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| -rw-r--r-- | faith/another_on_animagus.rst | 81 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | faith/hp_and_sayers.rst | 70 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | faith/intro-to-femHarry.rst | 103 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | faith/note_on_luna.rst | 56 |
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diff --git a/faith/another_on_animagus.rst b/faith/another_on_animagus.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d41000b --- /dev/null +++ b/faith/another_on_animagus.rst @@ -0,0 +1,81 @@ +Another comments on the Accidental Animagus & al. +################################################# + +:date: 2020-04-07T09:39:17 +:category: faith +:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment, fromReddit + +(my comments on `the thread`_ “What are your thoughts on the +direction taken by 'Animagus at War' by White Squirrel?” by +`u/SnobbishWizard`_) + +.. _`the thread`: + https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/comments/fwbih3/what_are_your_thoughts_on_the_direction_taken_by/fmnxfqj/ + +.. _`u/SnobbishWizard`: + https://www.reddit.com/user/SnobbishWizard/ + +I have already (many many chapters ago) wrote `a review`_, which included my comments on this story, and so far I stand behind it. + +On top of that I have two comments: + +1. Bloody length of the story. JKR complained that HPOotP was + rushed to the publisher and it needed more editing, which made + it according to her too long. That’s 38 chapters. 38 times + 7 is 266 chapters for the whole series as the longest case + scenario (the shortest scenario, seven times HPPS is 119 + chapters, and we are already over). Animagus saga currently + stands at 147 chapters, and it feels more like the basic setup + of the story than coming to its conclusion, so we may get to + that worst-case scenario eventually. In terms of the war, it + feels like we are at the Battle of Smolensk (that’s June 1941) + or at the Coral Sea (May 1942). The Battle of Stalingrad and + the Battle of Midway are far ahead of us in the dim future, + and nobody can even dream about Berlin or Hiroshima (not that + we should dream about that). To close the story down, there + will be either some horrible case of the Harry Potter *ex + machina*, throwing the Ring to the Mount Doom and swiping away + in one move all the armies of the Dark Lord including the + mighty Tower of the Barad-dûr. Or we should expect another + hundred chapters of this boring Goblin rebellion, and :code:`$DEITY` + have mercy on our souls! The author threatens us with another + thirty chapters, but I don’t feel like he can make it is in so + few without the story being incredibly rushed. + +2. Complete loss of the human element in the story. It is a very + similar problem to `Divided and Entwined by Starfox5`_. Not + that there would be not enough action: battle after battle + runs over the pages, in this case, all of them lost, in other + all of them won, but there are no humans in the story, and it + is as fun to read as the history textbook about the + Thirty-Years War (or the mentioned Goblin rebellion) or + minutes of business meetings (which some parts effectively + are). Lost are the stories about Harry Potter catching + a mouse, the last one which had at least some personal element + was The Boxing Day with the confused Muggle friends finding + themselves at Hogwarts, but that was sixteen chapters ago + (whole Philosopher’s Stone, the book which made JKR famous, + was seventeen chapters). When was the last time somebody said + something personal or whimsical? What is Luna doing? Hermione? + Did she kiss Neville or not yet (I honestly forgot)? We don’t + know and I am losing hope we will ever learn because we have + to read another long and boring chapter where some impersonal + armies fight with other impersonal armies somewhere who knows + where (even if it is in my Prague, where I live; thank you, + after `Mr and Mrs Percy Weasley by SingularOddities`_ and + `Hiding in Plain Sight by GinevrasChampion`_ only the third + case, where the author noticed that there are other cities in + Europe than Paris). And I don't even care which one is which + and which one loses. + +.. _`a review`: + {filename}aristotle-unities.rst + +.. _`Divided and Entwined by Starfox5`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11910994 + +.. _`Mr and Mrs Percy Weasley by SingularOddities`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12373273 + +.. _`Hiding in Plain Sight by GinevrasChampion`: + http://www.siye.co.uk/siye/viewstory.php?sid=130160 diff --git a/faith/hp_and_sayers.rst b/faith/hp_and_sayers.