Seconded. I feel sorry for all the people out there who simply don't realise how much fandom can do for your enjoyment of a book. Which is to say, i think reading the book is something personal, just like every other book- that's why I don't want to do any of the chapter-by-chapter or reading club things. I think a first read should be pure. But beyond the first, and fifth, read, I think fandom is just... fantastic. :D Fandom love.
Heh. Maddening sometimes, but still... it definitely adds something. (And I can always withdraw to my core of Relatively Sane People, or Similarly Insane People, whenever some sections get annoying.) I think about things I wouldn't otherwise... yeah.
I think this is why I never felt that the Room of Requirement was anything too unusual, and similar things have made me react similarly... because this fandom is so huge, and you really can read a lot of fic if you feel like it- and I was, before OotP, although not so much right now- that, like the Shakespeare's monkeys theory, eventually someone is going to write something that's similar to what happens. I do think it's made my reading a little bit different, a sort of more seamless transition, in the little details.
Well, the Room of Requirement definitely wasn't how I'd pictured it -- ours was a lot tamer, and used to be Salazar Slytherin's office -- but it was still amusing. (And the Disillusionment spell matching the chameleons was just completely random.)
But yes, I think you're right. And I think this is why a lot of people complained that OotP felt like fanfic: so many people were guessing, and JKR had left enough clues, that there had to be elements people had guessed. But there were still things nobody got.
Ginny didn't strike me as unexpected, though I don't think I was inclined to downplay her because of it -- I was stuck on her straight on from CoS. *g* Well, strike that -- I was a bit startled by the... edge, by the lying to Molly and such. As I think I've said elsewhere, I was probably too charitable toward a lot of characters.
I suppose I can see her being a surprise, but the kind of surprise that fits and makes you go, "Oh, so that's how it is," not "What the heck, where did that come from?" -- I tend to attribute the claims of a 180-degree character change to coming from the wrong side of fandom. ;) Maybe that isn't fair.
all of a sudden everyone's very sorry for Snape- I never liked him and I still don't.
Oh, I actually do like him -- not that he's nice, but he's fun -- but not because of SWM.
I think Harry does have some empathy for the underdog, though. Just because it isn't something he sits down and thinks out (except, actually, in Snape's Worst Memory) doesn't mean it isn't there; he doesn't really go out of his way on a regular basis, but he does strike me as inclined to be kind/sympathetic when it comes up. Unless they're actively annoying him, in which case most people are sunk anyway.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-06-27 05:14 am (UTC)Heh. Maddening sometimes, but still... it definitely adds something. (And I can always withdraw to my core of Relatively Sane People, or Similarly Insane People, whenever some sections get annoying.) I think about things I wouldn't otherwise... yeah.
I think this is why I never felt that the Room of Requirement was anything too unusual, and similar things have made me react similarly... because this fandom is so huge, and you really can read a lot of fic if you feel like it- and I was, before OotP, although not so much right now- that, like the Shakespeare's monkeys theory, eventually someone is going to write something that's similar to what happens. I do think it's made my reading a little bit different, a sort of more seamless transition, in the little details.
Well, the Room of Requirement definitely wasn't how I'd pictured it -- ours was a lot tamer, and used to be Salazar Slytherin's office -- but it was still amusing. (And the Disillusionment spell matching the chameleons was just completely random.)
But yes, I think you're right. And I think this is why a lot of people complained that OotP felt like fanfic: so many people were guessing, and JKR had left enough clues, that there had to be elements people had guessed. But there were still things nobody got.
Ginny didn't strike me as unexpected, though I don't think I was inclined to downplay her because of it -- I was stuck on her straight on from CoS. *g* Well, strike that -- I was a bit startled by the... edge, by the lying to Molly and such. As I think I've said elsewhere, I was probably too charitable toward a lot of characters.
I suppose I can see her being a surprise, but the kind of surprise that fits and makes you go, "Oh, so that's how it is," not "What the heck, where did that come from?" -- I tend to attribute the claims of a 180-degree character change to coming from the wrong side of fandom. ;) Maybe that isn't fair.
all of a sudden everyone's very sorry for Snape- I never liked him and I still don't.
Oh, I actually do like him -- not that he's nice, but he's fun -- but not because of SWM.
I think Harry does have some empathy for the underdog, though. Just because it isn't something he sits down and thinks out (except, actually, in Snape's Worst Memory) doesn't mean it isn't there; he doesn't really go out of his way on a regular basis, but he does strike me as inclined to be kind/sympathetic when it comes up. Unless they're actively annoying him, in which case most people are sunk anyway.