FIC: Ginny Weasley: Dragon Slayer

[lettered]

Title: Ginny Weasley: Dragon Slayer
Rating: PG-13 for dragon slaying
Warning: meta, first person, some dragons were harmed
Disclaimer: HP belongs to Rowling, dragons belong to everybody, and the song used toward the end isn’t mine. It’s from Merrie England, by Basil Hood and Edward German. I have no idea how appropriate it is to use it as a quote

Comments

[ravenclown]

I. Am. Slain.

[ravenclown]

I don't just love what this pic says about Ginny . . .

I love what it says about the girl in everystory. Her function in story, her function in the world. What it means to be valued the most as an innocent, to be valued for everything you haven't achieved or done.

THIS:

But the king had tricked the dragon, for strength and wisdom may be hard to come by, but innocence can be sewn and grown, just like a crop. Just like a crop, it can be reaped, and so the king says, “If you stop laying waste to my kingdom, I will send to you a maiden every seven years.”

AMAZING.

This fic is begging to be read aloud. When I was reading it, I was reading it out loud in my head. I mean ...

For us, for so long he was the story, and I think that was what was so hard for him to understand. The wizarding world dreamed of The Boy Who Lived for a decade nearly, and when he came to Hogwarts, he was The Chosen One. Then he disappeared again his seventh year, and we were the figures ranged around the fire, and he was the legend passed around the flames

[lettered]

Oh, I'm delighted that you read this! Thank you! I'm glad you liked it

[ravenclown]

I like how this fic is full of ideas, but they're not all fully beaten out and sorted through. I feel like it's teeming with meaning -- almost playing with all these concepts of maidenhood and manhood, sex and strength, what it means to be the girl, what it means to be the hero . . .

What these things mean in a literary sense, and in a structural sense, and in real life ...

I like that it thrashes around a bit and hits all this important stuff, while you, the writer, also play with language.

I like how ambitious it is, but also how it doesn't try to solve everything.

(And you're welcome for all the reading. Like, eternally welcome.)

[ravenclown]

Oh -- interesting/good thought about how writing in this read-aloud voice helps absorb meaning. And that it's a meta move, playing with the idea of oral history and what sorts of stories get passed down.

[bluemermaid]

Oh my gosh, I have hearts in my eyes. This is Incredible. I have so many Thoughts on Ginny, and you've captured so many of them, and so much better than I ever could have. This is so beautiful, and haunting. Ginny is so badass, and yet so lost, too, searching for herself, and I love how you compare her to the dragons, to reptiles through her experience with Tom. Just, wow, just...I can't even explain. I just love this fic so much. Evocative and thought-provoking, brilliant. I just...it's just brilliant.

[holyfant]

This was an exceptional pleasure to read

[lettered]

Thank you!

I feel like sometimes every story I write is about how narrative is meant to make sense of real life--we're just stories we're telling ourselves, really. Lots of times I overthink the things I write, and I tried really hard not to do that on this so that readers could come to their own conclusions. I'm really glad you liked this, and got what I was really trying to say.

Thanks again.

[lettered]

I'm really glad you liked this. Thanks for letting me know.

maybe i am over thinking this

er... it was meant to be overthunk? This story is partly about sexism in narrative--and in real life. I'm glad it came through. Thanks again :o)