Hi, I'm Lisa, and I suffer from Post Traumatic Joss Syndrome

[shipperx]

Okay, first up, I don't read Harry Potter books.  Not one.  I've seen the movies and that's it. So to sum up: I ship no one in the Potterverse.  I don't have a ship to sink or a reason to care.  However, while lurking on Fandom_Wank, I followed the link to the JKR interview: http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/extras/aa-jointerview2.html

Dude.  It's giving me all kinds of Mutant Enemy flashbacks.  Form the overly self-entitled "Theirs is the pure, true love forever, and we had an implicit PROMISE, damnit!"  hissyfits of Harry/Hermione shippers.  ; to my feeling sorry for shippers being called 'delusional' because been--there, done that.  And it sucks--     to actually becoming a bit peeved at the pop-psychology lecture of liking a "bad boy."   Now, I tend to agree with rahirah , I've never seen any indication that Draco was ever supposed to be seen as attractive except inasmuch as the little actor playing him is cute.  The character's characteristics (as I admit I've only seen in the movies) have been uniformly distasteful.  That said, DON'T MORALLY LECTURE YOUR READERSHIP.  DON'T DRAW REAL-LIFE PARALLELS.  These characters are fiction.  Most people recognize that fact and their wanting to create something more complex doesn't indicate that the poor reader is some screwed-up, emotionally unfit fangirl.  It isn't going to wreck their lives because -- here's the point -- the fictional character isn't real.  Anything can happen with fictional characters.  It's not indicative of someone wishing to go out and throw themselves at some prison inmate and snog because he's cute.  It just isn't.  Liking a fictional character isn't sick.  Wanting to see a story take a path which expands a character may be misguided inasmuch as that's not a path the author intended to take.  But there's nothing inately wrong with wanting a dark character to become more conflicted and multi-faceted... and it does not require lectures of superiority.

Sigh.  Yes, I realize it's my Whedonverse experiences making me passionate on this issue.  Truth is, I don't give a shit about Draco.  Haven't read the books and found him to be a singularly nasty little git in the movies.  I just hate writers pulling out pop-psychology bullshit and climbing up on a soapbox to give lectures about it.  The characters are fictional and it's best if both author and fans remember that.  Anything is possible in fiction and it's not a moral sin to deviate from authorial text. 

However, I will say that the Potterverse is currently whipping its "batshit crazy" contingent into quite the lather.  Glad I never had a ship in the race because things seem to be getting nasty in ways that are bringing back lots of bad memories.

::Pets Potter Fandom::  There, there.  This too shall pass.

Comments

[rahirah]

I would bet that Fanon Draco can be a far more interesting and well-rounded and better-conceived character than Canon Draco. The problems arise when the fans don't realize or accept that the author's seeing a different character than they are, and get angry or disappointed. Sometimes you just have to lower your expectations and mutter "Thank God for fanfic!"

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Pretty much what I did with Spuffy and the character of Buffy. Fanfic Buffy I can still love. Canon Buffy gets called bad names... and I'm perfectly okay with that. :)

Honestly it wasn't the Draco putdowns that bothered me as I've always disliked the little tow-headed tyke. It was JKR lecturing about good girls and bad boys that brought back bad memories of Mutant Enemy.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I made it partway through the fourth book (having been semi-forced to read the first ones - long story) and dropped out due to boredom and irritation with her long-winded writing, so I don't know or care about the kerfuffle. However, I dearly love your headline and would like to share your ward in rehab. *g*

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, one thing I have to admit... the Whedonverse definitely effected me. Unfortunately it was in a slightly traumatizing way. And (psst!) I've never read Harry Potter either. :)

[liliaeth]

I'm reading the sixth book right now, am at page 483 and I feel that she put a lot of effort into making Malfoy more than just a bully in this one.
What I like most about it though, is how flawed Harry is and on top of that, how we are supposed to recognize Harry's behavior as flawed.
I don't ship in HP, don't need to, it's not what the books are about. I read them to see Harry growing up and so far she hasn't yet dissapointed me with having a Harry that actually matures, learns the lessons of the past and tries to become a better person, no matter how much she retains him as a human with mistakes, flaws, rant-points...

I did read the interview and I'd say that the fault is mostly with the interviewers. They started calling Harry/Hermione fans delusional and Rowlings made the mistake of somewhat going along with them. Though she did try to at least at first refuse to use the word delusional.
(though honestly, reading some rants from Harry/Hermione shippers after this book, I wouldn't say she'd be wrong to call some of them that. A lot of them seem to have graduated from teh B/A warrior school of soulmate obsession)

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I was honestly shocked by the...well... SHOCK of the H/Hr shippers. As I said, I don't even follow the series. But from watching the movies and from the bit I've gleaned from people who do read Potterbook, I knew that the intended ships were elsewhere. It was just that obvious. And while I have great empathy with UC shippers, there's nothing to be shocked about here. She didn't (as the H/Hr shippers are claiming) jump ship in midstream. And, no, there was no implicit promise in the earlier books. Just wasn't.

It sucks to not get the ship you wanted. I know. But JKR's intentions were clear from the first.

