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See, I work in a library. That is where this whole Potter obsession took hold. I would see children and their parents coming back 6 or 7 days later for the next book in the series and they would rave about how cool the story was. This still happens in 2010, when J.K. Rowling hasn't written/published a single thing in years. Just the other day a young man came up to the counter and asked for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and it was all I could do to prevent myself from smiling that sly smile. He was about to be absolutely hooked and I knew he'd be back. By the way, we have 4 copies of Sorcerer's Stone and they were all checked out. That wasn't the interesting part. I mean, if you describe the world of Harry Potter to someone who doesn't know, it really does sound like child's play.

It's this magic land where people walk around with these magic wands and ride on brooms and talk to snakes...

But then something else happened. Some of the parents were reading the books. Adults were really starting to love these novels. And, I'm not sure exactly when this happened, but the New York Times actually created a separate bestseller list for children's literature because Harry Potter was just dominating their fiction list for weeks at a time. It was getting some serious attention.

I applaud J.K. Rowling for creating a world that was so captivating that it entranced the minds of adults as well as children. For example, I am reading the Percy Jackson series right now (which is very cute), but does not have the same quality that Harry Potter does. The depth of the storyline is limited and therefore is very child-centered. Cute, but nothing extraordinary.

J.K. Rowling, you rock. Now, I just wish she would write some more!

What fun!


Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

Okay, I'm back!

Why am I back to writing my dusty old fanfic that hasn't been updated since 2008? Well, I'm kind of afraid to say it, but...

TWILIGHT!

While I've read the Twilight series and think it's moderately entertaining, I'm so deeply and desperately disappointed in it. We were spoiled by J.K. Rowling and her intelligent literary references, intricate storyline, an endless cast of characters, and just plain good writing.

You can clearly tell that the author of the Harry Potter books is well-read and has several things going on a once. Also, it is clear that Harry Potter was not written in a weekend. That's because... well, I don't know, books should be carefully crafted and not just CHURNED OUT FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION!

The only way my fanfic Slytherin's Guide to Howarts could have been conceived is that J. K. Rowling gave us a chance to see a multi-faceted and intricate world that involves more than just the main character's point of view. There are many kinds of fanfic that are born from J.K. Rowling's world because it really did give our imagination some room to frolic in. I appreciate the Harry Potter series so much more because of this. So, if there's anybody out there who is still interested in reading Slytherin's Guide, I have vowed to finish it. I don't even care if anyone reads it. Honestly. It's just something I have to do for myself.

I'm also putting up the prequel to They All Fall Down called Promised and features a Severus and Narcissa pairing.

It's good to be back in the fandom again. Can somebody update me on the last three years? I'm reading Cassandra Clare's novel City of Bones which is turning out to be good. I can't believe she started out writing fanfic and is now published. Cool!

I met him. That most dangerous and delicious character that I've been inserting into my fanfic in the form of Snape, Draco, and Lucius. In this post I confessed an unhealthy and forbidden desire to be with a man who is so obviously bad for me...

The calculated intelligence of Snape, the playful ambivalence of Draco, the endless and risk-it-all arrogance of Lucius all in one man. ( Read more...Collapse )

I'll be on a short trip to England for two weeks! My stories will be well attended to once I return on May 25th. I have quite a bit saved up to post when I get back!

Two words. God damned, mother-fucking, little words. How fragile is my spirit that a total stranger that I have never set eyes on can deflate me with their veiled implications.

"...once again."

As if I didn't listen the first time and the only way she can needle me is by pointing out the repetition of my mistake. I can hear your voice, though it's coated with politeness, smudged with bull-shit, sprinkled with sugar.

Fuck what you think. The only thing I'm guilty of is watching Cruel Intentions one too many times. And perhaps that poetic license that goes along with such facinations that allow us to watch shows like 90210 where the setting is high school, but all the actors are in their thirties.

Guilty. As. Charged. You may turn up your nose and point to your little sign like Madmam Pince. "It says right here: fanfic can't break any rules."

And yes, I will also violate your damned punctuation standards. When you're writing creative fiction, sometimes it feels good to break the rules for the sake of tone or rhythm or sound. Nothing you've ever heard of by the look of your pathetic attempts. I've read published (read: in black and white print; selling thousands of copies) that contain more grammatical and puncuation errors than what you allow in your self-important little archive.

Expression. Probably not too familiar with the word, you bitter, overly-inflated little bitch. Just because you have the power to moderate an archive of fanfic doesn't mean you can belittle those around you like some pathetic shopping mall rent-a-cop.

My most recent story titled They All Fall Down was given the honor of being chosen for a featured story at The Petulant Poetess. This happens to be my favorite archive (that poetess pic is so damned cute) and I'm walking on air. I feel like I won an Academy Award. Actually, I feel sorry for people who have never known what this feels like.

The story is a wicked little romance for Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. It describes how they met and has more lemons than a lemon meringue pie. Now, I realize that February is the month of love, because of Valentines day and I'm pretty sure that all the sex is the reason they chose it, but, hey, I'm taking ALL the credit. Yay me!

My disclaimer: yes, I probably violate other people's pet peeves with my fanfic, but this is a free country, and in the spirit of the first amendment, I'd like to vent about my own pet peeves.

