HOLY MOTHER OF GOD

WB is now sponsoring FictionAlley. Which is, of course, FABULOUS, because they put so much work into it, and they wrestle with sponsors and such, and they do such a great job.

But think about this.

WB, the company that co-owns copyright of Harry Potter, is now sponsoring HARRY POTTER SLASH.

Yes kids. J.K. Rowling is a slasher at heart. I raise my glass to you folks. Yes. Fan fiction generates cash. Oh yes. Think of all the crap you can fanfic writers and readers to BUY. Hell, if you have dolls of Harry and Draco who can smooch each other, your profits will go through the roof.

J.K. Rowling. My respect for you and yours has just shot upwards about a million percent.

Wow.

The Great Harry/Draco Debate

H/D is old, tired, and unoriginal. It's Romeo and Juliet, Anthony and Cleopatra, Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara, it's every bad Harlequin romance (and every good one, if there are any), it's even Greese.

Okay. That's fine. If you get your kicks from unusual pairings, from matching up people who have no chemistry or never meet in the books, or have less than three lines, or have strange body parts, or can get into acrobatic sexual positions unknown to other fanfic authors, or are pulled kicking and screaming from the grave, or you like plot twists that are totally completely new and and sparkling and shocking, plot twists that make your eyes spin into you head with their originality, then fine. H/D is old, tired and unoriginal. The line 'And Draco kissed Harry', or 'Harry kissed Draco' has been used hundreds of times. *yawn* Turn the page, next scene.

Personally, I don't read or write H/D to see any of these things. I am interested in the people, and the interpretation of these people. I don't think all the questions of H/D have been answered or will ever BE answered, mostly because everyone writes Harry differently, everyone writes Draco differently, and there are an infinite number of ways to combine them. These are very hardcore archetypes, and they resonate with a lot of us pretty deeply. So we want to work through it, we want to write that story.

And what is it about, in the end? I was talking to my friend altricial about this the other day. What is an H/D fic about? What are we saying? Well, she and I, we're writing about love. For her, it's love that can't be realized, and for me it's love that can't help but be realized. And we can both be H/D shippers, on opposite sides of the argument. And just today isilya and I had a long talk about H/D and the nature of lust. And that was quite useful all around, I think, and quite interesting. So what is it? We use these characters as a vehicle to talk about something, and for some of us, H/D is the perfect vehicle. Off we trundle. The possibilities are endless. The medium is H/D, the topics can be whatever you feel like discussing.

I guess what frustrates me is that I keep getting email from people new to the fandom who say, "I really want to write this H/D story I've been thinking about, but I guess that's old and done with now." And I'm not convinced it is, and I'm sorry that it appears that way. And I'm sorry that people's desire to write the stuff is stifled by a history of a ship, or the mere popularity of it.

Now. The Snape lovers have to deal with lots of crosses. People who hate Snape, people who are disgusted by Snape, people who go on and on about his greasy hair and how nasty he is. Snape/Harry shippers have to deal with people being repulsed by the age difference (myself included). Sirius/Harry shippers have people being horrified that you would take away Harry's only real father figure and insert a love interest. Draco/Ginny shippers, Draco/Hermione shippers, no comment. (UGH.) Twincest shippers, well, the incest taboo, you're going to hell business, no doubt. Harry/Ron shippers: "Friend-fucking is so boring!". Seamus/anyone shippers: "The boy has four lines." So perhaps the 'H/D is dead' business is just the cross Harry/Draco shippers have to bear.

And the survey says...

Which House Should YOU Be In? By:Anndrea