A silent excommunication; fandom observations both personal and at large

[madderbrad]

A long-time LJ friend de-friended me a few days ago. The act was done in silence; no warning, no notice, no message ... no courtesy. Just a silent disconnection. The event that apparently caused this reaction has aided me in making an observation about the HP fandom as it is at present, which I'll discuss a little further below.

Comments

[govcampbell]

For what it's worth, I don't feel threatened by H/Hr. I just can't see it, myself. I've always thought there was more subtext between Ron and Hermione. (In my mind, H/Hr is boring...the hero gets the girl in just about everything else. It's nice to see the loyal sidekick get some action.) But regardless, it doesn't bother me that other people see differently. It doesn't threaten me in the least, and I don't understand why people get so defensive about it.

As far as the movies go, I've never been happy with them, mainly because they leave out so much of the textual material. My biggest problem with DH1 wasn't the H/Hr overtones (if they could be called that, and I'm not convinced, myself, but to each his/her own), it was the fact that it's nearly impossible for it to stand alone, EVEN if you'd seen all the other movies. When I was in the theater, I could hear people around me whispering "what's going on? I don't get it." because all they'd seen were the movies, and the previous movies hadn't provided enough background for a lot of what was going on to make good sense. I think if I hadn't read the book, I'd've been completely lost.

[madderbrad]

There was always heaps of 'subtext' - mainly jealousy? - going from Ron to Hermione. I never saw much at all going the other way, not until book 6, where that primary Rowling indicator of romantic attraction - jealousy - got activated for Hermione too.

the hero gets the girl in just about everything else.

Well, the hero got the (fan)girl in the HP series too. So I wouldn't let that stop you from considering H/Hr! :-)

I always loved the friendship between Harry and Hermione, so part of my early reasons for liking H/Hr was just wanting to see that relationship flower. But I also am most definitely not a fan of the 'bitter fighting means true love' thing, so the R/Hr didn't interfere, it didn't pop up on my radar at all.

As far as the movies go, I've never been happy with them, mainly because they leave out so much of the textual material.

Yes, I've never felt that they hung together very well; I've always thought of them as "a collection of the greatest hits/scenes/chapters!" anthologies rather than as self-contained movies.

it's nearly impossible for it to stand alone, EVEN if you'd seen all the other movies. ... When I was in the theater, I could hear people around me whispering "what's going on? I don't get it." because all they'd seen were the movies, and the previous movies hadn't provided enough background for a lot of what was going on to make good sense. I think if I hadn't read the book, I'd've been completely lost.

Really? That's jolly interesting.

I'd read that the movie didn't stand up on its own, but didn't realise that the BOOKS were necessary too; I'd thought a history of the other films would have sufficed. Yoiks, that's disappointing.

Mind you, I detest the plot of Deathly Hallows and I think the whole thing is horribly muddled and broken - wand rules overturned, Elder Wands shifting mastery on guesswork, Quests for Hallows that consists of following coincidences and fortuitous accidents, etc - but I would have hoped that they'd employ some canon corrections and tidy it up. That's interesting. And yet it's the #1 earning film of the HP series to date, I believe. The movies really are carried by the (huge enormous number of!) books, aren't they? I didn't fully grasp that until now.