...to all fanfic authors in my f-list. How often do you get new reviews for fanfics that have been up for a while? Apart, I mean, from wholly new work?
Almost never. But I mostly write for a tiny tiny niche of Harry Potter fandom (Pansy fans, which I know does not include you lol) and pretty much know everyone within that tiny niche and they all read new Pansy fic immediately, basically.
I sometimes write for romancingwizard challenge and I have gotten comments on fics I write on there months and years after the fact.
I did once write a drabble where Pansy featured in a positive light, which you might enjoy: http://fpb.livejournal.com/24691.html. But yes, on the whole I do tend to think that the girl in canon is a little bitch, and not very attractive either. I would agree that JKR does tend to load the dice against Slytherins, and that in real life one would not meet whole Houses so full of unpleasant characters, but then that is part of the stories we love. (Or at least that I do.)
I became fascinated by Pansy pre-DH, and the funny thing is is that if you actually just take the passages when Pansy appears in the first six books and look at them carefully, there's a lot to be intrigued about. You can guess what kind of upbringing she's had, and she does nothing unusual for that upbringing--except that she never uses the term mudblood in canon. Given the amount of insults she flings at Hermione, I would have thought that JKR would have wanted her to immediately go for the throat. I took a different interpretation, that she was not virulently racist like Draco and the Malfoys. Instead she was merely house loyal and with Slytherin priorities.
It's the way that she acts when Draco is injured that made me like her so much--I have a soft spot for "even bad men love their mamas" type scenes. In that scene, she doesn't care that her school enemies see her crying and upset--all she knows is that Draco is badly injured, and she cries like the little girl she is and runs to help him.
The problem is, I think that a lot of people, nay, most readers, also have that "bad men love their mamas" soft spot. And I do not excuse JKR herself from this. Why do the Malfoys get away more or less without consequence in the end, according to JKR's post DH interviews? Because they had "redeemed" themselves by showing familial love and loyalty. Ok. I think this is damn stupid, that Lucius Malfoy, who is a murderer many times over, gets away free simply because his wife lied and said Harry was dead, but whatever JKR, as long as you're consistent.
Except she is not consistent. In her post-DH interview about Pansy and Draco, JKR is practically dumbfounded by the idea that anyone would think Pansy was good enough for Draco, or that anyone would like Pansy. Pansy's sins? 1. Being a mean girl in high school. Never mind that her head of house and all her friends (including Draco) encouraged her to be so. 2. In the face of a battle that pretty much no one, at that time, thinks is winnable, she wants to sacrifice one person to save everyone.
Neither of which are good things! But the idea that Pansy is RUINED OMG FOREVER for these two things, whereas Draco, who has been deeply involved with the Death Eaters and has assaulted Harry Potter and others many times, is completely redeemable. It's a double standard.
Narcissa vs. Pansy is another double standard, this time showing JKR's fawning adoration for motherhood. Narcissa, recall, is the key player in Kreacher's betrayal of Sirius; Narcissa knowingly participates in the whole DoM fiasco, but this can be excused by JKR because Narcissa is a mother. Never mind that Draco was in no danger at all in that book.
I decided to like Pansy before DH, and none of the characterization in DH makes me dislike her, but JKR's post-DH interviews make me very protective of her, simply because I think the character is falling victim to two double standards. 1. Bad boys are sexy, bad girls are disgusting. (Pansy falls victim to this more from fans than from JKR herself. JKR, to her credit, never wanted fans to love Draco. Yet she still redeems Draco and doesn't redeem any bad female character, except for...) 2. Maternal love excuses all. (This is why Narcissa's role in murder is glossed over, but Pansy's taking points away from another house is a sin that cries out to heaven for justice.)
I don't pretend that Pansy is a wonderful person. If she were real I'm sure I'd want to give her a verbal smackdown. But neither do I think that, as written, the character deserves the vitriol that both the creator and the readers have spewed upon her. I'm not a strict "death of the author" adherent, but I don't like it when creators tell you a a character is the worst ever when they haven't written them that way, and I certainly don't like it when a character is being used as a pawn for sexist attitudes.