Let me define firstly what I mean by "rape fantasies." I have read some very well done fanfic and other fiction that use rape as a plot vehicle. A girl is raped and must deal with it. A man rapes and learns to live with it. Etcetera. What I am addressing is the oft used scene where a woman (often a Mary Sue, i.e. Hermione; see post on women characters in HP) is raped by someone that she secretly is attracted to. This rape event produces some sort of hurt/comfort dynamic between the attacked girl and the rapist and/or some rescuing male character.

I once read a very revealing short story written by a fairly well known female author, Margaret Atwood, entitled Rape Fantasies. She defined the rape fantasy with sympathy and understanding. Women want to indulge in a sexual fantasy where they have no responsibility. This makes so much sense to me. We want a man to violently and savagely take our body, but we don't want to admit that we want this. The article goes on to explain that the man in our fantasies is attractive, is skilled with his hands, and smells good. Not very realistic. Imagining the rape is, of course, not an actual wish, but an excuse to indulge in blatant sexuality WITHOUT romance that we secretly crave. I mean, aren't we supposed to want romance? What's the name for the kind of woman wants sex without a relationship? I won't write it here.

So, now that we have explained it, I'm asking that you don't do it in fan fiction. Please? It's okay to want sex like this. The situation I describe reminds me of women from the Victorian Era: too ashamed to want sex, obligated to refuse any man who pursues her, but secretly wanting nothing more than to be brutally ravaged. Is this heathly? Probably not.

In danger of contradicting myself, I'd like to bring up something from a Jason Isaacs interview. The actor that played Lucius Malfoy is famous for doing villainous and horrible things in other movies/tv shows. One show he did depicted his character brutally beating his wife. Apparently some of his fans were turned on by this (I have no idea whether the scene was idealized or sexualized) and wrote him fanmail about how they liked it. In his interview he said he sent them pamphlets for battered womens associations. Now, if I ever had a chance to speak to Mr. Isaacs, I would promptly refer him to the article that I was talking about above (if I ever find it--moot point: I will never meet Isaacs). However, I include this so that these women are seen by the *actor* who plays the violent role. And he's supposed to understand his character more than anyone!

My point? Women are allowed to want violent or rough sex. If you want to live this fantasy through fanfic, write it so that the woman is willing, empowered, enjoying herself. Fiction is where we live out those things we would never do in real life, and I understand this to an extent. But painting a lovely picture of a man raping a women and then treating her as if she's the answer to his prayers? No. Rape is about taking power, demeaning, and degrading the person you are forcing sex on.

Oh, and Mr. Isaacs? Those women were fantasizing about a blue-eyed, handsome actor "role-playing" with them in the bedroom. Although there are women that get off on getting demeaned and spanked... the world of S&M is mostly unknown to me, but I think even if that circumstance, they didn't need the pamphlets. Thanks.

If there were such a thing as Polyjuice, things would be so much easier:

Sweet long-term boyfriend is eating cereal laced with Polyjuice (one Rickman hair added, of course).

"You okay, babe?" he says, taking another bite of cereal.

I sigh and look at him dreamily. "Yeah, great."

"'Cause you're staring at me."

Shakes head. "Oh am I?" Dreamy staring continues.

Boyfriend starting to get uncomfortable.

"Could you do just one thing for me?" I ask, eyeing his breakfast.

"Sure," he says, his brow furrowing.

"Okay, ready? 'I'm going to carve your heart out with a spoon, Locksley!"

Boyfriend repeats line, using the spoon in his hand for emphasis. "Babe? Babe, you okay?"

Me fainted on the floor.

Okay, maybe I could think of a few other things I would do with the Polyjuice. Hmmm.

A repeating theme I've seen in my life-time obsession with villians is the value of the sexual threat. Let me explain: often the protagonist has a leading lady. Sometimes she's a vulnerable damsel in distress, but sometimes she's even a strong female lead. And the villian uses his sexual virility as a threat towards the leading lady. In a way this makes the threat towards the protagonist personal.

One good example is from an Alan Rickman movie (one of my other obsessions). In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Robin Hood quickly falls for the strong, interesting character of Maid Marian. In one scene he sneaks into the church dressed as a beggar and sees her conferring with his enemy: the Sheriff of Nottingham (OOOoooo, burn!). Things get heated when the Sheriff goes so far as to attempt to rape her while he forces her to marry him. Now, when you think about it, that's really quite ridiculous. I mean, couldn't he wait until the priest had finished so he could rape her in private? An interesting line during this scene is, "For once in my life I will have something pure," when the old hag, Mortianna eggs him on. Pure? Raping your bride while the priest watches? Hmmm.



And I've found an example of this in the recent Harry Potter movie. I was watching it with friends the other day and noticed something. Isn't it interesting that Draco is the one with his hands all over Cho when Umbridge decides to crash the Dumbledore's Army party? I know this is just one frame, but in the actual movie, he manhandles her pretty hard. Did the director do this on purpose? Now that the audience knows that Harry likes Cho, it makes her betrayal that much harsher when the viewer realizes that Draco may have played a part in her confession.

As a side note, this perspective of Draco being an influence in the discovery of Dumbledore's Army is used in my fanfic chapter 11: The Umbridge Mission where Draco is the one to get Marietta to spill the beans. I know the movie version doesn't have Marietta, but I was kind of satisfied to see that little bit that it had in common with my fanfic.