Journey to the past, fictionwise.
Sep. 9th, 2005 01:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silversolitaireSince Tom is playing Conker and I'm passively watching, I decided to search the net for random stuff. So I ended up searching for my old HP fics and mentionings of them. Apart from various places where they have been archived (and I don't really remember actually having given my okay for this, but then again, I'm forgetful) I actually found a couple of very interesting quotes and because I want to keep them I'm posting them here and you'll just have to bear with it! ^^;
15 minutes - Penelope's recs
2003-02-07
The Petronius Series by Silver
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Harry and Draco sleep together, break up, sleep with others, fall in love.
Review and pros: Quite an old fic, created many ideas that later became fandom cliches, but this is the first of many, good vintage HP. What makes it interesting still after so many similar fics, is the characterization. After a whole row of ‘romantic hero’ Dracos and ‘Slytherin sex god’ Snapes, it’s pleasant to read a fic so close to canon, where Snape is nasty and manipulative, Draco witty and aggressive, Fred and George adventurous and cheeky. Featuring every one of the basic HP pairings, implied or not, with H/D as the main focus, this is angst without the slightest hint on melodrama, amusing without being a humor fic, a dirty and gritty emotional roller coaster. Naughty boys.
Cons: The unrequited H/R feels very artificial, I couldn’t stop wondering why Harry wants Ron so badly, especially when considering the way he is presented in the fic. Felt too much like a plot device to get to the H/D angst.
Wow, I feel oddly flattered here. For one I'm glad that she acknowledges that the fic is really very old. I'm not one of the old cliche writers, I invented them! Booyah! Hehehe. It also pleases me immensely that she's saying my characterizations are good, because this is one thing that's really important to me. I loled at her summary of the fics. I wish there was more to say about them, but... nope. That's all there is, really. Nyah. Glad she found my story more angsty than melodramatic. When I read them now I get horribly embarrassed at how often I let Harry cry. What was I thinking?? About the cons, yeah she's right. The thing with Ron really seems kinda dangling in there in an odd way. But that's mainly because I was still testing out the pairings and all and wasn't so sure where to end up at. Now I'd like to say that Harry wants Ron because he's nice to him and Draco isn't. But yeah, it doesn't really make all too much sense.
The Jan and June Slash Weblog
Friday, August 31, 2001
Jan says: There's controversy brewing over Harry Potter slash. It really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone -- either the slash, or the controversy.
I mean, of course there's slash. What book, movie, or TV show isn't there slash for? I don't expect the mainstream press to "understand," but what has surprised me is how many slash fen are up in arms about the mere existence of HP slash. Many of them seem not to have looked at the stories, because most of the criticism I've heard is along the lines of, "Jesus! Aren't the characters, like, nine years old or something? Eeeeeeeuuuuuwwwwwwwwwwww!"
Well, no. The characters aren't nine years old. Not even in the books are the characters nine years old. In the first book, the main characters are eleven, and they age a year with each installment in the series. So in the most recent book, they were fourteen. And in the book coming out next year, they'll be fifteen. But the slash stories are mostly set in an A/U future, where the characters are sixteen, seventeen, or even older.
And if you'd read the books, you'd know that when Harry was nine years old, before the series started, the only person to slash him with would have been his spoiled and stupid cousin, Dudley. And I don't think any self-respecting slash fan wants to go there.
There's also quite a lot of slash about the adult characters: Snape, Lupin, Dumbledore, James Potter. But that's not what people are worried about, clearly. It's the Harry Potter character slash that has people up in arms.
It'll be interesting to see what Warner Bros. does. Their big crackdown on the HP fan sites created a huge backlash, and they ended up backing out of that with their tails between their legs. But now we're talking about "pornography" *snort* and surely they can't just stand by and watch that happen. We've seen this before, of course, with Fox trying to "protect" The X-Files by shutting down fan sites, and in other fandoms too. But take a look out there on the web. Have the X-Files sites disappeared? Has the slash disappeared? No, not even from my very own site.
