One more on Breakfast in NYC

3 files changed, 131 insertions, 52 deletions

diff --git a/faith/breakfast_in_new_york.rst b/faith/breakfast_in_new_york.rst
index 7ed0600..87a278a 100644
--- a/faith/breakfast_in_new_york.rst
+++ b/faith/breakfast_in_new_york.rst
@@ -29,22 +29,30 @@ park outside of Grimmauld Place and meeting at Dursleys’ carries
 the plot, whole day of visiting Hogwarts and ZOO, which is like
 two chapters, can be safely skipped)
 
+You know the advice (which the author didn’t follow at all) is
+“Show, don’t tell!”, it is NOT “Show AND tell! And tell again
+(while she contemplates the story), and again (while he does so),
+and tell once more (she has to tell her mum), then decide that
+you want to actually write epistolary letter, so instead of
+rewrite, you just write whole things twice more in two sets of
+letters! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Makes me crazy.
+
 However, as I have described elsewhere_, lack of editing is
 completely normal in the fanfiction world, and I wouldn’t write
-this review just because of that. In the `religionless universe
-of Harry Potter`_, I am very thankful for every even hint of some
-person who is a Christian, and who takes her belief seriously.
-However, then there are stories like this one and `Strong Blood
-by CooLibrarian`_, which are just confusing. Main characters (and
-many other people) are Christians (here Roman Catholics, in
-“Strong Blood” Russian Orthodox), but there is absolutely nothing
-Christian about them. They never pray, never go to the church,
-never read the Bible, never jump to the unknown because God calls
-them to, anything. And no, I don’t think it is the traditional
-Christians / born-again one’s thing. I wouldn’t mind if they go
-to Masses, pray Rosary [#]_, wearing devotional scapulars,
-anything. Why make your characters expressly Christian, when they
-don’t do anything Christian-like?
+this review just because of that. It is something else. In the
+`religionless universe of Harry Potter`_, I am very thankful for
+every even hint of some person who is a Christian, and who takes
+her belief seriously. However, then there are stories like this
+one and `Strong Blood by CooLibrarian`_, which are just
+confusing. Main characters (and many other people) are Christians
+(here Roman Catholics, in “Strong Blood” Russian Orthodox), but
+there is absolutely nothing Christian about them. They never
+pray, never go to the church, never read the Bible, never jump to
+the unknown because God calls them to, anything. And no, I don’t
+think it is the traditional Christians / born-again one’s thing.
+I wouldn’t mind if they go to Masses, pray Rosary [#]_, wearing
+devotional scapulars, anything. Why make your characters
+expressly Christian, when they don’t do anything Christian-like?
 
 And I really don’t ask for some explicitly theological or
 missionary stories. For example, `Why Time Travel Should Be
diff --git a/faith/breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst b/faith/breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst
index 027c7d9..10c5fef 100644
--- a/faith/breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst
+++ b/faith/breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst
@@ -50,53 +50,68 @@ 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.” (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 permanently)? Why
-would he? What would they do afterwards?
+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 problems_ 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.
+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
+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.
+Another point, if the author wants to have their 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, 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.
-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.
+They are always supportive, always accepting, always perfect (in
+sharp contract to Dursleys, who are not). 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.
@@ -107,5 +122,17 @@ than the Eros Syndrome.
 .. _`The Saga Of Biorn`:
    https://youtu.be/MV5w262XvCU
 
+.. _`one of her interviews`:
+   https://youtu.be/8aprQXvWRXU
+
 .. _problems:
    {filename}one-more-anti-harmony.rst
+
+.. _`from point A to point B`:
+   {filename}what-wrong-with-Ginny.rst
+
+.. _Tootsie:
+   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tootsie
+
+.. _`Breakfast at Tiffany’s`:
+   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_at_Tiffany%27s_(film)
diff --git a/faith/breakfast_in_new_york_03.rst b/faith/breakfast_in_new_york_03.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..92fb58d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/faith/breakfast_in_new_york_03.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+Overall post on “Breakfast in New York”
+#######################################
+
+:date: 2021-04-14T11:21:04
+:category: faith
+:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment
+
+(cover letter for presenting my reviews of “`Breakfast in New
+York`_” by Radaslab; `the first post`_ and `the second post`_)
+
+I was rereading again “`Breakfast in New York`_” by Radaslab and
+I don’t know for certain why it aggravates me so much. Certainly
+there is the conflict between generally good and original plot
+and tiring execution. The plot seems to be not completely
+overused (at least in the HP-fanfiction universe) and it has
+a potential to be rather nice romcom story. Of course, when
+“romance”, “breakfast”, and “New York” are used together, one has
+tendency to think about different breakfast_, but even that gives
+the start of the story nice feeling of expectations. It is setup
+for nice we-lost-each-other-and-now-we-found-us story (“When
+Harry Met Sally”? Something of that sort), but it just broke down
+on execution. I wrote two posts about it already:
+
+* `the first post`_ or how to be brief and how not to write
+  a Christian in your story
+
+* `the second post`_ or how not to valiantly defeat a purpose of
+  every story (also see this `explanation on the key character
+  flaw`_).
+
+.. _`Breakfast in New York`:
+   https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5141159
+
+.. _breakfast:
+   https://youtu.be/1JfS90u-1g8
+
+.. _`the first post`:
+   {filename}breakfast_in_new_york.rst
+
+.. _`the second post`:
+   {filename}breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst
+
+.. _`explanation on the key character flaw`:
+   https://youtu.be/8aprQXvWRXU