So am I the only one?
Jul. 17th, 2007 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
girlyswot*looks round sheepishly*
Oh yes, I've been reading those spoilers/leaks/scans...
No, you're getting nothing from me. Promise.
I think I've mentioned before that knowing what's going to happen doesn't affect my enjoyment of a book, except perhaps to relieve some of the initial scramble-to-get-through-it-as-quickly-as-possible-to-find-out-what-happens tension. So I won't have to worry about that this time.
Unless the spoilers are fake.
But here is an interesting thing I've noticed about people's response to the leaks. A number of comments are about how these aren't 'JKR's style'. Now, I haven't read the whole thing (too lazy) but what I have read strikes me as exactly JKR's style. Which got me to wondering about the effect of having read fanfiction on one's actual reading of the book.
I wasn't in the fandom before HBP so I've never had this experience before. How do the rest of you deal with it? Do you get so used to thinking of the HP world in the style of your favourite fanfics that JKR's style seems jarring? Do you long forstmargaretsHarry and Ginny, or for rhetoretician's? Do you start to find JKR's writing childish compared to some of the more 'adult' fics you might have read? Or do you find that actually, her writing does stand up to the test and sweep you away compared to the amateur things you've become used to? Can you still spot 'JKR's style' amidst all the competing voices?
Oh yes, I've been reading those spoilers/leaks/scans...
No, you're getting nothing from me. Promise.
I think I've mentioned before that knowing what's going to happen doesn't affect my enjoyment of a book, except perhaps to relieve some of the initial scramble-to-get-through-it-as-quickly-as-possible-to-find-out-what-happens tension. So I won't have to worry about that this time.
Unless the spoilers are fake.
But here is an interesting thing I've noticed about people's response to the leaks. A number of comments are about how these aren't 'JKR's style'. Now, I haven't read the whole thing (too lazy) but what I have read strikes me as exactly JKR's style. Which got me to wondering about the effect of having read fanfiction on one's actual reading of the book.
I wasn't in the fandom before HBP so I've never had this experience before. How do the rest of you deal with it? Do you get so used to thinking of the HP world in the style of your favourite fanfics that JKR's style seems jarring? Do you long for
stmargaretsHarry and Ginny, or for rhetoretician's? Do you start to find JKR's writing childish compared to some of the more 'adult' fics you might have read? Or do you find that actually, her writing does stand up to the test and sweep you away compared to the amateur things you've become used to? Can you still spot 'JKR's style' amidst all the competing voices?![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-17 04:00 pm (UTC)You know, it's funny...when I read HBP I wondered if fanfiction had tainted my view of it. The first moment when I felt this was when I read the second chapter (Spinner's End) for the first time -- I *felt* like I was reading fanfiction where (oddly) I didn't feel that way while reading chapter one. I think it had a lot to do with small details -- like the sisters calling each other by pet names (which are so familiar to fanfiction), and the unusual focus on Snape...those things really felt so much like fanfiction, but in truth I never lost sight of the fact that I was reading JKR.
And all the shipping! The magnitude of it -- Bill/Fleur, Tonks/Remus, Lav/Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny -- all combined in one story. When I read it for the first time (even Arthur's pet name for Molly! LOL) I remember thinking that it almost felt as if JKR had been glancing at all the fanfiction out there and felt a desperate need to end some of the ridiculous parings. LOL. And I must admit that there were definitely some moments, particularly with H/G, that I longed for good fanfiction where 'showing' rules over 'telling'...but alas HBP is not *really* a love story.
So yeah, in the end, I think fanfiction did taint me a bit, but really I never lost sight of the fact that I was reading *JKR* -- and that really was the most important thing.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-17 06:40 pm (UTC)