I guess the problem most people really have with all of this is that the Harry Potter books are written with children as the primary audience. The fact that they are also popular among people who are old enough to want to write slash about them is beside the point. There's just something about a children's book engendering slash that drives people up the wall, I think. But the slash stories and archives aren't being targeted towards children, are they? It's true that children searching for HP fanfic might stumble across the slash through online searches, and more children might be searching for HP fanfic than for fanfic in other fandoms, but that only suggests to me that the stories should perhaps be more closely guarded. Not that they shouldn't be written in the first place.
And besides, you can't stop slash from happening. It's happens in your head before it happens on paper, on the web, or anywhere else. Where do you think slashers come from? Almost all of us were once little girls who got a charge out of watching Starsky and Hutch, or Kirk and Spock, or, heck, Jim and Blair (for the youngsters in our midst). The chemistry between the characters made us look harder at the screen, trying to read between the lines. Those guys act like they love each other. (The Velvet Goldmine scene with the two proto-slashers playing with their Brian and Curt action figures comes to mind.) And when we got older, we figured out what we were looking for and wrote it ourselves. That is where slash begins. Growing up and meeting all these other women who love the same thing, that's just the icing on the cake.
Enough ranting. Clearly, I'm not opposed to the thought of Harry Potter slash. I have read quite a lot of it, and I don't think it's inherently eeeevil. The stories I've liked best so far are five stories of the Petronius Series. They're by Silver:
Uncontrollable Passions
Doing, a Filthy Pleasure Is, and Short
Lustful Beasts
Rush Blindly On
Burning Together
These stories aside, much of the other slash I've read so far in this fandom is not all that well-written. I may be just missing the other good ones, and I hope I am. I would welcome any recommendations, if you'd care to send me the names of your favorites.
Write me here. Before they all get pulled offline by TPTB.
Quick Links:
The Petronius Series by Silver, five Harry Potter slash stories
Woohoo!, someone else who likes me stories! Hehehe... Especially after that big rant O.o. And she says they're well-written, too! Yay!
Fictionalley messageboard
28th June, 2003 04:06 PM
Fenrio
On the Hogwarts Express
Registered: Jun 2003
Posts: 53
Heh. Now that book 5 is out, I couldn't help but look for new fanfics. There are just so many plot possibilities and I'm sure that people will begin writing fics in no time.
My favorite fanfic moments:
1. Rhysenn's IP- The scene where Harry panicked because he couldn't heal Draco with his touch after an injury on Quidditch.
2. Maya's Underwater Light- The scene where Draco said, "Then you can go on needing, Potter." That was definitely heart-rending.
3. Silver's Petronius Series: Burning Together- The scene where Draco said, "Don't you think I've tried so hard to keep away from you? To keep you away from me. I've given you a hard push in the right direction, but you just won't go..."
Personally, I find angsty H/D fics more appealing than downright mush.
I don't even remember that scene anymore... But yeah, it does sound pretty cool. Did I really write that? LOL
And this one's a veritable fangirl it seems O.o.
Thursday, September 26 (no clue what year, probably 2003ish again)
Lucretia, my reflection
this one works, see.. the other one broke :(
i had an awful dream last night... that Andrew and I were standing up in the meeting place, and he was saying how Anna has the perfect body, she is everything a woman should be, isn't she wonderful, don't you agree? and that hurt.. and i was trying to say, what about me? aren't u meant to be saying that to me, even if it isn't true?? but i couldn't say anytihng, so I just got all upset and nearly cried, and he didnt understand why, hardly noticed in fact, and then i took out all the anger on mark who was sitting there too, making snide comments, wich was I guess the best part of the dream...
that was @ 8am this morning, after being woken out af a strange dream about religion and christianity and bringing people back from death and seeing this big religious christinaity bloke who looked like the devil have another bloke grind his "bits" into his, rather much in the manner of Draco to Snape in one of the chapters of the Petronius Series, after being woken out of that by Andrew calling me to tell me to wake up..
posted by Lauren at 10:44 AM
Okay, technically nothing about my fic, but at least she's somewhat mentioning it. I'm saying fangirl because a bit up she's quoting quotes from my website, too O.o.
