Kind of sexy lamp test
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:date: 2023-12-06
:category: literature
:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment, fromReddit
(another `discussion on the nature of bashing`_ by `/u/Chocokuki1993`_)
It is not about bashing, it is always (as with everywhere in
writing) about the plot. I would suggest something like `the
sexy lamp test`_: “What would happen to the plot if you remove
this particular paragraph, chapter negatively portraying that
character?” I see three possible outcomes, where only one is
acceptable:
* Plot breaks, because this character *behaves exactly as the
plot and their character development demands them to* (see
also `Dorothy Sayers on the Trinity and art of writing`_, but
it is a difficult book to read). That is the only acceptable
outcome. I don’t like much story “`Yule Ball Drama`_” by
FS_VanceMcGill for other reasons, and I really `don’t like the
trope of Molly Weasley, the evil Potioneer`_, but if Molly,
Ron, and Ginny Weasley don’t behave as they do in this story,
its whole plot collapses and nothing remains.
* *Nothing happens.* See for example “`Thank You Ms Bones`_” by
old-crow and these two paragraphs in the end of the story
(which I find frankly unbelievable, that anybody can write
anything like this; to get a context: Ron was captured by Death
Eaters and then as a consequence of other events in the story
left locked in his prison, where he starved to death):
McGonagall persisted, “What about young Mr. Weasley?” She couldn’t
imagine a worse fate than slow starvation for the young man.
[…] ‘If he’d ever bothered to learn anything from his brothers,
rather than his endless obsession with chess, he would have picked
the lock the first night that he was there and escaped. Instead he
sat there playing with his pieces as he slowly starved to death.’
Personally, Crow couldn’t envision a more ironic fate for the
always-hungry lad. He supposed that it was unfortunate that
Weasley’s remains were never found.
This is completely unnecessary, it brings absolutely nothing to the
story, it is just kicking him while he is down. Perhaps the author
compensated for his shame that he completely forgot about Ron and
didn’t know how to finish the story.
I won’t be listing another examples, there are too many of them, but
every other non-Harmony and non-canonical story, where Ron & Hermione
are part of the large paranoia-induced whole-world conspiracy against
Harry (they usually pretend to be his friends for many years just for
money and fame). Every other Harmony story, where there is absolutely
nothing good in Ron Weasley, who ends up regularly unemployed,
abusing poor Lavender (usually) and their children, or where he
marries post-War Hermione and then physically (and otherwise) abuses
her. There are so many of them.
* *Nothing happens, because there is no plot.* See “`A
Different Halloween`_” by RobSt. It is a nice little
ultra-super-teeth-rottening-sweet story of two and half
chapters, which concludes rather surprisingly but otherwise
organically in the middle of the third chapter. Then for the
next seventeen-and-half chapters there is absolutely no plot
going on, but fluff and shiny vacuum. Because the author
heard somewhere that the easiest plot can be achieved with an
antagonist he covered up a piece of vacuum and pretended it is
Albus Dumbledore who is such an antagonist. If you remove him
from the story, nothing changes, because there is nothing to be
changed.
.. _`discussion on the nature of bashing`:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/comments/18btl8l/for_you_whats_bashing/
.. _`/u/Chocokuki1993`:
https://www.reddit.com/u/Chocokuki1993
.. _`the sexy lamp test`:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test#Tests_about_gender_and_fiction
.. _`Dorothy Sayers on the Trinity and art of writing`:
https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20140909
.. _`Yule Ball Drama`:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/18502153
.. _`don’t like the trope of Molly Weasley, the evil Potioneer`:
{filename}molly-weasley-potion-mistress.rst
.. _`Thank You Ms Bones`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3230439
.. _`A Different Halloween`:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6439871
