fan participation

[story645]

My lj time has gotten so low that lately I'm not sure if I'm checking my user info to see if I was friended or defriended, or which I would prefer. I don't defriend if someone doesn't drop me first, but I feel guilty when I can't check things. *shrugs* If you've been meaning to drop me, now would be a good time to do it.

It's funny, everyone was

Comments

[kerosinkanister]

I would think a large friends list could get overwhelming. I don't see myself ever having hundreds of friends or possibly being able to keep up with their posts if I did! I understand other interests will get in the way as well. But I won't defriend you unless you want me to; your posts are usually interesting and I hardly ever post so there's not much to respond to.

I've been in fandom a fairly short time but I imagine it's become increasingly fragmented over the years. Shipping is probably the largest issue as it's a so divisive and HBP seems to have left some people bitter now that ships are settled. I couldn't say whether actual numbers are down or not but the fragmentation is going to make them appear to be down.

In other news, explodingdog has lots of drawings to do: http://explodingdog.com/maildrawings/

[story645]

I don't want you to defriend me, you're great. You always have something to say, plus you found out where my icon is from. ;)
Rather disappoint that you only find my posts usually interesting, rather than always interesting. ;)
I'd love to actually figure out if fandom numbers were down, but it'd be impossible to get a real estimate.
Did you mail in a request?

[kerosinkanister]

All the posts of yours I've read have been interesting. I just didn't want to sound ingratiating.

My envelope is one of the large white ones in the pile. It looks like it may take a bit, given the number he recieved.

I would have responded earlier but I spent the evening installing linux on my laptop. It went smoothly and is 95% of the way there with just a few things I need to fix. Fonts look a bit odd on the LCD screen. It doesn't hibernate/suspend/go-to-sleep properly (it crashes on waking). And apparently I need to map the scroll wheel to page-up and page-down to be able to scroll a screen a time.

Reading some of the comments below, I don't see the next book ending wank and I bet OOTP brings a crop of Tonks/whoever fics. If book six left people disappointed because ships sank, book seven will leave them crushed when their favorite character dies. *cough*snape*cough* Though even death doesn't seem to be an obstacle for some authors.

[story645]

*laughs* Don't worry, I was kidding anyway. It's part of my sense of humor. You have to imagine the phrasing in really overdramatic tones.

Yay that you went for it! Hope it doesn't take too long.

Good luck with Linux. Last year, I tried to install Linux on my desktop, and it wouldn't support my motherboard. (I tried Red Hat, Gentoo, and Ubantu.)

Canon creating writing obstacles? Never! Seriously though, I'm with you that wank doesn't end just cause the canon is finished. There are still the movies to finish. ;)

[kerosinkanister]

Yeah, I knew you were kidding.

I installed Ubuntu on my laptop as my dad is already running it on his desktop and it seems to support everything well including the wireless card. I tried to install Ubuntu on my dad's desktop last year with an unsupported motherboard and it wasn't succesful at all. I ended up buying an ASUS board and then it worked fine.

Speaking of canon, this Draco/Hermione discussion about book seven was linked to by daily_snitch yesterday, including the question "how do you think the book will influence your DHr shipping?" I thought it was amusing since canon already has little influence on the shippers so I can't imagine book seven is going to be any different.

[story645]

I have an asus board, didn't work. *shrugs* Maybe I'll try the newest version one of these days.

Well they do mention a character dying. Plus redeemed Draco does take the ship in a bit of a different direction. *shrugs* Some shippers try to keep a drop of canon consistency in their fics.

[kerosinkanister]

Hardware support for linux is getting better and better but the OS as a whole isn't quite ready for prime time. Who knows if a newer version would support your board or not.

A good author could probably make most pairings work without straying too far from canon. I was thinking more specifically of post-HBP stories that don't even address the poisoning, something Hermione's not going to get over easily.

I read the first chapter of a story recced by that D/Hr site. I don't know when it was published but Draco and Harry are good friends, without explanation, Ginny (married to Harry) adores Draco, and Ron is an ass and he and Hermione were completely incompatible. None of that was compelling enough to make me want to read further!