I also found a bunch of links to Japanese sites. Yeah, I've actually had my series translated into Japanese and Chinese, too, I think. This is actually one regret I've got. I had this doujinshika draw a doujinshi about my series and actually offered to send me a copy for free and I just never got around giving her my address! I'm such a retard... The site is here, btw. She has some awesome art up, I notice. Also recent one. I really should mail her again some other time...
15 minutes - Penelope's recs
2003-02-07
The Petronius Series by Silver
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Harry and Draco sleep together, break up, sleep with others, fall in love.
Review and pros: Quite an old fic, created many ideas that later became fandom cliches, but this is the first of many, good vintage HP. What makes it interesting still after so many similar fics, is the characterization. After a whole row of ‘romantic hero’ Dracos and ‘Slytherin sex god’ Snapes, it’s pleasant to read a fic so close to canon, where Snape is nasty and manipulative, Draco witty and aggressive, Fred and George adventurous and cheeky. Featuring every one of the basic HP pairings, implied or not, with H/D as the main focus, this is angst without the slightest hint on melodrama, amusing without being a humor fic, a dirty and gritty emotional roller coaster. Naughty boys.
Cons: The unrequited H/R feels very artificial, I couldn’t stop wondering why Harry wants Ron so badly, especially when considering the way he is presented in the fic. Felt too much like a plot device to get to the H/D angst.
Wow, I feel oddly flattered here. For one I'm glad that she acknowledges that the fic is really very old. I'm not one of the old cliche writers, I invented them! Booyah! Hehehe. It also pleases me immensely that she's saying my characterizations are good, because this is one thing that's really important to me. I loled at her summary of the fics. I wish there was more to say about them, but... nope. That's all there is, really. Nyah. Glad she found my story more angsty than melodramatic. When I read them now I get horribly embarrassed at how often I let Harry cry. What was I thinking?? About the cons, yeah she's right. The thing with Ron really seems kinda dangling in there in an odd way. But that's mainly because I was still testing out the pairings and all and wasn't so sure where to end up at. Now I'd like to say that Harry wants Ron because he's nice to him and Draco isn't. But yeah, it doesn't really make all too much sense.
The Jan and June Slash Weblog
Friday, August 31, 2001
Jan says: There's controversy brewing over Harry Potter slash. It really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone -- either the slash, or the controversy.
I mean, of course there's slash. What book, movie, or TV show isn't there slash for? I don't expect the mainstream press to "understand," but what has surprised me is how many slash fen are up in arms about the mere existence of HP slash. Many of them seem not to have looked at the stories, because most of the criticism I've heard is along the lines of, "Jesus! Aren't the characters, like, nine years old or something? Eeeeeeeuuuuuwwwwwwwwwwww!"
Well, no. The characters aren't nine years old. Not even in the books are the characters nine years old. In the first book, the main characters are eleven, and they age a year with each installment in the series. So in the most recent book, they were fourteen. And in the book coming out next year, they'll be fifteen. But the slash stories are mostly set in an A/U future, where the characters are sixteen, seventeen, or even older.
And if you'd read the books, you'd know that when Harry was nine years old, before the series started, the only person to slash him with would have been his spoiled and stupid cousin, Dudley. And I don't think any self-respecting slash fan wants to go there.
There's also quite a lot of slash about the adult characters: Snape, Lupin, Dumbledore, James Potter. But that's not what people are worried about, clearly. It's the Harry Potter character slash that has people up in arms.
