(no subject)

[kennahijja]

There was a minor earthquake last night around 3am, which shook the computer and scared the cat quite a bit.

My Niffler term is at an end, which is a good thing because it's been quite a bit of work, and a bad thing because it was great fun. Although I was slow at the beginning, I managed to finish with 16 recs for four months, one per week, *phew*.
Did a table with a breakdown according to characters and genres and so on, should anybody be interested:

Title -- Author -- Rating -- Protagonist(s) -- Genre

The Five Steps -- ari -- PG -- Harry, Remus -- gen
Blood Will Tell -- Harloprillalar -- R -- Sirius/Lucius -- slash
A Half a Conquest -- Arkady -- R -- Tom/Albus -- slash
Fantastic Beasts: a Book Review -- Mary Borsellino -- PG -- Sirius -- gen
Fractured Triangle -- Fyre -- R -- Hermione/Lucius, trio -- het
Over Tea -- Dementordelta -- R -- Harry/Snape, Minerva -- slash
Take Up Serpents -- Rusalka -- PG-13 -- Tom -- gen
Welcome to the Dollhouse -- Lilith Morgana -- R -- Snape -- gen
Surprise -- Xandria -- R -- Harry/Lucius -- slash
Blood Magic -- GatewayGirl -- -- R -- Harry, Snape -- gen/het/slash
Midnight Conversations -- Thistlerose -- R -- MWPP, Lily -- slash/het
Out of the Bag -- Bernice Russell -- G -- Snape, Minerva -- gen
Once Upon a Time, in Egypt -- Josan -- PG-13 -- Snape, Bill -- gen
Fidelius/Secret Keeper -- tradescant -- R -- Harry/Snape -- slash
World's End -- bruno -- PG-13 -- Voldemort, Snape -- gen
To Serve a Purpose -- Dark Twin -- R -- Remus/Sirius -- slash

I knew three of the authors I niffled, got to know three more after stumbling over the fic niffled, exchanged a review with another, and don't know the other nine.
Seven Snapefics out of 16 was *definitely* too much, but there suddenly seemed to be far too many good ones floating around...
Nine angst fics and ten R-Ratings is a lot, too, but heck, that's my kind of thing.
I'm proud of reccing as many gen as slash fics, and really should have looked into more het!
And I feel kind of guilty for not Niffling even one H/D fic, and nothing at all Draco-centric, but that's perhaps only fair after doing a H/D overkill in my first Niffler term...


Oh, and there were two stories that broke my heart because I could *not* Niffle them:

Stealing Harry by Sam Vimes (copperbadge) [Sirius/Remus bringing up young Harry, R]
--> Sam Vimes has been Niffled three times already, which is the limit.

The Best Revenge by Scattered Logic (scatteredlogic) [Lucius/Hermione, NC-17]
--> NC-17 rating (while I agree with that restriction, the story itself is less racy than a lot I've seen under a R-Rating, which made it painful to pass up...

Comments

Re: I win!

[chthonya]

It's not like I get physical allergic reactions to AU, you know. But yeah, I still fail to see the point of it. In any story. (More so if it's not the main point of the story). But it's probably not the place or the moment to discuss this theoretically.

Maybe not, but I can't resist commenting briefly, especially as I refrained from doing so on your thread.

For me, any appeal that AU has is due to my interest in the characters - the part of me that says 'how did he get to be the way he did?' also likes to ask 'what would he have been like if that had happened differently?' or 'how would these characters have interacted if they had met at this point?' I don't like AUs where the characters or the Potterverse (timeline excepted) are off, but as I tend to read backstory and minor character and improbable LM/HG fics I'm used to seeing multiple different versions of a story, so reading an alternative view of canon time doesn't bother me as much as it might have so long as the AUness is stated upfront so I can make the necessary mental adjustments.

Okay, that was a longer comment than I intended. What I really wanted to say is that the AUness of 'Invictus' arose because my most compulsive writing period for it was May-August last year. So it was firmly established in my head as a fifth-year fic at the start, and as it took me a while to absorb the new canon it would have been a massive distraction to uproot it and replant it at the start of the sixth year. When I said that the AUness wasn't the main point of the story, I meant that the character interaction is at the core and the outside action is fairly incidental (though it does have an impact on some of the conflict) - but the AU aspect is still a prerequisite. The side benefit is that I can make oblique references to things that Hermione can't understand but that readers of OotP should. And yes, arguably it's lazy of me not to make up my own timeline, but I don't like second-guessing JKR, and having certain things set leaves me (and hopefully the readers) free to focus in on the central element.

Which isn't to say you should read it - it's not for everyone - but just to try to clarify what I mean by it not being the main point: namely that at the point of conception it wasn't an AU, merely an (improbable) extrapolation.

Re: I win!

[the-dark-twin.livejournal.com]

Chthonia, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, I certainly didn't mean that I didn't want to discuss it, only I didn't want to force a discussion on anyone. :)

I will come back to this but if you'll forgive me, I really need to go to bed now, I was down to three hours of sleep last night and I wouldn't like to make that too much of a habit. :o

So, talk to you later!

Re: I win!

[the-dark-twin.livejournal.com]

For me, any appeal that AU has is due to my interest in the characters - the part of me that says 'how did he get to be the way he did?' also likes to ask 'what would he have been like if that had happened differently?' or 'how would these characters have interacted if they had met at this point?'

