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diff --git a/literature/too_long.rst b/literature/too_long.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8b9e12 --- /dev/null +++ b/literature/too_long.rst @@ -0,0 +1,73 @@ +Drawn too long +############## + +:date: 2020-01-04T10:31:09 +:category: literature +:tags: review, harryPotter + +(Major spoilers follow, I am sorry, but I cannot explain my +opinion on the story without revealing most of the plot; if you +haven’t read the story, finish it first.) + +I have followed `To All the Wizards I’ve Considered Before by +FullofWrackspurts`_ first with excitement. It seemed like +refreshingly “normal” story different from the pervasive cliches +of most Harmony or Romione stories. Hermione which is as confused +by the intricacies of love as we all are, who is not +a super-heroine, not super-confident, and … well, the word is +“normal”. + +It starts as a classical comedy of errors: letters are sent to +number of Hermione’s male classmates making an impression that +they are some kind of her love letters to them. Farcical +dialogues with those affected happen and in the end, she agrees +with Dean to pretend to be dating so that they may evoke jealousy +in Ginny and Ron, and persuade them to renew (or ignite) romantic +relationship. Obviously what follows is that the pretended +relationship between Hermione and Dean starts to change into +something real and both of them are too bound by the pretence to +reveal their true feelings to each other. So far so good, +certainly not worse than three quarters of all successful +Hollywood romantic comedies. + +The obvious problem is the end game. Whole charade about purely +contractual and pretence nature of their relationship started to +break down around the Christmas, when Hermione visited her +“boyfriend’s” family, and all Dean’s siblings are quite not +believing their pretence. Since that moment, the clocks started +ticking for some final showdown to happen. Two chapters or so of +them resolving their problem and it would be a sweet romcom. + +Unfortunately, that is the sixth chapter of the story, and it +seems like just half of the story (in case the chapter fourteen +is the last one). I guess, the author read somewhere in one of +those “How to write a novel” guides on the Internet (or perhaps +even in a book), that unresolved tension can keep readers +attention for longer time, so she went with it. The problem with +this advice is in my opinion, that it can keep such attention +just for so long and it creates a debt to the readers. Longer you +keep their attention with this artificial gimmick, bigger return +on their investment they expect. With more than half of the story +spent on observing how our two heroes behave like idiots, we +expect something super profound to happen. May in the end the +author go AU and Dean returning to Ginny letting Hermione hang +out dry with the morale being “If you don’t snap them, they may +go away forever”? Will they agree to be together and go for +liberation of house-elves together (or whatever, Dean with his +Black American heritage may have an unique opinion on that)? Will +be there some super dramatic scene with for example Dean being +seriously hurt after The Battle of the Astronomy Tower (kind of +equivalent of the Bill-Fleur scene, or perhaps really dying)? + +The result was that the author haven’t managed to do anything. In +the chapter sixteen our heroes kiss (again, the previous tease +was completely useless in the story development) and they still +haven’t said a word about the nature of their relationship. +Perhaps it is assumed they are boyfriend/girlfriend now, but it +seems like after the betrayal of our expectations the author has +left us hang out dry on the top of everything else. + +After so perfect start the end is a huge disappointment. + +.. _`To All the Wizards I’ve Considered Before by FullofWrackspurts`: + https://archiveofourown.org/works/17777138 |