You don't know me, but I've read your fic and thought it awesome, and wondered over here from browsing at astolat's, and once cathexys mentioned The Wire, I KNEW I was going to comment ;)
That incoherence you speak of, that ficabillity? I'm starting to know exactly what you mean. HP is most definitely one of those universes that's messy, malleable, liable to reinterpretation- especially after DH, I'd say. At the very least, DH taught me that a lot of the fic I read early on that had to do with Magical Objects of Power weren't that far wrong, that I could even play with a few Objects in my own fic if I wanted to. But what it's definitely taught me is that I can pooh-pooh an author's writing, plot, characterization and handling of important issues (sometimes, all at once!), and still love her universe to pieces, and want to write a giant AU and stick it up there with the rest of the scads of fic its fandom has generated.
And despite how poor a read the HP books seem in comparison to stuff by, say, Lois Bujold, or Garth Nix, or Scott Westerfeld or the Tolkelephant in the room, I'm more likely to fic around in the HP universe than any of the others.
You wondered above whether the ratio of continuity to incoherence varies amongst fans, allowing them to settle in different places. I think that's very true, and that given the intense variability of books and series and tv shows and so on, everyone can find a pleasant home for some time. Because damn, writing fanfic for The Sharing Knife, a series Bujold recently started that I love to death, feels strongly close to blasphemy. Okay, perhaps not as close as all that, but though I know I could do it, I also know I wouldn't want to. I liked her story just the way it was. And I think that's the x factor, in a way. HP, I did very much not like a lot of the story just the way it was, from plot to characters to main story focus. And maybe that's why I'm still writing fic for it, and probably will be for a while.
And maybe that's why there's always so much wank about liking the canon in various fandoms and sticking to it and so on- everyone feels differently about their own x factor, their own willingness to change things, the way they like to change things (e.g. by going subtly around canon or by blasting holes through it). The story they want to read, the story I want to read, can sometimes be so exactly what we read and watch that no one wants to touch it at all in any significant way. It's when that story diverges that we want to change it...or leave the fandom, or change our minds about it. Or something. :)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 7/30/07 03:06 am (UTC)That incoherence you speak of, that ficabillity? I'm starting to know exactly what you mean. HP is most definitely one of those universes that's messy, malleable, liable to reinterpretation- especially after DH, I'd say. At the very least, DH taught me that a lot of the fic I read early on that had to do with Magical Objects of Power weren't that far wrong, that I could even play with a few Objects in my own fic if I wanted to. But what it's definitely taught me is that I can pooh-pooh an author's writing, plot, characterization and handling of important issues (sometimes, all at once!), and still love her universe to pieces, and want to write a giant AU and stick it up there with the rest of the scads of fic its fandom has generated.
And despite how poor a read the HP books seem in comparison to stuff by, say, Lois Bujold, or Garth Nix, or Scott Westerfeld or the Tolkelephant in the room, I'm more likely to fic around in the HP universe than any of the others.
You wondered above whether the ratio of continuity to incoherence varies amongst fans, allowing them to settle in different places. I think that's very true, and that given the intense variability of books and series and tv shows and so on, everyone can find a pleasant home for some time. Because damn, writing fanfic for The Sharing Knife, a series Bujold recently started that I love to death, feels strongly close to blasphemy. Okay, perhaps not as close as all that, but though I know I could do it, I also know I wouldn't want to. I liked her story just the way it was. And I think that's the x factor, in a way. HP, I did very much not like a lot of the story just the way it was, from plot to characters to main story focus. And maybe that's why I'm still writing fic for it, and probably will be for a while.
And maybe that's why there's always so much wank about liking the canon in various fandoms and sticking to it and so on- everyone feels differently about their own x factor, their own willingness to change things, the way they like to change things (e.g. by going subtly around canon or by blasting holes through it). The story they want to read, the story I want to read, can sometimes be so exactly what we read and watch that no one wants to touch it at all in any significant way. It's when that story diverges that we want to change it...or leave the fandom, or change our minds about it. Or something. :)