I understand this, and sometimes really enjoy speculating about this, too. Just never to the point that makes me want to write a story about it (I find writing very hard and I’m slow and it’s a huge effort to turn out even a one shot, so that might be part of the problem).


it was firmly established in my head as a fifth-year fic at the start, and as it took me a while to absorb the new canon it would have been a massive distraction to uproot it and replant it at the start of the sixth year.

That is something I completely understand, too – I don’t read many older fics that have become AU after book 5 came out, but of course my “huh, what’s the POINT?” reservation doesn’t apply to these.

I mean, personally, I’m terrified that anything in my fics becomes AU when books 6 and 7 come out… and it would not just big things I’m worried about (like JKR finally introducing us to Mrs Remus Lupin), but also the small things.

As it happens, I’ve been cultivating a plot bunny for a long while that’s dealing with, in general terms, “how Snape left the Death Eaters”. But I just don’t dare to write it. I’m almost certain that JKR will tell us her own version of it, and what a waste of time it would be to have invested weeks and months in a fic about it that just isn’t what happened.


I guess the “mental adjustment” you mention that you have to make before reading and writing AU is the problem. I’m such a believer in canon that I can’t bring myself to suspend the “reality” of canon enough to make that adjustment.


Anyway, again thanks for your thoughts. At least I am gradually realising that people can have other (and better) motivations for writing AU than just not wanting to bother about getting their canon right. ;)

Re: I win!

[chthonya]

At least I am gradually realising that people can have other (and better) motivations for writing AU than just not wanting to bother about getting their canon right. ;)

*g*
It's arguable that a good AU has to pay even more attention to canon: if one is changing details deliberately, one had better have a very good idea of all the interlinked implications of the change, and a thorough understanding of how the characters would re/act in the altered circumstances.


As it happens, I’ve been cultivating a plot bunny for a long while that’s dealing with, in general terms, “how Snape left the Death Eaters”. But I just don’t dare to write it. I’m almost certain that JKR will tell us her own version of it, and what a waste of time it would be to have invested weeks and months in a fic about it that just isn’t what happened.

Yes, I can understand that - it's the same feeling that makes me reluctant to write (and read) sixth and seventh-year fics, and leaves me with no inclination whatsoever to write about Snape, though he is one of the more interesting characters in canon. I have no wish to second guess JKR, and I'd rather wait for her version. (Though I'd be more than happy to read yours, should you ever be tempted!) I feel a bit safer dealing with the Malfoy backstory (despite OotP giving my other WIP the AU treatment) because JKR seems much less likely to develop Lucius (or even Draco :( ) than Snape. At least, I certainly hope we're going to find out more about Snape!

Re: I win!

[the-dark-twin.livejournal.com]

It's arguable that a good AU has to pay even more attention to canon

At least definitely not less. :)


it's the same feeling that makes me reluctant to write (and read) sixth and seventh-year fics, and leaves me with no inclination whatsoever to write about Snape, though he is one of the more interesting characters in canon.

Completely true – I don’t tend to read sixth year and seventh year fics either, it’s just that there’s no way that they’re ever going to be what JKR intended. While with other eras or “minor” characters, there’s at least a chance that we’ll never find out what JKR pictured, so we're free to play around with them a lot more. I agree, it’s easier to write minor characters and different eras than Harry's schoolyears.

And as for Snape, of course he’s one of the most interesting characters in canon – the single most interesting one even in my eyes – but that’s exactly the problem! How do you write about him in a way that does justice to his complexity? Or even from his POV? Impossible to do him justice, I tend to think. I wouldn't dare to put myself into that head.


I’m with you hoping that Lucius and particularly Draco will be developed more fully. I’m not a Slytherin girl but especially Draco is just sadly two-dimensional, and seems to get more so as Harry grows. Shame, really!

Re: I win!

[chthonya]

it’s easier to write minor characters and different eras than Harry's schoolyears.

And missing scenes, of course. ;)


How do you write about him in a way that does justice to his complexity?

I think it's possible to do a limited Snape PoV - we know how he acts, for example, and we have some idea of his background and some of the reasons for his antipathy to Harry - but not anything that requires a deep and/or complex understanding of his motivations. I don't think it's the complexity per se that's the problem, more that there are pieces of information that are crucial to understanding his character - namely what caused him to join and then leave the Death Eaters - that we don't know but know we're going to get later. Once we know that information, it will be much easier to get into his head; until that point we have to second-guess what JKR is going to do. (The same second-guessing applies to Lucius and the other minor characters, but the probability of JKR developing them beyond their current 2-D state is rather less so I'm a bit more comfortable doing it.)


I’m not a Slytherin girl but especially Draco is just sadly two-dimensional, and seems to get more so as Harry grows. Shame, really!

I feel the same way about Draco - JKR did seem to be setting him up as an antagonist in the first few books, but he's starting to look irrelevant now. Perhaps that's the intention - to underline that the real conflict is outside the walls of Hogwarts now - but I'd prefer it if there was a higher flesh:cardboard ratio. I haven't given up hope, though!

As for Lucius, the unresolved question there is the extent to which he supports Voldemort, after those hints of ambivalence in GoF. He hasn't had enough page time so far for any significant development, imo, so I'll be happy if she doesn't reveal him as just a mindless follower so we Luciusfans can continue to explore the possible layers. :)