An abominable genre
Jul. 19th, 2004 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fpbI am an unashamed Harry Potter fan and keen fan writer and reader. Nevertheless, there is one sub-genre I will never touch, that I have never read nor reviewed nor ever will, that I loathe from the depths of my soul: Marauders slash. Other kinds of slash I can put up with; indeed, I tend to write a gay Harry myself. But this particular slash seems to me revolting, an assault not only on the characters and their relationship, but on a basic kind of human decency and kindness on which rests much of our happiness on this Earth.
In Joanne K.Rowling's novels, the Marauders are a group of four teen-age friends at Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft. The group forms when childhood friends Sirius Black and James Potter, the stars of their year, handsome and successful, befriend the lonely Remus Lupin and accept the somewhat star-struck friendship of the feeble Peter Pettigrew, a fat little boy with a need for strong friends. Remus is a boy with a terrible secret (he is a werewolf); his friends discover it, and, far from rejecting him, support him. The whole is a celebration of what a blessing is a warm, unconditional friendship for a lonely teen-ager. Friendship is the operative word: the four are happiest together, pulling pranks and breaking rules, learning magic and playing Quidditch.
I do not think I give much away when I say that this depiction of free, warm, luminous friendship, of the happiness of meeting and talking and doing things together, means an enormous amount to me. Friendship has been one of the great things in my life, and I regard it not only as a source of joy but as a positive value.
Anyone who reduces this world of mutual unselfish contact to sexual desire simply has no idea what friendship is about; has never had a friend, and is probably incapable of having any. As for the Marauders themselves, anyone who has read JKR's wonderful account of what the friendship and acceptance of James, Sirius and Peter meant for him in his loneliness, and still can conceive of their relationship as in any way sexual, is as grossly insensitive a reader as anyone can conceive. It simply shows a brute failure to understand any of the higher functions of human nature; a failure which is first and foremost a failure of taste, a failure to understand and appreciate what is in front of their eyes. A good book is a shared experience, an experience in which the author involves the reader. A reader who claims to love what the author has done, and yet, in her own work (for, in this case, it is pretty nearly always a woman), distorts or perverts the very experience that the author provided - in this case, the splendour and refuge of friendship, the discovery of this wonderful world of equals in one's teens - is a person who is not only out of touch with the author, but with herself. She has read; she has had the experience; she has even enjoyed it. Yet, when it comes to elaborating the experience in her own words and adding to it, she does not elaborate, but perverts it. She has failed to appreciate her own experience; in effect, she is lying to herself about herself. The failure is a failure of the self, even before it becomes a failure in relating with others.
This is not only, of course, in evidence in the miserable and ever-growing breed of Marauder slash fics. Just as blatant is the sheer and incomprehensible refusal to come to terms with what the character of Draco Malfoy represents. Anyone with a sane appreciation of storytelling would think that, after the events of ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, it would be impossible to conceive of Draco as anything but a particularly loathsome villain. Every sentence Mrs.Rowling puts in his mouth deepens his moral abjection. He is not only a monster, but a recognizable monster: my God, how many Dracones there are in classrooms and offices, workplaces and clubs, families and regiments. And yet the tide of "redeemed Draco" fics keeps flowing relentlessly onwards, and hundreds of writers write as if it was simply natural that this loathsome toad of a boy, who has done enough to imprint himself indelibly in the memory of all his victims, will marry either Ginny or Hermione or have a homosexual relationship with Harry. (An admittedly brilliant variation, in the context of an excellent story, has him in bed with Neville Longbottom.) Not only is this perversion of the Rowling canon carried out routinely, but it is treated as obvious, as natural; most writers of Draco/Ginny and Draco/Hermione romance fics hardly feel the need to justify their stories.
Nonetheless, there is more to be said in favour of redeemed-Draco fics than of Marauders slash. For one thing, the idea of former enemies getting either physically or metaphorically in bed has an undeniable piquancy; and the better redeemed-Draco fics at least show him dealing one way or another with his abominable previous character.