[liliaeth]

So was I.
I've read all five previous books (and loved them) and there isn't even a single hint of Harry/Hermione. The only thing that even hints at it is the movie because the kids playing Harry and Hermione have decent chemistry. Other than that,there simply is no grounds for it.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

It was pointed out on fandom wank that as JKR is writing the books for children, it's them she's addressing over Draco. The adult internet fans of his find it offensive, but if she's getting letters from pre tens wanting Draco as a bf and saying he's lovely really, that must concern her.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

And I suppose the H/H shippers thought it was destined to happen because lead male and lead female. The rest they wanked among themselves no doubt :p

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

That's been my impression. I empathize with shipper angst, but I really don't see any indication of it in text (even what little I know of it.) Same goes with Canon Draco (as opposed to Fanon Draco).

[sp23.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm finding the whole thing quite amusing, but then, like you, I don't ship in HP. Because they're children. But even having said that, I thought it was pretty obvious form the get-go that Ron and Hermione were probably going to end up together and that Harry and Ginny were most like going to end up a couple once she grew up a bit.

And really, yes, Draco is a smarmy little bastard, but I actually felt some sympathy whenever JK brought in his prick of a father. The kid never had a chance to be anything but a fucked-up little git with a da like that.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Heh. And now I smile as I think of Red Dwarf:

INQUISITOR: You are a slimy, despicable, rat-hearted, green-discharge of a man, aren't you?
RIMMER: Well... sort of, yes.
INQUISITOR: So then, *justify* yourself!
RIMMER: What else could I have been? My father was a half-crazed
military failure. My mother was a bitch-queen from hell. My brothers
had all the looks and talent. What did I have? Unmanageable hair and
ingrowing toenails. Yes, I admit I'm nothing. But from what I started
with, nothing is up.

[sp23.livejournal.com]

Squee! Red Drawf!!!!!

OMG, I love that show so very much. And, yes, I even love Rimmer! Hee!

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I so, so, SO want a Mr. Fribble icon. I just can't find a decent screencap!

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

I think that what many condescending writers fail to recognize is that many of us fall for morally ambiguous characters not because we want to fuck them or "fix them" but because we identify with them. I relate to fucked up characters because I'm fucked up too. And I find ambiguous characters to be much more interesting than boring goody-goody hero types.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

The condescension in the "it's unhealty to like bad boys" lectures are just irritating (even though I don't follow Draco fandom). Seriously, people aren't stupid. They know the difference between real and fiction (at least sane ones do) and there's nothing wrong with dark and complex characters. Now, it's good to have the reality check that fanon Draco isn't Canon Draco because Canon Draco (to my knowlege) has never been as gray/ambiguous as the Fanon one. But, still, that doesn't mean that the people who write Draco fiction need to be shrunk by the author.

[pelinxf.livejournal.com]

I didn't have time to read the sixth book so I'm avoiding spoilers at all costs.

I just heard about Harry/Ginny and actually shocked that people are surprised. err..hello? Harry and Hermione has never been more than good friends, it's been hinted since book 3 that Ron/Hermione is the way to go and I expect it will end like that. Personally I don't want her to end up with either of them. They're great friends and it'd be rather refreshing to keep a trio as friends without plotting angst,sex and romance. I know who I want Hermione to end up with but with JKR thinking that(this is the third time she's saying Tom Felton is cute but he's no Draco and people are wrong liking D) I won't even dare to hope Hr/D in the slightest.

Fanfic Draco is much more complicated; it's a pity she doesn't even considering a multi-layered character for him. At least she didn't leave Snape as a one-dimensioned,moody evil guy.

No..No shipping after the Spuffy disaster.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

didn't have time to read the sixth book so I'm avoiding spoilers at all costs.

I just heard about Harry/Ginny and actually shocked that people are surprised. err..hello?

Heh. Exactly. I don't even READ the books and I picked up that much from the movies. Dude. It's obvious! I just don't understand the shock of OMG! We aren't canon! From the H/Hr shippers.

[st_salieri.livejournal.com]

Hee. I was totally having some Joss/Fury flashbacks myself, but I think it's a little different in this case, in that the HP books are marketed to (and written for) kids and young adults much more than BtVS was. And so Rowling telling her readers to stay away from the bad boys comes off as much less condescending than, say, Marsters doing it -- I'm imagining that she's thinking of her younger readers when she says stuff like that.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Hee. I was totally having some Joss/Fury flashbacks myself, but I think it's a little different in this case, in that the HP books are marketed to (and written for) kids

Heh. So true. And it's amazing the number of people who have forgotten that fact.

[drujan.livejournal.com]

I was disgusted by the interview. Rowling's target audience is children and young adults, and it's them she allowed to be called delusional? That's just mean, man!

If she knows that people care about these things passionately, it's extremely unkind to make fun of that passion. Such a putdown coming from an author? That's brutal.

I just don't get the authors smugly lecturing their audience on whom to like and whom to dislike in their books. And for the record, while I never shipped Harry/Hermione, Ron/Hermione makes me want to puke. Personally, I would like to see Ron with Luna. ::shrug::

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

just don't get the authors smugly lecturing their audience on whom to like and whom to dislike

Yeah. Who one likes and dislikes cannot be DICTATED by the authors. It's the "show not tell" thing. People react how they react. That's not something the author controls. The author can only show. How the reader reacts is up to the reader... without long distance pop-psychology.