fandom rant on kvetching
Is there a jurisprudence law on throwing your job title around in an argument?
This of course comes from one of those lil ship debates. Let me tell ya'll a secret. I'm one of those people who agrees that when it comes to an English class, H/Hr all the damn way. Not cause I actually think H/Hr has any more weight canon wise, but cause as someone pointed out once, probably at F_W, it's a hell of a lot easier to argue *cough*bs*cough* for H/Hr than for R/Hr. R/Hr has a couple of textual quotes, and it's just there, and it's like trying to prove that McGonagall is strict or Dumbledore is nice. But H/Hr, you get symbolism and subtext and who knows what else, and yeah, I'd probably write that ship too in an English paper cause it's so much easier to show my English teacher what mad lit skillz I have using H/Hr than R/Hr.
I'm just not sure how to respond to anyone who's disappointed with the HP books being "only entertainment" Um were they ever supposed to be much else? Besides the fact that all lit is fundamentally entertainment, JK never intended to write a classic, no one does. Her books deal with bigger themes cause she's competent and stories have to deal with higher themes, but yeah, they books are basically fun.
Plus, I have absolutely no respect for any lit fan who doesn't admit that reader bias goes into the perception of a book, that reader interpretation can be wrong, or that authorial intent shouldn't be factored into a critique of a book. Actually this person disagrees with authorial intent, and puts that into the critique. This started out person specific, and then I realized that there are lots of these twits running around fandom. *headdesk*
Gah! What's worse is that half the complaints come from people who are annoyed that everyone was snogging with a war going on. Let's get something straight. Depth usually requires page space, So it seems like to get the depth they want, the books would need even more romance. Uh, slight problem with that? Then again, I don't care about the depth of any of the romances, cause none of em, not even R/Hr or H/G or my OTP M/A, are really that important in the grand scheme of things. Granted my side is just as bad.
Uch Jk hit the reader over the head with R/Hr, I think a kiss or whatever nonsense would have been overkill, plus leaving it to the last book works structurally to end the thread started in the first book with Ron's comment on not being in the same house. And H/G is more prominent than R/hr but if you think it isn't, fine. Doesn't matter either way, cause in the grand scheme of things cause romance isn't all that important in Harry's quest, so his doesn't *gasp* have to take top billing. *double gasp* If you see it that way, Ron and Hermione's actually can, cause theirs is linked with this nice big picture theme of balance and two opposing forces uniting to help Harry, and the solidification of one of the triangular bases that support Harry, and all that nice thematic stuff.
You know people would likely have a lot less to kvetch about in terms of the books if they used their mad lit skillz to try and figure out why JK wrote something the way she did, rather than using said skillz to crit everything she wrote, ever, or make up crazy theories.
Case in point? I didn't like some of Hermione's actions in HBP, so I ended up writing an essay exploring love in HBP, and why JK's choices make sense. I didn't like Ron/Lavender, so I bothered figuring out why the boy needed it in forum posts. It really expands your real literary skills to do some work and get into the author's head rather than critiquing 'em cause they didn't write what you wanted 'em to.
So post exercise of the moment: Take one thing you disliked about the books, anything at all, and explain why JK wrote it that way or explore the issue. If you've written essays on it before, link.