Technically, I should not be recommending this because the author has taken her fics off the internet and everything, but have you read Maya's fics? I think her characterisation of Pansy tends to be quite good: she's definitely bitchy, but she's also very likable and even sometimes incredibly touching.
And yes, on the whole I agree with what you say about JK Rowling's double standards and worship of motherhood. Mind you it's part of the charm of the books that they have billions of fascinating ideas, but are a bit rough around the edges: Rowling's morals are about as consistent as her timetables or the gallon rate (or the number of Hogwarts students compared with the number of the whole population, etc)
I wrote three parts of a fic called Neville's War (written pre-DH) which, I think, make some of my same points about Pansy in fic form.
(I'm also one of those who maintains that interview canon is not canon, and one can still claim to be a canon fan and ship Draco/Pansy right through the end of DH. Astoria is never named in canon.)
I found your views very interesting, except - sorry, canon is whatever JKR says it is. For instance, while I am quite displeased by her view of Dumbledore as a homosexual, I will from henceforth respect it. (What displeases me is not so much the homosexuality as such, as the way she describes and explains it. She may not realize it - and the twits who are always after some sort of gayness certificate for everything certainly do not realize it - but her depiction is deeply prejudiced against male homosexuals, in the worst Victorian manner. Nonetheless, I regard it as canon.)
Very infrequently - the two circumstances in which it happens are (a) when a reference back to a fic in a new post (e.g. in a 'year in fanfic' review, or some other kind of meme) prompts a regular reader to comment on something missed the first time around or (b) someone's found the Strong Poison AU of doom, which is probably a function of the fact that there are relatively few writers of Sayers fic, but there is still a small mass of people interested in reading fic for it.
Oh, and I once had a very belated response to my short Doctor Who/ Kidnapped crossover from (I would guess) an American who had been looking for Kidnapped fic and, I think, was somewhat disappointed it wasn't slash. There is, of course, even less of a Stevenson fandom.
ETA: which has only ever had one post made to it. Which proves the smallness of the fandom. ... though I've just discovered that there's an lj fic community for Kidnapped.
In the past year, I've had, I believe, one comment on "Getting Harry Back". It's sad, I've got almost all of the rest of it first-drafted (about 10 chapters), but things have been so hectic the past yr, I've had no time, and it's getting nothing but worse. I took a break about 1.5 yrs ago, and I started another long fic, with nothing posted on that for a year now, and I've had no comments on those chapters at all since my initial posting.
My busy is, I suppose, a good busy, as Jane continues to heal, and I'm being asked to do a number of professional things. My practice -- working a lot soldiers & their families -- has reached the point where, for the first time in 10 years, I've closed down new clients. Frustrating, but I can't see my clients now as often as I'd like, and until that settles -- probably several months -- I feel a need to keep things more in check.
Just a note mainly to say "hi" and to wish you a Happy New Year!
Hmm, I do get the occasional new review on my fics... mostly on a couple of gen fics that are still up at FA. I don't know why, I'm assuming the reviewers sort of stumble across them because I haven't posted any new few post-HBP so I guess it's just random lucky chance. It's nice, though, to get those reviews :)
Well, I'll put in my two cents here, even though I'm oldskool fandom and don't have anything on the internet.
Back in the fanzine-only days, editors would pass on copies of letters of comment (LOCs) to their authors, and sometimes print them in the next issue of their zine, if it was an ongoing one. I also got feedback in person when I was at cons--more than once I had a stranger hear my name and tell me they liked something I'd written, which is a nice little bit of egoboo. ;D
In non-net fandom, though, the comments would die off after a while--once a zine had been out a year or so, you didn't get much feedback unless there was a surge of new people into the fandom.
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Date: 2009-01-17 09:44 pm (UTC)I sometimes write for
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 10:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 10:36 pm (UTC)It's the way that she acts when Draco is injured that made me like her so much--I have a soft spot for "even bad men love their mamas" type scenes. In that scene, she doesn't care that her school enemies see her crying and upset--all she knows is that Draco is badly injured, and she cries like the little girl she is and runs to help him.