It'll be interesting to see what Warner Bros. does. Their big crackdown on the HP fan sites created a huge backlash, and they ended up backing out of that with their tails between their legs. But now we're talking about "pornography" *snort* and surely they can't just stand by and watch that happen. We've seen this before, of course, with Fox trying to "protect" The X-Files by shutting down fan sites, and in other fandoms too. But take a look out there on the web. Have the X-Files sites disappeared? Has the slash disappeared? No, not even from my very own site.
I guess the problem most people really have with all of this is that the Harry Potter books are written with children as the primary audience. The fact that they are also popular among people who are old enough to want to write slash about them is beside the point. There's just something about a children's book engendering slash that drives people up the wall, I think. But the slash stories and archives aren't being targeted towards children, are they? It's true that children searching for HP fanfic might stumble across the slash through online searches, and more children might be searching for HP fanfic than for fanfic in other fandoms, but that only suggests to me that the stories should perhaps be more closely guarded. Not that they shouldn't be written in the first place.
And besides, you can't stop slash from happening. It's happens in your head before it happens on paper, on the web, or anywhere else. Where do you think slashers come from? Almost all of us were once little girls who got a charge out of watching Starsky and Hutch, or Kirk and Spock, or, heck, Jim and Blair (for the youngsters in our midst). The chemistry between the characters made us look harder at the screen, trying to read between the lines. Those guys act like they love each other. (The Velvet Goldmine scene with the two proto-slashers playing with their Brian and Curt action figures comes to mind.) And when we got older, we figured out what we were looking for and wrote it ourselves. That is where slash begins. Growing up and meeting all these other women who love the same thing, that's just the icing on the cake.
Enough ranting. Clearly, I'm not opposed to the thought of Harry Potter slash. I have read quite a lot of it, and I don't think it's inherently eeeevil. The stories I've liked best so far are five stories of the Petronius Series. They're by Silver:
Uncontrollable Passions
Doing, a Filthy Pleasure Is, and Short
Lustful Beasts
Rush Blindly On
Burning Together
These stories aside, much of the other slash I've read so far in this fandom is not all that well-written. I may be just missing the other good ones, and I hope I am. I would welcome any recommendations, if you'd care to send me the names of your favorites.
Write me here. Before they all get pulled offline by TPTB.
Quick Links:
The Petronius Series by Silver, five Harry Potter slash stories
Woohoo!, someone else who likes me stories! Hehehe... Especially after that big rant O.o. And she says they're well-written, too! Yay!
Fictionalley messageboard
28th June, 2003 04:06 PM
Fenrio
On the Hogwarts Express
Registered: Jun 2003
Posts: 53
Heh. Now that book 5 is out, I couldn't help but look for new fanfics. There are just so many plot possibilities and I'm sure that people will begin writing fics in no time.
My favorite fanfic moments:
1. Rhysenn's IP- The scene where Harry panicked because he couldn't heal Draco with his touch after an injury on Quidditch.
2. Maya's Underwater Light- The scene where Draco said, "Then you can go on needing, Potter." That was definitely heart-rending.
3. Silver's Petronius Series: Burning Together- The scene where Draco said, "Don't you think I've tried so hard to keep away from you? To keep you away from me. I've given you a hard push in the right direction, but you just won't go..."
Personally, I find angsty H/D fics more appealing than downright mush.
I don't even remember that scene anymore... But yeah, it does sound pretty cool. Did I really write that? LOL
And this one's a veritable fangirl it seems O.o.
Thursday, September 26 (no clue what year, probably 2003ish again)
Lucretia, my reflection
this one works, see.. the other one broke :(
i had an awful dream last night... that Andrew and I were standing up in the meeting place, and he was saying how Anna has the perfect body, she is everything a woman should be, isn't she wonderful, don't you agree? and that hurt.. and i was trying to say, what about me? aren't u meant to be saying that to me, even if it isn't true?? but i couldn't say anytihng, so I just got all upset and nearly cried, and he didnt understand why, hardly noticed in fact, and then i took out all the anger on mark who was sitting there too, making snide comments, wich was I guess the best part of the dream...
that was @ 8am this morning, after being woken out af a strange dream about religion and christianity and bringing people back from death and seeing this big religious christinaity bloke who looked like the devil have another bloke grind his "bits" into his, rather much in the manner of Draco to Snape in one of the chapters of the Petronius Series, after being woken out of that by Andrew calling me to tell me to wake up..
posted by Lauren at 10:44 AM
Okay, technically nothing about my fic, but at least she's somewhat mentioning it. I'm saying fangirl because a bit up she's quoting quotes from my website, too O.o.
