sold more DVDs quicker than any other DVD or video in history.  I also
just read that GH sold 8.3 million in the first day in the US. HBP
sold 6.9 million on it's first day in the US.  So, obviously the
boycott of the H/H shippers really impacted sales negatively.  I think
I also see an attitude of "I wrote that; she stole my idea." LMAOL 
Sour grapes much.  Some folks in the fanfic fandom just need to Grawp.

Anne Squires