But for Marauder slash there is no justification. It is simply the result of a brutal and narrow, old-maidish mentality, that cannot see a few men showing a pleasure for each other's company without imagining that sex must be at the heart of it. And as this kind of fic is written largely by women, one also suspects a sort of creeping suspicion and jealousy for an all-male circle of friends: the writer sees a group of men going out alone together - of course, they have to have a reason other than just pleasure in each other's company! Of course, sex is at the bottom of this. After all, we know that men are incapable of thinking of anything else.... Well, actually, experience of certain female writers on the FICTION ALLEY site has convinced me that it is a certain kind of woman who is incapable of thinking of anything except in sexual terms. I will say no more about this; and as this entry has already taken so much space, there will be no piece of writing other than this today.
In Joanne K.Rowling's novels, the Marauders are a group of four teen-age friends at Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft. The group forms when childhood friends Sirius Black and James Potter, the stars of their year, handsome and successful, befriend the lonely Remus Lupin and accept the somewhat star-struck friendship of the feeble Peter Pettigrew, a fat little boy with a need for strong friends. Remus is a boy with a terrible secret (he is a werewolf); his friends discover it, and, far from rejecting him, support him. The whole is a celebration of what a blessing is a warm, unconditional friendship for a lonely teen-ager. Friendship is the operative word: the four are happiest together, pulling pranks and breaking rules, learning magic and playing Quidditch.
I do not think I give much away when I say that this depiction of free, warm, luminous friendship, of the happiness of meeting and talking and doing things together, means an enormous amount to me. Friendship has been one of the great things in my life, and I regard it not only as a source of joy but as a positive value.
Anyone who reduces this world of mutual unselfish contact to sexual desire simply has no idea what friendship is about; has never had a friend, and is probably incapable of having any. As for the Marauders themselves, anyone who has read JKR's wonderful account of what the friendship and acceptance of James, Sirius and Peter meant for him in his loneliness, and still can conceive of their relationship as in any way sexual, is as grossly insensitive a reader as anyone can conceive. It simply shows a brute failure to understand any of the higher functions of human nature; a failure which is first and foremost a failure of taste, a failure to understand and appreciate what is in front of their eyes. A good book is a shared experience, an experience in which the author involves the reader. A reader who claims to love what the author has done, and yet, in her own work (for, in this case, it is pretty nearly always a woman), distorts or perverts the very experience that the author provided - in this case, the splendour and refuge of friendship, the discovery of this wonderful world of equals in one's teens - is a person who is not only out of touch with the author, but with herself. She has read; she has had the experience; she has even enjoyed it. Yet, when it comes to elaborating the experience in her own words and adding to it, she does not elaborate, but perverts it. She has failed to appreciate her own experience; in effect, she is lying to herself about herself. The failure is a failure of the self, even before it becomes a failure in relating with others.
This is not only, of course, in evidence in the miserable and ever-growing breed of Marauder slash fics. Just as blatant is the sheer and incomprehensible refusal to come to terms with what the character of Draco Malfoy represents. Anyone with a sane appreciation of storytelling would think that, after the events of ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, it would be impossible to conceive of Draco as anything but a particularly loathsome villain. Every sentence Mrs.Rowling puts in his mouth deepens his moral abjection. He is not only a monster, but a recognizable monster: my God, how many Dracones there are in classrooms and offices, workplaces and clubs, families and regiments. And yet the tide of "redeemed Draco" fics keeps flowing relentlessly onwards, and hundreds of writers write as if it was simply natural that this loathsome toad of a boy, who has done enough to imprint himself indelibly in the memory of all his victims, will marry either Ginny or Hermione or have a homosexual relationship with Harry. (An admittedly brilliant variation, in the context of an excellent story, has him in bed with Neville Longbottom.) Not only is this perversion of the Rowling canon carried out routinely, but it is treated as obvious, as natural; most writers of Draco/Ginny and Draco/Hermione romance fics hardly feel the need to justify their stories.
