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I was reading this really interesting post here about a troubling fanfic trend I was unfortunately unaware of, which is that apparently post-HBP Blaise is less interesting than he was before...because he's black? Um, what? I recommend ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jazzypom's post because it is about fanfic depictions of black characters in HP in general. I don't read fic about the adults very often so I didn't know about the clichés concerning Kingsley Shacklebolt. As a Slyth fan I do know a bit about Blaise, though, and the post made me really think about
...how my own feelings about him have changed since HBP and I'm sticking them here too. Nothing coherent, just thoughts here and there:
I would never deny that one of the things about Draco Malfoy as a slash character is that aesthetically; it's interesting putting him with contrasting people. Harry, of course, is the main person I contrast him with. The two of them are like blood brothers with the black hair/white hair, green eyes/grey eyes, etc. I've always liked Blaise and was very happy with fics that created a sort of European Malfoy-ish family that probably taught the Medici’s a thing or two. I always saw Blaise as a boy, and pictured him as dark haired, tanned, big brown eyes.
My view of him shifted after I got the truth in HBP, but I honestly don't understand how the back-story we have for him could in any way be considered less interesting. The main difference for me is that where I used to imagine Blaise as part of a big family, now I see him isolated, more just him and his mother, though he probably has lots of relatives scattered around. He still seems continental to me, I think because I imagine his mother traveling around to all the hot spots to meet her rich husbands, with little Blaise in tow. How is this not a rich life for a Slytherin character? Especially one we now know is friends with Malfoy?
Plus he's also a Pureblood snob, so you figure his mother must be from a good family. She's not a little chorus girl who was pretty and so used that to snag a man of a better bloodline. Maybe she's from a family like the Blacks but they'd lost their money, so she took it upon herself to win back the life to which she was accustomed.
I wonder, too, if anyone would do anything with the fact that Blaise is the most sexualized kid in canon, and he has no father and a highly sexualized mother. Is this another woman who's bad because she's sexually aggressive? Is Blaise "bad" because of this quality of his mother? (The books don't have the best track record there.) Is anyone writing incestuous scenes where he and his mother engage in sexual conquest contests when they're bored in Monte Carlo? Somebody could probably write a really funny story where Draco visits Blaise over the summer and gets his mind blown at one of Blaise's mother's parties, or just in general gets an education.:-) Or he and Blaise wake up in Borneo with raging hangovers, wearing women's underwear. I mean, Blaise is totally cool by sixth year, but that's why it seems like it would be fun to see him at 12 when he hadn't gotten it down yet.
Perhaps Blaise's mother is distant. Perhaps they're very close and have a wonderful relationship that's lots of fun. Perhaps all the Slytherin boys adore her. Was Blaise close to any of his stepfathers? Did he hate any of them? Did he kill any of them? Perhaps the rumors about their death are just that, vicious rumors. Blaise is not the Slytherin boy who'd seen death, interestingly enough, so perhaps he and Draco are more alike in that way, surrounded by death but thinking it a game. Did Blaise help Draco out at all during the year?
What were anyone else’s thoughts about Blaise in HBP? Unfortunately anything about the character seemed to get overshadowed by the idea that ZOMG heez black and that totaly sux in a totaly non-racist way I swear but I'm gonna keep him white anywayz!!11!
jazzypom's post because it is about fanfic depictions of black characters in HP in general. I don't read fic about the adults very often so I didn't know about the clichés concerning Kingsley Shacklebolt. As a Slyth fan I do know a bit about Blaise, though, and the post made me really think about ...how my own feelings about him have changed since HBP and I'm sticking them here too. Nothing coherent, just thoughts here and there:
I would never deny that one of the things about Draco Malfoy as a slash character is that aesthetically; it's interesting putting him with contrasting people. Harry, of course, is the main person I contrast him with. The two of them are like blood brothers with the black hair/white hair, green eyes/grey eyes, etc. I've always liked Blaise and was very happy with fics that created a sort of European Malfoy-ish family that probably taught the Medici’s a thing or two. I always saw Blaise as a boy, and pictured him as dark haired, tanned, big brown eyes.
My view of him shifted after I got the truth in HBP, but I honestly don't understand how the back-story we have for him could in any way be considered less interesting. The main difference for me is that where I used to imagine Blaise as part of a big family, now I see him isolated, more just him and his mother, though he probably has lots of relatives scattered around. He still seems continental to me, I think because I imagine his mother traveling around to all the hot spots to meet her rich husbands, with little Blaise in tow. How is this not a rich life for a Slytherin character? Especially one we now know is friends with Malfoy?
Plus he's also a Pureblood snob, so you figure his mother must be from a good family. She's not a little chorus girl who was pretty and so used that to snag a man of a better bloodline. Maybe she's from a family like the Blacks but they'd lost their money, so she took it upon herself to win back the life to which she was accustomed.
