Wow! You and lunacy have totally given me a whole afternoon of absorbed reading. I think I might have actually squee'd a time or two... 8)
Great analysis, and I was just literally thinking of it as 'Draco's dark night of soul' the other day.
Obviously, what I'm saying it's news to H/D fic-writers. They have been writing this kind of thing for years, where the two characters have different lives. It's just that before they had to create Draco's inner life from hints in canon, and now we've actually got the information from the author (and it's pretty great, imo).
In mine too. But I think maybe this essay elucidates for me the reason I have been unsatisfied with a goodly portion of the HD fic since HBP. When it came out I was like, OMG it's the HD book! and I know from reading the meta out there at the time that this wasn't just my reading. So, a year later, where's all the great fic??? (And there is some, just not enough!)
I thought maybe it was the damn Horcruxes. Sure, you can write future fic to avoid it, but it's hard to be canon compliant without seeing that the resolution to Draco's arc (not to mention the resolution for canon HD) must come about during 7th year. He has his own story now and it is tied to the war as much as Harry's is. What I mean is, HBP leaves you hanging, particularly with Draco... if you have him do a runner, or even just keep it as backstory, that's fine I guess, but if he's a main character in your fic, you're kind of passing up the goldmine of Draco characterization that HBP leaves you with...and probably means I won't really dig your fic, 'cuz why would anyone pass it up? Dark night of the soul and all. 8)
Maybe it is just what you say--HBP changes the dynamic of the ship in ways that you have to adapt to if you were writing them before (not that I ever liked smooth, sex-god fanon!Draco before), and that now you have the challenge of dealing with two main narratives instead of having Draco fill out a 'role' in relation to Harry. But picking up where JKR left off limits what you can do with either character in ways that didn't exist before, yet to avoid those limitations you often pass up the goldmine.
Makes me sad though, because right now we've got Draco on the precipice with this great open-ended conflict. I really wish there was more HD fic that really took it on. And Book 7 is coming soon... : /
Am friending if you don't mind? Meant to do it waaay sooner... (I was catching up on some of your older posts today because I hadn't visited in a while-- I really loved the one about Steve Irwin, and Patricia Highsmith! *loves her books*)
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Date: 2006-09-18 12:29 am (UTC)Great analysis, and I was just literally thinking of it as 'Draco's dark night of soul' the other day.
Obviously, what I'm saying it's news to H/D fic-writers. They have been writing this kind of thing for years, where the two characters have different lives. It's just that before they had to create Draco's inner life from hints in canon, and now we've actually got the information from the author (and it's pretty great, imo).
In mine too. But I think maybe this essay elucidates for me the reason I have been unsatisfied with a goodly portion of the HD fic since HBP. When it came out I was like, OMG it's the HD book! and I know from reading the meta out there at the time that this wasn't just my reading. So, a year later, where's all the great fic??? (And there is some, just not enough!)
I thought maybe it was the damn Horcruxes. Sure, you can write future fic to avoid it, but it's hard to be canon compliant without seeing that the resolution to Draco's arc (not to mention the resolution for canon HD) must come about during 7th year. He has his own story now and it is tied to the war as much as Harry's is. What I mean is, HBP leaves you hanging, particularly with Draco... if you have him do a runner, or even just keep it as backstory, that's fine I guess, but if he's a main character in your fic, you're kind of passing up the goldmine of Draco characterization that HBP leaves you with...and probably means I won't really dig your fic, 'cuz why would anyone pass it up? Dark night of the soul and all. 8)
Maybe it is just what you say--HBP changes the dynamic of the ship in ways that you have to adapt to if you were writing them before (not that I ever liked smooth, sex-god fanon!Draco before), and that now you have the challenge of dealing with two main narratives instead of having Draco fill out a 'role' in relation to Harry. But picking up where JKR left off limits what you can do with either character in ways that didn't exist before, yet to avoid those limitations you often pass up the goldmine.
Makes me sad though, because right now we've got Draco on the precipice with this great open-ended conflict. I really wish there was more HD fic that really took it on. And Book 7 is coming soon... : /
Am friending if you don't mind? Meant to do it waaay sooner... (I was catching up on some of your older posts today because I hadn't visited in a while-- I really loved the one about Steve Irwin, and Patricia Highsmith! *loves her books*)