Nonetheless, there is more to be said in favour of redeemed-Draco fics than of Marauders slash. For one thing, the idea of former enemies getting either physically or metaphorically in bed has an undeniable piquancy; and the better redeemed-Draco fics at least show him dealing one way or another with his abominable previous character.
But for Marauder slash there is no justification. It is simply the result of a brutal and narrow, old-maidish mentality, that cannot see a few men showing a pleasure for each other's company without imagining that sex must be at the heart of it. And as this kind of fic is written largely by women, one also suspects a sort of creeping suspicion and jealousy for an all-male circle of friends: the writer sees a group of men going out alone together - of course, they have to have a reason other than just pleasure in each other's company! Of course, sex is at the bottom of this. After all, we know that men are incapable of thinking of anything else.... Well, actually, experience of certain female writers on the FICTION ALLEY site has convinced me that it is a certain kind of woman who is incapable of thinking of anything except in sexual terms. I will say no more about this; and as this entry has already taken so much space, there will be no piece of writing other than this today.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 06:31 am (UTC)Anyone who reduces this world of mutual unselfish contact to sexual desire simply has no idea what friendship is about; has never had a friend, and is probably incapable of having any.
That's a pretty harsh generalization. Most fanfics are seeking not to reduce that mutual unselfish contact, but to heighten it by adding sexual desire/respect to the already potent feeling of good friendship; those two combined lead to the strongest form of love, which is what your average female has been dreaming about her whole life. How could it not be attractive? The real goal of those slashfics is usually true love and sex as the expression of that love, not sex as being glorified beyond love or friendship. There are exceptions of course, written purely for the sexual content, but they are far from the majority. The majority of slash is actually excessively sweet and platonic, with no sex involved at all. (the excessive unrealistic sweetness of most slashy fics is part of why I tend to find them boring, actually; there is very little time devoted to real relationship problems)
Friendship is the operative word: the four are happiest together, pulling pranks and breaking rules, learning magic and playing Quidditch.
Our only from-canon view of the four at the active time of their friendship indicates that in fact they are happiest when bullying others and rule-breaking, with that rule-breaking not being in the more pranking sense that Fred and George perfect but in the more dodgy stealing school property sense. I'm hardly trying to prove them complete bastards, just pointing out that their relations as shown by JKR are not as idyllic as your description seems to portray. (before you dismiss me as a Snape-lover annoyed at their treatment of him, I should point out that I write MWPP fic emphasizing the friendship, and find Snape fascinating but also a complete bastard of a teacher)
Even assuming that MWPP slash is entirely about producing a written form of masturbation, it has been pointed out elsewhere that the main reason so much slashfiction exists is because it's the female equivalent of lesbian porn. Nearly every male friend I have (including my boyfriend and my brother) is turned on by the idea of two girls getting it on, and would consider watching porn to that effect. Why is it so unthinkable that women would want an equivalent? What's wrong with that? We're less visual than men so we prefer our eroticism in written form rather than filmed, but in the end it amounts to much the same thing. I could also point out how common it is for two girls or a group of girls who are friends to be jeered at and called dykes and so on by men who can't imagine the idea that two girls could just be friends; this has happened to me personally on more than one occassion. The brutal and narrow mentality of which you speak is prevalent on both sides of the fence.
You say you have never read or reviewed any MWPP slash fanfiction; your assertions would carry much more weight if you gave it a try, and then pronounced an opinion. Just a suggestion.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 06:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 12:52 pm (UTC)I have found in my experience that writing sexual fantasies is largely harmless, yes; but that's just my point of view, and I know large numbers of people disagree with me there. If that's your opinion on that subject, can I ask what you consider of pornography in general?
