diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'faith/breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | faith/breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst | 157 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 157 deletions
diff --git a/faith/breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst b/faith/breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst deleted file mode 100644 index 4da3e12..0000000 --- a/faith/breakfast_in_new_york_02.rst +++ /dev/null @@ -1,157 +0,0 @@ -One more on “Breakfast in New York” -################################### - -:date: 2021-03-23T14:08:24 -:category: faith -: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 |