conuly | Now that I'm calm...

Current Mood: complacent

Is there anything anybody would like to say to me? Anything? Anything at all? Because a lot of people seem miffed at me lately, and at least some of that is inexplicable.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

conuly

But that's not what happened here.

They didn't "refuse to make it the focus of the convention". They certainly had shippy discussion, from what I read. What happened is they said (and, mind, they weren't affiliated with this convention at all, it was fan-run) that no articles on slash or on queer readings of HP would be accepted. That is quite a different thing.

If you had read the post, you would know that the author and her agents did not organize this convention. Their interference in that way was completely unwarrented.

There may have been boys with boys and girls with girls at the Yule Ball...nobody FOCUSED on them...could that possibly be because they just don't care who someone else is dating?

Well, they took the time to notice whom Draco showed up with, and Crabbe and Goyle (each other, hee, but that's stated that they couldn't find anybody else), and Dean, and Ginny....

You never did answer my earlier, serious question about relationships in Harry Potter. I came up with 25, and while I freely admit that I may have missed some of them, some of the ones I listed were only possibly "romantic" if you really stretched it.

You implied that the only relationships I would know about would be from fic. The truth is, I don't care that much about it - as I said in my later post, what I care about is that people who should be able to come up with their own interpretations were strongly discouraged from doing so, and that the mere idea that gay relationships could exist is seen as "not possible" because that would mean she was "making a point". Both of these are feelings I find highly offensive.

I mean, honestly, what do people want Rowling to do? Have Dumbledore jump up during the feast and declare "...stay out of the forbidden forest, and if any of you boys are well hung and interested, I really like to be rammed hard up my ass without lube? And it's ok that I'm 140 years older than you, really!"

Well, in this case, the answer would be "not have Warner Brothers censor activities at a fan-run convention that they are not affiliated with".

Honestly...there really hasn't been any CONTEXT to introduce homosexuality in, like, 99% of this storyline.

There hasn't been any context for Lupin/Tonks, and yet there it is. My entire point was that if one of the characters was revealed to be gay, that wouldn't be "making a point", not "Rowling should have massive orgies to make a point".

From:

ladydiana.livejournal.com

Rowling herself has said that people need to keep their fan fic rated PG. Maybe she is like me, and has yet to see any "slash" that could be rated anything less than X.

They took the time to note who Draco showed up with because they always note what Draco is doing. He's one of the main characters!

Honestly (as if you hadn't noticed), I really, REALLY hate slash, and I think people should quit writing it. I can't really motivate myself to be upset about them not allowing slash discussions because, quite frankly, I think they are perfectly within their rights to do that, much as I think they would be perfectly within their rights to demand people writing fan-fic to take it down for copyright violation. The thing that people seem to forget is, this is Rowling's intellectual property and she is ABSOLUTELY allowed to say "this is not permitted"...which, with slash, she has.

I disagree, completely, that there was no context for Lupin & Tonks. I think there was plenty of context. I think it could have been DONE better, but honestly, writing has never, ever been Rowling's strong point. Storytelling has.

From:

conuly

Seriously, I don't know what you're looking at, but most slash I've seen is limited to kissing, staring, and occasionally having not-so-explicit sex. Maybe I just read better writers than you do?

They took the time to note who Draco showed up with because they always note what Draco is doing. He's one of the main characters!

_{Becauseharrylurveshim} (that's sarcasm there.)

I think people should quit writing "Girl from America wears Hot Topic and sleeps with Harry/Draco/Everyone" stories. And "Hermione gets a makeover and sleeps with Draco because she's really adopted and speshul". And... well, lots of things. I don't tell people that, though, I just ignore it.

As for JKR forbidding slash, I know a lot of people who would've been all over that. Is there a link to her saying that? I'll accept that she probably said "Nothing X rated", but... really slash? Correctly defined as "teh gay"? (If she seems to be using slash to mean "X-rated stuff", I think it's fair not to count that.)

I don't think there was any place for Lupin and Tonks. It has nothing to do with the core of the story - most of the relationships stuff in that book fits into that category, really. It just felt tacked on, and completely random.

From:

ladydiana.livejournal.com

Maybe I'm looking at the worst of it, but it's already sworn me off writing fan-fic (which I *HAVE* done!) and it's damned near gotten me to stop reading at all.

/me *laughs* at your Harry comment

It would have been a lot easier for me to ignore it if I hadn't felt so SMOTHERED by it lately. I wanted to *talk* about Harry Potter and theories with another adult (or someone who could at least do a passable job of faking having passed high school English in a decent institution), about the series, and all I could find was stupid, bullshit, poorly written, clearly anti-canonical slash. And chan. It was disgusting.

Then, last night (or the night before, or something), I was looking at a post in

linguaphiles, of all things, and the poster said some interesting things so I went to his(?) userinfo, and saw a community called "we_love_jo" or "we_support_jo" or some such, and I thought this was a SUPPORT thing and I thought they were talking about

snarkbite, (!!!) and I nearly blew a GASKET when I found out what it was, because I am not alone.

There was a BBC link (linked in

anti_slash or some such) that pretty much said "fan fic is ok....but keep it PG". Given that all the "fan fic" I've seen is twincest or homosexual love triangles complete with graphic, frequently VIOLENT sex, that pretty much rules them out.

Yes, Lupin/Tonks really did feel kind of tacked on. Like I said, it was poorly done. But they have a WHOLE LOT in common and I think they could make a cute couple.

From:

conuly

Dear God, you must have the worst luck when finding fic. I'll dredge up a list of fic soon, post in on my journal. Some shippy stuff, but I'll try to stick to gen. Add some of the better trawlers which bring me interesting discussions.

From:

ladydiana.livejournal.com

Thank you, I'd truly appreciate that.

From:

appadil.livejournal.com

I remember that one of the first fansites which she gave acclaims to happened to be a site focusing on the Marauders (or Sirius, I can't quite remember which off the top of my head and can't be bothered to check right before work), which contained a fair amount of Siruis/Remus and Remus/Sirius fics, and she didn't care. I'm fairly sure its "OMG teh sex!" which she's against and not "OMG teh gay!"

And yeah, you're probably looking in the wrong places... not that the right places are easier to find, especially now that HP's popularity has exploded. Too many people writing and too many of them are AWFUL, whether it's het or slash or gen. This is why I tend to stick to different fandoms and authors who I know and trust, rather than jumping in the deep end and hoping to find something well-done.