One more on “Breakfast in New York”
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:date: 2021-03-23T14:08:24
:category: faith
:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment
(second round of my comments on “`Breakfast in New York`_” by
Radaslab; `the first post`_)
.. _`the first post`:
{filename}breakfast_in_new_york.rst
There is this author’s note:
Eros Syndrome was not named or defined back then, but it was
there. Eros Syndrome was needed to explain certain things.
Namely, how could Hermione have let that happen after she
made it clear she was not that kind of girl? Before I wrote
the first sentence, I knew she was going to have Harry's kids
out of wedlock and knew she would be pregnant again
following their reunion. I needed a way to explain it,
because both of my main character are not that way as people
— absent the Syndrome. Hermione would never give her virtue
up absent a wedding ring — or at least almost never. Yes,
Harry may have been (and was) and exception, but I needed and
explanation.
First, author notes are what programmers call a code smell. Not
necessarily an error, but something suggesting that not
everything is right, and the programmer should check that part of
the code much more thoroughly. When you feel the need to explain
something in the author notes, it usually means you haven’t
explained it well in the story itself, and that’s the only place
where such an explanation should happen.
But more importantly, this whole explanation is completely wrong!
Before I got to this awkward explanation, I was perfectly happy
with Hermione and Harry forgetting themselves and having
a one-night stand. Of course, not happy meaning I would support
them, but it made a story interesting.
Explanation, why not-that-girl did this is exactly the main point
of any literature! See the awesome short film “`The Saga Of
Biorn`_” by The Animation Workshop. It starts with this line:
“Some might ask: who is this Viking and what made him throw
a dwarf off a cliff?” Many good stories exactly with this: why
somebody did something very strange, against their character or
against what we would expect from a person like him. Why this
not-that-girl does things which she shouldn’t is exactly this
question that made me interested in the story.
One of the biggest problems_ I have with most Harmony stories is
that their protagonists are just too perfect. And what’s true
about any literature generally, is even more true about a story
that at least tries to be inspired by Catholicism. Especially
Catholic (or any Christian) literature should acknowledge that
“There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who
understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away,
together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows
kindness, not even one.” Meaning, that all-perfect people, who
don’t make mistakes (or who don’t sin, to keep the lingo), are
just dream-like creatures not capable of real life. And the
question is, how come these good people, how come we, sometimes
do really stupid things? Why would a good Catholic girl sleep
with a boy on a one-night stand while leaving to the other end of
the world (and she thinks permanently)? Why would he? What would
they do afterwards?
Where good people do bad things (think Graham Greene, if you want
to have a good Catholic writer) is exactly the place where
graphomania ends and literature may begin. “It was magic who did
it!” is just a valiant attempt to avoid making good literature.
Another point, if want to have your pair have a Quiverfull
marriage, it is dishonest to hide their courageous decision
behind the magic. They should have many children, because they
are good Catholics, because they love to have a lot of children,
or because they were too ashamed to learn proper anti-conception
techniques, just not because magic forces them to it.
So, why would not-that-girl do that? Another pair of completely
perfect boring people in all Harmony stories are her parents.
When we stop pretending that all good guys are completely
perfect, we can see that most of them have some obvious flaws.
So, for example, the explanation of many problems in Hermione’s
actions could be explained by her parents. If Hermione was
a daughter of two perfectionist overachievers, working hard was
her only reaction to her guilt. So, when she lies to her parents
about her second year, she drives herself to a breakdown in her
third one. And when she is overcome by stress, loneliness, guilt
(she did effectively enslave her parents, she, a founder of
S.P.E.W.!), unfulfilled desire, and perhaps a bit of wine (of
course, Catholics must drink wine, not Scotch!) and sleeps with
Harry, when she finds later she is pregnant out of wedlock, she
does the same: being the overachiever, perfect student, perfect
single mother (and by God’s grace, she actually is). Fortunately,
she is Hermione Granger, so she has the brain to back up this
drive, and she manages to work it out.
Perhaps, you have another explanation, but anything is better
than the Eros Syndrome.
.. _`Breakfast in New York`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5141159
.. _`The Saga Of Biorn`:
https://youtu.be/MV5w262XvCU
.. _problems:
{filename}one-more-anti-harmony.rst
