Peer pressure is a mighty force.
Nov. 21st, 2001 05:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleI read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone today. Everyone's doing it. I can now go see the movie with my mother and not be confused. Plus, the good-looking lesbian I met last week told me I should. And so, in what is becoming my usual fashion, a pair of thoughts:
--I hope the movie is better than the book. J.K. Rowling spends seven chapters explaining things. I wanted to yell at her, "Show, don't tell!"
--No wonder people talk about George/Fred twincest. They're the most likable characters in the whole book, although Dumbledore is a close second.
--I hope the movie is better than the book. J.K. Rowling spends seven chapters explaining things. I wanted to yell at her, "Show, don't tell!"
--No wonder people talk about George/Fred twincest. They're the most likable characters in the whole book, although Dumbledore is a close second.
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Date: 2001-11-21 06:23 pm (UTC)You can tell when Rowlings realizes that she's got an adult audience that's as large as her child audience, because the books become darker, the tone changes and she starts dealing with things that are more and more mature.
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Date: 2001-11-21 07:32 pm (UTC)Now look what you've done.
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Date: 2001-11-21 07:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2001-11-23 01:05 pm (UTC)*very evil grin*
Date: 2001-11-24 07:15 am (UTC)Oh, and re: the books, the second one has a scene that had my slashy mind working overtime, the third one is probably the best plot-wise, and the fourth one has my favourite character in it. And he's not even a main one.
Re: *very evil grin*
Date: 2001-11-24 09:10 pm (UTC)I've now read the first three books. Which scene in the second book? I was taken with Snape's reactions to the things in Harry's pockets in the third book: "Indeed? And you've been carrying them around ever since? How touching," and, "Is this another treasured gift from Mr. Weasley?"
Re: *very evil grin*
Date: 2001-11-25 05:39 am (UTC)Actually, there's some evil Harry/Draco out there, somewhere, probably on ff.net, and I will never comb through that mess, not to even mention one of the few father/son stories I've managed to read without screaming (Lucius/Draco, of course). I like reading evil HP stuff, it's so rare.
The scene in the second book is the one where Ginny sees Percy acting all embarrassed about being caught, and it turns out that he's been with Penelope. It's got something to do with the diary, but I remember reading it and thinking "It can't possibly be what it looks like, can it?" Because the way it was done, we didn't find out that it was Penelope at first, and being pretty slash-defaulted, that's where my mind went.
Yes, those scenes are fun. I can just imagine Alan Rickman saying them too. I adore Snape. He's probably my favourite character, next to Bill Weasley. And I do mean canon Snape, though fanon Snape's not bad either. Especially when people do interesting things like pair him believably with Harry (who is aged up, and that works, because Snape strikes me as the kind of teacher who would have problems having sex with a student, not even getting into his antipathy for Harry).
Re: *very evil grin*
Date: 2001-11-27 07:35 am (UTC)I have yet to start writing Anakin/Harry (erm, except for the sentence or two floating around in my head), but I'm almost done with the AU Harry/Draco, I think, and now I'm thinking Draco/Snape set in the same AU universe. *bangs head against desk* Was I always this easy when it comes to fandom assimilation?
Re: *very evil grin*
Date: 2001-11-29 04:46 am (UTC)a fandom.
IÂ’m not that bad, am I? I thought I was encouraging you to write interesting
things rather than evil things, though. I suppose one womanÂ’s interesting is
anotherÂ’s evil. Or something like that.
Besides, didnÂ’t I encourage you to do some (considered to be) evil stuff in other
fandoms? Like killing off Matt and Ben, for example. Not that I think that was particularly evil, but some people might.
I have yet to start writing Anakin/Harry (erm, except for the sentence or two
floating around in my head),
IÂ’m not sure thatÂ’s actually doable. I think the universes are probably too far
apart to do a short crossover that works, and I know you tend to write short. I
think itÂ’d take a novel to do believably, or at least a fairly lengthy story. I
think it would be pretty lazy to do a “spell goes wrong and Anakin ends up at
Hogwarts” type plot device. I wouldn’t do it, because it would feel like cheating
just to get two characters in the same place.
You know, writing this, I just realised something. I finally get why some RPS is
not likely and at the very least needs more than a PWP to explain itself
or needs to be taken on the PWP level if it doesnÂ’t. Just because itÂ’s
fictional RL (you know what I mean), doesnÂ’t mean that a writer can just presume
that these characters know each other because they live in the same
world/country/city. It would be like just presuming that I know Heath Ledger
because heÂ’s Australian, or that you know Christian Slater because heÂ’s American.
IOW, itÂ’s not impossible to write RPS about people who have never met in reality
(at least in any appreciable way), but it should be treated the same way as FPS
in which the characters have never met and could not realistically meet (I think
itÂ’s the realistically that tends to stick with RPS, because itÂ’s always possible
that anyone could meet anyone else in reality, but it isnÂ’t really realistic in a
fictional sense). Took me long enough, but I suppose weÂ’re always learning these
things.
but I'm almost done with the AU Harry/Draco, I think, and now I'm thinking
Draco/Snape set in the same AU universe.
Oooh. Intriguing.
BTW, did you agree that the third book tended to be the best-plotted? Curious as
itÂ’s the most popular among older fans (statistically speaking). I liked the
fourth, but found it rather rambly in places, and the plot wasnÂ’t as tight as the
third one.
