sistermagpie (![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sistermagpie) wrote2007-04-03 11:02
sistermagpie) wrote2007-04-03 11:02
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Draco's Fangirls
I was reading ![[livejournal.com profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bookshop's post on OTPs (I took out the link because it's f'locked--oops!) including H/D, and along the way the subject came up of JKR putting jokes in the books for fans--easy to spot jokes. And one came up that I've always actually been kind of interested in, because I think it goes deeper than a joke, which is
...Myrtle as Draco's fangirl.
On the one hand I can easily see the connection, with Myrtle rhapsodizing about how Draco's really sensitive and all that. I think JKR could definitely have had fun writing Myrtle's dialogue there and been thinking about Draco fans...though, actually, we may have a skewed impression of just what she thought of them. I mean, we know that post-HBP she got letters from girls who were all mushy over poor Draco, but her previous comments about bad boys and Tom Felton may have been about people thinking Draco was cute in his evilness rather than really sensitive underneath. Though the two do go together, sometimes. (You know what we women are like!)
But at the same time, the most I can imagine JKR doing in that scene with regards to commenting on Draco fandom is having fun with things that were there for the plot already, because Myrtle's attitude towards Draco--and Kreacher's too--are just too, imo, important to the story. Part of what Harry is doing in HBP is following Draco into his world for the first time, if not very far in, and for the first time having to try to think about Draco as a person at the center of his own life. So it's fitting that Harry meet people whose view of Draco is so completely the opposite of his own to shake him up.
Both these characters who are besotted with Draco are saying something about themselves too. Kreacher and Myrtle both seem to prefer different versions of fanon Draco. Kreacher's into the fine cheekbones and aristocratic bearing--he'd read the fics where Draco's sophisticated and has expensive taste and is witty. And that fits Kreacher because he's the Black family retainer in love with their history and his place in it, the anti-Dobby. He immediately recognizes Draco as family and sees the family the way they want to see themselves.
Myrtle's more into the emo!Draco fics, which is interesting in itself, especially since as silly as Myrtle is, she's not completely *wrong*. Myrtle is never objective about anyone and always sees what she wants to see to some extent, but still, her relationship with Draco is based around something different than her relationship with Harry was. We don't see Draco and Myrtle together enough to really understand how much she's warping things, but in the one scene we do see Draco is essentially being what she says. He's not being cruel to her, he is being weepy and bullied and vulnerable. Myrtle may always see things in a self-centered way, but she also always has exactly the important, crucial information Harry's looking for. The boy saying strange words in the bathroom, the book someone threw at her, how to work the egg, and her crying boy were all the answer Harry was looking for at the time.
There also in some way seems something significant in how believably Draco and Myrtle can have this kind of relationship. I can't really put my finger on it and don't want to come across as being overly positive about it, but it somehow fits that Draco, rather than another student, would somehow fit with self-pitying, childish Myrtle.
It's just kind of ironic that although neither Kreacher nor Myrtle are giving us insightful, three-dimensional portraits of Draco, we almost need extreme views like that to challenge Harry's own and knock him out of his own view. Not as some lesson that Harry's been totally wrong, but by opening up the possibilities, showing him that if he's to understand what's going on he has to be able to think of Draco as someone who has value to other people who see something in him. Harry's original idea, that Draco wants revenge and has been given a chance by Voldemort, is a good start, but not enough--it's not the thing that's really driving him.
And of course, as a Draco fan I've always thought those views, even when I disagreed with them, were important to the fandom conversation all along. I think the characters in the books are really a combination of different versions of themselves. It's just that when you release the books to a fandom made of so many people, it's like a prism and characters breakdown into rainbow interpretations, if that makes sense. Sirius becomes a heartless bully on the red end and a tragic hero on the violet side. Snape's evil on one end and a brilliant, unappreciated, noble victim on the other. Draco's got his evil DE self, his cowardly DE self, his emo!boy self, his witty aristocrat self, all based on something in canon. Somehow he also seems to lend himself the most to pointing out the differences.
bookshop's post on OTPs (I took out the link because it's f'locked--oops!) including H/D, and along the way the subject came up of JKR putting jokes in the books for fans--easy to spot jokes. And one came up that I've always actually been kind of interested in, because I think it goes deeper than a joke, which is ...Myrtle as Draco's fangirl.
On the one hand I can easily see the connection, with Myrtle rhapsodizing about how Draco's really sensitive and all that. I think JKR could definitely have had fun writing Myrtle's dialogue there and been thinking about Draco fans...though, actually, we may have a skewed impression of just what she thought of them. I mean, we know that post-HBP she got letters from girls who were all mushy over poor Draco, but her previous comments about bad boys and Tom Felton may have been about people thinking Draco was cute in his evilness rather than really sensitive underneath. Though the two do go together, sometimes. (You know what we women are like!)
But at the same time, the most I can imagine JKR doing in that scene with regards to commenting on Draco fandom is having fun with things that were there for the plot already, because Myrtle's attitude towards Draco--and Kreacher's too--are just too, imo, important to the story. Part of what Harry is doing in HBP is following Draco into his world for the first time, if not very far in, and for the first time having to try to think about Draco as a person at the center of his own life. So it's fitting that Harry meet people whose view of Draco is so completely the opposite of his own to shake him up.