I suppose I find it strange--sorry, I'm about to repeat arguments others have made, because I haven't yet seen a clear answer--that you take the point of view that they are not, dismiss all MWPP slash as sexual fantasy (which is a pretty extreme generalization; the majority of it that I've read is not), and yet write Harry/Moody yourself. Actually--not to be personal, I swear--Harry/Moody strikes me as far more subversive than any MWPP relationship, because of the student/authority figure and age difference problems. Why do you consider this permissable, whereas MWPP slash and written sexual fantasy in general are dangerously toxic?
I am familliar with Dworkin, yes, and despise that line of thinking almost as much as you must. But I have to point out that the corresponding "All women are whores" assumption is still very much in existance, and has been around far longer than Dworkin's; indeed, the one seems to have grown out of the other. Also, I fail to see what the "all men are rapists" argument has to do with a fandom that tends to write its men as being very loving and considerate individuals, towards women as well as each other. Can you explain?
no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 01:10 pm (UTC)It is not that I consider the Harry-Moody relationship permissible, and it certainly does not represent any current fantasy of mine (although as and when I write the Harry-Moody scene, I will have to draw upon teen-age experiences of mine - which, however, never extended to sex). It is that I consider it realistic. I think that Harry is, of all the characters in JKR's universe, the likeliest to turn gay. He is very like two gay friends I had in having a troubled family background (especially since viewing Snape's worst memory, which blew away his golden opinion of his father and left him troubled and confused), and it is EXACTLY because Moody is in the role of a teacher that he would be the right person to initiate him. That is how things were done in ancient Greece, to which I alluded in the reply I gave: the older lover was also supposed to take the role of an initiator, a master of life. That was what "Greek love" was about. It is of course a relationship of which we disapprove of, in our day and age, but it is one that makes sense to me in terms of truth to spiritual reality; whether or not we take it to be a negative process (and I certainly do), it is a negative process based on real human experience.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 01:40 pm (UTC)Your opinions on Harry and Moody are interesting, though I can't say I agree with them. From my own experiences with gay friends, there are others in the books who seem much more likely to walk that road than Harry, who's never to my sight demonstrated any of the signs that tend to accompany such a preference, realized or unrealized. I don't think he's comfortable enough in Moody's presence for such a relationship to occur between them (Lupin would be much more likely), though a good writer could of course develop things within the story so that ceased to be a problem. The problem is that opinions on who is and isn't likely to be gay is largely going to based in our own experiences, which makes it all entirely subjective.
To bring all this back to the main subject: alas, that's the same reason why your initial argument against MWPP slash doesn't convince me; there are those who simply find signs pointing in that direction in James, Remus, Sirius, or Peter's characters as portrayed by JKR. There truly are those who come to that conclusion by analysis and thought and based on their own real human experiences, and not by jumping to conclusions or out of a mad passion for male-on-male sex. I've seen far better written and more realistic relationships written for Remus and Sirius than I ever have for Harry and Draco, Harry and Ron, or just about any other of the common HP slash pairings; if anything, the MWPP slash I've read is more likely to be intelligently written and less inclined towards sex than other pairings, although it still doesn't feel in canon to me. I still have to see your argument that all MWPP slash is being used for the same purpose as an excessive generalization, I'm sorry. I could suggest some stories disproving it to you if you like, though you seem to be pretty happy with your opinion on things as they stand.
It's always been my impression from my studies of ancient Greece (two years of philosophy in college focusing on Plato) that the initator did indeed act as a "Master of Life," introducing his protege to sex and types of love, but that afterwards the student was expected to move on past the initial period of experimentation into more societally productive (read: procreational) relationships. Love between men was, as in some other societies (particularly Japanese), the highest form of love, because only men could love other men fully, women being considered lesser, flawed creatures incapable of complete enlightenment.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 01:43 pm (UTC)I am perplexed as to how we moved from talking about MWPP slash to pornography, though; I understand your objection on the grounds of women who seem incapable of viewing a relationship between men as anything but sexual, but if that's your main worry, why not apply the same restriction to Harry/Ron, Harry/Neville, and so on? Why target MWPP?