*bangs head against desk* Was I always this easy when it comes to fandom
assimilation?
Hmmmm. Probably.
I sort of remember you saying way back when that you obsess easily. I can so relate.
Re: *very evil grin*
Date: 2001-11-30 02:09 pm (UTC)I did really like the third book, partially because of the plot but also partially because it was so funny, which is the fundamental piece of the books that most fan fic authors seem to forget. I just got the fourth book from the library today, so I'll be able to tell you what I thought of it sometime tomorrow.
Re: *very evil grin*
Date: 2001-12-04 05:49 am (UTC)I think a part of why a lot of the fanfic is more sombre in tone has a lot to do with the fourth book and the tone it sets, but I also agree that many fanfic authors do tend to forget that the books have a lot of humour. Some of it, I think, is intended to appeal to adults on a different level.
The humour part is, I think, why Fred/George twincest, is one of the few pairings in the fandom that keeps that sense of humour. You can't write Fred/George not having that sense of fun and write them in character.
I think it's one of the reasons people find twincest vaguely less squicky than other incest pairings. Not that people don't protest it, of course (it wouldn't be incest if someone wasn't bothered *g*), but it does seem to be one of the most live and let live incest fandoms I've come across.
Re: *very evil grin*
Date: 2001-12-05 05:40 pm (UTC)Re: *very evil grin*
Date: 2001-12-08 08:04 am (UTC)Well, without getting all existential (or whatever) and saying that no, we're not reading the same twincest because no two people do see the same movie or read the same book, possibly not. The main twincest site (Weasley's Wizard Wheezes) is, AFAIK, being refurbished and isn't up at the moment, and that's been the only place I've read twincest in any great detail. I'm not sure how many of the stories are archived elsewhere, though I presumed at least ff.net for most of them. I could be wrong.
I've found most, if not all, twincest to be overly serious
I think those are probably the ones that I started reading and got a few paragraphs in and stopped.
and/or sappy.
Well, HP tends to be a sappy fandom. I've already said that I often get sugar shock from the stories, and you know how high my tolerance for sappy is. Perhaps I've been able to tolerate some of the stories you've thought were a bit too sappy, though.
Also, I find something wrong (in the very best sense of the word) with sappy incest in general. Just one of my kinks. For some reason, I find it rather yummy for incest to be sappy. It has that frisson of SBSW for me.
I do tend to be able to retain the good stories and forget the ones I don't like, though. For example, in P/K (Voyager) fandom, I can still quote from torch's stories and remember Emma Woodhouse's, but there are an awful lot I don't really remember anything about.
The twincest stories I remember most vividly right now would be We Don't Do That by Rube, posted within the last couple of weeks to hpslash (I noticed you were over there *g*). Not too sappy (IMO). Did have a rather glaring typo (list for lip...I was trying to figure out what was going on for a moment), but not too bad, and an older story, The Glitter Twins, which is simply the best twincest story I've read so far.
Oh, and one by redjester that I cannot think of the title of, but it was twins/Percy. I'm trying to find it again to read with movie visuals. I believe the author posts to ff.net.
Re: *very evil grin*
Date: 2001-12-28 11:32 pm (UTC)"The Glitter Twins" is really good, but I don't think that Beth Ann's portrayal of the twins' greed is accurate. They don't want money just for money's sake, they want it to make their dream of a joke shop come true. Sure, they did some really stupid things, but at least they had a good reason for doing it.
The twins/Percy story by Red Jester is "Study Session." It's not funny either.
Perhaps the best twins interaction I've come across are the bits in Telanu's Harry/Snape series. They're still funny and mischievous, but they're also into the sex.
My favorite straight (so to speak) twincest is Ailei's "Need." It's got that deep connection without being sappy, plus it has the really good sex and a great line about the twins fucking a lot of people. If you're not going to make twincest funny, this is how to do it.
Re: *very evil grin*
Date: 2002-01-12 08:33 am (UTC)I'm sure the second one exists. I think I've read it.
That to me is a sign more of fanfic than of the story having a flaw. It's
something that seems to happen across fandoms in that one (often tiny or
insignificant) canon characteristic is blown up and becomes the defining
characteristic of the story, becoming much more exaggerated than it ever was in
canon.
I haven't read Telanu's stories yet *makes note to do so when I have a spare
minute*.
I liked Need a lot too.
BTW, which other pairings do you like/see in HP? I'm willing to give anything a
try, because there are a few pairings I never thought of that work really well for
me. I do have a teacher/student not-quite-squick (it's the below-squick thing for
me, as in it's not a squick, but if I were squicked it would be), but Harry/Snape doesn't get to me (as long as Harry's legal).
Re: *very evil grin*
Date: 2002-01-17 07:34 pm (UTC)I'm also writing bits of Ron/Hermione and Snape/Draco, which is another thing that's just not cool.
Not that I'm bitter.
Because of this person, I'm now enamored of Fred/Angelina.
I want Snape/McGonagall, but there doesn't seem to be any that's any good.
Re: *very evil grin*
Date: 2001-12-01 08:38 pm (UTC)Re: *very evil grin*
Date: 2001-12-04 05:52 am (UTC)The last chapter and a half are very difficult reading.
I found it quite disturbing. It's definitely a move into more mature territory in the books.