Comments | madderbrad: A silent excommunication; fandom observations both personal and at large

madderbrad

A silent excommunication; fandom observations both personal and at large

Dec 02, 2010 09:02

A long-time LJ friend de-friended me a few days ago. The act was done in silence; no warning, no notice, no message ... no courtesy. Just a silent disconnection. The event that apparently caused this reaction has aided me in making an observation about the HP fandom as it is at present, which I'll discuss a little further below.

( The post-mortem and how the event is symptomatic of a larger fandom trend. )

Comments 38

harpsi_fizz December 1 2010, 23:24:19 UTC

Oh man. Damn it, Brad, I am so sorry. I read your post in Keith Olberman's voice, the same weary, pleading one he used to say he's "sick of this sh*t". I don't get it either. What is it to them? What is it to people that someone likes something they don't?

I put the question to two OBHWFers and one answered. The other, surprise surprised, was a huge coward and chose to just ignore the simple question. And she was the more inflammatory of the two, so there you go.

I think you need this right now. It's a damn shame that obhwfers and non-canon people can't get along.

But you know what just occurred to me? She de-friended you because your lack of common interest within the same fandom was too much. Yet she ships R/Hr, who have no common interest at all.

I'm just saying that 9 out of 10 obhwf couldn't find their heads with both hands and a flashlight if Rowling wasn't there to tell them which way to look.

harpsi_fizz December 1 2010, 23:24:46 UTC

Edit- Oh! Looks like you found the friending meme!

madderbrad December 1 2010, 23:38:09 UTC

Heh. Yep!

madderbrad December 1 2010, 23:37:52 UTC

Wow, Theodore, that's a coincidence. After making my post I tried to catch up with things (I'm about 1.5 weeks behind overall on my Friends list) and I discovered that H/Hr friending post. And posted a reply to your entry. And then noticed an e-mail about your response here right afterwards. Hello there!

I haven't make my own entry over there but I will after this. Oh, and thank you for the referral!

She de-friended you because your lack of common interest within the same fandom was too much. Yet she ships R/Hr, who have no common interest at all.

Heh, nice, I like it.

What is it to people that someone likes something they don't?Well, I can understand wanting to keep the contrary elements at bay. Myself, I welcome discussion and analysis; I feel so much stronger in my beliefs afterwards. Or I've had to modify my opinions if they were proven incorrect. But some people can't handle that, or they want to believe in something that they know doesn't hold up. I can't *respect* that stance, but why should they care what I ( ... )

avidbeader December 1 2010, 23:40:30 UTC

I'm sorry. I've had that happen, although in my case it was my snarling reaction to the TDH epilogue that made a couple of people drop me.

But you're right. Everywhere we look these days we see vindication that Harry and Hermione make more sense to the people who aren't approaching the books from a "Rowling is God" standpoint. And everywhere canon-thumpers are seeing *just* how easily it could have gone another way.

madderbrad December 2 2010, 00:03:34 UTC

And everywhere canon-thumpers are seeing *just* how easily it could have gone another way.

And some of them are doing everything they can to close their eyes and NOT 'see' this. Which includes fortifications and a moat. :-)

avidbeader December 2 2010, 00:17:50 UTC

We'll starve them out! SIIIIIEEEEEEGE!

madderbrad December 2 2010, 00:27:57 UTC

Ha ha ha!!

You know, with all the recent H/Hr activity flooding the internet, I do think we can starve them out, yes. :-)

Thread 7

stmargarets December 2 2010, 00:52:38 UTC

*waves at H/Hr fans. I'm sure you've never heard of me*

Brad, I deleted your comment becuase it was the first one on my post. The first comment is usually read by everyone and I didn't want my flist to engage you on my journal. I don't enjoy the shipping wars - at all. I've been ignoring your shipping comments for quiet a while for that very reason.

The other deleted comments were from anonymous people who were challenging other commenters. I don't know who they are, but they were looking for some kind of exchange and I did not want a pie fight in my journal - plain and simple. So I deleted and turned off anonymous commenting.

That's it - no hidden symbolism - no meta on the fandom. I've never debated the ships and I'm not going to start now.

madderbrad December 2 2010, 01:35:16 UTC

Whew! Just as well you waited a while before posting, St. Margarets. Because, you know, if you'd been the first one here, why, I would have had to silently delete your post. And de-friend you. And ban you. And talk indirectly about 'trolls' being banned.

Good timing there! Because I'd hate to do any of that to someone.

That's it - no hidden symbolism - no meta on the fandom.

Also no communication - no warning - no notification - no courtesy. Which surprised me. And disappointed me.

