Dear Fandom, I love you, but really!

[clodia_risa]

JKR is not obsessed with heteronormality. If she was obsessed, she would have smacked down the slashers as badly as she smacked down the Harmonians. All she did was show us three characters who got married and had kids. She showed us, through Harry's point of view, a happy ending for Harry, Harry's best friends, and Harry's enemy. Maybe she didn't focus on what their careers are, but that wasn't the happy ending for Harry. Never was! Do you not remember what his desire was in the Mirror of Erised? A family.

Look, I'm not saying that you have to be straight or have kids to be happy. Far from it. I'm just saying that JKR infused the themes of family=happiness from the very beginning. Having a family is what is important to Harry - remember his smack-down to Lupin? Why are you surprised? Why are you hurt?

Maybe JKR should have included a gay character at the end. It would have been nice to have that role model for kids. But that wasn't her point. The themes of the series are that people can change, family is important, and do your best to do good.

It would have been nice if she could have thrown on a huge coda where she exemplifies the virtues of children - but only if you want children, and marriage - gay and straight both, and having a good career - but only if you want one, staying at home is nice too! But she didn't. She wrote what was important to her. What was important to Harry - which wasn't a career. It was surviving, having a family, being happy, having friends. It would have been nice if she had done more. But why is what she did so wrong?

Comments

[flutingfrenzy.livejournal.com]

Where the hell is this coming from?

[clodia-risa.livejournal.com]

A variety of posts I've seen on the latest HP book, sparked especially by some of the comments on this post: http://theferrett.livejournal.com/955164.html

Also, from my crazed brain desperate for a distraction.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Browsing your LJ, came across this old post.

"But why is what she did so wrong?"

There were three main reason for my no liking the prologue, in order of significance:

1) It denied me the chance to imagine their future. This is the strongest issue I had with it, but also the least rational. I know that in her mind she saw their futures as a part of their story, inseparable from their life events in the 7 books. I don't begrudge JKR the right to write an epilogue telling everyone's fate, and I know that many fans want to know exactly that. I just would rather it be open-ended. I almost didn't read it, but I knew I'd get spoiled for it online anyway, so I might as well.

2) It was poorly done. It was cheesy, boringly written, felt tacked-on, and didn't flow with the overall narrative. It didn't match with the rest of the book. If I were her editor, I'd have told her to axe it entirely, or to give it a complete stylistic rewrite, finding a better way to get that same information across.

3) Did everyone have to marry their high school sweetheart? I definitely agree that for Harry family is important, and I would expect him to have a family of sorts later into his life. But I rolled my eyes when I read that the four had gotten married to each other. It felt so... unrealistic. Adn somewhat incestuous. I'd have bought one of the couples, but not both. It's certainly possible for Harry to have a happy family life with someone he didn't grow up with, and the same goes for Hermione or Ron. It also ties in with the whole "marry young and keep it within the people you went to school with" feeling I get from the wizarding world, which just weirds me the fuck out sometimes. That's why I liked Remus & Tonks, and Bill and Fleur. Here, at least, were some couples that seemed to reflect a wider and more realistic idea of relationships: you don't always go with someone you've been around since you were 11, and in fact doing so is more uncommon than it is common. Usually you marry someone you met as an adult. I know the wizarding world is small, but it still seems cheesy and too pat to me, having four main characters all marry the first person they ever kissed.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

* I know Harry did kiss Cho, but she wasn't his first girlfriend, considering he was 15 and they didn't even go out really, or ever make out regularly.