I also found a bunch of links to Japanese sites. Yeah, I've actually had my series translated into Japanese and Chinese, too, I think. This is actually one regret I've got. I had this doujinshika draw a doujinshi about my series and actually offered to send me a copy for free and I just never got around giving her my address! I'm such a retard... The site is here, btw. She has some awesome art up, I notice. Also recent one. I really should mail her again some other time...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 11:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-10 01:34 pm (UTC)Sadly the links to your actual fics don't seem to work. ;_;
Have you got them saved somewhere else?
Another question: Can you explain what that slash thing actually means? I'm not sure I understood, I hadn't heard it before. Is it like supporting a pairing, like the one/the other?
no subject
Date: 2005-09-10 01:48 pm (UTC)Well, the term is fanfiction specific and goes way back to the 70s, the Star Trek fandom to be precise. People had started writing fics about Kirk and Spock, finding the attraction between them all too tangible to ignore it. Since the pairings were denoted as Kirk/Spock (Kirk-slash-Spock) usually, it coined the term for that genre of fanfiction.
More specifically, slash means a genre of fanfiction where people explore the possiblities of a same-sex relationship between two characters of the show / movie / etc. Usually it's male/male, but technically it could also be female/female. Although nowadays this usually is referred to femslash. The appeal of slash is that it's character- and relationship-driven. In order to successfully write a slash story you'll need a primary source where two characters of the same sex are "SO doing it", meaning they have clear subtext that suggests sometimes deeper going on between them.
Note, it doesn't mean that the characters in these shows are actually meant to be gay. As a matter of fact, many shows will show clear evidence that the characters are very much interested in the other sex by having multiple affairs and relationships. Yet, slash usually works out nicely. It's a bit of a fantasy playground where fans can imagine romantic and passionate things to happen. More imporantly, it's a safe playground since these things are very unlikely to happen in the actual show, so you can be sure that noone will ever contradict with the way you made the two guys fall into each others arms *g*.
Just like in normal fanfiction there are many different categories which I don't want to go into in all too great detail now. But a lot of slash stories deal with "First Time", showing how one guy discovers his attraction to another guy for the first time, leading to sweet, innocent first time sex. Another popular sub-genre is "hurt/comfort" where one character is either physically or emotionally hurt, prompting the other character to come to his rescue and "comfort". The list goes on and on. Nowadays a shockingly large portion of fanfiction written is slash. You're almost a weirdo freak if you write good old f/m fanfics! *g*
With that said, I hope you're sufficiently warned! My stories deal with a supposed sexual relationship between Harry and Draco (and others). They're at times rather explicit, so it's not for the faint of heart. And if you can't stomach the idea of gay man-on-man action, this probably isn't your thing either. Also, like the reviews have pointed out, the stories are a bit heavy on the cliches, but like they said, I was one of the first to write this, so I think I have a good excuse *g*. I can't really decide whether I'm embarrassed or proud of these stories...
Anyway, you can find them on my website:
http://silver.slashcity.net/Fanfic/petron-info.htm
:-)
no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 05:24 am (UTC)I have no problem with that kind of stuff, some of it is fun but some lame, too. I may not explain myself properly sometimes, now that I think one of my recent posts may have given the wrong impression.
Anyway, so far I'm enjoying your writing. ^^ I think reading those is great fun.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-11 03:51 pm (UTC)