Mark Reads Harry/Ginny
This started as a comment to mrs_bombadil's last post, regarding Mark of "Mark Reads HP" and his response to Horcruxes and H/G, but it got so long I figured I'd post it here instead.
I'm so happy he loves H/G, because I was kind of worried he wouldn't. I'm also glad he stuck up for the realism of becoming suddenly attracted to someone you've known for years, even going so far as to give yet another (this time quite recent) parallel from his own life. That has always been a huge complaint that we "ChocoHerons" could never fully address, mostly because our viewpoint was distrusted and we were "probably just lying" about anything in our real lives. Mark has earned a rare kind of trust from his readers, due in large part to his endearing openness, but also partially because he doesn't think too much about what's coming. He cares, of course, but he's very much "along for the ride" and doesn't press his opinions on forthcoming events - and why would he? He's the only one (apart from the few who are first-time-reading HP along with him) that doesn't have all the answers already.
I know some people are a bit bummed that he didn't seem to see H/G coming, but I'm not surprised. Dude, he thought Snape was the baddie in the first book. There are a lot of things that we all picked up on, having the opportunity to read and re-read and analyze ad nauseam between release dates, that he's just not going to. He doesn't even have the benefit of hearing Rowling talk about the books and draw attention to certain things, because (rightly so, I think) people are lumping things like that with spoilers. There's just no way for him to see the big picture while he's stopping to say something about each chapter. I feel pretty sure he'll pick up on a lot more when he powers through a re-read.
But I feel at least a little vindicated that someone who is extremely invested in the books but has no fandom involvement weighing him down is on my side.
I'm so happy he loves H/G, because I was kind of worried he wouldn't. I'm also glad he stuck up for the realism of becoming suddenly attracted to someone you've known for years, even going so far as to give yet another (this time quite recent) parallel from his own life. That has always been a huge complaint that we "ChocoHerons" could never fully address, mostly because our viewpoint was distrusted and we were "probably just lying" about anything in our real lives. Mark has earned a rare kind of trust from his readers, due in large part to his endearing openness, but also partially because he doesn't think too much about what's coming. He cares, of course, but he's very much "along for the ride" and doesn't press his opinions on forthcoming events - and why would he? He's the only one (apart from the few who are first-time-reading HP along with him) that doesn't have all the answers already.
I know some people are a bit bummed that he didn't seem to see H/G coming, but I'm not surprised. Dude, he thought Snape was the baddie in the first book. There are a lot of things that we all picked up on, having the opportunity to read and re-read and analyze ad nauseam between release dates, that he's just not going to. He doesn't even have the benefit of hearing Rowling talk about the books and draw attention to certain things, because (rightly so, I think) people are lumping things like that with spoilers. There's just no way for him to see the big picture while he's stopping to say something about each chapter. I feel pretty sure he'll pick up on a lot more when he powers through a re-read.
But I feel at least a little vindicated that someone who is extremely invested in the books but has no fandom involvement weighing him down is on my side.