[story645]

The poisoning? I'd first work towards addressing Ron's existence. Or the fact that him and Hermione are friends. (Which, hell, not a lot of R/Hr fics do either.)

Yeah, a lot of shippy fics leave a hell of a lot to be desired in terms of characterization, so much so that I sometimes wonder where people managed to get their characters from, and what makes them think that it's plausible in the canonverse.

[kerosinkanister]

Really, the poisoning is minor compared to the other things you mentioned. And you're right that even a lot of R/Hr fics don't even get that they are friends.

What I don't understand with shippy fics with poor characterization is what drew the author to the canon characters in the first place? Or are they more attracted to a particular fanon representation of a character?

[story645]

I was so happy with HBP for having a nice friendship arc. I mean, you don't miss not speaking to someone for months if you don't value their presence in the first place.

It's all about the fanon. More realistically, I think authors take the canon character and extrapolate from him or her, and as the extrapolation grows, it gets further from the canon character, but cause the author has been playing with the char so long by now, it's hard to notice the radical changes. (Yes, personal experience speaking here.)

[kerosinkanister]

Yeah, and the near-death had to have been a wake-up call for both of them. It was nice to see the friendship arc; I don't like the suggestion that Ron and Hermione are only friends because of Harry. Since their relationship happens off page we only get glimpses of it but they obviously have their own friendship.

Have you written fanfic? With some characters there is so little characterization that an author can get away with what amounts to an OC but I don't think that works with characters like Draco and Snape.

[story645]

That suggestion annoys me to no end too. Just so much of canon has them together before Harry shows up, or after he laves, or talking about something off screen. (Yeah, it works for the plot, but one of the characters could have just walked up to the other for plot purposes.)

Nope, haven't written fic, but I've planned them out in my head. It's very easy to lose track. (Which is why I don't actually write fic. I know it wouldn't be very good.) Draco and Snape are funny cause people think that they can get away with more than they really can. (Though a great author can get away with everything, or more accurately, knows what they can get away with.)

[kerosinkanister]

I'm reminded of POA when they went to Hogsmeade and looked like they had the time of their lives. Obviously they get along and have fun together without Harry. It's kind of sad when fanfic loses sight of that friendship, though I've seen it occasionally go too far the other way. I read a fic set during the GOF fight where Ron told Hermione Harry wasn't his best friend, she was. I don't think GOF Ron would have considered Hermione to be his best friend, at least not above Harry.

I read a highly regarded Harry/Draco story and it was very good, with a good plot and an interesting development of magic. The author was very talented but her Draco wasn't much like the canon character. I actually have a fic I'm (very slowly) working on. It's easy enough to come up with lots of ideas but the implementation is a bit harder and I'm trying for something I haven't seen in fanfic before.

[story645]

I don't think GOF Ron would have considered Hermione to be his best friend, at least not above Harry.Seconding that. Gof Ron is a total boy, and at that point he was still spending way more time with Harry. Plus, Harry is just always gonna be his best friend, Hermione's just growing into the role of his other one. Same with Harry and Hermione's friendship. Ron's always been Harry's very best best friend, and Hermione is moving from best friend to basically equal with Ron's status. Doesn't mean anyone's valued by anyone else any less, it's just a matter of who met who first and how they interact. Though I think both boys always were Hermione's best friends

[kerosinkanister]

Hermione was in kind of a tough spot, at least initially. The boys were her best friends but they, being boys, were closer to each other and it was nice to see them grow closer to Hermione. Though some H/Hr shippers seemed to think that Harry and Hermione had this...transcendent friendship that was somehow above Harry and Ron or Hermione and Ron

[story645]

Yeah, the transcendent friendship arguement was weird, cause all the support on it relied on the fact that you already thought the relationship was transcendent. It was a very circular arguement. Otherwise the canon just showed that they were good friends, which, yeah, was never really up for debate