Once when I was in fandom-history mode, I was thinking a lot about ship wars and their beginnings and I came to the conclusion that the creation of Paradigm of Uncertainty was the single most important event in the history of Harry/Hermione shipping. If you read old comments by the original H/Hr shippers back in the day, Ebony and Penny and Cassie and them, you notice them saying repeatedly "GoF had me resigned to it being R/Hr, but then Lori came along and wrote this story and now I can believe in H/Hr again." It seems to have been the very thing that drew this original, formative, influential crowd away from acknowledging that R/Hr was being written and allowed them to focus on Harry/Hermione instead. And they founded Fiction Alley, and the debate threads began, and the whole idea of H/Hr as a viable possibility despite the Yule Brawl and the platonic quote spread onward and outward from there.... Lori of course is absolutely nothing like the Harmonian true-believers you got by the end of the series, totally absolutely nothing like, but I can't help wondering whether if not for her, they would never have been there at all.
I admit I've never read PoU, though I have heard it summarized as "The one where Harry and Hermione go swing dancing and have sex on Ron's grave," which amazingly enough did not entice me quite enough into reading. But I remember that time before you had an LJ when you came to my post about who was going to live in DH to tell me that Lori had announced that Ginny was going to be "dead, dead, dead" because Harry needed one more trauma to make him really really really mad at Voldemort. Her analysis was.... a reasonable analysis, just for a different series. For Buffy, maybe. Not Harry Potter. And I have to admit that's the impression I've always gotten of PoU.... that it's quite interesting, it's just not Harry Potter.
You know ... if that's true, then wow I love the whole thing even more. The amount that Harmony!wank contributed to my enjoyment of fandom a couple of years ago should probably be kind of embarassing to confess.
Mmm, for fandom history's sake, I hope this one never gets deleted from the internet. It's an amazing, like, fandom document - if a modern fanfic reader were to read it now, within a couple of chapters they'd be saying "dead!Ron, super-powerful!Harry and evil!Cho - are you kidding me?" But those could have been the first of the cliches. That could have been the first Evil Cho.
God, I remember that. Why must you bring up my anonymouse days? I was in an emotional state, OK? HBP had just come out, ships that I had thought wouldn't be legitimized until DH had just steam-rollered in and left me all confused and feeling a bit short-changed, and then I saw that, and I think I lost my head for a bit.
And omfg they were exorcising it, you moron. And anyway, he turned out to be alive. So there.
dfvjhdgkjad\g I just realised, just after HBP, Lori said something like "I don't have a problem with H/G, but it's never done it for me personally", and then someone (angua9? OK that's just a guess) left a comment saying "my friend peachespig has a v good 'Ten Reasons for Harry/Ginny' and I followed the link and THAT'S HOW I FOUND YOU.
And! Also! I was just thinking how Lori always had a cool Ginny, and I just remembered that I think her Ginny was a journalist.
LOL! I can't imagine angua9 was at madlori's LJ.... I bet it was owlmoose, who is not in HP fandom (but likes HP) and is friends with both me and Lori. But it's nice to know I was being pimped! And how delightful that one comment was there to bring you onto my flist.
PoU is indeed an important piece of fandom history. One of the three epic pre-OotP fics with a huge audience, I suppose. I wish I could somehow know how differently fandom would have turned out if (say) PoU had been H/G. Fandom history is a combination of predictable responses to the books combined with totally random and arbitrary reactions that start with a small number of highly idiosyncratic and persuasive individuals and propagate outward through the whole mass of people.... I really think if those individuals had had different tastes in the early days, we'd be looking at a very different fandom. But we'll never know for sure.
And omfg they were exorcising it, you moron. And anyway, he turned out to be alive. So there.
asdfajsdfjk Is that what they were doing? "Ron, let us remove the foul spirit that has infested your noble grave with this, the power of our hot, hot boinking." Works for me! :D
I love "what-if" history. You theory's great, even if it makes my brain hurt. No Harmonians!?
vkldjrfg what I meant by "exorcism" was like an exorcism of their grief. But now I can't remember if that actually happened (did the description come from diejkrdie?) I do remember that Harry proposed on the site where they found the body. Maybe there was sex afterwards?! Anyway, if there was sex, it wouldn't have been of the "ha ha in your face, Ron" kind, it would have been "oh I wish he was still alive, let's have sex to show him how much we still love him". Duh.
I admit I've never read PoU, though I have heard it summarized as "The one where Harry and Hermione go swing dancing and have sex on Ron's grave," which amazingly enough did not entice me quite enough into reading. But I remember that time before you had an LJ when you came to my post about who was going to live in DH to tell me that Lori had announced that Ginny was going to be "dead, dead, dead" because Harry needed one more trauma to make him really really really mad at Voldemort. Her analysis was.... a reasonable analysis, just for a different series. For Buffy, maybe. Not Harry Potter. And I have to admit that's the impression I've always gotten of PoU.... that it's quite interesting, it's just not Harry Potter.
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Mmm, for fandom history's sake, I hope this one never gets deleted from the internet. It's an amazing, like, fandom document - if a modern fanfic reader were to read it now, within a couple of chapters they'd be saying "dead!Ron, super-powerful!Harry and evil!Cho - are you kidding me?" But those could have been the first of the cliches. That could have been the first Evil Cho.
God, I remember that. Why must you bring up my anonymouse days? I was in an emotional state, OK? HBP had just come out, ships that I had thought wouldn't be legitimized until DH had just steam-rollered in and left me all confused and feeling a bit short-changed, and then I saw that, and I think I lost my head for a bit.
And omfg they were exorcising it, you moron. And anyway, he turned out to be alive. So there.
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And! Also! I was just thinking how Lori always had a cool Ginny, and I just remembered that I think her Ginny was a journalist.
THE MIND, IT JUST WON'T STOP BOGGLING.
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PoU is indeed an important piece of fandom history. One of the three epic pre-OotP fics with a huge audience, I suppose. I wish I could somehow know how differently fandom would have turned out if (say) PoU had been H/G. Fandom history is a combination of predictable responses to the books combined with totally random and arbitrary reactions that start with a small number of highly idiosyncratic and persuasive individuals and propagate outward through the whole mass of people.... I really think if those individuals had had different tastes in the early days, we'd be looking at a very different fandom. But we'll never know for sure.
And omfg they were exorcising it, you moron. And anyway, he turned out to be alive. So there.
asdfajsdfjk Is that what they were doing? "Ron, let us remove the foul spirit that has infested your noble grave with this, the power of our hot, hot boinking." Works for me! :D
Reply
vkldjrfg what I meant by "exorcism" was like an exorcism of their grief. But now I can't remember if that actually happened (did the description come from diejkrdie?) I do remember that Harry proposed on the site where they found the body. Maybe there was sex afterwards?! Anyway, if there was sex, it wouldn't have been of the "ha ha in your face, Ron" kind, it would have been "oh I wish he was still alive, let's have sex to show him how much we still love him". Duh.
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