The problem is, I think that a lot of people, nay, most readers, also have that "bad men love their mamas" soft spot. And I do not excuse JKR herself from this. Why do the Malfoys get away more or less without consequence in the end, according to JKR's post DH interviews? Because they had "redeemed" themselves by showing familial love and loyalty. Ok. I think this is damn stupid, that Lucius Malfoy, who is a murderer many times over, gets away free simply because his wife lied and said Harry was dead, but whatever JKR, as long as you're consistent.
Except she is not consistent. In her post-DH interview about Pansy and Draco, JKR is practically dumbfounded by the idea that anyone would think Pansy was good enough for Draco, or that anyone would like Pansy. Pansy's sins?
1. Being a mean girl in high school. Never mind that her head of house and all her friends (including Draco) encouraged her to be so.
2. In the face of a battle that pretty much no one, at that time, thinks is winnable, she wants to sacrifice one person to save everyone.
Neither of which are good things! But the idea that Pansy is RUINED OMG FOREVER for these two things, whereas Draco, who has been deeply involved with the Death Eaters and has assaulted Harry Potter and others many times, is completely redeemable. It's a double standard.
Narcissa vs. Pansy is another double standard, this time showing JKR's fawning adoration for motherhood. Narcissa, recall, is the key player in Kreacher's betrayal of Sirius; Narcissa knowingly participates in the whole DoM fiasco, but this can be excused by JKR because Narcissa is a mother. Never mind that Draco was in no danger at all in that book.
I decided to like Pansy before DH, and none of the characterization in DH makes me dislike her, but JKR's post-DH interviews make me very protective of her, simply because I think the character is falling victim to two double standards.
1. Bad boys are sexy, bad girls are disgusting. (Pansy falls victim to this more from fans than from JKR herself. JKR, to her credit, never wanted fans to love Draco. Yet she still redeems Draco and doesn't redeem any bad female character, except for...)
2. Maternal love excuses all. (This is why Narcissa's role in murder is glossed over, but Pansy's taking points away from another house is a sin that cries out to heaven for justice.)
I don't pretend that Pansy is a wonderful person. If she were real I'm sure I'd want to give her a verbal smackdown. But neither do I think that, as written, the character deserves the vitriol that both the creator and the readers have spewed upon her. I'm not a strict "death of the author" adherent, but I don't like it when creators tell you a a character is the worst ever when they haven't written them that way, and I certainly don't like it when a character is being used as a pawn for sexist attitudes.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 01:09 pm (UTC)And yes, on the whole I agree with what you say about JK Rowling's double standards and worship of motherhood. Mind you it's part of the charm of the books that they have billions of fascinating ideas, but are a bit rough around the edges: Rowling's morals are about as consistent as her timetables or the gallon rate (or the number of Hogwarts students compared with the number of the whole population, etc)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 10:43 pm (UTC)(I'm also one of those who maintains that interview canon is not canon, and one can still claim to be a canon fan and ship Draco/Pansy right through the end of DH. Astoria is never named in canon.)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 12:12 am (UTC)Oh, and I once had a very belated response to my short Doctor Who/ Kidnapped crossover from (I would guess) an American who had been looking for Kidnapped fic and, I think, was somewhat disappointed it wasn't slash. There is, of course, even less of a Stevenson fandom.
ETA: which has only ever had one post made to it. Which proves the smallness of the fandom.
... though I've just discovered that there's an lj fic community for Kidnapped.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 12:51 am (UTC)My busy is, I suppose, a good busy, as Jane continues to heal, and I'm being asked to do a number of professional things. My practice -- working a lot soldiers & their families -- has reached the point where, for the first time in 10 years, I've closed down new clients. Frustrating, but I can't see my clients now as often as I'd like, and until that settles -- probably several months -- I feel a need to keep things more in check.
Just a note mainly to say "hi" and to wish you a Happy New Year!
avus
no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 08:20 am (UTC)-Kiks
no subject
Date: 2009-01-19 09:29 pm (UTC)Back in the fanzine-only days, editors would pass on copies of letters of comment (LOCs) to their authors, and sometimes print them in the next issue of their zine, if it was an ongoing one. I also got feedback in person when I was at cons--more than once I had a stranger hear my name and tell me they liked something I'd written, which is a nice little bit of egoboo. ;D
In non-net fandom, though, the comments would die off after a while--once a zine had been out a year or so, you didn't get much feedback unless there was a surge of new people into the fandom.