It is annoying when people throw around terms like "2-dimensional" and "cardboard cut-out" without explaining what they mean with it. I remember a lot of pre-HBP annoyance about how people used to say that about Draco -not that I didn't think he could be called that, just that I felt that if he was such a 2-dimensional and cardboard, then you could say the same about pretty much any charactger in the book.
I think you're spot on about the female characters being self-contained (and often helpers to the male characters). What's more is that there also seems to be less room for development for all of them. I find your comparison between Luna and Neville interesting, because in the two books Luna has been in, they've pretty much been as big characters, and as important and well, kind of a similar type of character (both schoolmates, both outsiders, both have tragic background, both "sort of friends with Harry" but never quite let in the group), but Luna seems more complete than Neville. I mean, she's not that affected by people teasing her, she seems strangely self-assured in a way Neville just isn't. Which also means that it probably would be easier to write fic about Neville, because you have much more leeway when you develop him.
And you always have to develop the main character in your fic, otherwise there's no story. It's hard to develop someone if they're already too "mature". And that's a big problem with Hermione-fic, I think, moreso than Luna, even. Because while she has her flaws, she already knows pretty much everything. What is left for her to learn? A friend of mine wrote a thesis about "the hero's journey" and how writers few writers took female characters through that kind of journey, and she used HP as one of her examples. She said something about Harry being the classical example of a hero who had to go through his journey, learning all the stuff he needed to learn to grow up and develop. Then she compared him to the biggest female character Hermione, and came to the conclusion that there just wasn't the same room for development for her, because she was already the best at everything. "The only way left to develop her would be to humble her," she'd written. And while I don't think you can compare Hermione to Harry, who, after all, is the protagonist in the book (and the only protagonist -it's not likie she and Harry are both the main characters!), and thus should be more "incomplete" and develop more, you can compare her to Ron.
And if you do, what do you find? Same thing. Ron isn't the protagonist, but it wouldn't be very difficult to write him a "hero's journey" of his own, where he learns all the stuff he needs to learn, becomes more self-confident and develops just as Harry does in HP. Because Ron isn't "already complete and self-sufficiant" the way Hermione, and for that matter, Luna, is. I think you could do a fic with a hero's journey for Hermione, too, but you'd have almost invent new issues for her. Unless you're just going to write about her being "humbled".
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Date: 2007-06-02 07:57 pm (UTC)I think you're spot on about the female characters being self-contained (and often helpers to the male characters). What's more is that there also seems to be less room for development for all of them. I find your comparison between Luna and Neville interesting, because in the two books Luna has been in, they've pretty much been as big characters, and as important and well, kind of a similar type of character (both schoolmates, both outsiders, both have tragic background, both "sort of friends with Harry" but never quite let in the group), but Luna seems more complete than Neville. I mean, she's not that affected by people teasing her, she seems strangely self-assured in a way Neville just isn't. Which also means that it probably would be easier to write fic about Neville, because you have much more leeway when you develop him.
And you always have to develop the main character in your fic, otherwise there's no story. It's hard to develop someone if they're already too "mature". And that's a big problem with Hermione-fic, I think, moreso than Luna, even. Because while she has her flaws, she already knows pretty much everything. What is left for her to learn? A friend of mine wrote a thesis about "the hero's journey" and how writers few writers took female characters through that kind of journey, and she used HP as one of her examples. She said something about Harry being the classical example of a hero who had to go through his journey, learning all the stuff he needed to learn to grow up and develop. Then she compared him to the biggest female character Hermione, and came to the conclusion that there just wasn't the same room for development for her, because she was already the best at everything. "The only way left to develop her would be to humble her," she'd written. And while I don't think you can compare Hermione to Harry, who, after all, is the protagonist in the book (and the only protagonist -it's not likie she and Harry are both the main characters!), and thus should be more "incomplete" and develop more, you can compare her to Ron.
And if you do, what do you find? Same thing. Ron isn't the protagonist, but it wouldn't be very difficult to write him a "hero's journey" of his own, where he learns all the stuff he needs to learn, becomes more self-confident and develops just as Harry does in HP. Because Ron isn't "already complete and self-sufficiant" the way Hermione, and for that matter, Luna, is. I think you could do a fic with a hero's journey for Hermione, too, but you'd have almost invent new issues for her. Unless you're just going to write about her being "humbled".