What's Wrong With HP Fans?

[penfold_x]

Read furiosity's post regarding the number of Harry Potter fans who not only don't read gen fic, but claim to hate it. Lots of comments remarking on the scarcity of HP gen fic, something I've noticed in my own (mostly fruitless) search for readable, enjoyable HP gen fic. Which leads me to ask:

What the hell is wrong with you people?
No, really, what's wrong with HP fans? I've been in quite a few fandoms, and I've never had this much difficulty finding gen fic. While I am, as one person described, a "militant genner," I have quite a few slasher and shipper friends in my various fandoms, and I've spent time exploring sites and communities outside of my reading interests, so I think I have a pretty good picture of what's out there. In every case, be it Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate SG-1, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Real Ghostbusters, The Sentinel, Magnificent 7, Man from Uncle -- virtually any current fandom -- there is a large, active gen fiction community. I cracked open the program from last year's Media*West Con to check my perception against the list of last year's premiering zines: of about 100 new zines, approximately half were gen. Even Lord of the Rings, home of crazed RPS ficcers, had at least two gen zines last year.

One factor might be the lack of "old time" fans in HP fandom (this would neatly explain the lack of print zines as well). I can't say that I've examined this in any scientific way, but I get the impression from LJ the and few HP lists I've subscribed to that HP has a higher percentage of youger fans and people for whom this is their first fandom (compared to fandoms like Stargate or The Sentinel). I don't recognize a lot of the pen names I've encountered. Of course, this is a hard thing to gauge in a fandom that seems to be much more diffuse than other fandoms (a result of so much of the fandom being located in LJ?).

Others might argue that HP has an inordinatly large number of canon characters, several of whom are in canon relationships, or for whom JKR is dropping anvils, which leads to the relationship-heavy nature of HP fic. However, none of these canon relationships take up a great portion of canon; JKR doesn't spend pages delving into the Malfoys' marital angst or the Weasleys' after-hours action. Even the Ron/Hermione relationship takes up relatively little space, considering they're the two principle supporting characters. One can argue that some canon or near canon shipping is to be expected, but canon pairings don't account for the vast majority of ship and slash. What of the reams of fic written about "Draco turn[ing] into a godlike were-leopard by way of buttsex with Mrs. Norris" and other similarly remote, bizarre ship and slash fic? HP fans seem to delight in pairing characters that have never appeared in the same chapter, let alone exchanged three words. Most of the pairings in other fandoms seem to arise out of fans' perception of UST. Almost all of the HP pairings have no canon UST. Not a shadow. Not a shred. Not a scintilla. And few fans even bother to argue that they perceive any. So I don't think that can be it.

All I want is sharks with laser beams a little decent gen. Character studies, missing scenes, alternate endings, meta commentaries, a little hurt/comfort. Throw me a frickin' bone, people.

Comments

[amberdiceless.livejournal.com]

(Here via (http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=daily_snitch)daily_snitch (http://www.livejournal.com/community/daily_snitch/) or (http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=quickquote)hogwarts_today (http://www.livejournal.com/community/hogwarts_today/))

I second (or third?) the recommendation of jetamors (http://www.livejournal.com/users/jetamors/) list. You might also check out The Sugar Quill (http://www.sugarquill.net) archive, which has probably more quality HP gen than any other repository (though it's kind of a drag to search.) The new Hand Me My Robes (http://www.handmemyrobes.com/) archive accepts genfic, and may turn out to be a good resource, but it seems slanted more toward het and demands a rating of R or higher. Also while I'm here, I'll plug my own comm, close_contrast (http://www.livejournal.com/community/close_contrast/)--the fic we get there (and the masterlist my co-mod keeps) focus narrowly on Snape and McGonagall, but we tend to see a fair amount of gen on that topic.

I agree with your other commentors that age, the tendency to cluster by ship, and the lack of any real romance in canon all play a part in the perceived lack of gen. That said, I also think there's more of it out there than we realize, but that it doesn't attract as much attention as the shippy stuff.

Ships provide a very neat, simple way to categorize a story; gen covers such a wide range of topics (and there are so many available int he HP universe) that you may have to pick through a great deal of material before you find something that really interests you. I think a lot of HP fen don't have the time and/or patience to do that, more's the pity. I also think there's a lack of a well-organized archive that specializes in gen, which could help solve that problem; SQ has tons of material, but their search mechanism sucks, and they don't seem to have a browse-by-topic mechanism at all.

The thing that puzzles me most is the common attitude in the fandom that genfic (and het) are somehow inferior to slash by their very nature; as though "sophisticated" or "mature" writers only deal in slash. Where exactly that idea came from, I have no idea, but I find it irksome on the extreme.

(After thinking on it some more,) Possibly it's a reflection of the fact that the HP series is essentially gen/het, is marketed heavily to children, and is seen in the mainstream as strictly a childrens' series. (This despite the fact that there are two sets of covers for the American editions, one designed for kids and the other for adults. I imagine the same is true in other countries as well. It should be self-evident that the series is absolutely suitable for adults as well.) Perhaps some writers are out to prove that this is not a kiddie fandom, by focusing on the most "adult" subjects they can think of?

[mafdet.livejournal.com]

Perhaps some writers are out to prove that this is not a kiddie fandom, by focusing on the most "adult" subjects they can think of?

That could very well be. I'm also convinced that many ship writers are filling the vacuum left by the canon, which has very little romance.

Also, consider the secondary meaning of "adult" in popular usage - it refers to "sexual content." When we talk of "adult entertainment" most people don't mean a night at the opera. I wonder if, subconsciously, some writers want to include sex and romance so as to seem more sophisticated and mature? I doubt this is done with intention but it does bring up the use of "adult" in our lexicon.

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but that brings up a whole load of problems, which go way beyond HP fanfic. It doesn't annoy me less because of that. It annoys me more.

[fernwithy.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'll second the recommendation for the Quill. I was fairly traumatized the first time I went looking for HP fic and I ended up at FFN with one shipfic after another. SQ does have ship stories, but they're required to comply with canon characterizations, which means they're very limited, and the practical upshot of it is that there's a lot of gen. I'm a Quill writer, and all of my stuff is more or less gen. (Shifts is Remus/Tonks, but that's not the whole point of the story, which is about 70% gen.)

[penfold-x.livejournal.com]

I'll check it out.

[penfold-x.livejournal.com]

You might also check out The Sugar Quill archive, which has probably more quality HP gen than any other repository (though it's kind of a drag to search.)

I did try SQ but the search mechanism made me crawl under the bed and cry.

I've friended CloseContrast - I love speculation about McGonagall and Severus's relationship (in a non-shippy way).

gen covers such a wide range of topics (and there are so many available int he HP universe) that you may have to pick through a great deal of material before you find something that really interests you. I think a lot of HP fen don't have the time and/or patience to do that, more's the pity. I also think there's a lack of a well-organized archive that specializes in gen, which could help solve that problem;

Yes, that's a huge issue. Sometimes I have time to crawl through 100 awful FF.net fics to find that one gem, but other times the cost/benefit ratio is so bad I just have to throw up my hands. OTOH, I've now been on a fascinating tour of the sociology of HP fandom, which I should write up for anthropologists to ponder...