One more on “Breakfast in New York”
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:date: 2021-03-23T14:08:24
:category: literature
:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment, characterDevelopment, zettelkasten, catholic
(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
their behaviour, but it made their 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 start 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 do is exactly this
question that made me interested in the story.
Jim Chamberlain writes in `one of her interviews`_ how the
character flaw is the required element of every good film plot:
not only a hero needs to get `from point A to point B`_ but that
moving from that point A to point B must be *struggle*,
particular fight in overcoming of some of her character flaw:
Michael Dorsey in Tootsie_ is bit of a sexist pig who despises
women and yet he must pretend to be one to overcome this flaw,
Holly Golightly in “`Breakfast at Tiffany’s`_” must step out of
her cynicism which builds a cage around her heart to find her
true love (and cat), and so on and so forth. That is exactly my
biggest problem_ with most Harmony stories: their protagonists
are just too perfect, they don’t have any flaws, and they don’t
need any development.
And what’s true about any literature generally, is even more true
about a story that at least tries to be inspired by Catholicism
as this story. 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.” (Romans 3:10-12)
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 leaving
permanently)? Why would he? What would they do afterwards, when
the baby happens?
Where good people do bad things (think `Graham Greene`_, if you
want to have a good writer who is a Catholic) 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 the author wants to have their pair have `the
Quiverfull marriage`_, it is dishonest to hide their courageous
decision behind the magic. They should have many children,
because they are good Catholics (in their opinion), because they
love to have a lot of children, or because they were too ashamed
to learn proper anti-conception techniques, but not just 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.
They are always supportive, always accepting, always perfect (in
sharp contract to Dursleys, who are not), always enabling_. 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, and which successful
entrepreneur is not a perfectionist overachiever, she would learn
that all her problems could be resolved by more hard work, and
that her approval is based upon the amount of work she produces.
And it seems that canonical Hermione acts exactly based on this
template! Whenever she screws up, whenever she feels guilty, she
works harder to ease her conscience. So, for example, 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!), she breaks down and
sleeps with Harry, from all that stress. And when she finds later
that 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 pull it off.
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
.. _`one of her interviews`:
https://youtu.be/8aprQXvWRXU
.. _problem:
{filename}one-more-anti-harmony.rst
.. _`Graham Greene`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_and_the_Glory
.. _`from point A to point B`:
{filename}what-wrong-with-Ginny.rst
.. _Tootsie:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tootsie
.. _`Breakfast at Tiffany’s`:
https://youtu.be/YnOfomPgETs
.. _`the Quiverfull marriage`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiverfull
.. _enabling:
{filename}singularoddities-review-escape.rst