But you're under pressure at the moment, all that H/Hr stuff on the big screen, all the positive reviews, I think I understand. For someone not used to 'debating', someone who deletes that-which-must-not-be-read, it must be difficult when the whole world starts talking H/Hr.

*waves at St. Margarets from across the moat of banned LJ space*

stmargarets December 2 2010, 02:16:08 UTC

Were you the one who was making the anonymous comments? Okay then, I feel better. It really creeps me out to get anonymous comments - I don't even read them. Good. I didn't have trolls. Trolls are people I don't know ( ... )

madderbrad December 2 2010, 03:06:02 UTC

Were you the one who was making the anonymous comments?

Huh? No. Where did you get that impression? Shucks, my definition of 'Brad - worst troll EVER', as per my blog entry, precludes posting anonymously.

Anyway, no, I made just the one comment. You can go back to feeling worse. :-)

Friending your journal goes back to my early days - 2005? - when I tracked some of my favourite authors to their LJ haunts. You might have forgotten that I enjoy H/G stories too. Not as much these days, but still some. You've probably forgotten all of my reviews of your stories too. I am - was? - a St. Margarets fan, you understand. :-) Putting me in a H/Hr basket is oversimplifying. Convenient, maybe, but not correct.

So, I thought you'd get the hint that I really didn't want to talk to you about shipping since I haven't replied to any of your shipping comments for a long time.I can only think of two such, comments to which you did not reply. With a normal exchange in between. Spread over six months ( ... )

Thread 6

govcampbell December 2 2010, 01:39:08 UTC

For what it's worth, I don't feel threatened by H/Hr. I just can't see it, myself. I've always thought there was more subtext between Ron and Hermione. (In my mind, H/Hr is boring...the hero gets the girl in just about everything else. It's nice to see the loyal sidekick get some action.) But regardless, it doesn't bother me that other people see differently. It doesn't threaten me in the least, and I don't understand why people get so defensive about it ( ... )

madderbrad December 2 2010, 01:55:21 UTC

There was always heaps of 'subtext' - mainly jealousy? - going from Ron to Hermione. I never saw much at all going the other way, not until book 6, where that primary Rowling indicator of romantic attraction - jealousy - got activated for Hermione too.

the hero gets the girl in just about everything else.

Well, the hero got the (fan)girl in the HP series too. So I wouldn't let that stop you from considering H/Hr! :-)

I always loved the friendship between Harry and Hermione, so part of my early reasons for liking H/Hr was just wanting to see that relationship flower. But I also am most definitely not a fan of the 'bitter fighting means true love' thing, so the R/Hr didn't interfere, it didn't pop up on my radar at all.

As far as the movies go, I've never been happy with them, mainly because they leave out so much of the textual material.

Yes, I've never felt that they hung together very well; I've always thought of them as "a collection of the greatest hits/scenes/chapters!" anthologies rather than as self-contained movies.

( ... )

(The comment has been removed)

madderbrad December 2 2010, 03:12:23 UTC

The what now? 'subtext'? Never heard of it. ^^

Heh. We see what we want to see.

Or, rather, some people try not to see what they don't want to see, in some cases.

I haven't watched the movie myself but I *think* - from what I've read - that Harry and Hermione marry, escape to Australia, settle down and have babies, then come back to pick up where they left off with the Elder Wand nonsense.

So, sorry, I'm just being silly. But I believe the H/Hr force subtext is strong with this movie.

I just like smacking the canon around with a wrecking ball and tapdancing gleefully across the smoldering remains every bit as much as I enjoy expanding canon. :D

Ha ha ha!!

Wow, you and your demolition gear most definitely would not be welcome in some quarters!

(The comment has been removed)

madderbrad December 2 2010, 04:56:04 UTC

I have always said that the movies are nothing more than very expensive H/Hr fanfiction. :P

Yes, she's they're very pleasant to watch. I've often wondered what passes for H/G fan videos, there's so little footage to use. I remember as I grew to become a H/Hr convert over 2004- 2005, all of the H/Hr icons that were flooding my senses on LJ, she/they were so cute/pretty! The movies have certainly been of great value for the H/Hr community.

But they also run through JKR's lens and she's signed off on all of it.

Which completely bamboozles me; how sure are you of that? Because the movie H/G is even worse than the canon ... sort of. Certainly it's totally different; they chucked out all of Rowling's sixth-book H/G entirely. And all the H/Hr goodness ... with Rowling, in real life, several times protesting that 'Harry and Ginny are soul mates, really, truly!'???

And if that happens to involve stuffing Ginny into a cannon cast by house-elves out of the Black Family silver and shooting her into a flock of ThestralsOkay, how much ( ... )