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+One more on “Breakfast in New York”
+###################################
+
+: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