The term IC/OOC in H/D post-Hogwarts long stories

[painless_j]

wayfairer's post of recs pushed me to thinking in an unexpected direction.

She recommended fearlessdiva 's Tissue of Silver ("ToS is one of the best full-length fics in the fandom despite its rough state, and the new rewrites have turned it from a purely skilled, romantic fic to an absolutely incredible work. Go. Read. And then go fangirl her on the Armchair. :D")

Comments

[lizbee]

I think, as others have said, that the key point here is logical versus illogical development. If you want Draco to be an Auror, or Harry to be Minister of Magic, then you'd damn well better explain how and why they found themselves in those positions

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[painless_j]

I agree in general and completely agree with the example :) The question is - where are the boundaries in every case and what we see as credible. Would you like to give an example of what you think an IC 'former Hogwarts student' in a future-fic?

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[lizbee]

Hermione and Neville feel very IC in ajhalluk's "Lust Over Pendle" and "Dissipation and Despair". My dislike for Draco makes it impossible for me to judge his character there, though.

Also, everyone feels IC in "Flame and Shadow" by Maya -- except, again, Draco. Okay, and Harry, because I project my dislike for Draco onto Harry, and have trouble reading H/D. Just one of those funny things, I guess. I ship Ron/Hermione, but "Flame and Shadow" convinced me that there are ways in which that relationship wouldn't work, and I never once felt that Ron or Hermione were OOC. (Or Pansy, come to that.)

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[painless_j]

We call it the bread and butter rule - it certainly must be that of all Maya's fics I haven't read Flame and Shadow. Well, good excuse for me to do it.

However, I've read AJHall's novels. Now the next question (I agree about Hermione): how can you tell that Neville is IC? Why do you think so? [if I'm bothered you to death with questions, just tell me to piss off]. I would say that Draco in the first novel is IC enough, although glamoured, as for me. But would say that Neville is IC only as far as his communication with his Grandmother goes.

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[lizbee]

Now I'm going to have to concede defeat, and admit that it's been about a year since I last read LoP. And all I can recall of Neville's characterisation was that it never set off any alarm bells, and that his speech seemed more local than in canon.

*le sigh*

On a sidebar, I'm going to take issue with you over the wizards-going-to-muggle-universities concept. Mostly because my main future-fic posits a brief post-Voldemort fad of young witches and wizards going to Muggle universities, creating a bureaucratic headache for those Ministry drones in charge of falsifying the required documentation. And I get very protective of my ideas, even the very minor ones...

Um, I don't see it as unthinkable that a witch or wizard might occasionally choose to persue a Muggle education, in spite of the logistical problems that poses.

But that's just me. And I'm too lazy to push the idea any harder...

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[painless_j]

I just can't see how it can happen... To enter a university, I had to spend 11 years in school studying fairly well, then took a couple of tutors in my [relatively] weaker subjects. And in spite of my being well-read and generally fit, I can't say it was easy to study. Now our wizards. What do they want to study? Natural science requires good preliminary courses of biology, geography, physics, chemistry. All Muggle science. Humanities require knowledge in [Muggle] history, literature, languages. Etc. There should be basis, otherwise one would go crazy because of the amount of info.

I wouldn't argue that it could be possibly done, I just can't imagine that there could be many people in fandom with necessary education AND vivid+responsible imagination not to fuck up the task of credible writing it. There are too many details one should count. Maybe you did. I haven't read the story you are referring to and would be grateful if you post a link.

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[lizbee]

The story lives here, but the university aspect is really a minor part of it, and I skated over the details. Mostly, I just wanted to set up a future universe where Muggle concepts had been accepted willy-nilly for a couple of years, causing Ministerial problems down the track.

And even that's just a subplot.

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[painless_j]

Thanks for the link! *goes to save it to her hard-drive to read a bit later*