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Sep. 10th, 2003

The strange rules of reverse psychology have now made me excruciatingly wary of any fic that says "Not a Mary Sue!" Why would you advertise against it unless you feared that it was potentially an accurate label for your fic? Obvious self-denial by the poodles. Be on guard.

So, I've been reading and skimming past fanfic in the HP fandom for a few months now, as well as going to the huge general HP forum Fictionalley.org. And something continues to baffle me about HP fandom that I haven't noticed in Bufffy fandom, or the various anime fandoms I'm familiar with. What I'm talking about is the extreme and wide-spread familiarity with the very minor, minor characters of canon.

There are stories I've seen written-- often romance-- about Harry Potter characters that appeared once in the books, or were throw-away names, or had a single line three books ago. Characters whose name I didn't even remember reading, they were so minor. And then you have the people who write fics about Harry's parents as teenagers, characters we know very little about, and only witnessed one real scene of (through Snape's slanted perspective) in the last book. And yet the fanfic authors run with it, inventing wildly different characterizations that eventually combine to turn into a sort of fanon idea of what these people were, that has nothing to do with the actual books or films.

Now, this is not a bad thing. But it is kind of amazing to me. It'd be the Buffy equivalent of writing a 35,000 word romance between the blond girl eating breakfast in Buffy's kitchen in Storyteller and the boy who exploded at school for not getting that foot massage.

You have the main characters in a show (I'm leaving out most of the villians).
In BtVS, that was Buffy, Dawn, Willow, Xander, Spike, Giles, and Anya.
In HP that's Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

Then you have the important sub-characters.
In BtVS that's Tara (arguably a main character), Riley, Robin, Kennedy, Andrew, Faith, Joyce, Oz, Cordelia (she got demoted after season 3);
in HP that's Dumbledore, Sirius, Snape, Draco, Hagrid, Neville, Ginny, the Weasely family, and now Luna.

Then you get into the signficant minor characters that have some role in supporting/definining the other characters or plot.
BtVS: Jonathon, Ethan Rayne, Amy the Rat, Harmony, Drusilla, Halfrek, Ben, Amanda, Rona, Travers, Snyder, Clem, Jenny Calendar, the First Slayer.
For HP: Lupin, Lucius, Crabbe & Goyle, Cho, McGonagall, Trewlaney (sp?), Cedric, Harry's cousin/family, Dobby.
(I know Lupin is a popular character, but he is less significant than Sirius, so I put him on this level for now.)

Then you stat to get into the even more minor characters:
BtVS: Forrest, Graham, Nancy, D'Hoffren, Rack, Doc, Chloe, Cecily, Holden Webster, Jessy, Percy, Olivia, Nikki the NY Slayer, Glory's minions, the Knights.
HP: real!Moody, Tonks, Harry's parents, Moaning Myrtle, Fudge, Viktor, Percy Weasley, what's-his-name that wanders Hogwarts at night with his malicious cat, Umbridge, Headless Nick, the Centaur who becomes a Professor, Peeves, the beetle-lady reporter, Kreature.

Then we get to the one-liner characters, or names we only hear but never see. The ones that make one scene, or one episode. I can't even remember all of those, and I won't try to list them. Yet, they're often characters I seen written about for HP. (I'm sure I forgot some; I'm hardly a connesieur of HP canon)

I wonder why they have so much interest, when they're hardly there? Is it just that they provide a forum for Self-Insertions? Or is it more like writing original fiction, since you have to basically make up the personality/motivations since its not given in the book? Why is there such a wealth of these fics about minor characters in HP fandom, whereas a fandom like Buffy rarely focuses on them? Not that they never do-- there's definitely fics about Ethan Rayne, or Nikki, or the monks who made Dawn. But overall, they're few and far between. What's different about the fandoms?

You know, my cousin hates Dashboard Confessionals. He thinks they're wimpy crap, or something along those lines. I don't remember. And I have to admit, that as far as instrumentals go, no, they're not quite Kurt Cobain. But lyrically, I adore them. I really have to-- it's exactly in my nature to love anyone that can use the word "infidelities" in a song title, and do it well. It's like someone tailored that song to my lyrical tastes. I love it when artists use long, fancy words and make them rhyme and make them singable. Instead of infidelity, he could have said "cheating." It'd be easier to sing, easier to remember, and the 14-year-old screaming fangirls wouldn't have to take out a dictionary to know what it meant. But they use a word like "infidelities." And tack on an almost jarring word with it, just so it stands out. That really appeals to me.

In the same way, the old Paul Simon song, "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" uses the word "misconstrued":

She said it's really not my habit to intrude
Furthermore, I hope my meaning won't be lost or misconstrued

I love stuff like that. Not to say I don't love other styles of lyrics, but fancy words have a special place in my music heart.

Also, I love witty lines. I still think one of the best lyrical lines I ever heard was the ever-so-popular "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you." A simple song, with an endlessly repeating chord and verse, but still it tweaks me. Because the circular nature of the line is so damn clever; it's like trying to count how many negatives are in any random Eminem interview sentence, and sort through until you find the actual meaning, only to end up back where you started.

If you'd like the full lytrics to "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" you can find them here:
http://www.lyricscafe.com/s/simon_paul/103.htm?lyricscafe=f3bac8e3157a2b217ac0c2097d7e1f01

http://www.electricleechproductions.com/AMVs.html

Scroll down the page. Download "PPG:R (Powerpuff Girls: Reloaded)" vid. Watch. Giggle.

So there's this meme going around, where you ask friends to describe you in one word, presumably based on what they read of you in your journal.

I want to do this meme. But I want to be lazy and cheat, and ask people to describe me when I haven't described anyone else on my friends list yet.

So I will completely understand if you say "lazy" or "cheater" in your one word.

Sep. 10th, 2003

Sep. 10th, 2003

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fandom thoughts-- how much do you care about the minor characters?

Another music post

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