mmoa_writes

Just been glutting on deathtocapslock, so you'll forgive any excessive cruelty. It's a bit like religion - when you've put so much into a fandom, it can be rather hard to leave...



Having been re-reading the HP books in reverse order (because I'm masochistic that way...), it occurred to me that there's something the Author doesn't quite seem to get.

It's odd how what I really used to love about the books, weren't actually in the books at all. I mean, I only knew them because of her (at times self-contradictory) interviews and random 'extras' on the website (good times), but never from anything she'd made explicit (hell, even veiled would have done) reference to in the books.

I rather feel like she doesn't quite get it. You see, outside of the books, these characters aren't actually real. Their heart-rendering backstory never actually happened. I mean, it was great at the time to have all these titbits to make a fan feel all special and stuff, but really, now the phenomenon is waning, it just looks like a cover for some rather lazy writing.

One example concerns Dean Thomas' father. Random, I know, but at the time, I remember feeling all happy that the Author was not doing a 'stereotypical black father abandons his wife and child' thing because (and she said this herself! 'Tis Truth, I swear it, lol) actually, he was one of those working against Lord Voldemort the first time round and in fact left his family for their protection.

Cute huh? It certainly reaffirmed the liberal values I shared with the Author and left me fair marvelling at her imagination, compassion, maturity and unique position in the world of YA (sorry, children's, no sorry, YA...) writing.

Hm.

The problem, looking back at this, is that if you really want to destroy a cultural stereotype in your literary works, shouldn't you, I don't know, actually mention it first?

It's not really her fault, I suppose. I mean, HP had become a phenomenon rather than mere literature, a result of which was that it lifted the onus from the literature itself. I guess.

This is quite important because I suppose the thing with most books is that they don't get turned into a phenomenon. They stay as books, where what is in them is all. I mean, it's illuminating reading Dickens' notes, for example, but you won't find anything of massive importance concerning the story that isn't in the books already. In the same way, the fact that HP got so big, rather encouraged the Author to start using interviews as a repositry for key (to her at least) story points.

And then, following DH, came the outing of Albus Dumbledore. At the time, I really couldn't understand some of the vitirol coming from the HP fandom, particularly the cries of homophobia, and to be honest, I still don't (or at least, not much better), with regards to that criticism. What does bother me now is that it seems more in line with her rather irritating 'oops, I did it again!' style of writing (and also, but this is just the Victorian governess in me, sets a bad precedent to future writers).

I mean, it would be different if the detail is really quite unimportant and you just give it as fodder for the extreme!fans. But if you're trying to be wonderfully deep and mature and groundbreaking... how about writing the wonderfully deep, mature and groundbreaking storyline/character detail in the books to begin with?

Maybe it's because I'm just being a bit mean. I have limited experience as a writer, and what I do have is that of an unpublished, permanently-editing, pretentious hack. But also a slightly obssessive one, who checks to make sure timelines at least vaguely work out, that I don't bog down stories with unnecessay detail, that I will never have to resort to explaining something to a reader that ought to be clear from the 'magnum opus' via other means. Maybe it's because of this that I now see the revelation of what used to be exciting new details, unknown to the uninitiated, as nothing but a ploy for sheer arse laziness.

...

Or maybe because I'm just jealous.