I wonder, too, if anyone would do anything with the fact that Blaise is the most sexualized kid in canon, and he has no father and a highly sexualized mother. Is this another woman who's bad because she's sexually aggressive? Is Blaise "bad" because of this quality of his mother? (The books don't have the best track record there.) Is anyone writing incestuous scenes where he and his mother engage in sexual conquest contests when they're bored in Monte Carlo? Somebody could probably write a really funny story where Draco visits Blaise over the summer and gets his mind blown at one of Blaise's mother's parties, or just in general gets an education.:-) Or he and Blaise wake up in Borneo with raging hangovers, wearing women's underwear. I mean, Blaise is totally cool by sixth year, but that's why it seems like it would be fun to see him at 12 when he hadn't gotten it down yet.
Perhaps Blaise's mother is distant. Perhaps they're very close and have a wonderful relationship that's lots of fun. Perhaps all the Slytherin boys adore her. Was Blaise close to any of his stepfathers? Did he hate any of them? Did he kill any of them? Perhaps the rumors about their death are just that, vicious rumors. Blaise is not the Slytherin boy who'd seen death, interestingly enough, so perhaps he and Draco are more alike in that way, surrounded by death but thinking it a game. Did Blaise help Draco out at all during the year?
What were anyone else’s thoughts about Blaise in HBP? Unfortunately anything about the character seemed to get overshadowed by the idea that ZOMG heez black and that totaly sux in a totaly non-racist way I swear but I'm gonna keep him white anywayz!!11!
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The amazingly unbeta'd multimedia megahit!
Come on, costume director(s)! If McGonagal has glasses and Dumbledore has glasses and Harry has glasses and the author cares enough to include them, wouldn't you think that glasses symbolize something and include them in your wardrobe inventory for the character of Percy Weasley?
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Re: The amazingly unbeta'd multimedia megahit!
After the whole hypogriff fiasco, I have stopped looking for deeper meanings in JKR's use of mythology. She doesn't use those symbols to add symbolic layers to her story. She just uses them because they are teh kewlest.
Obviously the filmmakers are taking a page out her pastiche. There were just too many characters in glasses. Hence, Percy now has 20/20 vision. Either that or he had lasik surgery before his film debut.
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Re: The amazingly unbeta'd multimedia megahit!
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Re: The amazingly unbeta'd multimedia megahit!
Alluding to symbols validates the symbolic truth. To validate the Oswald allusion, JKR would need to make Fudge a DE or a supporter of the DEs. But it seems to me that her "Oswald" is just a clueless dimwit not a facilitator.
So that leads us back to the "kewl" factor. It was just a quick "Do you know who this is" type of Blue's Clues deal.
Let's put that in our handy dandy notebook!
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Re: The amazingly unbeta'd multimedia megahit!
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Re: The amazingly unbeta'd multimedia megahit!
I mean who is the reader to trust anyway? A cultural symbol that is hundreds or thousands of years old or the writer's new pastiche?
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Re: The amazingly unbeta'd multimedia megahit!
Even Baz Luhrmann (sp?), who is the king of "do it because it's pretty", has an ulterior motive when he uses pastiche in his "Red Curtain" trilogy. He wants to remind you that you are watching a movie. The Shakespearian dialogue juxtaposed with modern sets, costumes, and props, the spaghetti-western cuts, the modern pop songs and cultural anachronisms... they're supposed to jar you out of your cinematic stupor, not contribute to it.
Okay, time for the short answer: you'd rely on the cultural symbol's original reading, unless there was a "pretty red arrow" type of marker that lets you know, "Hello! Is being used for a specific reason, but not the original intent!" JKR has no "red arrows" and thus she's messing up the symbolic order in ways not even absurdism attempted. May someone's god bless her for getting kids involved in reading actual books again, but Harry Potter is far from the skintight narratives The Chronicles of Narnia and The Dark Is Rising sequence present.
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Re: The amazingly unbeta'd multimedia megahit!
JKR has yet to validate any of the myths and symbols that she is using. Which means I don't trust anything she writes now. In HBP, she is playing with allusions to Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". But will she do justice to the Bard? In that story all the love pairs were thrown together with love potion lies. So is that what she is trying to convey with her pairs? Or is it just a really "kewl" element she threw in just to show she likes that play?
Yes, if a writer wants to negate the symbol, he/she must show where the allusion ends. You're right, JKR doesn't throw in the red arrow. Because she is so caught up in being a mystery writer. She has to have her clues. All she needs now is special guest star parts for Scooby Doo and Blue. As long as she's in that realm, why not include Sherlock Holmes? Maybe Sherlock is the "power he knows not". Guaranteed old Sherlock will have great speedballs to cook up for everyone when this story explores deeper thickets of confusion.
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Re: The amazingly unbeta'd multimedia megahit!
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Re: The amazingly unbeta'd multimedia megahit!
It figures largely in alchemy. Which seems a popular theory in regards to HP nowadays. Harry is the human equivalent of gold created by the philosopher's stone.
JKR seems to be playing with symbols of fascism, devil marks etc. But it seems to be just for dressing. They are only meant to show us just how eeevilll her villians are, not to make a statement on the nature of evil.
The Nagini is also a symbol. The symbology is in regards to the Nagini Princess. She gives up her life for Buddha and instantly becomes a Buddha herself. The Nagini Princess is usually shown wrapped in the coils of a Snake. So who will be Harry's Nagini Princess, Hermione or Ginny? Or is this symbol just a cool name for a Tommy Boy's pet snake?