Comments | pennswoods: On JK Rowling, Being Delusional & What This Means for Johnlock

pennswoods

On JK Rowling, Being Delusional & What This Means for Johnlock

Feb 02, 2014 21:09

The following was my response to an Ask I received on my Tumblr regarding Rowling's revelation regarding pairing Hermione and Ron...

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I saw reference to it on Twitter yesterday and links like this one here which led to a discussion with fellow HP fans, some of whom were upset or stunned or ecstatic about this ( Read more... )

harry potter meta, sherlock meta, johnlock

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frodosweetstuff February 2 2014, 20:47:07 UTC

Oh, this is such an interesting post on so many levels ( ... )

pennswoods February 3 2014, 00:54:09 UTC

It really does help to have the attitude that authorial intent is not gospel, but not everyone's mind seems to allow for this type of approach to texts. It's also funny but I found my shipping, prior to Sherlock, was also not at all contingent upon its verification by canon or the creators. However, it's different for me now with Johnlock. That is the reason I became fannish - the number 1 reason I want the show is to experience the arc of their relationship (whether it be platonic or romantic). If that focus is lost, I'm out of here. In that regard, my ship is the cause of my fannishness as opposed to being an outcome of my fannishness. I expect this may be true for many other Johnlockers who are in the same boat as me post series 3 ( ... )

dickgloucester February 3 2014, 11:39:42 UTC

the attitude that authorial intent is not gospel

I disagree. Authorial intent IS gospel - at least in as far as they get it on the page. What's on the page is gospel - it is what's written.

What follows is exegesis.

Even if it's the author who does it.

pennswoods February 3 2014, 11:56:30 UTC

I'm going to disagree right back.

We co-construct meaning. Words and sentences glean meaning from our experiences and understanding of the language. Communication (whether it be spoken or written) occurs between people and therefore requires co-construction.

What an authors says requires interpretation and translation on the part of the reader/hearer. And this is massively true in English, an international language where so many people with so many diverse experiences will intend and infer very different things with the same words and phrases and sentences because those same words and phrases carry very different situated experiences and histories for different communities and individuals.

Just because something is written does not make it static, immutable and fixed. It just means it's been transformed into symbols on a page and more easily reproduced and shared than language and ideas which have not.

dickgloucester February 3 2014, 12:16:34 UTC

Just because something is written does not make it static, immutable and fixed.

And disagreeing back atcha!

Writing something down is precisely what fixes it. It's everything else that changes. As we see from the constant problems the church has always had maintaining the "Gospel" in a changing society. It's the changing society and different cultures that produce the exegesis - and it's THAT which is alive.

In HP canon, Hermione and Ron marry and have kids. That's not going to change. What changes is how that is received, interpreted, re-imagined, re-told. But in the text, it stays.

pennswoods February 3 2014, 15:22:15 UTC

:P

The printed words may be affixed to that paper, but what those words mean is not fixed or universally shared. What is marriage anyway? That word's getting a lot of attention these days in certain quarters.

The church is fighting a losing battle.

dickgloucester February 3 2014, 15:52:48 UTC

*squish* When are you next coming to England so we can argue in person?

pennswoods February 4 2014, 07:59:20 UTC

*hugs*

I don't know and I miss you like crazy. I feel so shitty for what happened last time and how I missed out on coming to your place and hanging with you and Pythia.

I want to hang out with my friends without being so consumed by Sherlock and spoilers.

dickgloucester February 4 2014, 09:09:17 UTC

Hey - last time, you were on a mission. It's ok.

Next time, we'll organise something different!

nevrafire February 3 2014, 20:58:27 UTC

what about the constitution of the united states?

if that's not going anywhere, nor is the bible- despite what some people may think.

pennswoods February 3 2014, 21:04:33 UTC

Texts will exist as long as there are people who care enough about them to preserve them. If humanity eradicates itself and no other beings come along who are interested in our texts, regardless of the human institution they belong to, they will disappear as well.

nevrafire February 4 2014, 03:00:18 UTC

well let's just hope we find a way to preserve them then. (and this is the last thing I want to talk about on this RLGN subject)

frodosweetstuff February 4 2014, 14:48:03 UTC

I totally agree with you - the number 1 reason I watch the show is to see more of Sherlock and John's relationship and how it develops over time. For the first two series that is what happened and I assumed we would see a deepening of the friendship. Instead series 3 happened which did give us both a deepening and a distancing and now I'm all confused. I hope the focus in the next series will be on the two of them again (and on some clever deductions by Sherloc, please please please please). I, too, can see an end to my being a fan of Sherlock - although if people continued to write Johnlock that was ignoring the whole Mary plot completely (so, AU in that regard. I'm not into threesomes and not into reading about adultery, also I want happy endings - eeep, this is getting difficult) then I would continue to read those fics. But the more John/Mary becomes a thing in the show, the fewer people will write Johnlock and then it would be the end for me ( ... )

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