Both these characters who are besotted with Draco are saying something about themselves too. Kreacher and Myrtle both seem to prefer different versions of fanon Draco. Kreacher's into the fine cheekbones and aristocratic bearing--he'd read the fics where Draco's sophisticated and has expensive taste and is witty. And that fits Kreacher because he's the Black family retainer in love with their history and his place in it, the anti-Dobby. He immediately recognizes Draco as family and sees the family the way they want to see themselves.
Myrtle's more into the emo!Draco fics, which is interesting in itself, especially since as silly as Myrtle is, she's not completely *wrong*. Myrtle is never objective about anyone and always sees what she wants to see to some extent, but still, her relationship with Draco is based around something different than her relationship with Harry was. We don't see Draco and Myrtle together enough to really understand how much she's warping things, but in the one scene we do see Draco is essentially being what she says. He's not being cruel to her, he is being weepy and bullied and vulnerable. Myrtle may always see things in a self-centered way, but she also always has exactly the important, crucial information Harry's looking for. The boy saying strange words in the bathroom, the book someone threw at her, how to work the egg, and her crying boy were all the answer Harry was looking for at the time.
There also in some way seems something significant in how believably Draco and Myrtle can have this kind of relationship. I can't really put my finger on it and don't want to come across as being overly positive about it, but it somehow fits that Draco, rather than another student, would somehow fit with self-pitying, childish Myrtle.
It's just kind of ironic that although neither Kreacher nor Myrtle are giving us insightful, three-dimensional portraits of Draco, we almost need extreme views like that to challenge Harry's own and knock him out of his own view. Not as some lesson that Harry's been totally wrong, but by opening up the possibilities, showing him that if he's to understand what's going on he has to be able to think of Draco as someone who has value to other people who see something in him. Harry's original idea, that Draco wants revenge and has been given a chance by Voldemort, is a good start, but not enough--it's not the thing that's really driving him.
And of course, as a Draco fan I've always thought those views, even when I disagreed with them, were important to the fandom conversation all along. I think the characters in the books are really a combination of different versions of themselves. It's just that when you release the books to a fandom made of so many people, it's like a prism and characters breakdown into rainbow interpretations, if that makes sense. Sirius becomes a heartless bully on the red end and a tragic hero on the violet side. Snape's evil on one end and a brilliant, unappreciated, noble victim on the other. Draco's got his evil DE self, his cowardly DE self, his emo!boy self, his witty aristocrat self, all based on something in canon. Somehow he also seems to lend himself the most to pointing out the differences.
Re: *has verbal diarrhea*
(I wrote a little more about this here and here, if you're interested.)
Summary is, I'm not a "fan" but a person who really loves HP, and I hate the way being on LJ ropes me into dealing with so many fandoms. I've never felt the slightest interest or desire in joining another fandom or reading another fandom's fic ... which is why the end of HP is really the end of a lot of things for me.
LOL, New!Ginny right there is sort of emblematic of everything I don't like about HP and refuse to trust. A world in which she's considered to be a wit is one where I can't rule out anyone else being one, because she's so relentlessly unfunny and annoying that I can't trust JKR's opinion on anything. Sure, she might think Draco's a moron, but then she repeatedly presents Ginny as being funny, so her view is null and void!
AHAHAHAHAHAAAA! Yeah, I hate New!Ginny, too. HBP in general was a huge disappointment for me ... not the Snape plot twist or Draco development, of course, but just about everything else starting with the way Harry dealt with (or, rather, didn't at all deal with) Sirius's death.
I understand the conclusions you're drawing from JKR's writing of Ginny (it's funny that I've actually read decent, believable Harry/Ginny, just NOT IN THE BOOKS), but I guess I view it more as a blindspot or aberration rather than a reflection on her writing as a whole. Either way is valid, though.
JKR determines stuff like morality on who you are, not what you are
Um, yes. :( Have to agree with you there, although she does make room for exceptions now and then. Tom Riddle's backstory was such a huge disappointment -- rather than him making a conscious choice to be REALLY MEAN AND EVIL, he was a sociopath from birth! I'm not going to say that's not realistic (I do think many sociopaths are born, not made), but it was a terrible dramatic choice and the way that Dumbledore just automatically gave up on him was quite chilling, I thought.
Getting back to Draco ... it's interesting what little details people will focus on. For me, those two scenes in CoS that show Draco being browbeaten by his dad and expecting his goonies to laugh at his lame jokes are really telling. Others will pick up on other things, I guess. (I'm really racking my brain for an example of Draco sounding like Spike, but I guess some people see it.) Anyway, I think we're basically in agreement:
I sort of think of him as a goof who gets trapped in this more fanon 'sophisticated' (it's hilarious when people call it 'aristocratic' wit, like upper-class people are incredibly dry and not the worst boors around - look at Prince Harry!) thing, but I don't think him not being the latter stops him being the former (and the latter would pretty insufferable in a kid, imho - Snape pulls it off more because he's an adult, but all the teenagers in HP are on a similiar kind of level - git, Phlegm, Potty, poo...)
But writing him all the positive way and ignoring the jokes that bombed, the failures to persuade people, and the times when he completely lacks possession and flips out; is just as dull as insisting he fails at everything and has no redeeming qualities like some SQ fic.
Yes, absolutely, although initially I thought you were dissing the writer SqeakyClean (who's awesome), and it took me a minute to realize you were writing about the Sugar Quill! Oh, those wacky fandom acronyms! ♥
p.s. don't you guys have a community where you rip the books to shreds and point out all the lameness and inconsistencies? i'd love to read that, if possible.
Re: *has verbal diarrhea*
That would be