Wow, wank

[pegkerr]

I am astounded by the wank going on right now over the shipping wars. (See madlorivoldmort here, longtimegone here, who seems most irate, and jlh here). I don't have anything to add, because I am not invested in any ship over any other, except--my goodness, everyone. Simmer down.

And really, you don't want to send that petition to Jo. You'll only make yourself look exceedingly foolish.

(I am loading the audio CDs of the HP books onto my computer. The track playing as I drafted this seems oddly appropriate.)

Comments

[longtimegone]

Er...yeah. I was a bit fed up by that point. I'm not quite so irate now. I'm more embarrassed and *headdesk-y* over it. *facepalm*

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I read a little bit of one of those because I had no idea what 'shipping wars' meant.

I think I will limit myself to saying, blankly, "Gosh."

I mean, I admit that in idle moments I did have fond imaginings of a romance between Hermione and Ginny, but it's not like I expected the books to bear me out.

[longtimegone]

Hermione/Ginny. Not only that be awesome in its own right, but that would shut EVERYONE up real quick. :))

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

I long for Hermione/Ginny. If JKR did that, I'd, like, campaign for her to be GoH at some Pride parade.*

... I actually find it startling how much I like Hr/G as a pair. I suppose I wouldn't have written Hr/G fic if I didn't like it.




*As long as she read the Willow/Tara lesbian cliche FAQ and actually paid attention to it while she was writing.

[graygirl.livejournal.com]

There's a...petition? Gracious. Should I bet upset that I won't get the H/R/Hr three-way? Maybe I need a petition too... ;)

[only-sound.livejournal.com]

Now there's a petition I might consider signing! (Can we have a protest outside JKR's home for bringing Sirius back to life so he can shag Remus silly, as well?) ;)

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Lawdy. I'm not even going to look ...

[merebrillante.livejournal.com]

I had to read through two of those before I finally cottoned onto the derivation of "shipper." I thought it was some arcane reference to The Shipping News. I'm not too dense tonight.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

What is this meaning of "shipper"?

K.

Shipping

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Fannish slang. If you "ship" a certain relationship, say R/Hr, that means that you hope that Ron and Hermione will get together. You like to read fanfiction with that pairing and are rooting for that pairing to happen in canon. What has just happened with the release of the most recent book is that for years, Rowling has been teasing the readers, making them wonder and speculate which characters will pair off with which (and refusing to say at all). People have loved to argue about it, and to write fanfiction with their various favorite combinations. Now, in the latest, she is actually pairing characters off--decisively--and some fans are acting extremely nutty. The ones whose ships "lost" are in mourning and noisy denial, and the ones who "won" are crowing and gloating, some in a not very nice way. The major camps are
H/Hr (Harry/Hermione), often paired with R/anybody else (Luna? Lavender). This camp sees Harry as the hero and Hermione the only girl who is worthy of him.

versus

H/G (Harry/Ginny) and R/Hr. This arrangment is often called OBHWF, or One Big Happy Weasley Family: it pleases many fans because both Harry and Hermione join the Weasley family and have happy Christmases together.

There is also a big interest in Trio, which is H/R/Hr grouped together (i.e., polyamorous).

The big slash ships are probably H/D (Harry/Draco) and R/S (Remus/Sirius). But everyone gets paired off with somebody, eventually. Neville often gets paired off with Luna (two oddballs making each other happy). One of the oddest things to watch are those who try to pair Snape off with anybody. There are fans who pair him with Hermione (they find mutual braininess mutually attractive) and some who, as God is my witness, earnestly write Snape/Harry, reasoning with all that mutual antagonism, there must be Something There (which is also the frequent reason given for H/D).

Another expression you'll often hear, said about just every pairing (and polyamory grouping imaginable): Their Love Is So Canon (used by various factions of the ship wars when examining the text for clues that they believe will back up their side).

Also, you'll hear about Weasleycest, which I'm sure you can figure out on your own.

Me, I'm sitting on the sidelines, not taking sides but just watching the brouhaha with astonished and somewhat amused attachment.

Re: Shipping

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I meant somewhat amused detachment

Re: Shipping

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Why is this described with "ship" and not "box" or "coin" or "potato"?

K.

Re: Shipping

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Shortened from "relationship."

Re: Shipping

[kristenj.livejournal.com]

Oh! I was thinking it was a play on "launching a ship" - as in, to launch an idea or a speculation.

[cupcake-goth.livejournal.com]

Oy, the fandom wars. I would like to think that the petition people will come to their senses right quick, but I have this sinking feeling that says otherwise.

(I can feel mostly unbiased about the 'shipper kerfuffle, because my OTP is Severus/Lily, which is supported in canon. Kindasortamaybe. No! Really!)

[callunav.livejournal.com]

(I can feel mostly unbiased about the 'shipper kerfuffle, because my OTP is Severus/Lily, which is supported in canon. Kindasortamaybe. No! Really!)

Say! Maybe Snape is actually Harry's father, and all those references to his looking Just Like James have been a clever red herring which will prove to actually mean something about Harry's connection to Voldemort and not to James Potter at all!

...sigh. My pleasure in spinning ideas ad absurdam is spoiled by the knowledge that someone somewhere has almost certainly already written a story about it in deadly earnest. (It's like when I - who haven't read much in the way of the classic four-color comics - was in a Marvel Comics role-playing game and kept trying to come up with a super-power no one had used before, and my comic- reading friends kept gently disillusioning me. When they told me about Arm-Fall-Off Boy I just gave up.)

The sidelines are a pleasant place to be. When I get realy involved in a series (of books, movies, TV episodes, whatever) what I passionately hope for is that

A: whatever the creator does, s/he does in a way that wins me over, no matter what I was expecting, and

B: not too many of my vague expectations will prove to be correct. How dull would that be?

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Okay....I think I get this.

Fan fic finally loses its marbles....

I thought the entire idea was, doing things that will never happen in the real canon? It seems a large portion have secret hopes that their little corner of the playground will be annexed?

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I too am amused--to read an LJ entry written in English that might as well be written in Korean for all the information I get from it. (This is not, not, not any kind of criticism, merely a bemused observation.) I decided to read the comments to see how far I had to go to get some inkling. (I missed the "HP") at the end of your entry.) Ah, fan fiction. It's That Book. My first thought for "Jo" had been papersky.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I went back to edit the entry to include the link to the stupid petition.

The tag on the entry was "harry potter," too.

But that's okay. Really, you don't need to know about this. It is extremely and painfully ridiculous.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Do you see tags on your flist? I do not.

K.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Ah. You're right, I don't either. My oversight.

[eeyorerin]

Scene in our house on Saturday afternoon. Erin is in her bedroom reading, Allan is in his study (next to the bedroom).

Erin: *fiendish cackling*
Allan: Yes?
Erin: JK Rowling just broke the Internet!
Allan: Oooo-kay?
Erin: It's okay; you don't have to understand.

[time passes]

Erin *more fiendish cackling* She did it AGAIN!

Repeat until the end of the book.

[amethistdolphin.livejournal.com]

I feel really sorry for those people, firstly she did not use the words they are taking offense for, it was one of the people interviewing who used it, and second, its HER book, she can do whatever she wants with it!!!!!!

How sad can you get???