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..19c89cf --- /dev/null +++ b/faith/hp_and_sayers.rst @@ -0,0 +1,70 @@ +Harry Potter and Dorothy Sayers +############################### + +:date: 2020-04-07T10:22:27 +:category: faith +:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment, fromReddit + +(my comments on `the thread`_ “Overused tropes” by +`u/Aa11yah`_) + +.. _`the thread`: + https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/comments/fk43ov/overused_tropes/ + +.. _`u/Aa11yah`: + https://www.reddit.com/user/Aa11yah + +OK, I will suggest a very weird book for reading. `The Mind of +the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers`_ (yes, the author of detective +stories with Lord Peter Wimsey) is one of the best books on the +art of writing stories I have ever read. Yes, it is on its face +a theological pamphlet on the Trinity, and given that, it will +probably unpalatable for some, but underneath the theological is +also an absolute gem of the literary theory by somebody who +actually knows a thing or two about writing. Highly recommended. + +Coming from this book, I would suggest that there is some kind of +spirit or atmosphere of HP universe, and book or story violating +this spirit will feel wrong. For example, I am firmly persuaded +that any crossover between HP books, which are in my opinion +rather pedestrian, egalitarian, realist, modernist and quite +rationalist, and semi-mystical/super-natural universe (e.g., +Marvel-type superheroes, or vampires) is by its substance doomed +to fail, because these two universes have too different spirits +to mesh together. Similarly, the very idea of the feudal (or even +earlier) highly unequal society in the twentieth century HP +universe is in my opinion doomed to fail. The same goes for Harry +Potter being ultra-rich (meaning, owning ridiculously large part +of the Great Britain). + +Bashing and similar are not cause of poor quality of such +stories, but just the symptom of the author being lead by the +poor design of his story into areas, which would be impossible to +resolve or it would be too difficult, so bashing is then just +a cheap cop-out from the bad situation. From bad to worse. + +E.g., I really liked (ultra-cheesy, teeth rotting, true) setup of +`A Different Halloween by RobSt`_. The problem of this story was +that all problems were (in a rather elegant manner) resolved in +the middle of the third chapter (when Voldemort truly completely +and irrevocably died). The author had two good options what do in +that situation: he could just finish the story right there, and +it would be a nice short three-shot story. Nothing against that. +Or he could really sit down on his behind and develop new +completely original story line. He went the third, poor, way: by +ridiculous amount of the Dumbledore bashing he tried to make +villain out of him and the result was ridiculous. And no, it is +possible to write Dumbledore as a bad guy, I am not claiming he +is saint, but it is hard job and the author must really write +a long persuasive story to get from the most positive to negative +character. `There Will Be No Foolish Wand Waving by kgfinkel`_ +made almost good job in this area. + +.. _`The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers`: + https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20140909 + +.. _`A Different Halloween by RobSt`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6439871 + +.. _`There Will Be No Foolish Wand Waving by kgfinkel`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13137899 diff --git a/faith/intro-to-femHarry.rst b/faith/intro-to-femHarry.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15bc42a --- /dev/null +++ b/faith/intro-to-femHarry.rst @@ -0,0 +1,103 @@ +Cepl’s Introduction to fem!Harrys +################################# + +:date: 2020-03-16T09:09:21 +:category: faith +:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment, fromReddit + +(my comments on “`LF Fics to introduce me to fem!Harry by u/frostking104`_” Reddit thread) + +.. _`LF Fics to introduce me to fem!Harry by u/frostking104`: + https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/comments/fje6nu/lf_fics_to_introduce_me_to_femharry/ + +There are two types of fem!Harry stories: + +1. Where Harry (with different name, of course) is naturally + a girl, always was and always will be. Usually, I guess, the + motivation is that the author is a woman and she feels + uncomfortable writing from the male point of view (I know + something about that, somehow, without me wanting it, most of + my stories have a female protagonist, and it is really hard). + For some of them the difference in result is minimal (I like + `The Videus Charm by OfPensandSwords`_ as an example), for + some of them it leads to completely different stories. I like + `Victoria Potter by Taure`_ and I *really* liked the very good + setup of `The odds were never in my favour by Antony444`_, but + it turns kind of weird in the second year and later with the + hidden cabala running the world and similar crap. Also, for + very different story `Tea Cures All Ills by delizabethl22`_. + +2. Gender-bender stories, where Harry was originally our Harry + from the books, but then something weird happened and he + turned to a girl (or he was born as a girl and then his sex + was magically hidden and now he/she turns back into his + natural state). There are many wrong reasons why somebody + could write such story. First of all, and I am afraid it + applies to most of them, the author wanted to write a lemon + and femslash was more juicy for (I guess, usually) him. One + unashamedly so is IMHO `11396276`_ and I will leave it at + that. The second is that they are Snape/Draco fans and they + didn’t want to write a slash story, so they turned Harry into + a girl to suite them better to their planned pairing. One + classical example would be `Snape's Daughter by Tribi`_ with + unbelievably horrible choice of name for the main protagonist + (I won’t even write it here). I am not a big fan of either + Snape or Draco, so when the story turned to be Drarry, I quit, + and I remember just the overall feeling about it now. + A reasonably good variant on this theme is `Becoming Harriet + by Teao`_, where the pairing is with the Snape’s AU son, and + it suffers from the deluge of smut (including some of the most + obnoxious tropes like magical-hormone-makes-you-horny), but if + you skip that, there is a rather good story hidden beneath it. + Alternative to that “something weird happened” is `A Fair Life + by Rtnwriter`_, where it is Harry (the canonical male one)’s + death in the Forbidden Forest in the end of DH and returning + back as a girl on the eve of the announcement of champions for + the Triwizard tournament and it is so far rather decently + written Hermione/Harry femslash (not even too smutty). Similar + idea with different execution is `A Different Perspective by + StellaStarMagic`_, where the canonical Harry jumps after + Sirius into the Veil in the Death Chamber of the Department of + Mysteries, but he is kicked back by rather Pratchettish Death + into being a twin-sister of more or less canonical Harry + Potter just before the letters from Hogwarts are delivered to + them. She is sorted as a Hufflepuff, and it develops into + so-far interesting timeline repair story. Usually the sticky + part of gender bender stories is treatment of unease of the + former Harry with him being a female suddenly with all bits in + wrong places. One example of rather anxious treatment of the + situation is `To Reach Without by inwardtransience`_ which + turns into rather interesting pairing of Harry/Susan Bones, + but again further the development, more weird it becomes. + +---- + +.. _`The Videus Charm by OfPensandSwords`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13197260/1/ + +.. _`Victoria Potter by Taure`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12713828/1/ + +.. _`The odds were never in my favour by Antony444`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11517506/1/ + +.. _`Tea Cures All Ills by delizabethl22`: + https://archiveofourown.org/works/5372018 + +.. _`11396276`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11396276/1/ + +.. _`Snape's Daughter by Tribi`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7618752/1/ + +.. _`Becoming Harriet by Teao`: + https://archiveofourown.org/works/4876630 + +.. _`A Fair Life by Rtnwriter`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13285012/1/ + +.. _`A Different Perspective by StellaStarMagic`: + https://archiveofourown.org/works/22953583 + +.. _`To Reach Without by inwardtransience`: + https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11862560/1/To-Reach-Without diff --git a/faith/note_on_luna.rst b/faith/note_on_luna.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..55b6a7b --- /dev/null +++ b/faith/note_on_luna.rst @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +Note on Luna +############ + +:date: 2020-04-07T09:39:17 +:category: faith +:tags: review, harryPotter, blogComment, fromReddit + +(my comments on `the thread`_ “Best Luna fics” by +`u/jasoneill23`_) + +.. _`the thread`: + https://www.reddit.com/r/HPfanfiction/comments/fvrm8y/best_luna_fics/fmkxh45/ + +.. _`u/jasoneill23`: + https://www.reddit.com/user/jasoneill23 + +I like Luna in the `Northumbrian’s stories`_, but there she is +not very central to the story (perhaps, aside from `Yggdrasil by +Northumbrian`_, but it is not his best story). Actually, the +chapter 3 of `Tales of the Battle by Northumbrian`_, which is +from her perspective is really good. + +Pretty good Luna in my opinion is in the series `Nargles and +Charms by Arpad Hunta`_, but for example in otherwise very good +`The Accidental Animagus by White_Squirrel`_, she seems to +be a bit too normal for my taste. + +The problem with her (which JKR never attacked) is how to balance +her looniness with some authentic real person. Either you can +have somebody who is just weird, and not in completely pleasant +way, and unbelievable as a romantic partner, or you loose the +essence of Luna, and she is just normal boring girl. In the JKR +books, she never really gets close and personal with anybody. +Those great utterances like “it was like having friends” work so +well among other things, because she actually never **is** real +friend in sense sharing with others her true herself. We never +see Luna frightened, sad, disappointed or in love, because she +always keeps her perfect crazy poker face. Once we are writing +about Huna (or any situation where she needs to be true and +personal), the author must step up into the unknown: who is the +true Luna behind that facade? + +.. _`Northumbrian’s stories`: + https://archiveofourown.org/series/103340 + +.. _`Yggdrasil by Northumbrian`: + https://archiveofourown.org/works/3540968 + +.. _`Tales of the Battle by Northumbrian`: + https://archiveofourown.org/works/1615616 + +.. _`Nargles and Charms by Arpad Hunta`: + https://archiveofourown.org/series/29673 + +.. _`The Accidental Animagus by White_Squirrel`: + https://archiveofourown.org/works/14078862 |