Xcolibur

[pne]

Went to lookup a FAQ on LiveJournal this morning... they switched the site scheme on me! Suddenly, it was in Xcolibur instead of the Dystopia I had become used to.

I was not particularly pleased. Went to /manage/siteopts.bml and switched back, but that set a cookie with my scheme preference—so it'll probably still be "messed up" in my other browsers which don't have this cookie set and I'll have to select it all over again.

Edit: Ah, I see there's an announcement in news about this. It seems to have garnered quite a few comments, too (1048 right now).

Edit: Hm, it does seem to remember my scheme choice with my user. At any rate, in two other browsers on this machine, it gave my Dystopia as soon as I logged in (though it was Xcolibur before that). I'm slightly mollified now.

Comments

Re: Order of the Phoenix

[pne.livejournal.com]

I had read that the author decided to abandon the ability to read each book on its own starting with this volume. I also saw a comment saying that the next book might also be a bit unsatisfactory since, by necessity, it couldn't have a real "close" but would have to leave some storylines and threads open in order to them to be resolved in the final volume (which—is my personal guess—may have to be published in two volumes if the books get bigger at the rate they're doing).

Re: Order of the Phoenix

[pauraque]

It's certainly been suggested by fans that the final three will come to form something of a trilogy, while the first four stand alone. This is perfectly reasonable, of course -- the first four set up all the necessary background information, and culminate in Voldemort's resurrection. Before that point, Voldemort is still fairly dead (if not really most sincerely dead), so not much can be done to fight him in any case. So you've got the buildup, and then the War.

Harry Potter fandom

[pne.livejournal.com]

It's certainly been suggested by fans

My gut reaction to this is "well, maybe some fans have too much time on their hands". Incidentally, the first thing that came to mind after that was the entry on "fanon" from FictionAlley's Primer (http://www.fictionalley.org/primer/dictionary.html):

fanon - "Facts" about the book series that have never been explicitly told to us by the writers, but have become so commonly used in the fandom that they are taken as fact. For instance, before J.K. Rowling stated in a chat that Lily was in Gryffindor, a fanon "fact" was that she had been placed in Slytherin.

to which my reaction was also roughly "why do people bother to set up such scenarios?".

No personal offense intended; this is probably just a result of the discrepancy between the fan vs casual reader mindsets; I've simply never put much energy into exploring the Potterverse beyond reading the books.

So you've got the buildup, and then the War.

That's still possible, of course.

Re: Harry Potter fandom

[pauraque]

"why do people bother to set up such scenarios?"

For purposes of fan fiction.

However, the theory that the last three books will form a complete arc isn't really what's meant by the term 'fanon'. It's speculative meta-analysis, sure, but it's not generally accepted or defended as truth when it comes up. That's the difference: When a group of fans have become so attached to an idea that they're no longer open to anything else, then it's fanon.

A good example of this would be the idea that Remus Lupin is "a very sweet and forgiving person". As a casual reader, I'm sure you'd disagree with this, as do I. However, it's a characterization point that a *lot* of writers have used in fan fiction (where whitewashing the flaws of characters is unfortunately common), and it's definitely widespread fanon, even though there's convincing evidence against it in the books.

I'm somewhat known for being rather opposed to fanon, myself. I think it makes for lazy writing and unproductive debate. I try to analyze these books the same way I'd analyze any other literature (which I enjoy doing): by continually going back to the text, not my own assumptions.

No personal offense intended

Nah, I'm not offended. I'm used to being razzed for my, uh, interest. :) As I'm sure you've met with puzzlement and ridicule for your own unusual hobby of conlanging.

Re: Harry Potter fandom

[pne.livejournal.com]

As I'm sure you've met with puzzlement and ridicule for your own unusual hobby of conlanging.

True.